Dunbar Memorial Garden

November 14, 2009 - a dark horse running on a dark race course

2009-11-14T18:26:00.004-05:00

Due to unseasonably beautiful weather with temps in the upper 60's and plenty of sun, we decided to work INDOORS in the art room. REALLY.

The work date had actually been planned last month and several of the crew had gathered between times to glue more tiles on our dark horse. Our goal today was to grout between the tiles and we got a good portion completed but ran out of black grout. Hands got really dirty and it was messy work but with the help of our fantastic beta's and our normal crew, we had a lot of fun and I dare say I was not the only one completely amazed at how beautiful this piece is going to be once completed.

While most of the students knew each other, there were several whose names I didn't but I did catch the "love" on one beautiful young woman's arm. Looking over all the photos I took today, this one is truly a favorite. Ms. Eller started us off by reading the instructions on the bag of grout then James used a drill attachment to mix the mess in a big plastic bucket. He then proceeded to clean the mixer attachment as only James can do - spotlessly. We used plastic bags filled with grout and a hole cut in the edge to squeeze the grout between the tiles (think decorating cookies with icing) as well as spackling knives and slapping the grout on with plastic gloves. The horse was soon completely black but as the grout hardened Jessica (aka "Jaz") started wiping across the horse with her hands and we watched with fascination as the color and design started to reappear.

While James ran from the group photo (actually he was taking his own pics with Gracie's camera) everyone gathered to proudly display the transformation of a red fiberglass horse into something uber cool and getting closer to being on display at the Dunbar Memorial Garden - including the darling budding artist and Miss Manners extraordinare, Lily! Be sure to click on the photo to bring up a larger version that gives a nicer view of how "shiny" the dark horse has become.

After we helped clean up the art room several of us meandered out to the garden to prune and clean up. Truthfully, I pruned while Jessica, James and Grace used huge stalks from the cup plant to battle up and down the hillside. Thankfully no one was injured in the brawl and no trees were climbed. *Jab to Gracie*

The battle crew did pull through in the end and help pitch the cuttings down the back forty where we will see next year an old sink hole transform into a native plant haven.

Love to all. Good work was done today.

<3
Jesse's Mom

The girls are back in town (oh and boys too) - October 24, 2009

2009-10-24T19:21:00.003-04:00

The forecast called for a cold day but not rain and when we left for the garden this morning - in the rain - we hardly expected any one to show. But show they did.

James had another commitment but advised that I should swing by and pick up his sister who needed the "community service hours." Chris was off in Sparta. But while Erika and I sat in the car at the garden safe from the drizzle waiting for Jerome to arrive here comes Gracie with her gangsta-gang hat on.

We unloaded and prepared for digging some plants when Matt showed followed by his brother Richard and then Tyler in from EKU looking sleepy eyed but advising he'd slept "like a baby" at his folks house. Finally, our darling Sarah showed having slept in too - which is exactly what a college student should be doing on their fall break.

Then while we were all hugging and catching up (while Matt was digging transplants of coreopsis and wild bergamot and Jerome was trying to loosen the soil around the persimmon tree that's been trying to block our view of Hannah's beautyberry and Gracie went off to climb a tree and Richard was pulling polk plants with roots as big as fists) who on earth should come around the bend but our little "twinkie" Ellidia on break from the rigors of Vandy. Wow. Hugs galore.

While it never matters if our work force is great or small, it's a beautiful day when our old cohorts are near. They dug a hole and scraped away gravel. They divided plants and cleaned off picnic tables. They pruned and took photos and goofed off and ate breakfast burrito's. They talked college life and highschool life and love life and were just full of life. Then they moved a tree. Miranda gave her expertise and we hope it survives but like everything else at the garden, I don't know how it couldn't with all that love there.

Can you tell it was a good day?

This will likely be one of the last posts for the garden this season as we stop our work at Dunbar and start our work with Mindtriggerz. It was a helluva way to close the season. "Good times" as Erika taught me to say, "good times."

P.S. For the record, our "gleaning session" last weekend got us an article posted in Ace Weekly. Check it out at www.aceweekly.com. Click the "food" heading then download the pdf to see a pic of our crew and their friend the chicken!

Love y'all,
<3
Jesse's Mom

When actions speak louder than words - October 17, 2009 (Satellite Saturday)

2009-10-17T09:10:00.000-04:00

On a greater-than-dreary October Saturday morning, cold and rain-filled, a collection of volunteers gathered at the farm “Berries on Bryan Station” (berriesonbryanstation.com) to glean the fields of peppers, onions, greens and tomatoes. Erik Walles and Gayle Tomkinson had kindly agreed to allow the harvesting of their CSA’s fields with the proceeds benefiting a local soup kitchen to feed our area homeless.

What makes this unique is not simply the fact that a local farmer would allow us to harvest what was left over after his season. Not even the fact that the wonderful produce was organically grown. Nor was it that the synching of food surplus with a forecasted hard freeze equated to feeding those in need. What made this day special for those involved was that it involved young people full of energy, undaunted by the weather, and filled with great pride that what they did was harvest 185 pounds of beautiful produce to feed those whose lives are less fortunate than their own.

In late September Miranda Hileman (featured in ACE 7/16/09) coordinated with “Berries” to glean the fields in keeping with one of her many goals as the 2009 Compton Mentor Fellow: to promote the value of sustainable agriculture, the importance of school gardens and the reconnection we must maintain with our natural environment - where our food comes from and why it is important to know.

Miranda volunteered at Berries on several occasions over the summer – assisting with harvesting and preparing baskets for the CSA members. She exchanged information and expertise with Erik and his family of workers and volunteers. Through her connections with the Catholic Action Center and her work on its vegetable garden located on the campus of BCTC Leestown Road she arranged to have what otherwise could have gone to waste instead feed others.

Emails were exchanged among volunteers and potential volunteers and a date was set for gleaning on October 14th. Unfortunately, that day dawned miserable, cold and wet – the rain incessant and unforgiving. Temperatures hovered at 40 degrees. Miranda wore her galoshes. Erik gathered eggs and several cartons of his incredible homemade berry preserves. We got wet. Really wet. But harvested 80 pounds of eggplant, 71 pounds of peppers and baskets of greens and dried beans. It was a motley crew of three - but we worked hard.

While standing in the field covered in mud with red frozen hands I asked Miranda to not be disappointed in our numbers. It is easy to be a volunteer on a warm, sunny day but not so much when it is bitter and dismal. I reminded her (as well as myself) that “the homeless are no less hungry simply because it’s cold and wet outside.”

This became our afternoon mantra and saw us through the next two and a half hours of work. When it became evident that three people could not possibly harvest what was left on the farm we made a Plan B to return again over the weekend.

Anyone who knows Miranda knows that she spreads herself thin. More importantly, they know that she is energetic, optimistic, an incredible worker and filled with beautiful, altruistic and far-reaching goals. She’s spent many a Saturday pitching in at the Dunbar Memorial Garden – a native plant community garden located on the campus of Dunbar High School that is dedicated to the memories of students who left us too soon. During that time she’s formed a strong connection to us, to the students and to the many others involved in our project.

So on Saturday morning, while many others enjoyed a warm bed and sleeping in – the Dunbar Memorial Garden changed its work schedule, went to “Plan B” and several of our regulars gathered at Berries to help Miranda glean the fields. Among the crew: two Dunbar Seniors, one Dunbar Sophomore and one Dunbar graduate home on Fall Break from the University of Michigan. They chased chickens and laughed in the cold. They picked and weighed produce. They gathered eggs. They left the farm knowing that what they did was important and good and they didn’t begrudge those who stayed home in comfort. They did what they did because they love hard and unconditionally. Because we’ve learned working together at Dunbar that we lean on each other and help each other in every way we can. Don’t ever let anyone say: “the youth of this generation don’t care” because we’ve seen first hand that they do.

And they worked. Jaz and James, Natalia and Chris. With a few of us old-timers and Miranda the impetus.

Sometimes you just have to act. We did. Next year I hope to read of incredible gleanings on farms all over Lexington with people who want their actions to speak louder than their words. In Jesse’s words “that would be awesomeness” and yeah, I think it would.

Rebecca Woloch is the President of the Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit dedicated to continuing the work of her son, who died in an automobile accident in April of 2007. The creation of the Dunbar Memorial Garden was one of her son’s many projects. Gleaning fields at Berries on Bryan Station, she thinks, is something her son would be infinitely proud of her for doing. www.jessehigginbotham.com

October 10, 2009 - Horse Whisperers

2009-10-10T19:43:00.003-04:00

It was a cold and dreary morning in Lexington today so what better way to do work for the garden then to MOVE INDOORS and make art! We convened in Ms. Eller's room to break tiles, caulk glue and adhere pieces to the "horse." There was a nice crew of volunteers thanks in no small part to Ms. Davis and her Beta's!

While Gracie read "Final Exits" the rest of us set to work. Tables were moved to make room for the horse who's been relegated to a back room these past few weeks. Our experienced members loaded up the glue and got down to business in fast fashion. The pruning twins were in action (sans pruners and with Lindsay looking a little tired :P) and brought up the proverbial rear of the Beaumont Beta's - soon to be Dunbar students. Thankfully, we got to work with David and his big sis Beth who have been MIA the last couple of weeks but made up for their absence from 11 to noonish.

We missed Serena who was off taking boring SAT's but expect she'll be back next weekend when NATALIA RETURNS FOR FALL BREAK FROM MICHIGAN. w00t!

As always, thanks to everyone who came, worked, played, laughed and swept (Jaz, you are my broom hero). Shout out to Grace who is trying to resurrect the Dunbar GSA with help from James and others. This means a lot to me, as Jesse loved his participation in the original GSA.

And as a gift at days' end I had a late lunch with Jon at my favorite place the Coffebre@k Cafe where we were waited on by a young woman named Roselynn who shared her personal connecshun with Jesse. <3

Until next weekend. Luvz.
Jesse's Mom

October 3, 2009 - Divisionary tactics - NOT

2009-10-03T18:18:00.003-04:00

Our "plan" today was to begin dividing some of our hugemongous native plants - the garden however, did not agree. With the recent rains and mild temperatures very little at the garden was ready for moving and shaking - everything was just too "green" or yellow, or purple, or pink. So we did what we do best and that is to go with it so instead of transplanting, we pulled weeds (miss you Sarah!).

Lindsay's dad dropped her off (along with filling the pickup with a plethora of Mindtriggerz donations, yeah and luvz) but she had to be a pruning twinless today as Kirby couldn't make it this weekend. While she went about expertly removing a few more sunflowers, Chris made a run for his house to fetch additional pruners. Jamie tagged along.

Serena's stay was short but productive - she got a call from her manager at "work" who needed her skillz so we sent her off to earn money (begrudgingly!) and our small group got caught red-handed because of the tiny bugs on the oxeye sunflowers. They kind of squished up, a little gross but randomly funny. I regret I neglected to get a photo.

Gracie helped Jerome clear weeds from around the fringetrees and Josh's red maple while I cleared up around the shining sumacs. It was a windy, blustery day but included plenty of sunshine and beautiful smiles and giggles. During our "snack break" I shared the lulz of a PBS documentary that Jesse's dad told me about (and that I found, of course, on youtube) and Lindsay's laughter just egged me on (not pun intended!). When bored, or in need of laughter, please look for "The Natural History of The Chicken" video.

