Midnight Gardening & Creating Space

PART ONE

For a mama with a young baby, it can be hard to find a good opportunity to work out in the garden, seeing as being with Baby makes it impossible to spend much time, if any, out in the sun on hot days.  Therefore, much of the time left to care for the garden is when Mama gets a break from caring for Baby.  That's on a few occasions: during naptime, when people visit who want to spend time with Rosemary, and when Rosemary goes to bed for the night.  Hence, what I like to call "midnight gardening."  With monitor nearby, I am able to get much of the work done that I wouldn't otherwise, and with the sun typically set, it's much cooler out also.  The hours typically run from 9:30 pm to what was 12:30 am the other night.  In our neighborhood, this can be particularly interesting.

I'm sure my mother wouldn't want to read this post, because, frankly, this is just the stuff that makes her worry.  I am a white woman in a black neighborhood.  Already sticking out quite a bit just by setting up a big garden, building a greenhouse off the house, hanging out with the kids on our street, coming home with carloads of trash to reuse, painting our house yellow with blue shutters, etc, being white also makes us stick out, too.  But that hasn't meant that we've found people to be unfriendly or antagonistic by any means.  To the contrary, we know pretty much everyone on our street by name, and people are quite friendly and warm.  One neighbor to Daniel said "I know you all are different," though it seemed to have been said in an accepting way- not a move-out-of-my-neighborhood-way.  Also, having opened up the cut-through point on our street, by helping to break down the broken fence, and by creating this green space that is walked through consistently throughout the day, we've made a lot of friends.  That being said, there is a lot of fear that exists about "The Other."  Look specifically at Cleveland, and one sees, quite starkly, a very segregated city with very little cross-over.  Some areas have some integration, but on the East side of Cleveland, there are clear borders of black and white, rich and poor, etc etc.  Buckeye is a neighborhood that has got somewhat of a notorious reputation, especially south of Buckeye, which is where we live.  One man, a black man who lives in East Cleveland, actually- a neighborhood I've heard referred to as "The Wild West" because things have gotten so dilapidated, abandoned, and wild - when he heard that I lived in Buckeye, he said to me, very shocked- "you live in Gangsterville?!"  I just laughed and said, "what?  Don't I look like a gangster?"  It was surprising to me, that even this man seemed to express some fear or hesitation about being in this neighborhood.  And again, our first housemate, a former felon who lived with us after 17 years in federal prison, was also hesitant to move into our house with us, because of our neighborhood, saying "those guys are bad over there."  And yet, this has not felt like the situation whatsoever here.

That being said, I, as a younger white woman, don't go out by myself at night.  I don't walk around at night much at all, actually.  The scene changes enough at night on Buckeye, that I'm not the only one who doesn't walk around much at night.  However, I have started gardening late at night.  This is the time I have available, I need to make it work.  At night, when I garden- and sometimes in the early evening, too, I feel the need to look over my shoulder frequently- even though my dog, Nuva, is typically nearby keeping watch.  It's a strange experience to be doing something that is relaxing to me, like gardening, and yet be in a stressful environment where I don't feel I can completely put my guard down.

So, it was interesting when a big gang of guys, shirtless and in white tees, about 20 young men, walked through the garden around midnight.   I know a few of the guys, especially two of them, by name.  The most out-spoken, and seems to be more of a leader of the group, "Jo-Jo" often asks how the baby is, where's my husband, etc.  He's got a friend that introduced himself to Danny as "Shoot 'em," and when I see the mob of a group, I'm pretty sure they're included in the bunch.  

