I’m exhausted, and I need to go to bed, but I wanted to thank the 20 or so people who showed up today, in spite of the snow and freezing rain, to prepare our acre of Water Street for next Wednesday’s big seed bombing. Given how terrible the weather was, I was sure that I’d be working alone. I can’t express to you how happy I was when I looked up and saw other people walking toward me with shovels. There’s still a bit of work to be done this weekend, but I think we’re pretty much set. The spotted knapweed has been dug up, the garbage has been collected, and the target areas have been marked. All that’s left is for the remaining soil (in the marked target areas) to be turned over a bit, so as to better accommodate the seed we’ll be sowing on May Day. (We got most of it done, but there are still a few areas that need roughing up.) If anyone is interested in helping with the final push, I’ll probably be on the site Saturday at some point. You’re free to drop by anytime you like, though, and spend some time turning over soil… Thanks again, everyone, for helping to make this a reality…. And I don’t know if the name will stick, but, in the back of my mind, I’ve begun to refer to this little piece of property as the Iggy Pop “Raw Power” Wild Plant Preserve.
9 Comments
People are awesome. It was fucking freezing out yesterday.
Drove by yesterday and saw you all working in the cold. If I were a better person, I would have brought hot chocolate. Instead I went home and watched TV. If it makes you feel any better, though, I felt like shit about myself.
Have you found a local photographer to do a time lapse video? If not, maybe you could ask on Craigslist.
I’m glad to see this happening, but this doesn’t seem to be a seed bomb, so much as an intensive planting project, which is even more respectable.
The seed bombs are part of it. They’re the sexy part. They’re the part that will get kids coming down to the site.
Who doesn’t want to chuck bombs, especially when you’ve got slingshots and catapults?
But you’re right, Peter. The real intention is to bring a native plant park to our downtown, and, with that in mind, most of the seeds will be sowed by hand.
There’s something cool about reclaiming a piece of property, if only temporarily, from the gaping maw of vampire squid that is economic development. A true commons in every sense of the world. Every generation should make one of their own.
Yeah, I do associate seed bombing more with guerrilla gardening than with this sort of “adopt-an-acre” approach, but I’m still looking forward to this transformation!
I think it’s a good effort and good for Ypsi.
I’m sorry I couldn’t come out and help.
If 20 showed up for the work day, 200 will show up for the fun day. That’s just the way that it works.