We spied the garden "kitteh" today that Jerome subsequently ran off because of his heckling "here kitty kitty" calls and a random couple wandered up with a very friendly dog who proceeded to jump up on me, having not receieved the memo that I am a cat lady! It was a nice day. Jerome has been so busy with Mindtriggerz that he hasn't been at the garden in SEVERAL weeks - it was a nice change of pace for him and we were all glad to have him back.

Next week we will convene indoors to work on the horse again. Hopefully we will get at least one more weekend outside again - Natalia will be home for fall break on the 17th so fingers will be crossed that we can all work outdoors again (she won't mind the weather considering it is freezing already in Michigan).

Love, love and always love. The garden is beautiful and so is our crew!
<3>

The rain, rain, rain came down, down, down - September 26, 2009

2009-09-26T17:05:00.003-04:00

Torrential downpours with a side of thunder kept us from working at the Dunbar Garden today - but mere puddles and flash flood watches could not keep us apart! Jaz and James helped Jesse's dad set up the Mindtriggerz Training Lab then came by the house where soon to follow came Tyler, then Christopher and then finally, Sarah who entertained us with her dancing feet and tales of stalkers and everything in between from her Ball State experience.

Tyler had his own tales of lulz about some not-so-bright student on the EKU campus who tried to take a cell phone pic of a skunk but who found out that was NOT the smartest thing to attempt and Chris provided a cd of pics taken recently at the garden and so since we missed our "Gracie's" presence today, well, this photo seems appropriate to include in our post :P

She had a lot of fun playing in the water but rest assured, she did manage to do more than dance in droplets last Saturday - she washed down all the picnic tables and besides looking beautiful and perfect and young and happy, she added her own touch to making the garden a beautiful place to be. <3

While we got nothing "done" at Liverpool today the house was filled with the sounds of laughter - and we convened on the lab to help Jerome break down in record time. Then he bought us all lunch! W00t. It was and always is good to be surrounded by our particularly wonderful collective, even though it's always better AT THE GARDEN. Oh well, we'll try again next weekend.

Jerome and Jaz delivered a couple of computers to a couple of families that prior to today didn't have one so "work" did get done. It always does, even when we are not paying attention (or seemingly just having fun).

<3
Jesse's Mom

Baba Ganoush to you too - September 19, 2009

2009-09-19T17:31:00.004-04:00

Updating the blog was put on hold (or rather, I got caught up in a game of "FarmVille" as well as cleaning computer components for Mindtriggerz) but we'll back space and get caught up!

Last Saturday we convened on Ms. Eller's art room to help bring to fruition a project her art club began but was unable to complete. One of the original "Horsemania" horses had been donated to the school and students collaborated on a design and decided to use broken tiles to decorate it. With assistance from SEVERAL Beta Club students along with their wondermous sponsor teacher Ms. Davis as well as our regular "crew", we pretty much saddled that pony (sorry, couldn't resist). Having completely forgotten my camera, Rachel thankfully shared a few of hers. It was a great day of great collaboration among caulk guns filled with glue, hammer meisters who broke the tiles, and some of us (ME) as an observer. We pounded and adhered away and left with dusty fingers and a horse making great strides to finding a spot in the garden soon! We'll continue working over the winter on this project - a million thanks to Ms. Eller and all our "artistes" (even the ones who didn't pose for the camera!).

So this week we moved back out into fresh air and sunshine to prune and sweep (thank you, Serena!) and throw bamboo stake javelins (Chris and James, thank you very much). We had a small crowd including the aforementioned as well as Katelyn's younger sister Lindsay who brought another future Dunbar student, her Beaumont Middle classmate, Kirby. They are now officially known as "the pruner twins" - they did a remarkable job on some sunflowers, beardtongue and random stray dead branches. After Gracie's major/minor issue was resolved with a little help from her friends, Chris fetched some extra pruners from his house and we all set out dead heading - this time being careful to collect the seed heads from the oxeye sunflower so they potentially won't sprout all over the garden next spring. Oh, and Gracie cleaned all the picnic tables and did a little romping in the water while she was at it. :)

On several fronts today I was reminded how very important our connecshuns are - not only in this space but in each others' lives. I am thankful to these young people who are my family. I would do anything for each one of them.

A special shout-out to Serena's mom who showed up at the end of the day with some homemade hummus and Baba Ganoush for yours truly. I appreciate every chance I get to nurture and feed these young ones, what an incredible bonus to have that returned!

Chris promises a few pics from today to add later - Jesse's dad has my camera tonight since while he and Jaz delivered THREE MINDTRIGGERZ COMPUTERS this afternoon, they forgot to bring it back. Rather, Jerome did. Boo!

Peace and love and flowers. <3
Jesse's Mom

September 5, 2009 - The Burley Tobacco Growers Meeting

2009-09-05T18:48:00.006-04:00

Every Saturday someone at the garden finds money and we joke about the coins being payment for all our hard labor. Today I found a shiny penny, which might well be a good reflection of the volume of work I got done. Ha!

While I knew that Sarah would be in from Ball State to join us, it was GREAT to have Tyler back in from EKU. w00t! Katelyn brought along her younger sister Lindsay who will attend Dunbar NEXT YEAR and a mixed bag of our usual suspects came to work as well: Serena, Gracie, James and Christopher. Miranda showed up a little late but that was due to her baking a delicious zucchini bread (with chocolate chips) as a belated birthday treat for Serena (who just turned 13 - NOT).

It was hot and sunny at the garden and as Sarah pointed out, while attempting to dig up a weed, very dry! Even with the heat, weeds got pulled, plants got pruned, pathways got swept, the butterfly puddling area received some special love - oh and yeah, Chris's VW bug got rocked (don't ask, I don't know why).

While I was a total DOINK about using the camera today, Grace had her own and we're hopeful she'll share her pics with us! The garden is so well-established now and relatively weed-free which makes it is so very nice to be there and enjoy all our work without feeling compelled to hustle the way we did this spring and earlier in the summer.

While the weeds were sparse, the litter was not. Blargh. Mostly cigarette butts thus the title of this weeks' post. I can say that while I didn't perform any major hard-labor, I did fill a plastic bag full of butts. So, while the crew disbanded to go about their lively weekends, I spent some time tonight making signs that say "Our Plants Don't Smoke" and am hoping to have a few extra "butt cans" in the garden before the students return after the long weekend. I did get a photo of the bag o' butts but Blogger is being a butthead so will have to return at a later date to post the pic.

Miranda sat with me after everyone else had left and we shared stories and aspirations for gardens all over the campuses of Fayette County Schools. She is an incredibly vibrant and intelligent young woman with so many forward-thinking ideas. I am very much looking forward to working with and helping her this fall and winter and she will appease some of the withdrawal that has arisen with so many of our "garden volunteers" who have left for colleges far away.

Natalia headed back to Michigan this morning with her rattlesnake master in tow and was sorely missed today. As was Grace who already posted that she misses the heat now that she's in Massachusetts. Love to them and all who spent so many Saturdays making this sacred space even more special. WE MISS YOU!

Next weekend we'll be spending time in the art room with the wonderful Art Teacher Ms. Eller. I have every intention of doing a better job with the camera duties - and every intention of doing whatever we can this fall and winter to keep the spirit of the garden and all it means upfront and center.

Love, love and moar love.
<3>

August 29th at the Dunbar Garden - monarch madness and sad farewells

2009-08-29T19:34:00.004-04:00

After a one-week hiatus (for Mindtriggerz), we got back to the garden today and really did nothing but talk! Actually, that was just me.

I cornered Miranda and Serena to find out how the Dunbar Garden table fared at Open House and then to bounce ideas and projects off their incredibly wonderful minds. Many plans are underway and there is much plotting, planning and planting to be done. Details forthcoming.

Jamie's mom came by today and helped Katelyn and Serena pull weeds. Natalia sharpened the pruners and went to work on the showy sunflower that decided to stop showing off. The farmification of Grace Li, while not complete, advanced to level 8.2 while she postponed packing for Amherst to stroll around the ironweed with her weed digger in hand! This was the last Saturday for both Grace and Natalia so of course they were ushered off in style with a rattlesnake master to adorn their campus living abodes (Michigan and Massachusetts, respectively). We will sorely miss their beautiful faces and hard working hands but know they will return next summer and in the interim be "learning and stuff" - a piece of our hearts will go off with these incredible young women - hurry back!

And Jamie's mom kept weeding. Love you, Suzie!

James and Josh and Gracie set off with sandpaper to rough up the wooden benches in prep for an additional coat of stain. I just kept talking but did manage to spy the first Monarch Caterpillar of the season (that we know of) and grabbed the ghetto cam to catch a pic. The beauty of digital photography is that even a cheap camera can occasionally get a great shot, which I dare say this one is! I have decided that Mr. or Mrs. Future Monarch Butterfly was intently reading the "Please do not leave litter in the garden" sign. Either that or he/she was dodging the flock of goldfinches that were nibbling sunflower and purple coneflower seeds.

We saw a great blue heron today that seemed to be a n00bie - it kept lighting on utility lines and seemed to have a head just a little too large for its body. It was randomly funny and in keeping with garden lulz - a pair of monarchs were mating in reckless exhibitionist style and it's always fun to see what the birds, bees and butterflies are doing when we are and aren't around.

With the exception of the weeds that came up easy as the summer rain this morning afforded, we enjoyed a small crowd and a lazy day of being together and goofing off while Jerome and Jaz tended the Mindtriggerz Training Lab and set about bringing five families closer to their own home computer(s). Saturdays (caturdays) are the days Jesse's dad and I most look forward to - we are eternally grateful to all who help us do what we can for our love of Jesse.

<3

Tardy Sweeps - August 15, 2009

2009-08-15T23:25:00.004-04:00

With the exception of Kyle (the welding magician) we had a pretty lazy day at the garden. A couple of our regulars were spending their last Saturday with us - Tyler heads back to EKU to continue his reign in 4.0 status while Ellidia starts a brand spanking new chapter at Vandy so we basically lounged and talked and hugged, lamented and yes even complained.

But then there were the paver movers who just couldn't resist adding another 100 to our recycling plan. Chris drove his dads' big truck and with help from Jessica, Michael, Jamie, Gracie, Athena, Beth, Josh and Remy (the dog) - they dug through sand and gravel laughing all the way.

Serena caught us up on the happenings at Dunbar (of which we mostly disapproved, especially the "tardy sweeps") but then Chris recounted a story of the school principal coming out to the garden to pick up trash which made us smile and we noticed all our new cigarette butt cans are being used for their intended purpose so even the smokers are respecting our sacred space.

The biggest accomplishment was the installation of the Dunbar Memorial Garden plaque and Kyle's excessive hard work welding the plaque to our post. JAZ, our days' photojournalist, got some incredible shots. They'll be posted on the website tomorrow after I am in fuller possession of my faculties. This one will do for now - Kyle was using a grinder to pretty-fie the post and make everything look perfect. He accomplished that brilliantly. BTW, Kyle is one of Jesse's dads coworkers who refused to be paid for his work. But we will find a way to make him happy. Maybe he likes homemade cookies, pies, or medicinal native plants??