I was squatted, weeding in the center of the garden, under the big tree, with my back to the other abandoned lot with the abandoned house on it.  As the group rounds the bend in front of our house, Nuva gets up sleepily (it was past her bedtime) to stand at attention.  I stand up, too.  Mostly just to give my knees a break, but there is also a part of me, in the split second decision of whether to see if I can stay hidden amongst the garden beds, or stand and be seen- I chose the latter.  I think both Nuva & I's rising scares some of the guys.  One steps back- "woaah."  And another says "nah, it's cool, that's my nigga."  I take that as a compliment, even though I'm not sure if he's referring to Nuva or me, I know it means that I'm nothing to be afraid of.  That's when I realize the irony of the moment.  This scene, where I could potentially be in an incredibly vulnerable position- one female out late in a pretty vacant lot, when a big gang of guys walks through... I do my best to not play out the potential situations in my head- despite always keeping aware  to be mindful and present of the possibilities.  So, in spite of this vulnerability and fear I feel, at first glance, these men are afraid of me, and then disarmed by my strange behavior of gardening so late.  Jo-Jo says to me "y'all garden all night long!"  (or did he say "y'all garden all day long").  Either way, the fear is diffused for the moment, as it's clear there's no ill-intention directed towards me, and if anything, there's some moderate protection for me as a gardener.  And how is it that these men could feel fear as they saw me spring up from the garden, when shouldn't it be me who should be the more fearful one?  It feels like an important moment of facing fears, of disarmament, of creating a new paradigm.  

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PART TWO

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I went inside not too much later after that.  In reflection, looking at the garden from the upstairs, I realized the garden space is bigger than me and bigger than anything we are doing in it.  It is the creation of space.  A safe space is my hope.

I am haunted by a story I heard from Buckeye's history.  It was during the time when this neighborhood was transitioning from "Old Hungary," named for its primary residents of Hungarian (and Czech) people to the present majority Black population.  I think it was in the 80's when the transition was happening.  Maybe the 90's?  Well, one story was of an old Hungarian woman who was beat to death by some black men in her garden.  It's a horrible story, and I don't know where the truth lies with it, but I do know at the time when things were transitioning from Hungarian to Black- there was a lot of conflict, antagonism, and turmoil.  The Cleveland history books seem interested in leaving this period of history out of the records (see the Cleveland's history of Buckeye book for an example of this).  This is much like Cleveland's history in general that hasn't addressed any conflicts that have arisen due to racism, injustice and violence (hence, much of the city's segregation & fear of other neighborhoods).  So, what is it with this garden space that seems to make it different?

For one thing, this garden is not just my garden.  With there being a major pedestrian traffic route right through the garden, the folks on this street interact with this space on a daily basis.  So, even if at times, there may be some fear from folks on this street as to whether its okay or not to pass through (there are a few people who tend to ask me for permission to pass through before they do), everyone must encounter this different form of life, this different paradigm of a transformed vacant lot into this garden of possibilities- even if they're a bit scared to, and aren't sure if they're welcome.  Likewise, I, and Daniel, Noah and any other people who come to our house & help in the garden, therefore, must interact with the folks on this street- whether or not we are afraid or not.  This garden is the creation of a space where different cultures can interact- even if they are afraid of each other.  There are other feelings connected, too, not just fear- maybe anger, resentment, uncertainty, assumptions.  And of course, also, excitement, curiosity, wonder, joy, hope, attraction.  And this garden creates a very interesting space to explore what happens when different people meet.  Perhaps more than growing enough food for our family or maybe even our street to eat, this is what is important: the space it creates where everyone is welcome, even if there's no sign printed declaring that.  The same way that the pumpkins, basil, boc choy, and sunflowers are treated with the same love, so must be the people.  

I felt a true testament to this last night, when I happened to be observing the garden from the upstairs window, when I noticed a young man hanging out in the garden.  He was looking at his cell phone, and seemed to be anxiously, maybe even kind of nervously, waiting to meet up with someone, looking over his shoulder like I do sometimes.  It was the moment and the way that his shoulders seemed to relax when he sat down, leaning on the cooler transformed into a raised bed for tomatoes, that I realized he felt more comfortable to wait in the garden, by the flowers and vegetables, than to wait in the street under the street lights.  The garden was a safe space for him.

Serendipitously, the night before, while observing the garden from the stairwell window, I realized that a bench was needed in center of the garden, right by that tomato bed where that man leaned the following night.  He had envisioned that need, just as I did.  The next day, I was sure to move a bench sitting by the abandoned house, right in that spot by the pathway, by the tomato bed.  Now, if someone needs a moment and space, they are welcome to sit.  []

It's raining.... thank you!!

Processing Garlic

Today, I pulled the garlic, harvested beginning of July, out of the attic where it had been drying, cut the stems off, and stored them in a crate for the long haul.  It was a good garlic crop, growing enough to eat  a head of garlic a week- not bad!  Though, that doesn't count what I'll pull out for seed.

