Snapshots of a Dirt Worshipper's city farm, one year in

A normal farming day for me would be getting up, watering the raised bed in my front yard and, after breakfasting, heading out to the farm.  Getting ready to head out to the farm means putting seeds in my bike bag, putting an transplants I might need on my trailer, plus the wheelbarrow, shovel, rake and hoe and then biking about a half mile down the street.

The other day the private school across the street brought out some second graders to do nature study in the lot, which is over 2 acres and we are farming on about a quarter.  the teacher's name was Jerry Ann and she was very nice and told the kids to keep out of the garden.  Later that day I met a man down the street named Rupert.  He told me he'd been keeping an eye on the garden and that there used to be a bakery there.  I told him that we knew about the bakery and actually called it the Bakery Lot, he seemed really happy about that.

Photo credit to Lauren Harroun

 About 3 months ago a church pew showed up at the lot.  No explanation, haven't seen many people other than us ever sit on it.  It is darn convenient to have a bench around though.

Photo credit to Lauren Harroun

The lot is right next to the rail road tracks, in fact a railroad service drive runs on the eastern edge.  There's more traffic than you might think.  Service vehicles, the rail police and border patrol.  Border patrol is a pretty common sight in our neighborhood as we have the Ambassador Bridge (Canadian border crossing) right there.  And many of the trains that go by are headed to or from Canada.  Most of the time these vehicles don't stop.  One time a border patrol guy stopped and asked me about the garden.  I was pretty nervous as we're only semi-legal, but he seemed to think the whole thing was pretty cool.  One of the other folks who farms there met a border patrol agent the other day and he knew our garden as the place with the church pew, who knew!

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Had a large Summer Solstice Party back in June, potluck, homemade ice cream, music from a parked pick up.  This past weekend we had a smaller Autumn Equinox party.  Fire, s'mores, cider, whiskey.  Clear night with just the right amount of chill to make the fire seem nice.  Clean up was mostly lining up the returnable bottles so that one of the folks pushing a cart around to collect such thing could find and take them back for the 10 cents.  I heard two guys pushing carts talking about the bottles while I was gardening Tuesday, but with me working there they didn't grab them.  Guy said something about "they've got a garden there".  I should have called out to them that the bottles were theirs if they wanted them. 

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Once a work day at the garden is done I load the wheelbarrow, rake, shovel and hoe back on the trailer; water in whatever has been planted; and turn my bike back home.  I usually take 25th between the garden and my house.  Its a densely occupied street with neat, modest homes.  I make a point to say Good Morning and Good Evening most of the time and many folks will wave or ask after the peppers or tomatoes as I bike by now.   I often wonder how many of them walk through the garden when we're not there.

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Slowly slowly plants grow
slowly slowly the seasons change
drought
tears
trucks
hydrants
rocks
concrete
rust
seeds and seeds and seeds and seeds
and slowly slowly
days shorten
extra cup of coffee before the dawn
cooler
colder
frost
fruits to
roots
and leaves
"Next year..."