We did pull a few weeds (but there aren't many there anymore thanks to countless hours and incredible perseverance by our volunteers). Jim Embry showed up and recounted a beautiful tale of an educator and native plant admirer who commented that while visiting the garden she recognized many of our plants but had never seen any quite as HUGE as ours. And I said: "it's because of all the love that has been put into this soil" and I believe that with all my heart. A million patches of land have been planted with a million seeds of love, but none can compare to "our" garden.

As we packed up our gear knowing we had a big evening ahead hosting our Mindtriggerz Picnic at Cardinal Valley Park, we had to call back our paver movers who had just left without our "group shot"- young people never balk at a quick change in course so they returned long enough for us to get the photo op we deserved (even with Remy the dog).

As usual, there was much laughter at the garden and several sweaty bodies. An extra special shout-out to those who worked here then helped promote Mindtriggerz: Jaz, Miranda, Natalia, Ellidia, Serena, Chris and Jesse's dad. And Jesse's best friend Jon - who missed the garden but not the picnic.

<3 <3 <3 and moar.

JAZ-ified - August 8, 2009

2009-08-08T19:01:00.005-04:00

We called our session at the Dunbar Garden today the "Pre-School Edition" as we spent most of our time making the place look uber lovely for the advent of school next week. Fortunately, among our ranks was one of our favorite Beta's (and Dunbar Senior) Serena (just back from a trip to Lebanon) along with recent graduates Kirsten and Katie who demonstrated major weeding skills and got covered in a lot of sand as they worked along the main paver pathway. Our artist in residence JAZ put the final touches on the newly painted and decorated picnic table while a crew including James, James, Beth, Dawson, David, Tyler and randomly whoever else - worked hard to dig out additional pavers to save from the landfill. I believe the count was at 184 more.

Our divine miss Sarah spent a good portion of the afternoon weeding in our soon to be "native shade garden" and was joined by Tyler at some point as the climbing temps caused most of us to want to be out of the SUN. Beth, with a little help from Jesse's dad, dug a perfect hole to set the iron post that will soon display our beautiful bronze plaque that describes our reason and purpose. It's a heart-wrenching plaque and makes us all cry but while the work at the garden has been filled to overflowing with laughter and love, it is important I think that others know and remember why this incredible space is here. And for whom. And for a love that has no other place to go but filling an area with flowers, sweat, tears and yes, even a little blood. Blargh!

Awesome Dawson was in charge of placing our three "Pesticide Free Zone" signs and in the process cut his finger on the metal sign but thankfully had a bandaid in his vehicle (my kind of guy!) Everyone was enamored of the cute lady bugs until Jesse's dad opened his mouth and said "But they aren't spraying for pests, they are spraying herbicides around here" which basically resulted in us all saying shut up and things like that.

Lest I forget to mention, the wonderous young David was our photo journalist today capturing the pictures of our work. Beth has an incredibly smart and sweet younger brother who has proven to be an asset to the garden and is apparently so smart in math that he's enrolled in a "zero hour Magnet math class" at Dunbar even though he is just entering 8th grade at Beaumont Middle School. In my book, that pretty much r0x0rz but what makes me even more proud is the fact that these two siblings are so preciously close and intertwined. This is how "family" should be. Obviously, we love them a lot.

And the rest of our crew - our regulars and our random workers. Everyone's effort has made this a beautiful, safe and wonderous place.

JAZ helped me scrub down all the picnic tables (as well as corraling the cup plant and staking a few sunflowers) and the group moved all the picnic tables into a tidy row and then I obsessed over using the leaf blower to clean off the patio. It looked so pretty and spiffy-fied that surely the kids returning to the Dunbar campus this week will notice. I hope they do. I hope they are in awe like we are. I hope they will revel in the flowers and dance among the rattlesnake masters.

Mostly I will hope that they wonder, remember, consider a few kids named Josh and Jesse and Hannah. Because they are why we do what we do. And why over 150 folks have participated in the garden. Expansion is inevitable. Love there will be endless. As the goldfinches and monarchs and even the random kitteh that wonders up on many evenings will continue to munch on seeds, drink from the cup plant and be glad there is space there for them too. There is a space and a place for us all. We will stand amazed every Saturday when so many young people wonder in and pitch in and instead of sleeping in, will work with us.

That is the greatest demonstration of love. As Jesse would say "fo realz" and as Hannah's fingerprints linger there, and as Josh's life expemplifies, because it started with him. "What would we be without wishful thinking" and I wish they all see us now.

<3>

Wilchan paverman - August 1, 2009

2009-08-01T20:40:00.005-04:00

Sarah did the math and said we had TWENTY-FIVE people at the Dunbar Garden today and every hand was so appreciated - especially since an early morning email from Dunbar's principal gave us permission to recycle the balance of pavers mounded at the bottom of the hill.

Our newest and most extremely special garden n00bie, Wil, was reclaimed from Gulf Shores, Alabama and reintroduced to Dunbar in a very sweaty and productive way. With his help and that of James, Jerome, Tyler, Beth, Dawson, David and Chris FOUR HUNDRED AND EIGHT pavers were dug out, packed tight and loaded into a pickup truck guaranteeing they will never end up in a land fill. Major butt-busting notwithstanding!

Wil's connection to Jesse (among other things) made this day a really incredible one for myself and for Jerome (et al). <3>We hope to see him on many other Saturday's as well as the spaces in between.

While Sarah weeded and Jackie started painting with the help of her beau, Jaz, Arlene and others - Grace and Katie hid behind the sumacs and lulzed in the sun. Buckets and bukkits of sand were hauled from the low zone and brushed with love across the freshly weeded pavers. We all moved stepping stones in preparation of the students returning in a matter of days - because of the phenomenal growth at the garden our "peace sign" pathways had to be altered to prevent damaging natives that will have to be relocated this fall. Incredibly, folks kept appearing and what to our wondering eyes should grace the horizon but Lucy, Kelsey and Sarah (a beautiful visitor from France - bonjour!) and what a day. What an incredible, remarkable, perfectly-people-packed day.

Personally, I felt like I served little purpose but managed to get my one-on-one time with my home girls (and a few of the home boys) and am thrilled Kelsey is going to Transy and even that Lucy will be my "peace babe" at Peace College in North Carolina and that I got to hug Kendrell (and everyone else) and absolutely relished the look on Jerome's face as he was grabbed from all sides, spinning Sarah and Tyler and Crystal Beth and there is no better place than this one, because it is a greenie love-fest no holds barred.

Audrey brought her precious Ashton (in from Florida) as well as her pal Sarah then Miranda arrived all aglow and if I have failed to mention anyone, forgive me, because I really was completely overwhelmed (and still am) by our tour-de-force. We missed the heck out of Natalia off on her trip west with her family but her relentless paver weeding is obvious, apparent and loved. We hope she has fun. We look forward to her return in a few weeks.

While our attempts at a group photo epic-failed due to our continued "incoming" reinforcements, I do think everyone left today not simply tired but also knowing what good work they managed and maybe, I suspect, a tiny bit infatuated with not just this space, but with each other. I know I am. Fo' realz, as Jesse would say.

Fo' realz.

Love, love, love. I promise to post teh other photos tomorrow on Jesse's website and a few on Facebook. For tonight, I am just too plumb "whooped."

<3
Jesse's Mom

Tyler has a heart (aka “hey deafie”) - July 25, 2009

2009-07-25T19:11:00.008-04:00

Neither rain, snow, sleet, road closures, nor hearing impairments can keep us from our Saturday gatherings at the Dunbar Garden. Actually, we didn’t have any sleet or snow but I did wake at 7:30am to a downpour of rain: potential impediment number one.

After some lengthy discussions with Jesse’s dad we decided to just pack our essentials and not the usual excessive amounts of food and garden tools and just wing it in the hopes the weather would turn. Scouting Intellicast.com I read that from 10am to noon there would be a 10% chance of rain and the skies would be mostly sunny.

As usual, I headed out early to Dunbar and there encountered potential impediment number two: the main road leading to the garden around the athletics fields was “CLOSED.” I sat and stewed, debating moving the barrier and taking my chances but as luck would have it someone who had been walking the track told me there were patches of new asphalt along the road. I parked my car just knowing there would be folks coming in from the “access road” off Man O’ War who might be deterred from joining us because of the sign. Jerome said “No one comes that way, meet us at the front of the school” and of course I said “No.”

Within five minutes, up drives Natalia, then Jaz, then Sarah and finally Tyler – ALL using the access road. HA!

We pooled together, called Jerome and decided to drive back out Man O’ War and meet at the end of the road past the baseball field. We trekked up the hill to the garden with enough hands to pack all the supplies.

Our “core group” intact, we were wonderfully surprised to see Jackie and two n00bies Arlene and Maria who had walked to the garden, ignoring all potential impediments. These three young ladies were joined by Jaz and Katelyn (whose dad also loaded my truck with computer donations for Mindtriggerz) and with paint brushes in hand were soon transforming the picnic table into a work of art and love.

Then here comes Grace who we now call “Gracie” because she calls James “Jamie” and those two hauled some major buckets of sand (and played in the creek) as the rest of us pulled weeds from between pavers and re-sanded.

Impediment number three: I have some major hearing loss that has been the butt of many harmless and loving jokes at the garden but it has never stopped me from working, enjoying and appreciating these beautiful and precious young people who give up Saturday mornings to maintain and increase the incredibleness of the Dunbar Memorial Garden. Tyler came up to hug me and at that point said “I want to apologize for calling you ‘deafie” last week” to which I responded “Tyler, not only did I not even hear you say that but it would take a lot more than that for me to be upset with you,” and then I told him how it reminded me of Hannah. Jerome would often send her to fetch me to get my opinion or approval or whatever and in my minds eye I can see her gorgeous freckled face and hear her voice increasing in volume as she said “Hey Bekki, HEY Bekki, HEY DEAF LADY” and so I thanked Tyler for giving Hannah back to me for a few minutes.

We were excessively happy to see Richard Weber of Springhouse Gardens arrive with his expertise and horticultural bag of magic tools and he set to work pruning, advising, marveling and even snapping some pictures of the garden. As we began to disband around 1ish, we were all pleased with what we had accomplished and what we will continue to do in the name of love. And we all really loved the view from the bottom of the hill of the garden up high

And yes, Tyler has a heart – a really big one (and not just a keychain facsimile thereof!!!).

Love you all madly and without end.

Jesse’s mom

A series of unfortunate chigger bites

2009-07-18T21:37:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of Summer Break our divine Miss Sarah advised us all that bugs rarely bite her beauty. Unfathomable to me because I have always been the bait for any and every insect and recall ever summer counting the dozens of mosquito, flea, chigger, and black fly bites I was eternally blessed with since I was "knee high to a grasshopper" and since my parents moved us from the city to the country.

Two chigger bites to the belly button later and Sarah now knows that "sweet" is a term determined by many elements - and surely within a berry patch. Sorry, Sarah - it's the price we must pay for strawberry raspberries, n'est ce pas? When Sarah lifted her shirt at the Dunbar Garden today I don't think I was the only one shocked by the demonstration of the proverbial meanness of the chiggers. But we managed to sympathize then go back to work. No actually, she gave us this showing late in the day which was grand because I'd hate to scare folks from work at the garden because we DO NOT HAVE CHIGGERS AT THE DUNBAR GARDEN!!! (mosquito's - yeah we have those).

