Friendship and Busy April

It's a quiet Sunday the 28th of April and spring has returned after Saturday's wintry mix.  April has been a busy and fulling month. In early April, I reconnected with long time friends from Indiana University (IU) graduate school days. We spent several days together in beautiful and historic Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is the oldest city in the United States, starting as a small settlement in 1607.

Here's Julius, Diane, Edie and me just before dinner at a wonderful Japanese restaurant . Julius lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Diane hails from Eastsound, an island off of Seattle, Washington, and Edie from Waterbury, Vermont. Linda, from Chicago and Lynn, from Oriental, North Carolina, two other graduate school friends, were unable to be with us. Through the magic of video teleconferencing we spend a hour and half with them.

We enjoyed beautiful and historic Santa Fe. We reminisced about the IU days and talked about how that period shaped our lives. Edie, Diane, Linda and Lynn and I were completing doctorate degrees in education while working on a national federally funded special education grant. Julius was a key support staff. We also talked about our lives since Indiana and our current passions and activities.

Our time together confirmed the value of friendship better expressed than I can in this Max Coots' poem.

A Harvest of People

"Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For generous friends, with smiles as bright as their blossoms.
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us that we’ve had them.

For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn; and the others as plain as potatoes and as good for you.
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as endless as zucchini, and who, like parsnips, can be counted on to see you through the winter.
For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time.
For young friends, who wind around like tendrils and hold us.

We give thanks for friends now gone, like gardens past that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that we might live."

Shortly after returning from Santa Fe, my attention turned to Prospect Gardens. We are now starting the tenth year and over the years a "bounty of people" have volunteered. Those who have regularly showed up over the years are truly "generous friends, with smiles as bright as their blossoms."

April's events at Prospect Gardens began with Ann B. and I taking down the protective orange snow fences. Late last fall, someone tagged this section of the mural with graffiti. Dorrie, a neighbor, created the mural during April and May 2011.

Seven years without being tagged. Not bad of a run, given how often two nearby bridges are tagged. I repainted the area attempting to create clouds. I'm looking for a few bird stencils to enhance the effect of a bike in the sky.

Hopefully, the taggers will stay away. If not, this slab and perhaps the other sections of the mural along the sides of the ramps will need to be redone or redesigned.

The abstract bike really "pops" out. It will do for now. Somebody might come forward with ideas for a redesign and energy to install a new mural. Maybe they will be new "young friends who wind around like tendrils and hold us?"


Another task involved repairing terraces built to stabilize the slopes and prevent erosion. We all know impermanence is the reality of life. Ann B. weeded and swept the ramps while I tackled the terraces.

I added the two top rows to this one and rebuilt a second one in a different section. Eleanor, a nearby neighbor, gladly offered the heavy slabs for the taking. They are from an old fire pit she  removed to make way for  a new anticipated fence and a new dog. Moving the slabs in a wheel barrel meant plenty of exercise while ticking off steps on my Fitbit.

On Friday afternoon, April 26th, 13 volunteers joined Ann B. and I, to officially kicked off the 2019 gardening season. We welcomed three new faces, Elijah, Amy, and Mary. Mulch King Bob returned as well as Percy, Eli and Ann N.

John Imes, Executive Director of  the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative (WEI), also returned along with Justine, a WEI staff member, and this year's four University of Wisconsin Badger Volunteers, Morgan, Taylor, Ellie and Yeline. The Badger Volunteers, UW students, have been with WEI and John for the academic year and this was their last day.

John has his crew work at the Prospect Gardens one day month during the season except May.  May is a transition month plus graduation, and of course, finals.  A new crew of Badgers, along with Justine and John, will return on June 21st, July 12th and August 2 or 9th. Thank you John and all for your generosity and hard work.

This is the second year UW Badger Volunteers have helped tend the Gardens. Here's the crew pausing from their labors after I asked them to pose. They worked hard weeding and pulling garlic mustard. Not a slouch among them. John also pruned the shrubs bordering the ramp's wall.

