Gorilla Gardening

Several weeks ago our local non profit health care clinic was looking for someone to revive their dying and overgrown flower bed.

First thing I did was say YES! we would do it. "We" being us three Community Garden coordinators.

I was ready to go buy $20 worth of marigolds, but Peggy said "Wait, I have a better idea."

She got on the phone and called our dear friend, Sun, who is a Master Gardener and has incredible gardens that lots of people like to go see.

Sun said she would donate some of her home grown perennials to the clinic flower bed.

I drove over immediately to get a few.

Sun met me in the drive way, grabbed a wheelbarrow and swung into action.

I followed.

She didn't just pick out a "few" plants, she carefully selected 20 well potted perennials that would work well in the partially shaded flower bed at the clinic.

She laid them out the way they should be dug into the soil.  I took a photo so I would remember.

Sun was excited to be able to help us complete a project and I was excited that the flower bed was going to be so much more beautiful with her plants than they would of been with $20 worth of marigolds.

We packed my truck with plants.

I made a phone call to my sister gardeners for a spontaneous meeting and "dig party."

I drove to the little 10x10 flower garden and waited for the other gorilla gardeners to arrive.

The little garden has been neglected and taken over with weeds, hemlocks and junk.

My garden friends arrived at 7 pm and one of the business owners across the street came to help us as well.

Pulling up the monster hemlocks required some real muscle.

Composted horse manure was donated by a friend.
2 bales of straw and dozens of paper grain bags were collected to keep the weeds from taking over after we planted.

The digging, planting and laying down of the compost, paper and straw took several hours, and it got dark.

I had to turn the truck headlights on so the planting group could see what they were doing.

The flower bed came out great and every day another plant blooms.

I finally got a photo of the flower bed yesterday after 8 days of rain.
Most of the flowers have bloomed, but you get the general idea.
The grain bags and straw have almost eliinated all the weeds.

Next year the plants will expand and their blooms will be more numerous.

Stay tuned for the next project!
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