Rewind, back to this morning. I arrived a few minutes early under the auspices of watering our n00bies. Sarah sauntered up as did Jaz, Katelyn and Natalia ready to get some work in before Jesse's dad showed up to boss us around. Sarah is drawn to weeds like a homing device and the other gardeners wondered around bundling up sunflowers with gardening tape. We pruned back some sad beebalm then did the same with a few oxeye sunflowers. Jackie arrived to start painting the picnic table and had good creative help by Katelyn and Jaz.

Our freshly "moved" Tyler moved some mulch as did our farm girl Grace and her sidekick Natalia (with some help from JR) and the side bed of Fringetrees and Josh's red maple were transformed in record time. Among our "snacks" Natalia (with assistance from her pal Maggie) created a rice-krispies-treat that included essence of Andes mints - consumed happily and heartily by us all. Raspberries from Berries on Bryan Station were also in the mix (sans chiggers) and the cool temps made working conditons pretty darned optimal.

At the end of our work-day, Jesse's dad discovered our Northern Bayberries have leaves that are like the bay leaves used in cooking so smashed a few to stick up our noses. I'm not sure everyone appreciated the olfactory overload but I kinda did. When we planted those guys I picked them out because they are among the few "almost evergreens" the native plants offer. Cool stuff that we always learn something new when we are at Dunbar.

Oh and btw, the gold finches were all over the place when we got there this morning (and Jerome and I witnessed one at my house this afternoon). But we wondered at the seeming lack of butterflies this year? Plenty of bees and bugs and caterpillars. It reminded me somehow of how Jesse and I would stand at the kichen sink hand washing dishes (yeah, I know so 19th century) and how I told him about a girl in highschool on the speech team who performed an excerpt from a holocaust play about how "butterflies don't live in the ghetto."

We'll have to keep looking, maybe they are there when we aren't. I have seen one Monarch and a random cabbage white but it's strange the lack of them when last year was so resplendent? Fayette County Public Schools doesn't seem to be doing anything out of normal in their herbicide sprayings but what if they are using a new brand of chemical? We are MULCH MADNESS this summer so maybe that will help? One day soon there will be no reason for them to spray at all - we are working on that.

Love. love. love. to Sarah, Natalia, Katelyn and Grace. Jaz and James. Tyler and Jackie. Jesse's dad and our mulchification. The garden speaks for itself because it is continues to be awesomeness and floribunda. Yeah, and pretty darned pretty. :)

Love to all. <3>

The Farmification of Grace Li

2009-07-11T18:39:00.005-04:00

Today we undertook the task of reclaiming the garden from the herbicide horror wrought last week by the grounds maintenance staff (and yeah, we know they are only following orders). "Roundup" or some derivative thereof had been sprayed along the edges of the patio, the old horse fence behind the garden, the long wall against the school, and a variety of other places and spaces that made no sense but certainly spraying around our butterfly puddling area guaranteed no lepidoptera action there.

Jaz returned from her trip to Costa Rica with a wonderful bag of sand for the butterflies so she and Katelyn (yeah for returning students!) set to work to remove all the dead grass and expand the area with mulch in the hopes that we can reclaim the ground for its intent and purpose and maybe keep FCPS from additional sprayings. They did an incredible job and worked their butts off.

Grace, who is learning to be a farm girl because at Amherst she is supposed to be one (since she's from Kentucky) invited her friend Katie to join us so while I took pictures of herbicide damage Jesse's dad set them to work cutting cardboard and hauling woodchips to place around the shining sumacs that Hannah's family had planted earlier this spring. I got really paranoid this week that FCPS might decide to inch closer with their spraying so we got
to work blocking off more area in the garden to eliminate turf and expand our area.

While James sat on mah bukkit, I filled the ooze tubes and helped with hauling wood chips and in between discussed with Grace how she might become more knowledgeable in weed eating and tractor repair. It reminded me a lot of how when my parents moved us to Kentucky from Pittsbugh we barely understood the "slang" of rural Kentucky. Yes we wear shoes and yes we produce children without blue skin and who know the difference between physics and metaphysics.

As we sauntered down the hill to nab a few pavers from the pile to hold down the cardboard, three "military choppers" passed above. We laughed that we were being watched since we are all a bunch of militant "greenies." Randomly off in the distance were three helipcopters and a buzzard as though Tevis Shwa were chasing them away.

James relieved the mulch gals and hauled his share of wood chips while Sarah and I took a few minutes to pull grass from between pavers. We missed Tyler and Natalia and several of our regulars but got a lot of work done and enjoyed meandering through the garden in all it's endless glory. The constant wind and cloud cover helped make it all possible and I'd like to think it was Jesse, approving of our "methodology." We learn so much together

Before we ceased work today we also hauled a nice pile of the LFUCG compost to place around the 1/2 barrel and around an old pin oak and a school spotlight. Our plans and ideas continue to grow with each great mind that joins our own. I sent James off with the camera at one point and said "please get some pics of everyone working" and found extreme lulz in the pic he caught of Sarah with her rake. It's as if she is daring any one to mess with our turf. Formidable I say. Perfect, i think, Jesse was all about the lulz and we had that today.

It is always hard to walk away from the garden becase we are always coming up with new ideas and weeds to pull. Now that we have less mucho mulcho and beutiful hands to move it, we stand a beautiful chance to continue to alter the landscape, and repair the ignorance of others.

Volumes of love to our workers. To those who do good work - to those who remember why we do what we do. Our love is planted here.
<3 <3 <3 <3

Mulch Monday Two-fer Tuesday and how NOT to attract butterflies

2009-07-07T19:54:00.003-04:00

Most of the "sad moms" I've met can attest to how completely obsessed we now become over the most minor things. Sometimes I think it's a synaptic package in our ever-altered brains that manages to enable us to live in this surreality.

At the expense of the garden, I've spent my early summer eliminating the material goods I've collected and then painting the back porch. On both of these, I relentlessly obsessed. So when Jesse's dad announced that we were doing no new projects at the Dunbar Garden until we got the weeds under control well - OCD, here I am.

Twice yesterday, twice today I took mah bukket and my sad back and logged I dare say 15 hours. The mulch pile has dwindled substantially and the weeds are back at manageable. In the process, I visited with the ground hogs (they run, I chatter), I cried at the beautiful gold finches (who literally perched inches from my face) and I hovered under the cover of false blue indigo, sawtooth sunflowers and the gorgeous cranberry viburnum (pic embedded) to sneak a smoke and talk to Hannah (I buried a butt under a rock and wished I could hear her laughing at me). Both days I've seen great blue herons, gold finches, swallows and yesterday saw a bird I can't identify but it had a gorgeous red head and lighted in the bur oak. It was the size of a gold finch.

Today I noticed the yellowing grass which meant of course that ground maintenance is spraying their herbicide again and every time I see the signs I just cross my fingers they won't get too near the garden. The little "buttefly puddling area" is toast - they went around it in a wide path of spray so I doubt we'll be seeing any action there for awhile. I wish our school system would invest in some good mulch and a little common sense and courtesy to the environment in which our children study and play and quit using crap that keeps butterflies away. I'm going to write a petition and ask the students of Dunbar to sign it then send it to our board of education and at least ask that in our native garden habitat, in the sacred space that is our remembrance of Josh, Jesse and Hannah, that they just gtfo and let it be a chemical-free-zone.

Jesse's dad and I have no vested interest in the future of this environment EXCEPT that we have found a beautiful family in those who have gathered and will gather to work at the garden. We want the young men and women who collect around the brightly painted picnic tables to eat lunch, who saunter through the garden, who sit on Richard's benches, even who stand on top of the straw bale benches to do so without breathing toxins. Maybe we can. We will try.

<3>

Fungal in the Jungle

2009-07-04T20:33:00.004-04:00

Sarah HATES mushrooms so when we find the random fungus among us, a point is made to display it to her. It's because she has such a great scream.

As usual, we had a beautiful crowd at the garden which was kind of unexpected considering it being a holiday for most "normal" people. Jesse's dad and I pretty much figured we'd be on our own today which was fine by us so it was all the better that not only our "regulars" arrived but also that Jim Embry brought his new summer intern Miranda to join in the fun.

I think about the greatest part of the day was seeing the look on Jim's face - having not been to the garden in awhile - his eyes got really wide as he took in the "mature Dunbar Memorial Garden" and I said "Remember back in October of 2007 when we were planting and the kids kept asking 'why are we digging in dead sticks' when we were placing the natives?" We both laughed hard. Miranda got to meet and pull oxeye sunflowers with the "crew" and I think she enjoyed herself (even stretching landscaping tape around the hugemongous cup plant to keep it from disseminating the yellowwood tree). Jim dug the heck out of some johnson grass while Jerome and Tyler hauled mulch. Sarah cleaned the angel bench as her mom pulled weeds from our planters filled with annuals while James filled the two ooze tubes as Beth, Grace and Natalia carved a beautiful clean edge around the beds.

Beautiful work - beautiful.

Near the end of the work session I plucked a huge mushroom growing in our mulch pile which of course made Sarah scream. Tyler grabbed it from my hand to go "propose" to Sarah with it since there was some random rumor started that they are "dating" simply because they were hanging together this week. Simply because they are such good friends. Simply because they both love the garden as much as Jerome and I do (as I dare say do so many others).

While we were sad not to march in the 4th of July parade this year well, it rained most of the day after we left so none of us got soggy at the garden. We left before the sprinkles started and there are plans to try our own faction in the parade next year (yes, please!). Perhaps a float filled with native plants and Mindtriggerz computers? Sounds like an awesome plan.

Big love to all the workers - big love to all the BIG plants (and yes, even the fungal in the jungle). Sorry Sarah! :)

<3
Jesse's Mom

The very hungry caterpillar (PG-13 version)

2009-06-27T21:36:00.003-04:00

We expected the 90 degree temperatures today and we expected a lot of "johnson grass" to pull and we expected a bunch of mulch to move. But we hardly expected Sarah to have a tiny green caterpillar repeatedly crawling up her leg at lightning speed.

Unfortunately, we were all too busy laughing at her screams of "it's violating me" to get a picture.

We did ultimately kick some ass in the weeding department. "Jamie" and "Gracie" hauled buckets o' mulch while Jerome, Sarah, and Tyler cleared the way for placing it. I stood around with my hands on my hips and watched the trees grow!

Natalia tended to dead heading the lanceleaf coreopsis then proceeded to tie back bundles of sunflowers - all this with a strained muscle in her back. "Dedication" was the word du jour. We worked fast and hard as the temps climbed and when Audrey's mom showed with a basket of delicious cold grapes we were eternally grateful.

With the exception of Sarah's entomological molestation, all went well at the garden today. The sawtooth sunflowers are starting to bloom, as are the stalks of wild bergamot. Josh's red maple continues "leafing out" and really likes its new home (thank you, Anna!). The purple coneflowers are attracting our favorite yellow gold finches and I am sure in the grand scheme of things, the neon green caterpillar that was so hungry for Sarah's leg was really hoping for a taste of swamp milkweed (and hiding from predators in the bright leaves).

The garden is truly glorious - I wish you could see it. <3

My face is redder than your face :P

2009-06-21T20:06:00.004-04:00

It was a balmy day at the Dunbar Garden and certainly filled with pink cheeks. Many among us had been on vacations and thus the sunscreen was readily passed around. Fortunately for us, Sarah's Saturday hiatus came to an end with her acceptance of a promotion (for the job she had originally applied for but was carelessly/stupidly overlooked) so our core "dream team" is intact again.

