So I was talking with Shawn my guerilla gardening friend. He told me the City had started mowing the area we were surreptitiously seeding with wild flowers. Sure 20 years they don't mow it but we start throwing seeds and boom suddenly it's priority one! Shawn was taking it in stride and suggested we try to talk the Elementary school across the street into starting a community garden on some land next to the adjacent Ag ditch.
Did I mention the Walsh ditch is running. The ditch is a transfer ditch and if it's running it's a pretty sure sign that it's a good year for water. I notice it mainly because the dogs like to cool down on our walks by hopping in. Callie takes a little bath by doing a four legged squat and Cooper tries to keep it to knees deep but will go deeper if there are ducks to chase. Don't worry ducks always have up, sorry Coop!
By the way it's Mamas and the Papas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NJayW1kOeM on the stereo. I'm still happily digging through my treasures from the Friends of the Library sale. It's a nice easy day and the music should fit.
Shawn pointed out the school was doing a summer 'free' lunch and breakfast summer program. Surely the ditch company would be willing to throw in a little water to teach kids to grow veggies. The landowner would have less vacant land to mow. Heck he was sure Ace Hardware or Home Depot or some local business would help kick in the little needed to get it started and than the teachers could not only help these kids eat good food but could teach them to grow their own.
Now I should point out Shawn's an odd duck and as is often the case a creative and interesting thinker. Money, there is none - never was. When he talks about teaching kids about growing vegetables he comes from his past and his heart. He had the misfortune of trying to dock this pretty idea on my rock hard head. I'm afraid I didn't do a very good job of encouraging a kind idea. Instead I told him the negatives I had run into on a similar idea.
I told him I had talked to the nice lady at the ditch Company to try and get (buy) water for the very same land in order to grow onions and perhaps a little neighborhood garden. There was no water for sale period! Buying water rights - they could put me on a list but no one had ever been called from the list as long as she had worked there (she was my age, and had always worked there!). Besides the ditch really was just a transfer ditch to move water from one reservoir to another. It had no laterals, gates or water rights that fed off of it. I thank her and managed to beg the Mennonites to allow a heathen to grow some onions in their community garden (thanks guys!) ( I will mention that this is the self same water company that is flush with water to help a developer build a mega bunch of million dollar homes and perhaps a mall or similar development. Pumping that water uphill around Green Mountain to service an area miles from their 'home' district and no doubt drying up that same 'home' district where there are a lot of large lots and mini farms. Not bitter, just saying!!!)
I also told Shawn about getting a very nice couple of ladies from the PTA to put some flowers on the school's Marquee corner. Tiffany and her friend were great they planted some spare irises and lilies. The school maintenance department was suppose to turn on the sprinkler head for the area and generally maintain it. As the ladies' children moved out of the school they left the PTA and with them left the only weeding or maintenance. A couple of years ago I took a pickup load of wood chips and while mulching it the new principal happened by and thanked me. I mentioned the need for regular maintenance and pointed out that the school had spent a small fortune to completely rip out and replace the playground and baseball field, but poor maintenance had left them looking as worn out as before.
As I'm writing this I'm feeling like the proverbial grumpy old man. Perhaps if I change from mellow oldies I can find a positive upbeat note. Let's try Black Eyed Peas another Friends find. You know what they say people like old wine not old whiners. This should get me a little closer to this century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQRtaijyy5A hmm it's changing my typing speed - attitude we'll see.
Where I ended up with Shawn was a thought I've been mulling most of my life. When is your effort and time worth it and when are you just pouring your energy down a bottomless pit? This thought reoccurred to me this week while bringing some extra lettuce, spinach, and mushrooms to neighbors. I've tried over the years to remind myself that I'm not crop farming, just plant enough for Deb and me. Inevitably, there are times when I didn't plan or I did and God laughed. So I was carrying a bag of goodies across the street and this lady I always see walking in mornings but never met shouts out "salad greens". I drop off the bag with my neighbor Sarah who also gardens and is always so kind in her words. The Walker has started back in the other direction and as we pass I have to ask "how did you know it was salad greens?" She says "well I was thinking of my own garden and what I was just doing". We talked and laughed a bit about giving away produce and how no one wants to see you walking with zucchini. Gardeners are by nature generous but who gets that perfect head of heirloom lettuce when your fridge is full? That's the interesting question.
