It has been a while since we last updated the blog. Most recently we planted native grasses and flowers donated by Prof. Warners, biology professor at Calvin College. Some of these plants will grow to be over 6 feet tall. I hope they start to take off soon so I can see them get big before I leave Grand Rapids for the summer...which leads me to, again, ask what will happen to the gardens in the summer. I think Craig will be around but I don't know how much time he'll have to dedicate to the garden. I wonder if it would be a good idea to start opening the project up to the wider community. Maybe somebody is interested in weeding and harvesting our garden this summer
Whatever happens I hope to see the plant growth documented on ths blog, even if it is over-grown and full of weeds.
On wednesday is Calvin's spring arts festival during which there will be tours of the sites. I hope that lots of people come to see the garden -even if they don't go to calvin.

-whisper

yesterday i went on the urban sprawl bike tour with don degraaf's intro to recreation class at calvin
we rode about 40 miles as a group of 18
it was a beautiful day first thing, just perfect

here we are on 28th street
we went to so many places, a lot of places i have never been:
plaster creek, lamar park, millenium park
there are some beautiful tralis around gr
anyways, we ended up stopping at the baxter 1 site and talking about PLANT!
everyone was interested

-Splinters

Craig and Whisper's site is booming
but soon needs water
i am fond of the teepee

- Splinters

I went out and bought seeds for our site on Friday. After spending 15 minutes looking at every type of vegetable available, I finally selected three. First, I got some "Blue Lake Stringless Garden Beans" because Eugene and I wanted something to climb this piece of metal that we found discarded in our lot (more pictures later) - hopefully it will provide solace for our future meditation space. We also have some ivy that should creep up the fence. Second, I got some Italian Sweet Basil…mmmm Italian. Last, I picked up some Okra just to spice things up a bit. All of these plants can apparently be sown directly into the soil outside – otherwise we’d have to wait 4-6 weeks. Any experienced gardeners who would advice against this, let me know.

Craig

Today we dug up plants from behind Craig's house and transported them the garden.

My housemate Steve works in a greehouse and he managed to bring home 6 pots of flowers.

We planted what we think are tulips in the far garden. Next week we hope to identify all the plants.

The garden is already looking really good. I think that we will finish planting in the next week. After than we are will construct benches and spires. I think that we should also have some signs explaining what we are doing, and maybe include some research into the history of the site.

Eugene and Craig

We found this space between two buildings that is entangled in barbed wire. We tried to remove the wire but then realized it's a great place to store tools.

We worked hard today to finish digging out graden beds. We think that the design looks like the floor plans of the narthex of a cathedral.

We found this man in the dirt and designated him "reliquary guardian" of the Narthex Retreat Center.

Here are some pictures to document our space:

Our space before we began to excavate

Eugene hurling cinder blocks while Ernest stands by with the running commentary

The third and final garden bed completed today

Craig

Craig and I worked hard on our plot. We accomplished a great deal. We met a man named Ernest who watched us work. He is going to continue visiting us.
We are building and English style garden, complete with paths and benches. We hope to make easles out of scrap wood and steel so that we can paint outside.
On Tuesday we are going to trans-plant purple violets and other flowers we find leaking out of people's gardens (at least that's my plan. I don't think Craig is too excited about it).

Eugene

Eugene and I went on our “aimless drift” yesterday through the Baxter community – starting from Wealthy Market and progressing (basically) south, occasionally ricocheting off our East/West boundaries. It was easy enough to find space that was unused and abandoned just outside the commercial mini-districts around Wealthy, Franklin, and Diamond. There are also plenty of residential areas that appear abandoned and could apply to the assigned project, but I think the issue of trespassing becomes more personal in these spaces, and could result in a very unsafe situation. Besides safety, we discussed problems about being too secluded/hidden, needing to surmount fences, and how to extract permission to use certain spaces. What we finally came to was a location behind (the assumedly former) Lillie’s, a seasonal kiosk-style barbeque/ice cream shop. It is located on Neland, just north of Franklin. The building provides a nice sound barrier, while not blocking our sunlight. The soil looks nice and black – as opposed to the mostly sandy/gravel dirt at the other locations we noted. I’m really excited about getting started – I think Eugene and I might go trash hunting on Thursday (we saw some potential rain collection barrels and other functional discards). Hopefully the next blog will include a photo!

Craig