Beth and her adorable (sorry David but it's the truth) younger brother started the pink-fest having freshly returned from ventures in California. Jazz did NOT change her ponytail color this week and Tyler laughed heartily at Sarah's old movie joke. Natalia looked more evenly sunned then the rest of us but advised the bugs in Hilton Head really liked her. (As a side-note, I have to add that with or without a tan, she makes some kick-ass pierogi!)

We got started weeding and talking and were 'graced' by the presence of Grace who has been holed up in a lab at U.K. this summer in from her studies at Amherst. There was a bit of spontaneous Stephen King-ism as well as a devouring of peanut butter muffins. Sarah's mom popped in after work and helped us continue our battle with the never ending sunflower seedlings and we all were amazed by the incredible hugeness of the garden. Expansion is a dictate. We will.

Unfortunately, everyone was too busy weeding and hauling mulch and sand to get many pictures. We'll get some this week. In the meantime, enjoy the caterpillar that Jaz found for us! The wild bergamot is starting to bloom and the St. Johnswort is on full display. One single yellow flower topped a 5' stalk of Sawtooth Sunflowers and the bees were buzzing the pollen in triple time. Oh, and Awesome Dawson showed up in time to tell of his sunburnt woes - and to help in major fashion.

It is in fact a good thing that the garden is located in a high and windy spot - otherwise I dare say we would have all never lasted to the noon hour. It's Kentucky, it was hot. But "our" beautiful garden doesn't seem to mind. It is lush, green, flower-filled and thriving. As it should be because there's a whale of a lot of love in that space. I think it shows.

<3>

Tadpoles and tanlines

2009-06-13T19:51:00.003-04:00

If the color of my cheeks is any indication, most of us got a few extra rays today. I'd venture to say that even James' vest got a sun burn. :P

Because of the rain this week we had a perfect morning to pluck weeds (and stray sunflowers, rambling rattlesnake masters and yeah even johnson grass). I got to the garden a little early this morning to get in some heavy duty weeding time and was lost in thought when Tyler snuck up on me with his digging tool at the ready. "Our favorite lesbian" April arrived followed by Jerome and James and ambling up somewhere in the muddle came Grace. Then Richard who opted to procrastinate on refurbishing his wooden benches - we all helped with that saying something like "if you do them at the end of the summer they will look nicer for when the students return." A surprise arrived in the form of Jennifer Michelle who seemed to me to be even taller and more gorgeous than the last time she dug in the dirt at Dunbar.

Lost in our work but with eagle-eyed April on the look-out, up rolls a "stranger" that I knew immediately had to be Ann bringing "brown eyed susans" for our brown-eyed Hannah. Her incredibly energetic and handsome son was packing a camera bigger than himself and wearing T-Ball attire. It reminded me of Jesse and his days playing that sport - the shirt with "Higginbotham" just about in a circle to fit in the space of his tiny little uniform.

I showed the camera-man the groundhog hole and then we ambled along the creek and spotted tadpoles and other mysterious creatures of the water. His shutter clicking a mile a minute and I can't wait to see what his mom posts on Facebook of the day!

We cleared a lot of ground today and spread a lot of mulch and in between caught up on the goings on of each other. Somewhere along the way someone suggested something about a pool party - I think April started it but maybe it was Tyler but whatever the case as the temps climbed and we tuckered there was a proverbial caravan to Liverpool and I was glad that Jerome and I took some time yesterday to clean and chemicalize the pool.

I was also glad to learn that I am not the only one who is accosted by mosquito's (and other biting insects) to the freaking FACE. Oh and speaking of face, Richard informed me that no matter how you type "facebook" on Facebook that it is always underscored as being misspelled. I love that kind of irony slash funny and also loved having this wonderful group of story-telling, smart, good-looking and yes even REALLY WHITE people sitting by the pool and keeping me company even if entertaining me for the afternoon was not their intention. They did and I love them and I intend to keep the pool sparkling just for these kinds of occasions.

Pink cheeks and sunblock - and a space filled with Jesse and Hannah and Josh. Erik and Aida and
Carmen's son, Danny. Most days I really wish more so-called adults could listen to the way these incredible young people assimilate their love for those who "just aren't here" - that never ends - into their lives. They just might learn something.

<3>

When kindness falls like rain

2009-06-06T20:30:00.003-04:00

Today was one of those incredibly special days when the collection of bodies and hearts at the garden all kind of squashed together into a perfect unit of laughter, labor, camaraderie, revelry and hugs (which of course, is my favorite part).

Like the steady rain that fell this week, folks ambled up this morning to weed, mulch, talk and work. Beth with her incredible hugs that remind me so much of Hannah - her awesome beau Dawson, Jaz with her most excellent sand moving and mulching SKILLZ, Audrey with the most perfect smile, her mom and aunt to help as well. James and Jerome arrived - as did Chris who proceeded to go fetch Richard then back again playing tunes on his iPhone while our dancing queen Tyler (sorry dude - you started it!) put the groove on and then just as we seemed to be making grand progress on pulling stray sunflowers, here comes Anna with her red maple for Josh and her wonderfully happy boyfriend Adam (although I wondered if he was laughing at us as much as he was with us).

So, having grown this precious tree from a seedling back in her elementary school days, Anna's maple needed a place to spread its proverbial and literal roots. We found one, nestled between the fringetrees and so yeah, a big hole had to be dug.

While most days we are kind of prepared at the garden, some days we pull an epic fail as we did today with nothing but hand tools. So Chris and I absconded to his parents garage and grabbed two shovels and fled. An additional trip was made later once they hit the gravel and crud that is the next 6" of ground and picked up a pick axe. Luckily James, who hates pulling weeds, loves to swing a sharp and dangerous object so between them all they dug a spot, we hauled out the gravel, hauled in some pretty soil and planted a very very VERY special tree.

We have learned the hard way that sometimes our best plans fail and our offshoots overwhelm but each of us took part in this planting in some way and today, most importantly of all, Josh Shipman was honored. I hope somewhere out there, wherever he is, he will take a special interest in this special tree from this special young woman in this very special place.

So much love has been poured into that plot of land outside Dunbar's cafeteria - and even more today. No words can quite describe it and you kind of have to be there to fully appreciate it. This day in June, we were all proud to be there - we were all proud of Anna for her diligent work and her years of tending this beautiful tree.

When Jesse's dad asked Anna what "name" she would give to this tree, she said: "freedom" and I looked at her and through tears said "Wherever Josh is right now, I hope he is free." Her beautiful face was my answer.

Thank you, Anna. We will tend your gift well. We promise. <3>

Tyler teaches James about technology :P

2009-05-23T21:30:00.002-04:00

And James blogs:

"Today led to the continuation of several of our currently ongoing projects: the ever present weeding, sanding of the former hands-across-america table, and just tending to our beautiful garden. Our crew today consisted of our fearless leaders Becky and Jerome, several Sisterhood members- Jackie Chance and Anna Kiluba- as well as Natalia Truszczynski , Sarah Weck, Tyler Bronaugh and Beth Byers all home from college, Audrey Linville and her mother, Joyce Crawford, Grace Reida, Jessica Zanellato, Chris Barnett, and myself.

Between Grace and the Sisterhood members, the former table was sanded and a coat of primer was put on. It may have taken three weeks, but the table is finally almost ready for full painting. Jerome, with help from Grace, Beth, and Tyler, restained both of our stained tables and then put finish coats on them, making them ready for yet another year.

With permission- finally- from our lovely school's administration, myself, Grace, Jessica, and Chris all headed down the hill and filled up two buckets of sand, which we then promptly carted up the hill- good lawd, those things were HEAVY. It took Jessica AND Chris just to get the second bucket up the hill. They pulled weeds from the beginning of the path, and sand was put down and brushed in as we went.

The rest of the crew spent time out in the beds with their weed pullers and hand shovels, yanking out our accursed/beloved weeds. Work on an in ground butterfly puddling area began with some more of our hauled up sand.

A fairly relaxed day in all, with plenty done on the current projects.

I think that those of us no longer here would be proud."

Cloudy with a chance of glitter

2009-05-16T19:46:00.002-04:00

Due to a chance of rain that did happen about 8am, we didn't expect anyone to show at the garden today. Jesse's dad and I went because we always will and because we'd checked the radar on Intellicast and decided the morning shower was all the rain for the day.

The garden was peaceful and beautiful when we arrived and we decided to move a few plants and pull some weeds. Wonderfully, several of the awesome "Sisterhood" showed up to work on the picnic table (and some glitter magic) as did Josh sporting a new hair cut. He talked and entertained me while I labeled several of our newest garden additions namely, a HUGEMONGOUS bur oak (to replace "Foreboding" - our bare root transplant that didn't survive) donated by Springhouse Gardens.

Hannah's parents also had three lovely fringetrees and three shining sumacs planted by Springhouse around the wooden benches - the perfume of the fringetrees wafted about us and everyone noticed.

While our volunteer crowd was small, and the temps got hot, we managed to get a lot done along with some wonderful conversation. Anna talked about how she loves the hot weather and shared a story about her grandparents visiting from Africa and how it snowed and they asked "Is this the end of the world?" So now their story becomes a part of the garden and their granddaughter, a student at Dunbar, has afforded us the chance to celebrate her heritage. Of the many "things" that make me smile about this sacred space, the diverse groups of students participating in it together makes me proudest for Jesse, for Hannah, for Josh.

The picnic table is now ready for a coat of primer and several plants were relocated. We pulled some weeds, ate some burrito's and sent Josh off on his bicycle to visit Chris. After the garden Jerome and I FINALLY managed to stop by Landscaper's Corner and meet the incredible Elaine Pence who donated a huge load of compost to us back in June of 2007 (and a major reason why the plants are doing so incredibly well). One of her employees is a Dunbar graduate and we were thrilled to meet Matthew and to thank Elaine. We are kind of slow but we do remember everyone who has helped in this work. And that's a very long list!

<3 Jesse's Mom

In the absence of thunder - Hannah day at the Dunbar Garden

2009-05-09T20:59:00.001-04:00

We dedicated our work at the Garden to Hannah - who has been gone from us for one year this week. Hannah loved and protected the garden even when she wasn't working in it. She laughed and cried, carried pavers, moved mulch, raked soil and occasionally spread out on a picnic table in the shade to just be. Hannah's handprints are all over that sacred space and while she will forever be a part of it, working in her name this Saturday allowed us to not only remember her but to honor what she did and how she did it. We love you, Hannah!

About 20 people showed up and while there had been rain in the forecast, we had a perfect day for weeding and playing. It was a wonderful mix of old friends and new ones and while there was a minor issue getting back to the garden (a district track tourney was being held at Dunbar), most of us managed to maneuver our way through the pylons and youngsters to be together. We put out a dozen purple balloons and most everyone wore something purple for Hannah and after hugs and chitchat we got down to business. Namely, pulling weeds and an assortment of sunflowers whose seeds were spread by the birds and wind.

James set up work on the picnic table that is being refurbished and had a little help from Suzy, Grace and Jerome scraping and wire brushing. Tag teams were formed in the garden - Hannah's dad with help from Audrey, Sandy, Rose, and Tyler set off in the left bed while Elizabeth, Ariel, Sarah,Beth, Austin and Trent buried themselves in the sunflowers. We had a furry, four-footed source of great entertainment in "Chewy" - Ariel and Trent's adorable pooch who decided that he would pop every balloon in the garden - and almost did. He spun circles around us all and while he pulled no weeds he made up for his lack of a work ethic by sheer energy levels. Seth sauntered up on break from Berea College - a n00bie to the garden but certainly a wonderful and well-appreciated addition.

