garden heroes

This past weekend was a big one for the garden. The bloodroot is nearly done blooming. The trilliums are up, the mayapples starting to unfurl their umbrella leaves. The oakleaf hydrangea's fresh pale leaves are budding out in supplicating pairs. I didn't go in the woods for a week and missed the trout lilies' yellow blooms, but their leaves are there, like spotted green tongues. The wild ginger is sending up fresh green leaves, demurely covering its fleshy dark flowers. All these woodland ephemerals come from plant rescues over the past few years, dug up from sites about to go to 'development.'

We have 2 new chicks courtesy of a garden friend who hatched them out himself. The toddlers named the white one Alex White and the brown one Swingy Shark John. It was a collective naming effort.

Friday morning on my way to Agnes Scott for the Georgia Organics conference, a barred owl swooped close by me and perched quite near with a very intent look. It looked from me to a spot below it, where I saw its owlet hopping on a low branch near the fallen tulip poplar, trying to get back up its tree. For a baby bird, it was quite large, in that awkward stage between fluffball and adult. Mama kept a close eye on me till I was a good distance away.

That evening at the Slow Food cocktails event in the garden, mama owl was back watching the party at dusk. And the chickens, who were too hopeful for scraps from the partygoers to go to sleep at a timely hour. The brown-headed nuthatches scolded unsuccesfully as people paused too close to their new house by vegetable gardens. And I had the chance to spend time with some of the people that have inspired my work.

I chatted with Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Georgia native, and humble activist, as well as Will Allen, founder of Growing Power in Milwaukee and expert on worm composting and many, many other things. Their work inspires me deeply because of their competence mixed with their understanding of how this work of agricultural revolution and ecological literacy is so intimately linked with people--it is not work that can be done by one person in a laboratory. Or one person on a tractor. It must be undertaken by communities. Unlike some agricultural and ecological activists, Janisse and Will will never be guilty of alienating anyone. Their warmth and love and vision are so clear, inclusive and inspiring. The garden felt very small after this event, and its potential very big.