Which brings me to "processing garlic," and what that really means.  It means planning for the future.  It means saving for what's to come.  Hoping for a future.
With the land's future here in question, it also puts so many things for me into question.  In some ways, I feel like that garlic that is growing, growing, growing, and is growing so much that it starts to reach out and up towards the sky a stem for a flower to blossom.  The scape.  And I know that if I don't snip this reaching, this "going to seed," I will loose the strength that's to be had in my roots.

Ironically, this summer, I harvested the garlic scapes with three kids from our street: Shawn, Ty, & Mo. It was a good and fitting task for them that they seemed to enjoy.  Snip, snip, snip and we had a basketful.  Then, we came to the bed that at the time was the front of the garden.  I had planted garlic specifically there last Fall because I knew the garlic is the first thing to show its green growth and thriving self, and I wanted that to be the first thing that people on the street could see in the Spring.  I wanted people to remember last year's growing beauty, I wanted to get the momentum rolling with that spirit in the Spring.  So, there we came, to the front bed with the garlic bursting out.  They were the biggest garlic scapes out of the whole crop- maybe the best soil & best sun- maybe they just liked the special attention out front like that.  They were the best heads to use as seed for the next Fall.  Though, when Ty asked me "what happens if we don't cut this?"  I explained to him that it flowers and goes to seed.  I had seen pictures, as in this print by Peter Schumann of Bread & Puppet Theater:

but I had never seen it in person.  So, I said to Ty, yeah, OK, let's leave it.  Don't cut it.  Let's watch the flower grow.  See what happens.

Frankly, it ended up not being that much of a spectacular experience, I don't think Ty would have even noticed had I not pointed it out to him.  The most interesting thing was just how tall it grew.  So tall, and strong, that little flower stem.  And the flower was incredibly understated.  Mostly white, with a white covering that slowly revealed the seed heads.  Small little buds popped out with seed to tickle the finger tips.  Of course, I knew that those seeds, if planted, were not to become the virile garlic cloves that these had birthed it.  But I wondered- ah, perhaps, this is how one breeds new kinds of garlic- by letting them go to seed, cross-pollinating, opening up whole new worlds of possibility.

This is how I feel about the Project we have been working at here.  Who is to know what will come of this place, if the garden will remain in the future, or remain for even long at all.  Much like the head of garlic, it too will need to be harvested one day, or else left to rot in the ground.  Either way, just by this garden existing in the first place, a similar process is happen as that garlic going to seed.  We may not produce the strong future of a garden and culture that thrives in gardeners and home food producers just by planting this garden here in "the hood," but just by "going to seed," or exploring new possibilities with planting this garden on an otherwise desolate and abandoned lot of land in a low-income black neighborhood,  we are allowing ourselves to "cross-pollinate" and create new populations and strains of life that we wouldn't even know exist otherwise.  It is a similar metaphor as "planting a seed," where you may not see the changes you have created in something for years and years to come- and even then, you may never witness the greatness of a redwood when you see a small seed riding the breeze. 

So, there it is.  With the future unclear of this place, I look to the garlic flower, to the seed, to the garlic, to the scape, and keep faith that things are bigger than what I can see or know.  I will think on the future garlic crop, enjoy the fresh garlic now, and look to the flower in the front of the lot, and know it's dropping its seeds with every wind.

Building of the Aquaponics Greenhouse: The Inner Workings

Ah... the Inner Workings!

For the greenhouse to be an aquaponics greenhouse- there must be something to do with "aqua!"  

Hence, this giant 500 galloon water tank!

This about-to-be-water-tank, was picked up somewhere in the country from a place that had used these containers for a non-toxic wood chip dye (how you can buy red wood chips in a bag).  Noah bought two for the project & they were strapped on top of two cars and driven home (thank you ratchet straps once again!).  Noah, pictured here on left, cleaning out the left-over red dye... let's just say he was caught red handed on the job!  Pictured right is the metal cage that the 500 gallon reservoir tank is stored in.  The top of the tank was cut off to be used as a "grow bed" for the eventual acquaponic plants growing in the greenhouse, while the other two bottoms were used as a fish tank (wait till we get to the fish part!!), and the other to hold the 500 gallons of water that will cycle through the system.