Sarah and her mom brought some beautiful annual flowers purchased from the Dunbar Band's Plant Sale so Sarah proceeded to fill up every empty container with yellows, pinks and purples. Trent and Austin helped her create a sweet area around our "Anonymous Dogwood" and then they mulched it down for good measure. By the time the noon hour struck and while the clouds started rolling in and threatening rain, we'd managed an incredible morning and the garden looked AWESOME. Carol showed up with a handful of pink, purple and yellow butterfly decorations that were placed around the garden and we all hugged our way back out again - and carefully drove through the track crowd.

While I stand proud, amazed and humbled each time we collect together to do this work, today was a particularly beautiful day with a particularly beautiful group of people who all seemed connected in a very particularly wonderful way. When Jesse's dad said to me later "What a great group at the garden today" I could do no more than agree.

Dear Hannah,
I hope you saw us there.
<3
Jesse's Mom

April showers bring ... May showers (aka the Claymation of James)

2009-05-02T18:16:00.003-04:00

In Kentucky they say if you don't like the weather stick around, it will be totally different tomorrow and this week has been no exception. After 80plus degree temps last week things cooled off as the rain moved in but every forecaster had a different opinion for what our 2nd work session Saturday would bring. Luckily, Ms. Eller - Dunbar's pottery instructor - gave us a fall back plan to work in her room on the ceramic tiles we've been making.

All this rain was supposed to pound through the area yesterday but by late afternoon the skies were kind of clear and the temps were nice so I took a risk and wondered out to the garden in the 5:00pm Friday afternoon rush hour traffic (I'm a whiz sometimes). But, I am glad I went and packed a few empty plant flats because the conditions were perfect for digging up some "narrow leaved" (also known as "lance leaved") goldenrod, a bit of oxeye sunflower and a few large stalks of Sarah's ever-spreading bee balm. The bee balm and sunflowers made the transition easily but the goldenrod is still a little droopy today so we'll just have to wait and see how accepting it is of transplanting.

Several plants were in bloom including the vibrant bright colored "wild pinks" and the London Grove blue phlox. The Cranberry Viburnum and the Chokeberries looked awesome. I spotted the shoots of the 2nd butterfly milkweed (an incredible plant that I just read should be displayed as a specimen in a premo spot) and while I considered moving it while I was there, just got too nervous and opted out. The indigo's (both white and blue) are growing in leaps and bounds and since this is their second year we should have some gorgeous flowers this season.

Due to my "whiz-dom" I left the camera at home but am hopeful that sometime this week we can get some new pics posted on the website at www.jessehigginbotham.com/garden.html.

So, back to today - our 2nd work date in 2009. This morning the skies were gray and obviously we'd had rain overnight which made sanding work on the picnic table impossible. While I poured some coffee a steady drizzle started and I new, I mean "knew," that our work today would have to take place indoors. James and Jerome showed up about 9:30am informing me that there would be no training lab for Mindtriggerz as the park shelter had been promised to another entity :(

So we sat and chatted and ate a little breakfast and then James and I headed out to Dunbar to post signs at the garden about moving indoors to Ms. Eller's room. While there two students showed up and I got a call from Natalia and we all headed around front to go "be artistic."

In the course of the next couple of hours we had about 15 people come in and out working on either creating new designs on tiles or painting glaze on the ones that had been bisque fired. Ms. Eller's incredible daughter Lily, aged 5, provided us with much entertainment and instruction. She moved around the pottery lab in a fashion that reminded me of Jesse - totally at ease, totally "owning" the place, offering her advice and working on her own project. We had several Beta's show up including Ellidia (who dragged in late and looked a bit under-rested but had a generous donation for the Trust) along with members from the Sisterhood including Jackie who was accompanied by her beau, the handsome Kendrell who is getting ready to graduate from Spencerian as the first recipient of the Jesse Higginbotham Scholarship. After obtaining his degree in CAD - his plans include continuing his education at UK and studying architecture. It was a great treat for me to get to see him again.

While I missed digging in the dirt today it was a super cool crowd and I think everyone had fun. We are uber-excited to have more tiles to install in the garden and I know that with the addition of all these other new faces the reason and purpose of why we do what we do will continue to spread and grow like the showy sunflowers.

Oh and lest I forget the Claymation of James, well he did this really cool tile but when he went to make his second he managed to drop kick it or something and well the backside was a mess. He salvaged it with a little clay magic and a beautiful stamped pattern and it was in fact, all good.

We are aspiring for good weather next Saturday as we dedicate our work at the garden to Hannah Landers who would definitely want us outside in the sunshine - where she was so many times, laughing and talking and working and sometimes just "hanging." Oh yeah, and bossing us around. May 6th will mark the passage of one year since we lost Hannah in an auto accident and it's difficult to talk about her without crying and missing her so much. But next Saturday we are donning something purple for her and working as she would at the garden, with our friends.

Forever loved, forever remembered - Josh, Jesse, Hannah. <3

Jesse's Mom

DMG's first "official" work date - April 25, 2009

2009-04-25T19:46:00.005-04:00

The last couple of weeks I've had the great pleasure of meeting with several Dunbar clubs as we continue to rally support for our efforts at the Dunbar Memorial Garden. A new club at Dunbar this year the "Sisterhood" is a collective of young women with the ominous goal of not only improving the quality of life for women, but also the community as a whole.

When I contacted Jackie, the groups' president, I was certainly not aware of all the connections we shared. Jackie not only knew Jesse from middle school but just so happens to be dating the young man who received the first Spencerian College "Jesse Higginbotham" scholarship in 2007. About a dozen members met me at the garden and we talked about how they might help. They've taken on the task of refurbishing one of the picnic tables at the garden and have also volunteered to help create ceramic tiles to be used as art in the straw bale benches.

On Thursday I met with the Beta Club and was ill-prepared for Ellidia handing me a microphone to talk to a group of about 80 plus students about the garden and the Mindtriggerz Project. Thankfully, Mr. Richardson was on hand to share information about the computers. James has been about the most steadfast young man I think I've ever met, and while he may claim he had an aftershock of nerves, he did a beautiful job of detailing what we are trying to accomplish in Jesse's honor and name.

James spent the early morning today helping Jesse's dad set up the Mindtriggerz teaching lab at Cardinal Valley Park. I picked him up to go to the garden at about 9:30am. It is an unwritten rule that we never know what to expect as far as volunteers are concerned but we had packed all our tools and sanding equipment knowing at least a few of the Sisterhood members would be there to start on the picnic table. When we arrived at the garden near 10am, there were only a couple of us unloading the truck. By 10am close to 30 people had arrived including a large number of Beta's as well as one of our favorite new groups, the "No day but today" club, founded in honor of Hannah Landers.

While James demonstrated use of the sanders, scrapers and other tools for the table, I asked the others to help edge the pathways. Luckily, Tyler showed up on a weekend pass from EKU and was able to take over as lead instructor on how to clear a paver. Several other Dunbar graduates arrived including Austin (who is often stalked by monster sized bees) and Beth - a young woman attending UK whose dad has been a great contributor to Mindtriggerz and that I ever so luckily have begun to know via correspondance on Facebook. While Sarah's sister slept, her mom came too - always at the ready with her own weed digger!

Of course, we were thrilled with the turnout - 98.75% of the garden is now edged, in an environmentally friendly fashion (aka "hands") and the picnic table should be ready to prime after just a bit more sanding. Several ceramic tiles were created and me, well, I got absolutely nothing done for greeting, talking, directing and hugging. Special thanks to Dunbar teachers Ms. Davis (Beta club sponsor and all-around incredible person) and Ms. Anderson who came by to bring us about a dozen sunflower stakes. Oh and Louanne's mom who donated a big mass of Autumn Glory Sedum that we immediately placed in the rain barrel planter and of which there is no doubt it will be happy.

The plants at the garden are spreading beautifully - and prolifically - and while I am still amazed by the young people who come to work there who have never walked through it, in a school as large as Dunbar, I should not be surprised but still am. Among the many stories and comments shared today, learning that teachers vie for the chance to hold class out there, well, that was about the coolest. It continues to be our labor of love - and it was so good to be there today in the sun (even with the 80 degree heat), among old friends and new ones.

"Thank you" seems the most futile of phrases - it can't begin to express our <3.

April 18, 2009

2009-04-19T16:17:00.002-04:00

Among the "sad mom and dad" club of which noone wants to be a member, there is a plethora of advice shared about those "hardest" dates. Birthdays and the day that marked the end of our old normal lives. We are told to plan something, anything and then have a backup plan that includes the potential of simply falling into a puddle of our own tears.
Everyone is different, everyone reacts in their own way. Everyone is allowed to do whatever it is that will simply help get through that day.

I planned to work at the garden on April 18th - the date of Jesse's accident and had every intention of simply wearing myself out pulling weeds, digging plants. I didn't have a "Plan B."

Many weeks ago, April and I had bumped into Colleen - a former classmate from both Leestown Middle and Dunbar High, a friend of Jesse's who had travelled with us to Italy in 2004. We distracted her from her work and discussed her upcoming graduation as a massage therapist. She gave me her clinic schedule and I had every intention of calling for an appointment but it was just one more thing on my list of "to-do's" that fell between the cracks. When I finally remembered, the only date Colleen had available according the receptionist was April 18th. After a long pause I took it - there was something fortuitous about that being her "only opening."

On the way to my appointment, Linda called - she's been a great friend to the garden posting information of our work in the Dunbar Enews among so many other things. She's become a great friend period. Her son needed some community service hours and she wondered if I might be at the garden later in the day. She turned my attention, handed me a distraction and I am thankful for that call because as I entered the Lexington Healing Arts Academy, I was able to do so without tears.

Colleen performed miraculous work - she had a box of Kleenex at the ready but I think because of her connection to Jesse - I didn't need it. We talked some while she worked and she pinpointed the muscle in my back causing me the most pain and wrote down notes and suggestions. As I left she told me to drink more water and handed me a card with explicit instructions not to read it until I got home.

As I started gathering up the gear to take to the garden April appeared. She helped me pack up then we both drove out to Dunbar. A beautiful chalk drawing on the sidewalk greeted us - Jesse's name and how he will never be forgotten. Adults could stand to learn a few things from their younger counterparts. Compassion as an act, instead of an afterthought.

We'd barely begun work when others started arriving. Linda and her son pulled a boat load of weeds, then pruned back the remainder of the grasses. They also did a bit of correcting of the wooden benches while others came by. As the day progressed, Sarah and James came to help as did Jesse's best friend Jon. Joyce, having helped Jerome with the Mindtriggerz Training lab all morning showed up in time to remind me of all the butterflies we'd seen last summer. She asked about the butterfly milkweed and I showed her the marker for it but said "I just haven't seen it emerging yet" - so we both bent to the ground and I uncovered some mulch and there it was: bright green tendrils stretching for the sky.

Sarah helped me dig sunflowers for a potential native plant sale, April cleaned all the picnic tables with the help of James. I saw them sitting in the shade, backs propped against the school building and wondered at how many times Jesse might have done the same and Hannah. We worked and stopped and started and stopped again and they got me through the day. They touched me and patted me when I cried and they ran through the garden with wild abandon on such a particularly beautiful day at such a particularly beautiful place. They laughed and goofed off. They remembered.

