It's March already. Sometime in february I was cleaning trash out of the lot when I saw a 2 people waiting for the 15 on the corner. I said hi. I was eager to meet people and tell them about my garden. I asked if they had any suggestions for what they'd rahter see there. They said that every year someone tries to put something on the lot and that right now it looks like shit. Waaahw waaahw. Fast foreward a month. Just this Saterday, March 5th, Mucha, my landlord, told me the lot looks like whitetrash, his favorite adjective. Looking out out the window where he and I stood, over my yard covered in branches that Mucha cut from an old tree and never dragged away, and over the broken slats of the neighbors old picket fence, I could see my greenhouse surrounded by plastic Family Dollar bags, and then, for an instant the white trash description was almost given a purely nuanced and poetic meaning. Almost.
Some month passes. I spent the last few weekends looking through dumpsters using my Honda Accord as a pickup truck. I got followed by a guy in who's dumpster I was perusing and escaped with a U-turn maneuvre. I found a door with a glass window in it, I also found a garage door which Noah helped me lift from an abandoned building. Pretty, green, and adds charm now as the east wall. Filio got me a piece of corrugated plastic for the western facing roof. The window door now constitutes my western wall. My buddy, Lucas Strzelec, moved in for a month or so so he's been able to help out with some cutting and nailing, and, as an architectural studies major with construction experience, doles out a boatload of knowledge ragarding building. I met a girl, Anna, who is now my girlfriend! She doesn't garden much, but her dad has a chainsaw.
I met a behemoth of a dude named Ed on March 5th. He lives on the block adjacent to the lot and had plans of cleaning it which was radical. I'm hoping he'll help out. By hope i mean I'm banking on it. He told me he's the new compost man. The compost man, FYI, is vigilante organics collecter on the northside. When Ed let me know, it was as if he was saying he was the new sheriff in town after a guy named Matt had left. He's got two heaping mounts of compost up the hill which rules and he said I could have a deal of it.
I got a bunch of vegetable seeds from the supermarket. Burpee seeds, which are corporate GMO seeds, but I was in a frenzy to start seedlings, so I put some in my home hydroponics 98 plant starter. Got a flourescent light for the plants in the real house. It makes my house look like a bar, or a jewelry store at night.
The greenhouse is still a bit gappy. Wind whips through. The roof has a hole. I got a Metal drum from a scrapyard. It's black and will be filled with water to absorb sun and realease heat in my greenhouse. It's becoming less necessary to have a greenhouse as the warmth approaches. Even so, I don't care if I finish in June. The only thing is I'm lying. I want it done now. I should have enough wood, liquid nails and foam after my last trip to the Home Despot to finally seal it. I also got some of that linoleum molding you see in office buildings which I'll be using to seal the perimeter inside. Roof needs finishing. I need metal!!! I was thinking soda cans. If anyone's got any idea about how I can cover half the roof with metal let me know. In this economy everyone's clinging to their metal.
I made a trashcan out of one of my water barrels, put rocks in the bottom. I've gotta put a roof on it or else it'll fill with water everytime it rains. I'm gonna cut down this demon of a leafless bush next. And put a freaking roof on my greenhouse. Then I'll insulate it. That'll be fun. If you the kind reader (mom) know anywhere to get cheap metal let me know. I'll add some pictures soon.
Ben
Ps. Firs sprouts in the starter are broccoli. 4-5 days in between folds in a wet coffee filter plced within two plates. I signed up for a gardening class too through the Grow Pittsburgh foundation. I'll share what I learn there. Aight. Be good.
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