You wouldn't believe how quickly things could change. It all started in the morning when Sebastian told me that he doesn't want to commit to the garden for the summer. Plan # 86 was falling apart, right before my very eyes and I was left staring at another failed project. That's why I've mostly been a do-it-myself kind of guy. Usually if it's something that I don't want to do, no one wants to do it.
I was sorely tempted to resort to the leadership practices that I learned when I was not much older than him, working deadened jobs, like dishwashing, burgers and lawn mowing. Shame is the first weapon in that arsenal and guilt is the second. It's strange but after all these years I still struggle to resist the urge to use these highly effective tools - despite all the damage I've seen and felt.
When I let Sebastian go with my blessings - the blessings bounce back on me and I'm happy and already busy on Plan # 87.

The Community Garden has been pretty much business as usual. First I tried to dump the garden on Tinker. I wasn't the only one. Tinker's was everyone's first choice. Unfortunately she had a mind of her own and I have firsthand experience of the consequences of messing with Tinker when her mind's made up.
I have a feeling Tinker will be coming by the Garden this summer. More about that later.

I have this sinking feeling that I'm going to end up managing the garden myself this summer.

In the meantime we dig a main path for the garden that circles around our grassy meadow with a rock cairn in the middle of our garden. We dig the earth and shape a bed encircling our centerpiece. We decided to not to make a bean teepee because it would be too much work to find long enough poles. We decide to plant Beanhenge instead. Beanhenge will be a circular line of bean poles enclosing our grassy nook where we will hold secret garden meetings and hide when we don't feel like working.

We worked like dogs. Our tongues were dragging on the ground. At lunch we decided that we deserved a break today and that we would visit Corona Farm. Bob and Sharon were glad to see us and Bob put the kids to work right away. I know it sounds crazy to go somewhere for rest and relaxation and let them put you to work. But the gardens at Corona was so beautiful compared to the deathscape at the Grange and the work was much easier than the earthwork we did all morning long.

Deathscape sounds harsh but it's an apt description. Most our work so far involves killing the lawn that occupied this space before we got here. Gardening requires much more death and destruction than most people imagine. That's why the gardens of the faint of heart always look like such a mess.
Like my friend Matty always says: "I'm a gardener - I kill plants for a living." It's true. For every plant planted, dozens, if not hundreds are killed. There is no end to the killing in a garden. You only have to look at the nearest vacant lot to see how far what we prefer is from what nature intends.

Part of the appeal of the garden for some of these kids/young men is the destructive nature of the work. There is nothing like hard physical work, for working out frustrations. Nothing like pitting your body against the forces of nature. Whether the urge to dominate nature and each other is a primeval instinct in adolescent males, or it's an outcome of the industrial revolution - it is a force to be reckoned with and harnessed.
Death was recurring theme in our day. At Corona one of the cats caught a vole and we spent more time than we probably should have watching the cat entertain itself with the struggles of its prey. Hanako, who grows great salad greens at Corona, pointed out that the cat was probably showing off for us. It was a chilling thought that we might be prolonging the vole's suffering by the mere act of watching.
I think there might be a physics principle that describes how the act of watching can change events but I'm uncertain about that.
In any case our potential role in prolonging the suffering of the vole did little to discourage us from further watching. The cat put on an awesome show while the vole on the other hand was rather weak in his or her role. A good time was had all, with the possible exception of the mole. (he was so far gone, he may have been beyond suffering.) Most important of all we learned a lesson - although I would hesitate to say exactly what that lesson was and I have some lingering doubts over whether the lesson learned outweighed the crass entertainment of the event.

I had another motive for going to Corona Farm; I wanted to talk to Bob and Sharon about their daughter Justine working at the garden for one day a week during the summer. Without Sebastian there probably wouldn't be a garden this summer. I desperately needed to beef up the labor force which was now down to zero.
Justine was an important element of Plan # 87. Not only is she an excellent worker with a happy attitude - she's friends with Kia and Rene.
Taken together these three girls represent a certain critical mass of teenage coolness and energy. Their precense will most likely encourage other kids to show up. It appears that the energy crisis in the garden is taken care of - if this deal holds.