The garden is a safe place for them as it is for me. It continues to be our labor of love no matter who shows up to work or even why. Whether they knew Josh or Jesse or Hannah or Ross or any of the other great kids who surely must surround us somehow while we are there because it's never been a sad place to be. It is "our place" to be. Every day we are there it's even more beautiful. Every day we are there together it is a comfort. With every weed we pull and all the mulch we move and every silly thing that's said, we remember. That is the thing that makes it worth the labor. That we always remember, and care enough to do so together.

When all that is the culmination of our memories and love gather in one specific space, there are no words to describe it. The flowers return along wtih the butterflies and birds and bees. And the people - that's the best part, the people who might continue the work of those who left us too soon.

They are loved. Never forgotten. And one day I will have my flashing lolcube for Jesse. One day.
<3

April 12, 2009

2009-04-12T20:24:00.010-04:00

This afternoon amid a strong breeze and cooler temperatures, a sign was planted in our latest mulch pile reading "Property of the Dunbar Memorial Garden." As we near our first official work date of April 25th there are many lists to be made and subsequently lost (j/k) and many contacts to be re-made, many things to be done.
Ellidia - the eternally wonderful president of Dunbar's Beta Club stopped by to visit and allow me to rant on about what we want to do this year, about her wonderful scholarship to Vandy, about the plans that are perpetually evolving and changing - of which her participation for the past two years has been a kind of saving grace.

We really love Ellidia and will miss her as she graduates this year - not just for her support of the garden and mindtriggerz but for her exuberance and compassion and her ability to make us laugh! She will most definitely be a force to reckon with at Vandy. Yesterday most of our native grasses got pruned back and green shoots were seen sprouting below. On Saturday afternoon with assistance from Josh, Joyce and James, we unloaded a couple of truck loads of mulch Jesse's dad and I picked up that morning. It was good to be in the sunshine amid the laughter and will be good to get back to working there together again.

During Spring Break on an afternoon when I surely clocked 6 hours at the garden pulling onion grass and dandelions, transplanting and giving away several flats of native sunflowers - I went to dump my bucket of weeds and spotted my first goldfinch of the year. Yellow is Jesse's "color" so of course the goldfinch has become my favorite bird. The little guy was just chirping away in a tree close by so I responded in his non-native language: "hey buddy, what's up with you?" His response was to fly closer and land with two of his friends in a tree in front of my face. I stood there for a moment then turned and walked away because I wasn't seeing them clearly anymore due to tears.

Most of the bereaved parents I know look for signs in nature for their kids so I know I'm not alone in this. Many of the kids while working in the garden will look to the sky and when they spot a buzzard will wave at "Tevis." In various photos taken during work sessions a mysterious pink "orb" is seen - we attribute that to Josh who loved the color pink.

For almost two years now I have been unable to do any garden work at my own home - something that prior to losing Jesse was a source of passion and great therapy for me. After working all day at the garden and spotting those birds I decided to try. I planted a few of the native sunflowers along with a rattlesnake master in my backyard. It was hard but I managed. As I stood there considering this altered landscape I noticed one single bright pink tulip. I'd planted many tulips many years ago but this guy was the only one that sprouted. I stood there thinking of Josh and hoping it was a "sign" from him or for him? When I turned around there sitting in my basement window was the single survivor of a triptych of primroses Jesse had given me for Mothers Day in 2006. Two of the plants died during the early weeks following Jesse's accident and when I finally noticed, I made it a mission to do whatever I could to save the last one and yes, that was a struggle. I tried every spot in the house, every chemical I could find but it struggled and struggled until finally this winter I just put it in the sunniest window of the house and asked it to please keep trying. It did, and when I looked at it that evening a perfect yellow flower had blossomed. If I hadn't been where I was doing what I was at the time, I would have never seen it.

I will always struggle with these "signs" and my hopes that they are real. The young ones that gather around help a lot with that because they do believe and I am thankful to them for that almost more than anything else. They KNOW the energies of Josh, Jesse and Hannah are still here. I can't imagine surviving without them. <3

Coming up close

2009-04-09T20:00:00.003-04:00

During the summer and fall of 2007 we averaged 30 to 40 people each Saturday - a feat I doubt I will ever stop expounding on. As we moved into the first Spring date of 2008 our numbers dropped but at each work session there would randomly be at least a dozen people there.
After we lost Hannah on May 6, 2008 - I know it was harder for many of our regulars to return.
I know it was for me.

I mentioned earlier that the summer of 2007 in Lexington was a total drought and while I knew we had done everything we could to get the soil prepped - I worried. By the time we started planting in the fall, we were all amazed at how easy it was to dig in the soil. I remember one little girl - one of Athena's younger sisters - saying "How come all these plants we are planting just look like sticks?"

She couldn't imagine their future and quite frankly the rest of us were kind of yeah, really.

We started pulling weeds early in the Spring of 2008. Onion grass, oh my. Dandelions, oh my. But as we tried to convince each other, our natives would outshine them soon enough. More than weeds began to emerge but it was still pretty colorless in early April of 2008.

As we approached the first year after Jesse's accident I had no idea what to do or where to be but someone, I just don't know who, called and said I should come to the garden. The 19th, a Saturday, a few of Jesse's friends showed up at the house and took me there. As we walked around the corner I was astounded. Several beautiful pots filled with yellow flowers dangled from the limbs of the Bur Oak we had planted. Scattered around the garden were other pots filled with colors - annuals. There was our precious Hannah, digging in the dirt - planting yellow pansies around the tree. There was Aaron, and April, Andi and JA. We hugged and kissed and cried and laughed and Hannah presented me with a beautiful clay pot she had made - with a glaze half yellow and half blue/purple. She'd filled it with yellow pansies.
When I hear adults prattle on negatively about "the youth nowadays" I close my eyes and remember what the youth nowadays do so much better than so many of their adult counterparts. People are freaked about death - especially the death of a young person. But these kids, these "youth" intuitively knew what I needed - simply, that Jesse was remembered on the day my life changed forever. They did it well.
We all went to Fazoli's (Jesse loved pasta) and we sat and ate and talked and remembered.
There were many who remembered Jesse that day and many who were not at the garden that Saturday but who worked the night before. I don't know who they all were - but I love every one of them with all my heart for doing it.

Now, it's getting dark on the back porch so to get us closer. During the Spring and Summer of 2008, we dug a lot of weeds. We mulched and mulched and mulched faster. The beautiful red bee balm got a sweet case of powdery mildew and after researching "non chemical treatments" we just decided to prune it down and clean our tools and see what happened. What happened is it rebloomed. Then we found out bee balm has this tendency - so this year we will be prepared.

We had a female kildeer who decided to make a nest among the emerging swamp milk weed. She left three eggs that we checked on as much as we could. Stick flags were placed around her ground nest in the hopes no one would step on them. We learned that both the male and female tend to the nest and we also learned (with some help from our Florida-bred friend Aida Fine) that if we moved close to the nest, they would distract us by pretending to be wounded, dragging a wing along the ground as if to say "come get me instead."

Then there were the butterflies. Monarchs, fritallaries, buckeyes, sulphurs. An American snout, swallowtails and hairstreaks. Joyce became as fascinated as I was just trying to catch a picture and "look it up." This year, we are going to buy the field guide instead of renewing the same field guide over and over again from the Lexington Public Library. The birds were there too - but harder to catch in action. We have a particular affinity to gold finches (yellow is the color associated to Jesse), buzzards (Tevis' bird), great blue herons (for Aida's son David) and hawks (Hannah's dad said something one day and now when I see one it is hers).

There were a lot of weird bugs too - aphids love swamp milkweed but so do ladybugs and then we spotted the swamp milkweed bug - orange and laying eggs like crazy. Many, many hours were spent studying the ecology of the garden over the summer. It was absolutely crazy. For the record, we had as big a collection of bees as I have ever seen. They were HUGE but apparently were only interested in one smashing young man named Austin, who while incredibly good-looking, must have worn the perfect complimentary cologne when he came to the garden. These bees are now known as "Austin's stalker bees" - they didn't sting - they just liked his essence!

Now, a word about Sarah. Sarah was a long long time friend of Hannah's, they grew up together and she knew how important the garden was to Hannah. Without a doubt Sarah has been the steadfast presence that Hannah had been. Without a doubt, she stepped up and into a lot of lives of people who needed her badly - and she is one of those absolutely perfect "youth" that every parent dreams of - and yeah, we rib her about that relentlessly.

As the summer came to a close we decided to go ahead and start our straw bale construction benches. We also replaced the tops on several of our picnic tables - our good friend Tyler can attest to just how difficult it is to remove old bolts from old wood on very old picnic tables. We created a purple table for Hannah. Sarah created beautiful stencils and Hannah's dad helped us paint them. As did Lucy and Rebecca and Ariel in from Tulane.

As Linda Noffsinger so eloquently put it so very very many months ago - this is our "labor of love" - it won't ever stop. At least as long as those of us who won't forget, remember.

There was a summer day, sitting alone at the garden just pulling weeds, watching for gold finches, listening to the air move that I looked around and said "Hannah, you would love this" and I felt something leaning on me even though there wasn't anything tangible to attribute that to, but I want to believe it was her. Somehow, crossing whatever line there might be in the universe. We planted a "callicarpa" for Hannah, a "beautyberry" because that's what she is and it bloomed the prettiest purple ever.

At the garden last week - every day I checked on Hannah's beautyberry with the beautiful wooden star Sarah painted in front of it. There is an indescribable feeling I get every time I go to the garden. That it will be gone or the flowers will not flower. Mostly, I obsess about the beautyberry. Finally, I spied green buds emerging on it. Finally.

Finally.
<3

Getting Warmer Now

2009-04-07T20:21:00.000-04:00

During Fayette County Public Schools Spring Break the weather did - and so a few of us meandered out to see what was emerging at the Memorial Garden. Sarah (a very good friend of Hannah's and just as good a friend of the garden) had visited earlier and was afraid some anonymous mint was spreading among the bee balm. By the time I got out there for a look see last week I laughed so hard and sent her a message: "not weeds kid - that's the bee balm spreading."

There is little doubt in my mind that this years' garden will surpass last years' which is almost, just almost, unimaginable.

But wait, back to "backpedaling." During the early stages of planning what plants we wanted to see in the garden, a group of students huddled around a teachers computer during a GSA meeting oohing and aahing over the possibilities we saw at the Shooting Star Nursery website. What a funny and random coincidence that at one of those first meetings as I asked that they consider going "all native" I learned that Jesse's good friend Natalia who was present, had recently completed a research paper on using native plants. We wanted a wide variety of colors - pinks for Josh, yellows for Jesse. The list grew longer and longer but we knew we'd be limited in by the fact that the garden area is a windy, high site in full sun and with very little in the way of protection from the elements. We also knew that by the time we went to purchase those plants in the Fall the selection would surely be limited.