And with such a cozy greenhouse and the desire to optimize the greenhouse growing space, it only made sense to store that 500 gallon tank of water underground!   In a 4 ft deep, 4 ft wide hole!  

Seemed like a simple task...

Here we go!

Keep going!

.....

and after a few hours, and doing a lot of tag-team: switching out multiple times.  

There were only 2 inches left that seemed to take hours!

Finally, the task was completed and the tank went into the ground.

Where it was covered with a wooden walkway (the eventual walking space of the greenhouse).

For the fish tank water reservoir that is kept above ground, Noah built wooden planks around the cage, including some insulation and reusing an old window to make it look like a freezer cooler.  This is what the current goldfish population are living in!

This post about the "Inner Workings" only covers briefly some of the inner workings.  In the current moment, Noah has added several different "grow beds" including other coolers, bathtubs, all fence posts, etc, with a few different aquaponic systems in place.  More on that later!

For now, I leave you with Nuva....

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Nuva, our faithful dog, sitting by the work site in April 2012.  Behind her, scrap wood that was gutted from the abandoned house next door.  Also a mulberry tree.  (It received a bit of a butchering pruning job from the electrical company this past winter.)  Nuva is the Head Supervisor of this project, and here looks on approvingly.

"You shouldn't have to move to a different neighborhood 

in order to live in a better one."

I think about this statement often as I garden in this neighborhood.  A woman told Daniel that once while he was walking around East Cleveland, a very down-and-out black neighborhood hit very hard by the foreclosure crisis (I believe East Cleveland has been called "the foreclosure capital of the country")- Daniel had asked this older black woman how she liked her neighborhood- and that is what she said.  

I think about it a lot, because most people move to a different neighborhood in order to live in a better one.  It's related to "progress" and a way of ascending the social and economic ladder.  And yet, these places that get left are still there- the core of so many American cities, left to rot- or at least, left & neglected.  I know for sure that this country is struggling, economically, socially- in lots of ways, and it feels so essential that we look at the core of the issues we are facing.  It feels essential to make our neighborhoods a better one, rather than moving to live in a different one.  

Who knows if one day the City of Cleveland Division of Real Estate will have their dream and bulldoze this lot and build a house on it, like they are currently planning, but it very well may take them over a decade for that to happen- considering there is still an abandoned house rotting on the lot next to us.  Where is the capital for all these plans, I wonder.  Nonetheless, in the meantime, I plant vegetables, but to me, what's perhaps even more important to me, are the perennials flowers, herbs that grow like weeds, and the fertile soil I'm spreading all over this lot.  Because even if I must move one day because I can't grow my food here- or if it really isn't a safe place for us- or for who knows why exactly- I dream of the patch of jerusalem artichokes growing tall along the fence- bringing bright sunflowers in the late summer and fall by the cut-through entrance; and the mint growing wild, spreading into every crack, going to flower, purple flowers everywhere, with happy drinking bees; and the calendula orange and yellow making so many good insects happy- and people's eyes happy.  I think of the chamomile with its sweet little daisy flowers growing along with the wild pink clovers.  And I dream of that soil, with all its organic material, clinging to all the toxins, hugging the heavy lead, so that it can't fly into the air and hurt anyone anymore.  I hope with all my heart that I am making my neighborhood a better one, and I do sincerely hope that I don't feel I need to leave here one day because we need to live in a better one.

E 117th Perennial Club

Liz, my neighbor and serious flower gardener, just gave me a whole wheelbarrow FULL! of big beautiful black irises.  This is not the first flowers she has given me.  Much of the flowers I have are from her.  Coreopis, trumpet flower, lots of different bulbs, petunias, a HUGE sedum plant, and other plants she doesn't even know the name of- but knows that they are beautiful and colorful.  It's quite amazing.  We've had quite a few conversations about the benefits of perennial flowers vs. annual flowers.  She said she is switching over to do as many perennial flowers as she can because of cost of buying new ones every year, and the how they tend to require more attention.  We agreed to trade when we can.  I gave her some astilbe that someone had given to me, some bee balm, and some extra sunflowers I had started from seed.  It's exciting to think of the future we have together, as we expand the flowers on this street.