I'll freely admit that I proselytize gardening. If I can hook a non-gardener into gardening with a bag of fresh spinach or an eat over the sink nectarine, I'll share, but I'm deeper - gardening is a way of weaving community. If we all just trade tomatoes it would be a pretty boring community. Some people bring other 'goods' to the table to trade. Some are completely intangible goods. How many tomatoes equals thanks for cutting down that hedge that the old owners had covering the sidewalk. Or thanks for planting those irises at the school. Yet I've noticed over the years that most of the extra nice neighbors also garden or have a peach tree or something. I'm happy to use some extra produce as an excuse to build social capital and community. But there is a snake in the garden some people just take. There is no social capital they can add to the pot. They are only set up to receive.
I'm recalling the old Seinfeld episode where Elaine finds her preferred contraceptive the sponge has been discontinued. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfQBKB4s1ks She stocks up but the supply is finite thus she is deeply questioning her new boyfriend to decide if he is "sponge worthy". As I try to be more careful in not over planting I have to decide is this person really Tomato worthy?!
What this old guy knows but was forgetting is people act out of self interest. Groups and organizations act for the same reason if you insert the phrase 'of the dominant faction'. Thus my self interest in dealing with extra veggies is creating social capital. The ditch company while technically owned by the users sees it's self interest as increasing the influence (and perhaps personal financial benefits -just saying!) of the Board of Directors. The School District has swung over the years from a dominant faction of Teachers and Administrators aligned with providers (bond dealers and other contractors), to a Parent and taxpayer faction and back again. For the schools each of those groups might have far down their list of self interests gardens fresh veggies and community but with power fluctuating only the top of the list is dealt with. Ideas that don't provide for the others self interest are doomed any good salesman knows that.
Did I mention the Walsh ditch is running. The ditch is a transfer ditch and if it's running it's a pretty sure sign that it's a good year for water. I notice it mainly because the dogs like to cool down on our walks by hopping in. Callie takes a little bath by doing a four legged squat and Cooper tries to keep it to knees deep but will go deeper if there are ducks to chase. Don't worry ducks always have up, sorry Coop!
By the way it's Mamas and the Papas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NJayW1kOeM on the stereo. I'm still happily digging through my treasures from the Friends of the Library sale. It's a nice easy day and the music should fit.
Shawn pointed out the school was doing a summer 'free' lunch and breakfast summer program. Surely the ditch company would be willing to throw in a little water to teach kids to grow veggies. The landowner would have less vacant land to mow. Heck he was sure Ace Hardware or Home Depot or some local business would help kick in the little needed to get it started and than the teachers could not only help these kids eat good food but could teach them to grow their own.
Now I should point out Shawn's an odd duck and as is often the case a creative and interesting thinker. Money, there is none - never was. When he talks about teaching kids about growing vegetables he comes from his past and his heart. He had the misfortune of trying to dock this pretty idea on my rock hard head. I'm afraid I didn't do a very good job of encouraging a kind idea. Instead I told him the negatives I had run into on a similar idea.
I told him I had talked to the nice lady at the ditch Company to try and get (buy) water for the very same land in order to grow onions and perhaps a little neighborhood garden. There was no water for sale period! Buying water rights - they could put me on a list but no one had ever been called from the list as long as she had worked there (she was my age, and had always worked there!). Besides the ditch really was just a transfer ditch to move water from one reservoir to another. It had no laterals, gates or water rights that fed off of it. I thank her and managed to beg the Mennonites to allow a heathen to grow some onions in their community garden (thanks guys!) ( I will mention that this is the self same water company that is flush with water to help a developer build a mega bunch of million dollar homes and perhaps a mall or similar development. Pumping that water uphill around Green Mountain to service an area miles from their 'home' district and no doubt drying up that same 'home' district where there are a lot of large lots and mini farms. Not bitter, just saying!!!)