At that time, while I was still in such shock over losing Jesse (of which I am still not "over") I was so very grateful to the young people of Dunbar's GSA who welcomed me to their meetings, whose members hugged me and tried to help me, who somehow knew that if I got involved it would be "for good" and that nothing would keep us from accomplishing this beautiful project inspired by Josh's life and now by Jesse's too. We jumped through a lot of hoops, filled out a lot of paper work. Perservered. Perhaps it was the fog of loss that kept me from growing too impatient as I sat at the kitchen table so many late nights surrounded by native plant books and research drafting and re-drafting what would be acceptable to present to the FCPS board as "plans". I know I was not the only one who went "WHAT?" when we were told we needed a plan detailing every plant to be installed, each piece of art, all the extras. Jesse's dad had a CAD person from Spencerian where he teaches evening classes draw up an official blueprint and we were finally called to meet with folks from FCPS to discuss them.

We were told by others who had been through this maze of installing a garden on school property that having a meeting was a good thing and that it would bring us closer to approval. There would be several members from FCPS's risk management, physical services as well as an associate principal from Dunbar. I can say in all honesty that I was very scared the project would not be approved but the students kept saying "we are going to do this." They almost convinced me.

The meeting was to take place at Dunbar in the Administrative office. Just to shore up our side, I asked for some physical support via presence at the meeting. Among a variety of students we also had an arborist, horticulturalist, several native plant guru's, some parents, and others and when we walked into the office there was a look of shock on the faces of those who thought this "small meeting" would take place quickly and without question.

We needed more space so it was decided we'd relocate to the cafeteria - appropriate considering the garden would be placed outside of its windows. After a round of questions - which in retrospect we think were mostly to assure the staffers that this garden would not only be installed but maintained for an extended time - everyone tried to smile away the nervousness.

I will in fact, never forget the look on all those faces. There was no doubt about our commitment, no question of our sincerity. I have an inkling that had our "turn out" not been so great and diverse at that meeting that we may not have been able to do this. While many of those beautiful young students who came back to school on their summer break just for that meeting are now off in the great wide world - at colleges and locations near and far, what they did with their optimism and courage is the reason that we were able to create "a celebration of life, a labor of love," the Dunbar Memorial Garden.

When I post tomorrow, I have every intention of getting us up to date. There are just a great deal of emotional moments - so many trials, so many feats. So many people to give so much thanks to.

<3>

Crawling closer

2009-04-05T21:07:00.005-04:00

The original plans for the garden called for three 25' square beds but along the way they kind of merged into the pattern of a three leaf clover or as one of the kids said upon viewing it from up high "a big heart" - or as Jesse's dad likes to call it "a tree of life."

I don't suppose it matters much what it looks like to others. It has been a teaching, training, learning, dissecting, relearning, defined and then redefined place to simply pour out work, sweat, blood and tears.

The day we marked the beds - with cans of orange spray paint and Hannah there ready to make sure it was fun, I can say without fear of anyone else's judgment that I cried. It was marking a space in memory of kids who should still be here. There was nothing happy about that for me.

But magically it all started falling into the place it needed to be. Ideas were bantered, many were consulted. I recall this haze of meetings and gatherings and people hugging me, a million email exchanges and new friends who became more steadfast than those I'd assumed would always be there but ultimately weren't. There, everywhere were young people. The "young people" - they were and continue to be the heart and soul behind everything we do because without them we would not "be" at all and nothing at the garden would have ever materialized.

While we waited for planting season, we created pathways. We spread grass seed. We sanded and painted old worn-out picnic tables. We designed stencils then cut them and decorated the tables. We filled every Saturday with "something else" - some other idea someone else sprouted. We laughed and joked and fumbled and yelled but every single day was another miracle.

I remember a summer Saturday when some kind of testing was being held at Dunbar. The cafeteria was filled with students and sharp pencils. Jesse's dad had the acumen to move our work further away from the glass windows to try to prevent any disruption. We toiled outside while the kids did inside and more then a few jokes were made among us about those poor kids trapped inside while the sun shined and we were soaking up the rays.

I remember the very first day (7/7/07) when we had coverage from the local newspaper, when we were amazed to see 30 plus people gathered ready to get down to building a garden. I remember Katherine and Carol and Matt - all parents who had lost a child. I remember the clearness of the air, the too-perfect blue sky, and the earth moving. Most of all I remember the simple fact that so many had risen so early to be a part of something that was the result of such sorrow. What I remember most is that every one there was a part of "not forgetting."

That's all we want - for people to remember, not always in tears but forever in love.

Backpedaling a little closer to the present

2009-04-04T19:00:00.005-04:00

Over the course of late Summer and Fall of 2007 we estimated that we had well over 100 people work with us at the Dunbar Memorial Garden. There were MANY students as well as parents, teachers, friends and of course, Jesse's dads' fabulous co-workers! Were it not for the input and physical labor of the guys from Phase IV Contracting (Penny, the dog included) we are certain the beautiful stone work we got done would have never happened. At their side, they taught many young people the art of doing a good job and doing it right - and how to work with your hands and brains. Our debt to Phase IV is a big one. REALLY.

But even before the onset of our paver walkways we were incredibly lucky to have the assistance of arborists and horticulturalists who helped us evaluate the best way to prepare the soil for planting. During the month of July 2007 we tilled three 25' by 25' beds, added compost and tilled again. We then placed a layer of cardboard across each of the beds and topped them off with a thick layer of wood chips. The Summer of 2007 in Kentucky was an awful drought year with non-native landscapes and trees suffering horribly and while we did water our newly sown grass seed, we did nothing much at all in the way of our planting beds.

A little side note about our paver pathways: they are RECYCLED material! We were advised that a large sidewalk outside of the Dunbar cafeteria was being replaced with concrete and were asked if we might like the pavers. Of course we said "yes!" The contractors hauled them to an area down hill of the garden so we physically moved several thousand via a variety of means (see 8/18/07 post). Many, many by hand. Most of us touched a paver or three hundred at some course during our time working on the pathways.

There was a moment during our second Saturday at the Garden when I almost had a nervous breakdown. We had all the beds tilled and were ready to lay the cardboard and mulch. But in the course of the concrete being poured on the sidewalks some heavy trucks had literally plowed through two of our bed leaving the soil heavily compacted and "rutted." Everyone, including all the students, tried to convince me we could "fix" it before the loads of wood chips arrived. I doubted it and to prove so banged my rake into some of the rock hard soil that the week before had been so perfect and light. Fortuitously, the general contractor arrived to check on his own work and before anyone could stop me I approached him, told him about Jesse and the purpose of this garden and through streaming tears and shaking hands advised him of the damage he had done to our hard work. In retrospect, I wonder if it was right to allow the young people to overhear that conversation and see my distress but he apologized in front of them all. And then he left and came back with a rototiller and worked the soil his trucks had compacted back to a state close to what it had been before. What he did was the "right thing" - something I think our young folks and even old people like me just don't see often enough. If that guy ever reads this blog I hope he knows what a positive turn he gave to a negative situation.

On that note, a good one, we'll leave additional backpedaling for next time.
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Backpedaling

2007-08-18T15:00:00.025-04:00

Our first work date at the Dunbar Memorial Garden was on 7/7/07. Several weeks later a few of the students decided it would be a great idea to start a blog" on our work. Due to a series of unfortunate events the blog was never "posted."

Information on the reason and purpose of the garden is available by visiting the Jesse Higginbotham Technology Trust website and clicking the "projects" button. Be certain to visit the photo slide shows to see just what we have accomplished since that first date of our labor of love.
Below is the first blog from 2007 which is more like a list of our hourly progress. I am keeping it in that format since the notes were recorded by our steadfast, incomparable, tried-and-true super power, James Richardson.
(P.S. We will attempt to do additional backpedaling along the way from now on)
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Blog for day 08/18/2007
We have an estimated thirty to thirty-five people here- about the regular turnout
09:15- James R
-Start work for sixth or seventh week
-Chelly returns! ….And disappears again for Ameri Corp
-Found an eighth picnic table…. Matt W. and Thomas D. (traitorous fool that went to Lafayette are repairing it and then it will be painted later on today
-What the heck… somebody brought a rototiller
-Yay. Two chain gangs today.
-Four people- hopefully more from Phase IV- where Jerome works- are coming to lay the pavers for our pathway
-Somebody keeps writing the extended version of an expletive on the purple hand-printed picnic table; this is second time, we’re gonna paint over it again
-Jim Embry is here!!!!!!!
-Moving pavers
-Aaron’s gift to Hannah
-Moving gravel
10:00
-Cycle of recycled pavers from the ground, to the truck, up the hill, unload into barrels, take to pathway, repeat; a few stragglers lol
-Pavers were being unloaded to the barely orderly piles, and also into a bunch of wheelbarrows, where we are carting them over to the pile beside the gravel path
-Wheelbarrows are being re-commandeered for gravel moving from Jerome’s truck
-Food- Rebecca makes good breakfast items
-Work on other table looks like its coming along good
-Multiple people from Bryan Station High School are here too

As mentioned earlier, today's main task was moving pavers from the bottom of the hill to the top of the hill; from there, the pavers were moved to the pathway. Our main method for transportation up the hill. The pictures show the disorganized piles of pavers meant for the garden's pathways. Gravel moved from Jerome's truck helped to level the pavers on the pathways.
10:15
-Some of us take water breaks
-Kids roll around on the dolly
-Repairs to the table; smoothing the pathway
-28+ people are working hard
-Amber H. back from somewhere and Steven B. are finally here, after having not been here since the very beginning of the summer!!!
-Pavers are very close to being laid... Six weeks of work, and we're finally laying them!
-Make it about... 30 or so people
-Josh's table moved into the grass
-Hannah's here- she's late, from what somebody said
-A soil "compactor" has been running on and off for the past few minutes, and it's actually becoming level.
-Hopefully the last load of needed gravel has been brought

-Sanding on the last table has begun, and is well on its way.
-PAVERS ARE BEING LAID!!!
-Nobody knew that Steven was a brick layer- he's doing well, on the leading edge
-That pathway is looking awesome, and approaching about a third done
-Five or six people are throwing art ideas around
-The little ones are hauling the pavers around.... and each other
-This laptop, being black, is becoming extra hot
-Creative juices are flowing through everybody, this place is truly looking like a place dedicated to people we loved and truly cared about
-Of course, the school's network is a pain, and we can't find the wireless network- we get to go elsewhere afterwards and upload this blog there, fun.
-Three of the four wheelbarrows, plus the dolly, are being used to haul pavers from the pile out to the pathway
-Steven: "I respect them. Any time I walk past a paved sidewalk, I will walk in the grass. I will admire the paved sidewalk, but I will not soil it! Gardeners throw down some water and mow; they don't have nothing on brick laying."

-The pavers on the main pathway are coming close to completion- they'll probably finish them by the end of the time here today. As always, we're running past our time
-Our pile of pavers from the first day of paver moving- chain gang day- is almost completely gone, maybe twenty to thirty left in it. Our second pile, of course, has a ton left on it- several more wheelbarrow loads
-The secondary pathways- off to the two plots to the side- are being set down in wood, and will probably be worked on next week- chances are, it won't be done this week
-Three thousand pavers are a lot to move, but, they aren't all dedicated to the path; there will be some to do borders around the three twenty five by twenty five foot plots
-We actually recycled the bottles today... Glad of it. Don't need to trash bottles that can be recycled
-People are beginning to drift out, the numbers have dropped to an estimated twenty or so
-All in all, lots dne today, and things are looking very good
-The areas that we leveled out, seeded, and hayed, are beginning to yield grass shoots- it's only been a week since we put it down!