Opening Day

     Opening week in the gardens April 1.  I have the opportunity to focus on the gardens exclusively.  I will work for myself now.  I believe if I pour all my energy into marketing my business I will make a living. 
     I took inventory of the tools this week and will look into tool maintenance.  I have never had a tool maintenance schedule.  I think I have changed the blade on my Felco pruner once in twenty years.  I load up my truck a 1998 Chevy Tahoe with three tool bags, in front of the back seat and basic tools on a tarp in the back. 

Ax - 1
Bag of clothespins (drying herbs)
Bag of nails (?)
Broom - Corn 1
            Hand 1
            Push 1
Coupler - Brass 1
              Plastic 1
Dustpan - 1
Fork - Hay 1
          Digging 1
Gloves - Brown 1
            Knit (green dots) 1
            Leather 1
            Polyester (lilac) 1
            Rubber (blue) 1        
            Vinyl (sky blue) 1
Hammer - 1
Hook (fence) - 1
Maglite - 2
Mallet - 1
Measuring Tape - 35' - 1
                        300' - 1
Metal Pipe (stake holes) - 3
Pick Axe - 2
Quick Connect Plug - 1
Rake - Hard - 5
          Leaf - 1
Screwdriver - 1
Shovel - Leaf - 1
            Round - Small 1
                        Large 1
            Short - 2
            Square - 1
Shut off Valve - Brass 1
Steelwool - 1
Tie - Rope 1
        Tie Down 2
Trowel - 1
Vice Grip - Small (broken) 1
                Large 1

     Interestingly enough baseball Opening Day was a few weeks ago which is why I'm using the phrase here.  I find it fascinating how the Establishment has shifted our focus at key points in our lives.  In this case baseball shifts the focus from "Opening Day" in the gardens.  Aaaaaooooohhhh, we gon' get down and dirty here cause what has happened to us as a people in the midst of divide and conquer was down and dirty so in order to reach restitution, we gon' have to face some realness.
     We have dreamed of gardens since closing day mid November, assessing what went right, what went wrong and what changes we want to make in the new season.  I switched out heavy plastic fence at Sargent-Downing, my community garden, for deer netting after six year of any weight pulling down the plastic fence.  I ruminated over chain link, metal, more permanent installations, but all would require concrete footing and the Hudson Valley is a Watershed  and I could not in good conscious place concrete in the underground streams.  I engage Earth harmoniously as much as and as often as possible.  In our journey toward modernization we have turned our relationship to Earth into a war to tame her to our great frustration.  The garden sits in a wind tunnel and I realize this season with parts of the fence down I can weave the fence inside the posts so the pressure of the wind will push the fence against the post instead of away from it.  The front fence is intact. 
     The other thing I learned last season was to grow more Kale so that I get a pot of greens out of one harvest.  I had a six foot bed over all these years and it would take two harvest to get enough Kale for a pot of greens so last year I grew half a bed (15') of Kale and then I put Mustard Mix (Pink Lettucy Mustard, Ruby Streaks, Tatsoi) in the other half and voila! Brassica bed.  There is no end to the individual growth one experiences gardening.  One must always be solution oriented.  Not to mention we are outside in the fresh beautiful healthy air and sun.
     I finally have the right growing conditions for Anise Hyssop (native cough medicine) and Skullcap (native painkiller).  Hiddenbrooke is my second herb garden.  I was displaced from my first herb garden in 2017 and my good friend Shannon was kind enough to offer me space.  Hiddenbrooke is a teaching space as well.  After not doing very well with Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum, Labiatae, Perennial, Turtle Island (America)) and Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora, Labiatae, Perennial, Turtle Island) for three seasons, I finally decided to look up their growing conditions and lo and behold, they are forest dwellers!  I had them in full sun.  The problem last season was them being over run with Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium viminium, Poaceae, Perennial, Asia), that I hope to remedy with brown paper.  Skullcap will be tricky because she grows very delicately.  Hiddenbrooke is my production site and I want to go to market in Autumn.  Plants have a common name, a botanical name (typically Greek or Latin), and a family name.  I will place them here after the common name along with their lifespan and origin.  Like colonizers the world over plants have found new lands and over run the natives.
     Flora Jones Garden is the first space I bartered for land.  Flora Jones is an African -American Democrat activist in Beacon.  She approached me in 2011 to "do something" with her 50 x 70' lawn in her backyard.  She was sick of having it mowed and recalled growing food in gardens in Alabama when she was a child.  I originally grew the vegetables in the back of the garden because there was a wild herb (Vetch, Vicia sativa, Leguminosae, Perennial, Africa, Turtle Island, South America, Asia, Europe) growing in the front.  Vetch has since been over run by Bindweed (Convulvulus arvensis, Convulvulaceae, Perennial, Asia, Europe).  The trees in the back of the garden are now shading out the vegetable garden so I will be moving it to the front of the garden this season.  Flora Jones Garden is my Wild Salad garden.  I harvest for myself and my classes all season.  Let me state here, that herbs are generally considered weeds in the average garden, so the wildness of Flora Jones has been the bane of her neighbor's existence since I began so if you ever endeavor to grow naturally your neighbors will not be happy.  The thing is no one asked Flora when they sold three quarters of the old houses on the block for a new development that placed the driveway out right next to her house so she has the right to block the traffic.  I have placed a fifty foot stand on both sides of the garden (she has six neighbors as well) of Sunroot (Jerusalem Artichoke) which grows about eight feet tall and has beautiful yellow flowers in September.  When I first started working in the garden I felt exposed so I could imagine how she felt on a daily basis.  I had to do something.  A new neighbor actually called the city last season, but we won the day.  The precedent had already been set.  If we can name all the plants and their uses, we are allowed! 
     When the weather breaks and we venture out into the gardens, it is the beginning of a season of adventure.  Enjoy!