R.I.P. Le Jardin?


A for sale sign appeared outside our community garden this week. As neighborhood assoc pres. I got many phone calls and emails about it. The way it works is, the garden is on private land and can stay there as long as the the owner allows; the gardeners maintain the land and pay the water bill. Unbeknownst to the gardeners and even Parkway Partners, the land had been adjudicated by the city and sold for $20k in November 2007. The currently asking price is $89K. If anyone pays that much for the property I'm sure they are not going to leave a community garden on it but rather build a house or apartments. Many people in the neighborhood love the garden. Non-gardeners come to enjoy the green and tranquility. I suggested a few options such as, create an LLC or some other legal intity and buy the land ourselves; convince someone to buy the land and let the garden remain (hello Brad Pitt?); start looking into some of the other empty lots in the neighborhood and see if we can move the garden. I remains to be seen how it plays out. But it will be a sad day when the garden is gone.

Smoke and mirrors

I feel baffled when people “play” the race card. One recent example: Veronica White calling Stacy Head a racist. In my dealings with Ms. Head she’s never said or done anything that made me think she is a racist. Thanks to an excellent post on American Zombie I now understand why I feel baffled – it’s not about race. Duh!

Have you noticed how people who boldly proclaim themselves to be something are usually the opposite? Vitter and family values for one example? If someone has to blow his or her own trumpet so much, it makes you wonder. Maybe we can assume the reverse – some one who keeps calling other people racist is actually the racist. It’s a game politicians play when running for office. Pay attention to whom is slinging the mud, directing the discussion away from issues and from themselves.

The old guard – black and white – is coming down and they are not going to go quietly.

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It’s Springtime again. Which means everything covered in green pollen and I continue my gardening attempts seen here on my garden blog.

It seems like the winds from Ike have FINALLY died down. It’s amazing how big the storm was. The tree that was leaning towards our house after Gustav is thankfully NOT leaning on our house after all the additional wind. And I’m glad to report our friends Simon and Suzanne in Houston made it through the storm with only minor damage and with power!

I ventured out this morning to the Farmer’s Market downtown. The streets were quiet but the market was bustling. It was moved next door, inside an old one-story building. I took my kitchen knives to be sharpened. I had to hang out and wait a little while after I finished my shopping, but there was good people watching. I did learn today if you see something you want buy it then, don’t wait or it maybe gone. I had my eye on some cut sunflowers but wanted to get them last but they were all gone when I got there. When I picked up my knives the guy apologized for taking so long. He said he had (former councilperson) Peggy Wilson’s to do first and that they were a lot duller than mine. When I told G this story he said “I always thought she wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.” (rim shot) After the market I hustled over to Parkway Partners. On the second Saturday they have talks and sell plants. Today was about fall gardening and free seeds were given out. Since I got there late I missed out on the plants for sale but did take home an aloe plant. They had a chicken coup in the garden there; when I was in Albuquerque, I visited one of Dorie’s friends who raises fancy chickens in her backyard. It’s got me thinking… fresh eggs from my own backyard. I asked G to think about it. I also stopped by Green Parrot to replace my herbs that died during Gustav. Many of the plants there were pretty battered. They are located at the end of Nashville St. next to the train tracks and it’s very exposed. I then visited the community garden to see how it fared. A few small trees got blown over and a big branch is dangling over part of my plot. It looks like it bounced on my okra plants. I think they are goners. It’s time to pull them out and get the soil ready for my fall garden but the wind was still gusting and it was so amazingly humid. It’s always humid here but this was like 120% humidity. I decided to spend the rest of the day inside. Laundry and my road trip travelogue were calling.

It's a peaceful Saturday. It looks like the feared former tropical depression #10 won't slam New Orleans. Baton Rouge - where the Tigers are handily beating SC (Boo Spurrior! Go LSU!) - is getting some rain. It's just overcast here. We could use some rain. It's been beautiful this week - cool, clear and dry.

G has been busy installing flooring in what will one day be our bedroom. Every couple of hours I pop my head in and take some photos of the progress. It's looking great.

before, around 11:00 am

after, around 5:30 pm

I wanted to get started on my fall garden this weekend. I cleared out all the weeds last weekend and figured out what I will plant. With heavy rains forecasted for the weekend, I had decided to postpone planting seeds for fear they'd get washed away. But now I may go ahead. On the topic of gardening, about a year ago I heard "Don't buy cypress mulch because they are cutting down Louisiana's cypress forests." I thought that cypress wood would be too valuable to cut trees just for mulch. But then the Sierra Club came out with:

Cypress mulch was always a by-product of lumber mills that were producing flooring and such. But now entire forests are being cut down, and a study by the Governor's Science Working Group and Advisory Committee concludes that up to 80 percent of the areas being logged will be unable to regenerate. The Louisiana Forestry Association says no unsustainable harvests are taking place.

From Save our Cypress:

The Save Our Cypress Coalition, a group of Louisiana conservation and environmental organizations, is calling upon Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's to stop purchasing and selling all cypress garden mulch until a verifiable, third-party certification program is operating to ensure no cypress is being sourced from non-renewable coastal wetland forests.

I've always used pine straw for my garden - you need live trees to have pine straw. Once it starts to break down, you can just turn it under and mix it in the soil. I encourage everyone do not buy cypress mulch.

I got a link to the below YouTube video from a friend today that does a good job explaining the situation in common terms.

Saturday, we held our first St. Patrick’s Day party, which was a blast. We live next to the Irish Channel neighborhood and every year there is a parade, as well as parades in other parts of the city. It’s like Mardi Gras lite – almost all local, no elaborate costumes but lots of green clothing, lots of drinking, hanging out and good fun.

Along with the usual parade fare--beads, cups and toys-- cabbages, potatoes, onions and carrots are also thrown. I put corned beef on to cook that morning. After the parade, I threw in the veggies we caught and had a very yummy “Irish Boiled Dinner” (the secret is beer!) Typical parade day, the group of people we started out with, wasn’t the same one we were with at the end of the day.


In addition to St. Patty’s day, spring has sprung and everything is growing. And the oak trees are dropping their neon green pollen everywhere. ACHOO! I started my veggie garden early this year. Last month I planted lettuce, spinich, parsley and cilatro, which is now coming up. Planted a few tomato plants this weekend-hmm guess I forgot to take a picture of that. Saving room for cucumber and peppers. We put down plastic to keep weeds at bay. One gardener had a roll of FEMA blue roof that we used to cover the empty plots.