JoJo isn't sure what kind of tree this is, but he tends it anyway.

Tonight I went over to the garden to see what work had transpired during the gathering on Saturday. I was in luck, since I also got to meet JoJo, a regular gardener and all-around good citizen at the Cascade P-Patch. He showed me his handiwork, we considered a robin together, I meditated on his little pool for a while.

I'm glad to know him.

JoJo gives me a tour of his garden.

How can this not make you happy?

I'm not sure about this gardener's name. *grin*

This is where that clump was.

Nice job on the wall, Jay and Amber!

Harvey reports on the work party: great job, all!

--New wall around the bed across from the shed door. It's quite impressive... great credit to Jay and Amber. Other big accomplishments:

-- The renovation of the beds around the shed itself, led by Jeff and Jennifer, two of our new gardeners. One bed was shrunk to allow for more mobility outside the shed door, and the beds on both sides of the bench were cleaned out and re-bordered, ready to plant. Marty and Jeff did a ton of digging and cleaning of those beds.

-- Jay and Amber's creation of pedestals for the rain barrels under the grape arbor. Now it's easy to get a watering bucket under the spigots. We will "brew" compost tea in both of these barrels as the weather warms, creating some great juice to use for easing the shock of transplanting, and just general nutrient-rich watering.

-- The weeding and fencing of our raspberry patch. Jeff Moore did all of this, and Shelley deserves a medal for doing all the weeding as he was pounding in the posts with a ringing heard all around the block.

-- The cleaning out of the Entry bed, which has been a mess for a while. Katrin and Jen did a great job.

-- Cristi's compost mulching of the Perennial bed, which includes the northern apple tree in our twin apple trees guarding the sidewalk path.

-- Luella's planting of daffodils and grape hyacinths to fill in our swatch of spring color above the irises along the sidewalk path. I think that we got 100-125 new bulbs in the ground for next Spring.

-- The cleaning out of the margins along the alley. Great work by Meir and Margo.

-- Digging out grasses and dandelion before they seeded in the upper garden, now called the Garden of Love. This is not technically a part of the P Patch, but we are helping Kim get it into shape and will plant a lot of squash for the Food Bank up there this summer. Matt, Corrie and Shelley did a lot of backbreaking work up there, and it shows.

Harvey hosts the 4/25 work party (rumor has it there were pastries of some sort)!

Jay and Amber, Master (Very Low) Wallbuilders

This clump is about to make way for something new.

Marty, Harvey, and Luella

Jeff stands between the camera and my plot, helpfully covering up the fact that I have not planted one thing.

Luella

Larry guards the composting area.

Cristi

"Take garden, not me."

"Take garden, not me."

This was the response to my request to photograph Emily, and while I wanted to have her in the shot, I respected her wish. So this is her garden, not her. And yet, it surely is both. She is there almost every time I arrive, working at a steady pace, knowledgeable, silent--yet smiling in greeting--and then working again.

She looked up once to ponder, I think, why I had stopped in the path near her plot for so long. I pointed to the white-crowned sparrow on the ground, trying to say with the gesture that I wanted to study it, wanted to get close to it and take its picture, wanted to hear it sing, wanted to approach it without frightening it into flight.

She nodded, but I have no idea what narrative she thought my outstretched, pointing finger contained.

I and the bird moved on. She put her head down and returned to her greens.

Spring is busting out all over.

Jeff and Jennifer work the ground, while the shovel stands sentry.

One of my favorite things at the P-Patch today was listening to all the sounds a shovel makes. The yielding "whoosh" as my foot pushes it straight down into the earth. The dull thud as it hits a rock. The distant clang-y scrape as someone in another patch hits the sidewalk. The marimba of tools as I hang the shovel in the shed and it hits all the other shovels, which activate the rakes, which jostle the cultivators.

Here's my humble patchlet, after turning over most of the soil to prepare for planting. My predecessor left it in fine shape--she planted the arugula and garlic, so I can't take credit for anything except exposing all those worms to the air after a winter's work.

Dick, watch out behind you!!! Over your left shoulder! There's a man with a machete!

Richard is a menace with the machete. Those twigs had no chance. NO chance at all. Look how he tries to maintain an innocent "who, me?" expression.

See Dick. See Dick dig. Dig, Dick, Dig!