I look forward to working again with Justine, John and a new Badger crew. Badger Volunteers is one of Morgridge Center for Public Service's programs. It's a semester-long program that places teams of students with schools, nonprofits, and municipalities. Volunteers work 1-4 hours each week at the same organization.

As a UW graduate and an elder, I receive much joy from working with these four young Badgers.  May our paths cross again.

The following six pictures provide ample evidence that the other volunteers worked with gusto. Sorry to say, I missed snapping a picture of Mary while she weeded and pulled garlic mustard. Also missing is a picture of the all volunteers during break time enjoying Ann B's homemade treat.  This time it was Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bars.

Here's Amy, Elijah and Ann N. weeding the raspberry patch and getting it ready for mulching.

Here's Bob and Amy in action. Bob continues as our "mulch king" because he's good at and he so likes mulching.

The day before Ann B. and I purchased and delivered to the site ten bags of mulch from Home Depot. The trunk of  our 2012 Honda Civic was packed and two bags were on the folded back seat. What a load! I wondered about the weight limit for a Civic as we slowly made our way back to Prospect Gardens. 

 Here's Elijah, a junior at West High School. What a great worker! At the end of the work session he offered to help clean up and put away the tools. Hopefully, he will become one of those "young friends, who wind around like tendrils and hold us" mentioned in Max Coot's poem.  

Here's me towards the end of the work session standing besides the now mulched raspberry patch. That's Elijah behind the electric pole still working away.

This young man is Eli. This is Eli's second year volunteering and most likely this was his last time. He and his family live about a half block from the Gardens. Unfortunately for us but not the family, they will be moving to Middleton and into a home with an acre and half lot that includes a prairie. Ann B. and I wish the family the best and hope our paths too will cross again.

Here's Percy surveying a second cherry tree off to the left of the picture before pruning it. She just completed pruning the other cherry tree. I'm grateful to this Master Gardner for her pruning expertise and for being a regular volunteer.

I end with returning to Max Coots' poem and its message about being grateful for friends and all their uniqueness. The same applies to all volunteers who over the years tended Prospect Gardens. I feel especially blessed that 13 showed up on a bright sunny 2019 spring day to take us into the 10th year and perhaps beyond.  

Saturday, May 18th, 9 am to noon, is the next work session. If you are in the Madison area, please join us. Our need for volunteers is constant since many come for one session, which is okay.

Thank you.  

Anticipating Spring

Once again, early in the morning of April Fools Day, Ann tricked me. I got up a few hours after her. After we greeted, she said "Guess what?  On the news this morning they said that the Monroe Street sewers need to be redone."  Sewers were included in the renovation of Monroe Street lasting from March to Thanksgiving, 2018.  We live on Monroe. I groaned: "Oh no!"  She triumphantly proclaimed "April Fools." We laughed.  A good way to start a day.

During that day's afternoon walk I meandered east from our apartment on the Southwest Path. A daily walk is part of my regular routine. Occasionally the sun poked through the thin clouded overcast sky. The following poem Michael b. darby captures my mood as I approached Prospect Gardens and began scanning the Gardens for signs of spring.

Anticipation of Spring

"As winter slowly wanes, its cold breath slowly turning to the warm
Breath of spring, renewing and accepting the Wonderment that spring
Shall bring forth nature's power of renewal. Oh how awesome it makes us feel
As we await the beauty and the anticipation of spring we shall accept.

Watch the daffodil slowing begin to bloom as it pushes its way up from earth
And ground. Watch the buds on the Bradford pears burst open and the yellow
Grass as it begins its journey to green, and the firament and all it contains show
Its force that Mother Nature shall bring and anoint us all with its renewal of life.

Watch the farmer as he busts open the soil and turns over the ground and tills the dirt
To a fine sift, awaiting the planting of seed that will bring forth a great abundance
Of Food to renew life's bread for us all; and to exclaim, spring is finely here!"

It's been a long winter as this patch of remaining snow streaked with dirt testifies.  Loudly announcing "spring is finally here!" seemed premature. Yet a hint of spring was in the air.

The only signs of spring I found were pale green Day Lilies, no more that three inches above the ground. I'm reading Jerry Apps' "A History: Old Farm." I gained from Apps a new respect for what many, including me, call "ditch lilies."