I barely know where to put all these irises, but I'll tell you, I feel a deep responsibility to make sure they find a good place- most likely a place where everyone else on the street can enjoy them, too.
I'll keep you posted as to where I end up putting them.

The "yellow ladybug"

AAAH! Attack of the cucumber beetle!

well, wouldn't it just be that the things I am growing the most of have invited the most deadly of pests of all!  The striped cucumber beetle.  I am growing lots of cucumbers, melons, squash and pumpkins... all potential victims!  The zucchini has been showing some rot and wilting (thanks to this beetle feeding in the wounds and spreading bacteria) and when I was investigating further this morning as to what was up I discovered this yellow and black insect.  Noah also told me today that he saw a yellow lady bug in the greenhouse.  He most likely thought it was a welcome sight, as he has often bought bags of live real lady bugs to help eat all & control the aphid population in his aquaponics system.  Alas, we've got some serious trouble on our hands.  I'm trying not to freak out, but it is definitely stressful.  

With the soil as poor as it is, I feel like we are working very hard to build up the nutrients to make the plants stronger.  It can feel like we're trying to build a dam on a raging river!  

Well, I'm going to post this and be done with it for now, and write of other things until I can go at this situation properly in the morning.

taking a deep breath....

The Baby Chicks!

Five baby chicks came in the mail on April 20, 2012. 

(and what a fiasco that was!  The Cleveland post office is NOT used to getting live chicks in a box coming through their doors.  After two days on the road, and several hours later, they were delivered by a mail carrier that wasn't our usual mail carrier doing his best to make sure they got to us.  I'll tell that story another day!).

They were born on Wednesday, April 18.

We made the chicks' brooder out of an extra used pack n play (baby's crib) that someone had given me.  It served quite well for them.  Very luxurious quarters, and it was fun to watch them grow.

They are a variety of breeds.  Two Rhode Island Reds, one Barred Rock, one Americauna, and maybe an Aricauna (still not completely sure).  All ladies, no roosters.  Named by one of the boys on our street, they are: Grandma, Mama, Sista, Auntie, & Bre-Bre.

We spent many a hour with Baby Rosemary, watching the chickens.  

She was quite fascinated by them to say the least!

Sitting in front of the brooder was a popular place for Rosemary.  We called it "chicken tv."  

She was quite entertained!

Here Rosemary has quite the look of surprise as Grandma flew out of the brooder and landed on her chair.  Grandma is very friendly and very curious!

A very happy "chicken tv" watcher.

As the birds grew bigger, they began roosting on the sides of the pack n play. Their curiosity brought them to hop up every time you sit in the chair next to them.  They didn't mind gentle petting.  And it was good to handle them regularly, as to get them used to that, in case they needed any kind of special care.  They even would hop up on your arm if you'd let them, as you can with our friend Beth.

Finally, by the beginning of June, the day came when they made it clear 

that they were ready to go outside 

and start free ranging!

Building of the Aquaponics Greenhouse: The Exterior

The Materials

The aquaponics greenhouse was started just before Easter in April 2012.  All of the materials were salvaged or recycled materials save three wooden posts and a few bags of concrete.  The rest- from the trash!

 

These boards of wood mostly came from beams in the attic of the abandoned house next door.  

Solid old hard wood that gave the saw-zaw some hard work!

Kids from our street making use of the wood: a see-saw!

 Additional posts came from the remnants of an old fence on the abandoned lot next door.  We used the concrete base at the bottom and all!  (Here, you can also see Nuva, our dog, supervising.)

AND THE BUILDING BEGAN!

First came the laying of concrete and putting the first three posts in.

The old attic beams look so beautiful as the main three structures of the roof.  This was a rainy Spring day, but the building continued!  All the boards are getting leveled.

Hammering away with a blue sky.

 As for the roof, Noah was lucky enough to have a connection with someone who works for a sound proofing company that cuts a thick see-through acyrlic plastic for sound proofing.  When things are cut to the wrong side- there is extra!  Which means trash!  Which means treasure for a greenhouse building like this one!  This material was ideal for the greenhouse structure, because it could be easily and securely drilled directly onto the greenhouse beams, unlike glass panes which would shatter or need extra attachments.  Perhaps it also does some sound proofing for the lucky plants, too!  They must hardly know they're in the city!

