One year ago today, on April 22, 2008 a few of my neighbors and I decided to cross the street and meet our other neighbor...the Crestview Baptist Church and offer up a beautification project.
I had recently finished the TreeFolks "Citizen Forrester" program and was excited about planting trees as I'd watched 5 die in the 12 years I'd lived in my house. I'd done this before and was met with some harsh judgement but decided to try it again as there was a new pastor with the title "Neighborhood Liaison." His name is David Tobey and sadly, he no longer lives here but he was the first person to listen and agree that something needed to be done. The property was all St. Augustine and the sprinkler ran in the middle of the day half the time and often had water running down the street due to broken heads.
I applied for free native trees, and got it! We were given 17 trees and were able to rally some 20 neighbors and several Church folk to join in. The Church provided a delicious taco and Iced Tea luncheon. The event took place the first Saturday in November and we were able to get 8 cubic yards of free mulch from Davey's Trees and I pitched in the organic fertilizer. My next door neighbor Dana pulled out free T-shirts for everyone who stayed to the end and we all made new friends. It was wonderful
Melvin installing the Solitary Bee Habitat, gift of the 2009 CAMN graduating class.
This man, Melvin Sawyer has become my friend and hero. He's 81 years old and can work any man I've met this far in my life, under the table...without complaint and only a Dr. Pepper or two to keep him going.
On Valentines Day this year I offered to put in a rose garden for the church. Melvin and his wife JoAnne showed up to help, as did my lovely French neighbor Regine. My husband Greg, myself, Regine and Melvin installed 9 Martha Gonzales roses after digging out and prepping the beds. JoAnne made us coffee as it was freezing that morning, I made Melvin's favorite cookies, oatmeal raisin.
A few days later I was walking by with my dogs and noticed he'd made a concrete sign that reads "Thanks 2009" with a heart, he told me later he didn't know how to spell my name. To say Melvin is a man of few words, is an overstatement.
About a month later, Melvin built a few benches and sunk them in concrete for the folks walking by. When I caught up with him I told him how much I loved them, the following day I found one for me on my front porch.
Melvin digging a hole for the roses on the Pergola
A few months later, Melvin and I had a conversation about building a pergola...for more roses. Melvin spent 50 years as a carpenter and loves a challenge. He build the Pergola along with 4 benches in a few days. He then added benches across from all the neighbors houses so they could sit and watch the trees grow.
Melvin's Pergola with Cecille Bruner climbing roses.
Yesterday, for Earth Day he and I worked 5 hours straight. We pulled weeds, fed and watered the roses, repaired a trellis for a tree that was leaning, and planted climbing roses along with natives on two islands in the parking lot.
This is the ugly little island...
Here's Melvin turning the soil..."we don't need a tiller" he said.
Here's Melvin attacking the other abandoned island.
We left a spot at the end, but planted Salvia Greggi and Mexican Feather Grass on the other end. I had been telling Melvin about the Purple Martin Habitats and how I thought the empty parking lot would be a perfect place as the birds could see it in the clearing. He said, I can build that...can you get me a pattern? Yes, I can do that.
When he finishes, we'll put it in the center of the grassy end of the island, then we're going to plant Bulbine and Hymenoxis around the pole.
In the afternoon my friend Jennifer who lives at the end of the street came strolling down and joined in the clean-up efforts! Thanks Jenji!
The Bee Habitat on my front pergola faces south and is about 8 feet from the ground.
And, like the good neighbor Melvin is, after he finished at the Church he helped me put up two Bee Habitat's at my house. I couldn't have imagined becoming such good friends with Melvin, we at first seemed to come from polar opposite ends of understanding the spiritual world...but with that shelved, we realized that we have a world of things in common. I truly enjoy his old school gentlemanly nature, his love of all things "good n' tasty", and things Texan. We both have a hard time understanding folks that prefer to sit on the couch and watch TV rather than actually doing something and have a work ethic that says, no problem...I can do it, quickly and correctly. I've learned that even though he says he doesn't know a thing about flowers, Melvin has a beautiful yard, that I'm helping him care for and have installed the things that he likes in my yard...I put up signs so he could learn the names of the flowers, and he likes that. He's got lots of bird houses and bird baths and his yard is nearly a wildlife habitat now. Melvin has helped me build an extension to my pergola, that he built with just auditory instructions...no need for a drawing, he just waved his hand and got to work. We've been exchanging plants and projects, talking about the future of the property, our kids, how Austin is changing...it doesn't matter what, it's always kind and gentle and I genuinely love spending time with him. Earth Day has become my favorite holiday for many reasons. I love devoting a day to someone else's space, knowing that my neighbors and passersby will enjoy the changes they see. I like the lack of material responsibility: buying gifts and tacky repetitive songs...that it's not about who gets what or who might feel left out, if you choose not to participate...then that's your choice. We all live on this planet, some folks believe that we're destroying it, others don't but we can all get out to make it better... and if we all did, imagine the sense of community we would be creating.
I asked "How did you spend Earth Day" on my face book page and got some great answers...from swimming at Barton Springs to planting a vegie garden, to taking my kids to the park...awareness is the first step and I'm open to hearing your ideas about next years
Earth Day.
Happy Gardening
Melvin loves concrete...you should see his backyard. Anyway, the sign appeared without a word...I called him when I saw it, at that time...I don't think he knew my name yet.
On Valentines Day 2010, the rose garden was merely 1 year old. If you're not convinced that location and proper planting make all the difference in the world...you should see my puny Martha Gonzales planted the same day, which is almost exactly half the size. What the church has that my yard does not, is space and full sun...two main ingredients to successful roses.
The roses cover the wall, are stunning and in 2 years time should cover the pergola. I haven't seen Melvin in months, they got a new "fire and brimstone" preacher since the projects of '08 and'09 and that seems to make all the difference, there. All relationships ebb and flow, and the CBC has been my neighbor for nearly 14 years. Right now, they've let all the plantings that Melvin and I did in the parking lot for last years Earth Day die, but the Martin box remains. We (Regine and I) continue to try and explain what is a plant and what is a weed to the ground crew, who weekly whack down flowers that we've been trying to establish on the space between the sidewalk and street. But, the roses thrive, and the trees are taking root. By the time the children born on our block in the last two years are grown, our street will be lined with fruit and flowers and Mother Nature will have the last word.