The tawny orange blooming annuals are native to China, Japan, Korea and eastern Siberia and were cultivated long before the birth of Christ. Apps sites Chinese records saying that Day Lilies relieve physical and mental pain. Juice from the roots benefit the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and stomach while strengthening willpower, reducing worry and brightening the eyes. Wow, I didn't know all this.

Day Lilies were popular throughout Europe by the 1500s and they most likely crossed the Atlantic with the Pilgrims, at least that's what Apps says.  In the light of what I learned about Day Lilies, I may reconsider intentions to remove more Daily Lilies from the Gardens. Much of the southwest section of the Gardens was covered with Day Lilies when we began developing the Gardens in 2010 and many return each year. Perhaps it's best to leave them given their history, as well as a reminder that they witnessed steam powered trains rumbling down the corridor.

What follows are more Garden scenes all testifying to this season of transition and my anticipation of spring. They also show the Gardens' geographical features: hilly slopes with some covered with rip-rock. Both features add an extra challenge to gardening.  Sometimes I refer to our efforts as "extreme gardening."

This picture shows the southeast section of the Gardens and is in the Dudgeon-Monroe Neighborhood. Underneath the trees is a shade garden of Hostas, Jack-in-the Pulpit and Jacob's Ladder. In front of the newly replaced board fence is a Red Bud, that will soon bloom. Several Red Buds are in the nearby UW Arboretum. With anticipation I await their blooming and another sign that "spring is finally here!"   

 This picture shows the northwest section of the Garden and is in the Regent Neighborhood. Note the rip-rock. The Day Lilies make up the pale green areas. They anchor the slope preventing erosion, another reason against removal. The triangular shrub is Japanese Sumac, with golden yellow foliage in the Fall. It is now just a skeleton of itself.

The old picket fence has been there for many years. It was there when we first moved into the neighborhood in 1986, as was the railroad tracks. Occasionally an engine and one flat car of lumber slowly traveled west with a load for Brunsell's Lumber yard, which is still in business near the Beltline.

Emily, our daughter, has fond memories of the train tracks. As an older child, Emily would sit along the tracks enjoying some peace and solitude. Now West High School students visit, sit along on the ramps and eat their lunch.     

This picture is looking east and is on the north side of the Gardens and in the Regent Neighborhood.The Forsythia, in the right hand lower corner planted by Steve, a fellow gardener, is one of the first bloomers. It's bright yellow flowers will proclaim that spring is finally here. Meanwhile, I wait with anticipation.

 This picture shows the Dudgeon Monroe side of the Gardens and looking west up into the shade garden. A layer of leaves covers the ground. The small spindly tree (middle of picture) is a species of Dogwood. This one is slow growing. I purchased two several years ago when both were about a foot tall.  Last year both bloomed for the first time. I wait in anticipation for the pearl white flowers to burst forth.

Today, election day, Ann and I intended to remove the orange snow fences. Removal has become a spring ritual. Light rain changed our minds. Sun broke through about 3 PM, just in time for my daily stroll.

In a few months the Gardens will be transformed as native grasses, prairie plants and perennials return. Meanwhile I will wait with anticipation for spring as I did as a young farm boy growing up on a farm with a pond near the farm house.

 I cherish the story of those spring days told by my oldest sister, Jenny, when Ann and I interviewed her for a family project. Jenny died in early spring of 2017, April 6th to be exact. She took me back to when the pond and the creek that cut across the farm overflowed with water from the melting snow. Jenny described the soothing sound of the rushing water, the pleasing songs of croaking frogs and the sweet melodies of robins. For a few minutes we sat silently each enjoying the memories of childhood springs.     

Our first community work session is scheduled for April 20th from 9 to noon. If you are in the Madison area please join us. We will finish cutting back plants and maybe remove more rocks while creating new beds for plants that are on order. On April 26th from 1 to 4 pm University of Wisconsin Badger Volunteers. Another opportunity to tend the gardens while enjoying the unfolding spring.

May spring continue to unfold and may we all be healthy, strong and happy.