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!