That was just the start. Last year she coupled with another client, Hedrich Michaelsen to form FOBP, Friends of Brentwood Park, our neighborhood park. She pulled me in to help with the design, and I volunteer of course, but she and Hedrich do the grant writing, organization, newsletter writing and volunteer round-up.
She didn't stop there.
She lives a few houses down from Crestview Fire Station #16...our neighborhood Fire Station.
I've wanted to do something with the Fire Station since I moved here...but simply never got around to it. When she called a few months ago and asked if I would do the design, it wasn't even a whole second before I said, or rather shouted into the phone YES!
She's a fabulous organizer, I'm not and I get to do what I love...design. We're going to turn it into a Wild Life Habitat, but also install several beds for the guys to do square foot gardening!
We had a few meetings about the logistics, she did all the phone and foot work, and today was the day!
Volunteers from both Crestview and Brentwood neighborhoods showed up along with a few Habitat Stewards and CAMN members...around 15 folks in all!
We covered the hell strips with cardboard and layered about 4-5 inches of free mulch from Asplundh. The city dumped around 2 cubic yards of dillo dirt, and that was spread over the lawn and around the base of the existing trees, after we pulled up the grass.
I'd say we got about 1/2 of the hell strip done before we ran out of material but we still had an extra 20 minutes of our original 3 hour time slot.
Go Mark!
I'm not from Austin, I'm a transplant who means to stay. I've never called anyplace on this blue ball "home" but here. Here's where I've lived the longest, reared my daughters, taught school, worked as a professional gardener on both sides of the river, learned to brew beer, where my first big public artwork is, started blogging, found the love of my life, married him barefoot in the backyard and well...it's just plain easy to stay where folks are just down to earth, environmentally conscious, liberal-minded, free and kind as all get up...most of 'em.
But South Austin, really doesn't have anything up on my hood. We've got trailer-food, Alamo Drafthouse, Threadgill's, Lala's Little Nugget, Poodle Dog, Shoal Creek Nursery, Toy Joy, Ruby's, Mann's, Mayfield Park, The Triangle, Brentwood Pool...which is still free, my favorite little Mexican restaurant La Casita, The upcoming BlackStar Coop, The Homebrew Store, and appropriately named Crestview Station, the center of "the Line." I'm sure if you're a North Austiner your mind is tallying up all I've left out, ohhh, Genuine Joe's, Spider House, all that cool stuff off North Loop and of course Sunshine Gardens, Patchwork Farms...so the list goes on...
A few years back, local artist Jean Graham applied for a KAB grant and her main point was that our neighborhood "78" didn't have a public work of art. Since then artists, musicians, story tellers, gardeners etc. have been crawling out of the woodwork en masse...a few of us in the hood are biting our nails waiting to see if this years KAB grant will shine on us...again.
Well, my idea is for a neighborhood sign art project and we'll see if we get the dollars to do it, if not...it'll happen some other way. But, until it does, I'm still walking the hood with my best gal, Dorothy Belle...you can see her sweet squished face in the lower right hand corner of the shot above...checking out what we think is just plain "cool."
You gotta love the Barbi-car. So, I'll be puttin' up shots from my walk occasionally, because we've just got some real funky treasures here in the hood, and I'm all about sharing. Take a drive through our hood sometime...stop by the Minimax for a 6 pack of micro-brew and grab a pie at the Little Deli...this is home.
The mound is becoming less visible as the ground covers continue to spread. I've got purslane, fernleaf verbena and Santolina along with various grasses and the Ocotillo, which is shy this year...lots of leaves, no blooms.
Mexican Petunia, ruellia gets a bad rap for being invasive, and it is...but knowing that nothing can kill it makes it a favorite around here. This 'pink island' will be waist high by October...guaranteed.
Canna Lily
Tobasco pepper, Capsicum frutescens
Gregg's Mistflower, Conoclinium greggi
Birdii dorkus
And here is the West Wall, the actual 'bar.' 7 years ago my beloved husband built the studio out of the existing screened in porch...the window bar, favoring the little coffee bar in Amsterdam where we decided to marry was planned that long ago. The window seat was an obvious need.
And here she is, Ursala, our little Black Chinned Hummingbird that has stolen our heart!
Turks Cap, Malvaviscus arboreus is one of Ursula's favorites
And the Green Goddess has decided to don a lovely dress rather than give up! It looks like a crazy Carnival Tango get-up!
There seems to be a lot going on here, but what I'm showing is the height of the bronze fennel, nearly 5 ft tall!
My neighbor feeds the doves sunflower seeds, spreading the joy throughout the hood!
Red Yucca, another hummingbird favorite!
The most profuse tomato in my garden is Early Girl, she's got a dozen or so green ones holding on. The first to stop putting on fruit were the heirlooms, Purple Cherokee and Oaxacan Stripe. But this one, Green Stripe is still going. It's very flavorful and the skin pulls off at the slightest tug, but she's suffering seam splits along her color changes. All of them have this brown scarring.
Great year for eggplant!
Tickseed, Coreopsis Lanceolata found her way into my yard via neighbors.
I'm going to guess that this is a Julia Heliconian caterpillar, let me know if I'm wrong! It's near the Passionflower Vine, its host. This is one of the shy Silverado bushes that waits for wet feet to bloom. The Crape Myrtle's are still going strong!
Butterfly Weed, Tropical Milkweed Asclepias curassavica 
I put in 3 bronze fennel plants last fall, this spring I ended up with 11. This one plant is the view outside my computer desk! I've been watching the swallowtails for nearly 2 months!
