daddy's ghost behind you

This weekend was not at all what I expected. I'm stunned, but it's been nice.

Walker Park Community Garden hit a bump in the road today. After the great success of our public interest meeting, we weren't exactly sure what to do next, so we made some plans and decided to dive in. Which meant gathering cardboard to lay down on our site, to start conditioning the ground during the winter, so we could get some soil that wasn't dominated by rocks and construction leftovers. But we kind of didn't consult anyone about this plan of action. I mean, we've been working on this project since August, mostly independently. So it didn't seem immediately necessary to have this (what seemed to us) minor action approved, since we had already received a letter of approval from the city.

But we were kind of wrong.

Lisa, our contact at city parks and rec and also leader of the Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition, had been communicating with Seth, one of the members of our team, since this group's inception. She's been working closely with us, but mostly through Seth. So on Friday, when she spoke to Seth about all the reasons why we shouldn't be laying down cardboard yet, she assumed we would get the message, but we didn't. So poor Katy had to tell us for her and receive all of our looks of disappointment.

The good news is, though, that the city is not halting our garden, and we now have a nice chunk of cardboard in storage. And we still have lots time and interest. But it was a damper to STILL not have something tangible to show for all of our talking. I mean, pretty much every Tuesday since mid-August we've been talking and talking and talking about this garden. Which is great. It's so much fun and so inspiring to be a part of this discussion. But I think we were all a little anxious to actually do something. I know I was.

It was also a little frustrating to hear that the city thinks we're unorganized, enough to want to shut us down! Because I think we've been doing our best. Several of have worked in community groups before, and I think we've all done a good job of being painstaking in our planning and brainstorming, being open to all the possibilities, documenting our process, and following up on our tasks. I mean, we've failed at communication lately, but that's a recent issue. Personally, I've been trying to anticipate these kinds of problems as much as possible, so I'm disappointed in myself for letting this happen.

But it's not good to dwell on. We're still alive and kickin and I'm definitely still excited.

Next task: Binder decoration.

Also a five page paper by Tuesday morning.........heeeeeeeeeeeeeee

ps: also sweet yam costume for BenFaytonetteville thanksgiving! That'll be my reward for finishing Ramayananaanananna