 Here the acrylite sheets are being attached of the roof.

                                     

Sideways view from above as Noah and Daniel measure the panels and attach them as they work into the early evening.

Close-up of the front of the greenhouse with acrylic plates attached.

And Voila!  The greenhouse exterior was built (well, this doesn't include the sides, which were made using old fencing and more scrap wood.  More on that in another post).  Keep posted for the Set-up of the Interior and more!  Wait till you see the plants actually growing!  woohoo!  So much to catch up on.

Till then,

Diana

Soil & Fertilizer

Soil & Fertilizer.  The basis for this whole operation, and the thing that needs the most work!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have had soil delivered at different times.  Some we bought from Bremec's on the Heights, a garden store in Cleveland Heights, some bought last year from another place I am having trouble remembering, and then again some delivered as part of a grant program of the Greenhouses & Green Houses initiative with Environmental Health Watch.

The ground in the lot is rock hard- really.  There are some pioneer plants growing naturally- like the beautiful red clovers and plantain and wild daisies, but that's about it. That's what happens after you build a house on a plot of land and then tear it down and don't do anything with it.

The last load of soil that I ordered was called "composted bedmix," and well, there was nothing "compost" about it.  It was top soil with some leaf mulch that was so light and flaky it felt as insubstantial as the amount of nutrients its lacking.  I'm feeling quite frustrated about it, and thinking I am going to call back Bremec's and complain about the quality (note that last year I got some "composted bedmis" from Bremec's and it was just that- composted bedmix ready for planting).  We have had to add numerous times of fertilizing.  From compost, to special organic seaweed fertilizers- and well, it's just a pain.  And it all of course costs more money that if I had just ordered top soil from them and added free leaf mulch that I can get from the city.  So, that's the first current Soil & Fertilizer challenge.

The second is that we bought a couple bails of hay from Bremec's- believe them that it was 'straw' like they said (ie. no grass seed in it).  And well, after mulching several new soil beds with it- I have now successfully seeded all the new soil with crab grass!  One of the absolute weeds in the world!
It's looking like some serious sheet mulching is in my future.  My biggest hope though is that the crab grass isn't going to compete & take over the clover that was already growing there- since the clover is a natural nutrient increasing cover crop & pollinator attractor- whereas the crab grass is just a serious pain in the butt!

Danny has been the Fertilizer Officianado- thank goodness!  Otherwise, it's possible that having my hands too full, as it is, I would have had to slowly watch as the pumpkins and eggplants and tomatoes die in the poor soil.  BUT THERE'S HOPE!  Being a team has been such an essential part of this process!

LASTLY- the E 117th St Community Compost project is currently in the planning phase.  We are going to set up the bin system soon, and then send out an interest inquiry to the neighbors, follow up & hopefully, start collecting some buckets of food scraps each week.  Keep your fingers crossed!

I'll post the proposed letter, etc, as it goes out.

For now, out to start the "midnight garden" shift.  More on that later.

With Dirty Feet,
Diana

PS- Oh, yes, and I forgot to mention a very important point!  That today, Daniel, being the Fertilizer Officianado that he is, scouted out on Craig's List Free Alpaca & Horse Manure!  So, he & Noah drove out to the country & picked up two loads.  woohoo!  Bringin' the shit home to the farm!  Cheers!  The soil is goin' get rich, no doubt!

Beet Harvest

BEETS!
two varities we grew companion planted with snap peas & bush beans.  Some chioggia guardsmark beets and some  early wonder tall top beets.  I left more than half in the bed to let them get even bigger. Yum!

*Lesson from the companion planting.... I think I went a little too intensive with this approach- which was every other row alternating the snap peas & beets (one half), bush beans & beets (the other half).  It made it more of a hide & seek game, which had its fun parts.  But planting with the sugar snap peas (a variety that doesn't technically need a trellis), made for a tangly mess, with the peas oppressing the beets some.  Oh well, they still both seemed to thrive despite my inconvenience.

Hurray!

Land Bank, part I

I will share with you the Googlemaps link of the street view of our garden- BEFORE we planted a thing.  Before we even lived there.  When I post additional photos of the current set-up, you'll see where we are at now, and where we have come from.