I made promises left and right to put together Plan # 87. I promised Sharon and Bob that we would send some of the Grange Garden crew over to Corona to make up for the work that Justine will miss. This was a no-brainer. With the Jefferson Community school program we can use a place to send some kids when we are too hopelessly outnumbered in the garden or we need a change of pace and/or place. Corona is perfect and has much to offer that the Grange Garden lacks right now - like plants.

I promised the girls that they would have fun. Another no-brainer. They are good friends and will have a good time even if they have to work some. We're already talking about bringing speakers to hook up to an Ipod.

Kia is a welcome addition to the project. She's Tinker's daughter which more or less insures that Tinker will show up that now and then. Some Tinker energy in the garden is no small gift to the project. Although Kia is not my daughter, she's part of my family and I love her as if she was.
This is how small towns and villages work. Our obligations are to family and friends. Making it work for everyone becomes second nature. A chance meeting on the street can become part of a garden project.
There are other kids who are interested as well. If you asked me right now I'd say the prognosis for the summer garden is excellent. Who knows what I would say tomorrow? If this deal goes down, I'm fresh out of plans for this summer.

By the way we could use a lap top and wireless connection at the Grange.

The one missing ingredient in the garden project is cash. The best things in life are free, but I'm not. My retirement plan is more or less bop 'til you drop. The most painless plan that I could come up with is summer school. Teachers I've talked with, assure me that parents are always looking for good summer things for thier kids to do. The high school kids could help with younger kids.
At the Saratoga Community Garden I learned the value of school programs for both cash flow and community outreach. With the young adults we already have lined up for the summer I know that we could set up an excellent program. Julie Marston has offered to help us. The pieces are falling in place. I just have to make sure that it would be ok with everyone before I add it to my list of alternative plans.
If you have a better idea for fund raising or know why this idea would not work please let me know.

I ran into Erica Delma today. She talked about the play ground project. Check it out at www.dreamcityplaygrounds.org More to the point she expressed an interest in bringing her pre-schoolers to the Grange Garden. I figure that we could use her pre-schoolers as test kids to see if we can deal with kids of such a tender age. In my experience pre-schoolers in the garden present special challenges but the rewards are great.
One instance of pre-schoolers in the garden comes to mind right away. It was at the Saratoga Community Garden. Each child came with a mother. The mothers were mostly interested in each other and had lagged behind their children, deep in conversation.
The kids were touring the animal portion of the program, when they showed up ahead of thier mothers, at a stall where several garden apprentices were killing chickens. (death is a recurring theme in this message)
The kids were awestruck. The death of the chickens captured thier complete attention. They wwatched quietly with respect for the solemnity of the act. The fullness of thier focus and the depth of their silence still moves me to this day.
The mood was broken as soon as the mother caught up. They broke out in cacophony of 'yucks' and other sounds denoting gross and disgusting. Now most of those women were probably chicken-eaters but, unlike their kids, they didn't want to see where food comes from and where it goes - where we all go someday.

Sometimes it seems like we are destroying ourselves with the blinders that we put on to separate ourselves from the unintended consequences of our actions. In the Absence of the Sacred Jerry Mander argues that our blinders, our separation from nature is becoming so complete that, from a distance, it looks as if we are colonizing planet earth in preparation for traveling to other planets.
People are giving up on the planet right and left. Many fundamentalist Christians are biding their time, waiting for the second coming while many environmentalists live in fear of the destruction of the earth's ecosystems. Chose your own scenario of doom and destruction or chose life.

That's what cool about kids. Until we teach them otherwise, they are open to the world. When we quit learning from our kids, no matter how small they are, we're in trouble. The younger the kids the greater the sense of wonder they bring to a garden and the more magic happens. Kids can be our best teachers and the garden is a great place for them to open their eyes.

At the end of the day I said goodby to this group of students. In the last hout we finally got around to the opening lecture that explains some important details - like the purpose of the garden project. This group was so gung-ho for the physical experience of the garden, the weather was so lovely and the garden was in such great need - that we almost never got around to the lecture part of the experience.

This was such a wonderful group of kids. As I drove away at the end of the day, tiny puddles of moisture gathered in the corners of my eyes. Must have been my allergies. There will always be this little emptiness in the garden now that they are gone or at least until next Monday when the next group shows up.