I also told Shawn about getting a very nice couple of ladies from the PTA to put some flowers on the school's Marquee corner. Tiffany and her friend were great they planted some spare irises and lilies. The school maintenance department was suppose to turn on the sprinkler head for the area and generally maintain it. As the ladies' children moved out of the school they left the PTA and with them left the only weeding or maintenance. A couple of years ago I took a pickup load of wood chips and while mulching it the new principal happened by and thanked me. I mentioned the need for regular maintenance and pointed out that the school had spent a small fortune to completely rip out and replace the playground and baseball field, but poor maintenance had left them looking as worn out as before.
As I'm writing this I'm feeling like the proverbial grumpy old man. Perhaps if I change from mellow oldies I can find a positive upbeat note. Let's try Black Eyed Peas another Friends find. You know what they say people like old wine not old whiners. This should get me a little closer to this century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQRtaijyy5A hmm it's changing my typing speed - attitude we'll see.
Where I ended up with Shawn was a thought I've been mulling most of my life. When is your effort and time worth it and when are you just pouring your energy down a bottomless pit? This thought reoccurred to me this week while bringing some extra lettuce, spinach, and mushrooms to neighbors. I've tried over the years to remind myself that I'm not crop farming, just plant enough for Deb and me. Inevitably, there are times when I didn't plan or I did and God laughed. So I was carrying a bag of goodies across the street and this lady I always see walking in mornings but never met shouts out "salad greens". I drop off the bag with my neighbor Sarah who also gardens and is always so kind in her words. The Walker has started back in the other direction and as we pass I have to ask "how did you know it was salad greens?" She says "well I was thinking of my own garden and what I was just doing". We talked and laughed a bit about giving away produce and how no one wants to see you walking with zucchini. Gardeners are by nature generous but who gets that perfect head of heirloom lettuce when your fridge is full? That's the interesting question.
I'll freely admit that I proselytize gardening. If I can hook a non-gardener into gardening with a bag of fresh spinach or an eat over the sink nectarine, I'll share, but I'm deeper - gardening is a way of weaving community. If we all just trade tomatoes it would be a pretty boring community. Some people bring other 'goods' to the table to trade. Some are completely intangible goods. How many tomatoes equals thanks for cutting down that hedge that the old owners had covering the sidewalk. Or thanks for planting those irises at the school. Yet I've noticed over the years that most of the extra nice neighbors also garden or have a peach tree or something. I'm happy to use some extra produce as an excuse to build social capital and community. But there is a snake in the garden some people just take. There is no social capital they can add to the pot. They are only set up to receive.
I'm recalling the old Seinfeld episode where Elaine finds her preferred contraceptive the sponge has been discontinued. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfQBKB4s1ks She stocks up but the supply is finite thus she is deeply questioning her new boyfriend to decide if he is "sponge worthy". As I try to be more careful in not over planting I have to decide is this person really Tomato worthy?!
What this old guy knows but was forgetting is people act out of self interest. Groups and organizations act for the same reason if you insert the phrase 'of the dominant faction'. Thus my self interest in dealing with extra veggies is creating social capital. The ditch company while technically owned by the users sees it's self interest as increasing the influence (and perhaps personal financial benefits -just saying!) of the Board of Directors. The School District has swung over the years from a dominant faction of Teachers and Administrators aligned with providers (bond dealers and other contractors), to a Parent and taxpayer faction and back again. For the schools each of those groups might have far down their list of self interests gardens fresh veggies and community but with power fluctuating only the top of the list is dealt with. Ideas that don't provide for the others self interest are doomed any good salesman knows that.
Comments
Post a Comment