Here's the situation-
The two lots next to our house are in the Land Bank.  All the parcels of land in the Land Bank once had houses on them (the ones next to us had a house 2 summers ago, and 7-8 years ago on the lot next to that).  Most Land Bank lots' history included a house foreclosed on it, or delinquent on its taxes for many years, and was left abandoned to rot for awhile (the city of Cleveland has over 10,000 houses foreclosed and abandoned like this, rotting to the ground, and waiting to be demolished).  This is where the Land Bank  comes in- They work to get the abandoned lots that once had houses on them back to the community to be re-purposed.  You send in a pretty simple application for the specific parcel, including a drawing of plans for the site, and then wait.

This is how the Cleveland Land Bank website describes the process:

Buildable parcels are available for use in home, garage, or commercial building construction. Non-buildable parcels can be used to add driveways, enlarge current adjacent properties, add fencing, gardening, or landscaping, or to expand parking facilities.  The cost of the lot is dependent on its size and usage:

1. Non-buildable lots are sold for $1 to adjacent property owners
2. Buildable lots for yard expansion are sold for $10 per foot
3. Buildable lots requested for new housing construction are sold for $100
4. Land bank lots acquired by religious institutions are sold for $100
5. Land bank lots acquired for interim uses such as community gardens are leased or licensed under negotiated terms and conditions at a nominal cost
6. Property for commercial use requires an appraisal to determine the sales price

The sale of all lots will also incur fees for recording costs.

As you may imagine- especially if you live on the East coast where this may seem unfathomable- to buy a big parcel of land for $1 or even just $100 is super cheap.  This was a big reason why we bought a place here in Cleveland (aside from the major part of Daniel having family & being from here), was because it was probably one of the few places in this country (that we have some connection to) that where we can actually afford to buy land!

We applied for the parcel next to our house as a non-building parcel (you can apply to buy the land bank parcel as a building parcel or non-building) the same month we moved into our house (March 2011).  We made several follow up calls over this year to see where things are at, a neighbor called the councilman Ken Johnson in support of us getting the lot, we got a letter of advocacy written by our neighborhood's Buckeye Community Development Corporation (CDC), and have just started gardening & using the space.  We checked in with the Land Bank while doing this, to make sure that by guerilla gardening we weren't hurting our chances of getting the parcel; the land bank said gardening on it would not hurt our chances, they just advised us not to do too much on it- invest too much- in case in the end we lose it.  

So, we went forward, because we felt we'd be doing a disservice to ourselves and our community to let that big sunny space sit like rubbly gravel collecting trash- instead of improving the soil, if not for vegetables, herbs and flowers- than at least for the worms, birds, and our eyes.

We have ordered several loads of soil since we moved in, and are in the process of making compost compost compost!  (Setting up a larger compost operation - we already have four compost bins at work -is one of the projects for this summer- but that's for another post.)  To add to that, this summer, the Environmental Health Watch, which is a city group working to make houses more green and supporting growing your own food, delivered a big load of soil (+ plants & seeds) for us to use on the lot next door.  We, obviously, have their support to be able to use this parcel for gardening.  

Then, just over a week ago, after 15 months of waiting, we got a response from the City of Cleveland (which I understand to be somewhat separate from the Land Bank-but they are connected and work together in city planning).  The letter was from the Real Estate Department, and told us we couldn't have the lot because they had plans for "in-fill housing."  Which is essentially what I call "fill-in" housing, houses that fill in the gaps on the street- wounds left from the foreclosure crisis. 

As you can imagine, having a house built onto the land next to us changes everything.  It changes the core reason as to why we bought this specific house in the first place.  So, things are a bit up in the air- as for the long-term situation.

That being said, the CDC and Environmental Earth Watch followed up with us quickly when they heard the response we received from the city and were quite surprised.  They said they had spoke with someone from the land bank before they had sent a support letter for us, and the Land Bank said that there were no plans for the lot.  I guess the City of Cleveland had a different idea?  

As it stands now, the City of Cleveland says that we can't own that lot because they want to build houses on it.  Meanwhile, the CDC and Environmental Health Watch are working "to see if they can fix things."  


I will keep you posted on this.  For now- we plant on as the sun continues to shine, and the plants continue to grow!


