Rolling into October

Jack Deatherage

(10/2023) I hear it's been a summer, though having napped through most of it I wouldn't really know. Usually I'm up before 5 AM and grumbling as I todder around the park for the 8:30 a.m. mile. (For those wondering, [todder - the act of swaying wildly due to inebriation just before falling down, the todder does not actually occur until the "todd" hits the ground. - nghialagi.net] It's been decades since I was last an actual todder, but the growing aches and pains cause me to move as if I've a gallon or two of alcoholic brew on board.)

After the morning walk we stop at the Cedar Ave Community Garden to water, weed, tidy up and pick anything ready to be picked. Back home in the air conditioning I check my library account to see if I can go hang out in the library's air conditioning. If not, it's upstairs to sleep under some novel until it's time to water the garden- usually after 7 PM during the hotter days and closer to 6 PM as the days shorten and cool. About the only day I'm outside after noon is farmers market Friday.

If the Knights of Columbus chapter has a table set up offering free cotton candy I tend to hang around the market from open to close. Brian, master sugar spinner (he tells me he studied the craft for most of 5 minutes), is also the muscle and more than half the brains in the community garden. We sit in what shade we can find and talk of strings and things- "Of shoes and ships and sealing-wax. Of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot. And whether pigs have wings." (Thank you Mr. Carroll) Occasionally I'll notice someone wandering about the garden. With a groan I'll stand and crackle, creak my way over to see if they have any questions about the adventure.

Generally, the out-of-towners and the newly-moved-to-towners have been politely inquisitive and thanked me for my time and efforts. The locals? Well, with some of them I have to curb my thoughts and be polite no matter their rudeness. How do I know they are locals? They're rude. The laughing gods send them to test my resolve. Could have been worse I guess- flea beetles, swarms of locust, drought- Wait, they did provide a drought!

A visitor demanded, actually demanded, to know if I was taking the vegetables to the food bank! I experienced one of those rare moments when my brain managed to stop my mouth from trying to swallow both my feet. After a moment's thought that encompassed- you don't know who this person is, don't burn a bridge you haven't crossed- be polite- be diplomatic, you can do it- avoid a bunch of vulgarities best not let loose at this moment, I managed to say, "We're just getting the garden started. Everything we've planted is more to draw attention to what's possible here."

That didn't satisfy. "Well, you should be taking it to the food bank."

I remember thinking, I've spent more than a thousand dollars of the DW and I's money on the garden so far and I'm planning on spending at least a thousand more next year. The DW and I have been hauling water from home in buckets to the garden almost daily. We're buying and applying fertilizers, pulling weeds, planting seeds, dealing with the insects, birds, rabbits, people leaving trash about the garden, tending the compost bins, mowing and weed trimming (occasionally), trying to get more people involved and you, whom I've not seen near the garden before today, have the gall to tell me what to do with what little we'd managed to harvest from all that effort?

I've taken a few hand sized melons and a few cherry tomatoes up to the town offices as a token of gratitude for the help and encouragement the people working there have given us. They also have made demands. "Let us help you! Tell us what you need."

I'd take every scrap of edible vegetation to the farm and feed it to the pigs before I gifted a single tiny 'Sun Gold' cherry tomato to the food bank. The pigs would be grateful and their owner would load a truck full of manure and bring it to the garden, no charge, if I asked him to.

I'd willingly help anyone who wants to grow vegetables for the food bank. I'd probably gift them some of the seeds we have stored against the day I decide to trial them. Hell, I might even haul water for them, probably would help with the weeding if needs be. But to be told what I should be doing? Don't anyone hold their breath waiting for me to do anything I'm told to do!

The goal from the beginning was to build a larger, highly visible, easily accessible, community garden I could play in until I got distracted by some new idea and wandered off knowing there was a community of gardeners in place that would continue making the garden better each following year. While I haven't made much headway with the community aspect of the garden, I have had some successes with the actual garden.

I have a better understanding of the location and what I need to change for next year's attempt. I'm planning on dropping at least $600 worth of raised beds into the garden for the DW to organize and plant flowers she wants -I already hear the gods laughing. If I can squeeze another $400 out of our budget I want several round raised beds for the library's use- maybe mini herb beds the kids can plant for projects the librarians can put together later in the season - the gods are rolling now.

"The garden looks fantastic! You and your wife have done a great job."

Meh. There wouldn't be a garden if the board of commissioners, the mayor and the town staff hadn't stepped up to make it happen. If some of the members of the Emmitsburg Walking group hadn't helped, if the librarians and their kid groups hadn't gotten involved, if the fire department hadn't kept the rain barrels filled there certainly wouldn't be a garden! If Brian hadn't taken a pounding from the donated rototiller all anyone would see are 3 raised beds and some compost bins! All me and the DW have done is pump some money, time and effort into it - minimal effort on my part.

Still, imagine what ten more people could accomplish. Why, they might even overflow the food bank with fresh veggies so's I'd have to take the excess to the farm's pigs.