Faithfully,
Diana

First Peppers of the Season

So, finally, the day has come where I was able to pick two hot peppers off a couple of plants that were started from seed.  One Hungarian Wax hot pepper, and another jalapeno.  I think I picked the jalapeno a little early (could have been bigger), but if everything goes to plan, there will be more!

A day of celebration to the spice & heat of summer.  We've been eating greens-kale, collards, lettuce, spinach, sorrel, garlic & scapes,  beans and peas, chives, juneberries, mulberries, a few blueberries on our young bushes, radishes, nasturtium flowers, genovese & thai basil, lovage; tea with nettles, borage, chamomile, lavender, catnip, lemonbalm, mint, oregano.  Peppers are a welcome addition.  And the zucchini are growing bigger everyday!

I can hardly wait for the cucumbers!!
We're growing several different kinds, and I'm already dreaming of 5-gallon buckets of pickles with horseradish leaves!


For now, I'm off to the garden for some baby-sleeping-late-night-gardening!

Cheers, Diana

@ the Elixir Social

Possibilitarian Garden's "Full Sensory Elixir Experience" as part of the Elixir Social at West Side Market on June 23, 2012.  

SPACES's artist in resident, Alison Pebworth, was in town with her traveling cross-country art exhibition, Beautiful Possibility www.beautifulpossibilitytour.com. Inspired by the 19th century American Traveling Show, Pebworth's hand-painted posters used the elaborate graphics of Wild West show posters to re-tell American history.

At stops across the country, Pebworth has been surveying people on their thoughts about "Americanitis," a curious 19th century nervous condition resulting from rapid modernization. While in Cleveland, Pebworth partnered with urban farmers, including Possibilitarian Garden, to make an array of special "Cleveland Elixirs" for Americanitis. Possibilitarian Garden brought their "Full Sensory Elixir Experience." 

More images below from the day.

The Full Sensory Elixir Experience!

We had fresh nasturtium and rose flowers to eat! & a delicious elixir that included some of our Homestead Kombucha & mulberry juice and a strong herbal brew.

With petals on your tongue, and sipping the elixir, people entered the Booth 

for the Full Sensory Elixir Experience

All made from plants, flowers, and herbs grown at the Possibilitarian Garden!

How does the Americanitis feel now?

A Full Slideshow of photos can be viewed at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacesgallery/sets/72157630297877590/

First Posting

It is here that we go "public" for the first time... at least, as far as the internet goes.  Perhaps it was a couple weekends ago, when we sat at West Side Market as the Possibilitarian Garden presenting "The Full Sensory Elixir Experience" that we went "public" to the city of Cleveland.  And of course, it was about a year ago, that we went "public" to the people on our street of E 117th, that we are, indeed, urban farmers- and this is our little homestead.
"Homestead," that is, is perhaps the more appropriate way to categorize "Possibilitarian Garden."  We are not quite an urban farm.  And it's becoming more of a garden, simply because it is a way of life.  Gardening, homesteading, farming - call it what you will.  But we surely are not an operation (not yet anyway) that is qualifiable as a "farm."  I'm still working on to see if we can grow enough fruit and veggies for ourselves to eat for the rest of the year- let alone a mass of people.
So, there it is- Possibilitarian Garden!  or Possibilitarian Homestead or simply- The Homestead.

----------------
With hope, this webpage can highlight our sojourn- with photos, with words, with stories, with experience.  We are just one urban homestead growing amongst a huge movement that is spreading across the globe.  In just the short time of over 16 months (with some months fluctuating as to who was in residency), we have encountered many obstacles, and had many successes, and many questions, some solutions, and continued wondering as to what the future holds for us here at E 117th in Cleveland, OH, USA.
I will be writing, along with some of my housemate Homestead counterparts.  You can expect to hear from Noah and Daniel and perhaps others, as Noah tackles the newly built aquaponics greenhouse operation, and Daniel talks with the kids on the street.  I'm sure there will be other topics, too.
For now- I will keep it short, and keep you posted.  As we will be shortly getting a digital camera to get in the latest images of what's happening here.  In the meantime, I'll do my best to be descriptive- to show with words; also, to catch this page up-to-date with what's been happening here for the last 16 months.
FOR NOW -
ONWARD!
To the hot sun of July,
Diana