Tour de Plants

This morning Morgan and I put our bikes in the truck and drove to the incomparable Bell Garden to participate in Gateway Greening's Tour de Plants. This activity has nothing to do with the Shaw neighborhood but it did give me a few ideas that I plan to bring back home.

After a few instructions and safety tips we and about 35 other intrepid bicyclists saddled up and headed north for a 16 mile ride through North City. Along the way we visited six community gardens and rode on the St. Vincent Greenway. The weather was magnificent - cool and sunny with an occasional fresh breeze.

Our first stop was at the Bridge of Hope Church and Community Garden. They have transformed an unused parking lot by removing the pavement and installing raised beds. The wooden fence around the garden is decorated with painted scenes. I meant to ask who did the paintings but neglected to do so in my excitement over the raised beds/ terrace/ retaining wall. I love this idea! Instead of just a retaining wall, they built three terraces with planting beds in each terrace. In the center of it all, they left an open space and plan to build a stage there for performances, concerts, plays, etc. Isn't that just the bees knees?

This garden has been expanded into a large vacant lot across the street as well. I didn't get any pictures of it, but they have two beehives at the back of that area with several supers on each one. They must be making some amount of honey.

Speaking of beehives, as we continued north along Whitier Street we passed by this apiary on a otherwise empty lot. The buildings in the background and many others near this intersection are vacant and decaying, but even in their neglected state they are beautiful. Our ride through the neighborhood was quiet and peaceful and we passed by hundreds of elegant, atmospheric, unique homes sitting vacant, in disrepair. What phenomenal potential there is in North St. Louis!

I asked a couple of people on the ride whether we were passing through Paul McKee's Northside Redevelopment area but no one knew. I have looked at a few web sites this afternoon and it seems that all of the places we visited are to the west of that area. Although there are many well maintained homes in this part of the city, they are outnumbered by vacant properties. Unlike Cherokee Street, Carondelet, and other south city neighborhoods, there appears to be very little in the way of rehabbing going on here. It's too bad really. Many structures can still be saved but this will not be true for too many more years. The level of disrepair is such that I fear this part of the city will be forever unsalvageable in a few years.

Once we were out on Natural Bridge Road we were tempted to stop at Goody Goody for an ice cream but we resisted the urge and opted for a fresh peach from the back pack instead.

Later we arrived at the Barack Obama Elementary School. Their small garden was installed with the assistance of Gateway Greening and used for educational programs year around. There wasn't a lot to see here but Morgan says he has worked with the principal, Angela Kinlaw, and she impressed him with her ideas and actions. He says when he met her for the first time she greeted him with a big hug!

The Wayside Community Garden is located near UMSL. Besides this beautiful sign, the garden features a small prairie restoration area, a complex system of rain water collection and distribution, a beautiful wooden information kiosk, one hundred raised beds and a historic house.

 

I didn't get any pictures of the house but apparently it is owned by the Normandy School District and the house and land are leased to the garden club. The school district gutted the house a few years ago and sold all of its historic features - wooden trim, fireplaces, stair balusters, etc. Nevertheless, the Wayside group is planning to restore the house and use it for gardening and sustainability related classes and activities. IMO, the school district officials should be tarred and feathered for that, but good on you Wayside gardeners for your vision!

After leaving Wayside we hit the St. Vincent Greenway. What an experience! It was a short portion of the ride but we seemed to have left St. Louis completely and found our way to a forest somewhere far away from the city. The trail wound up and over hills and through a beautiful meadow filled with blooming prairie flower including daisies, coneflowers, bee balm, blanket flower and others. Then we were back in woods and the spires of what appeared to be a castle towered over the tree tops and we came out of the woods at the edge of the Normandy old folks home. Oh well, not a castle after all.

The next leg of the trip took us back down St. Charles Rock Road toward downtown St. Louis. The traffic was not too heavy and the drivers were very polite. In fact, I didn't notice a single rude or impatient driver all day. That gives me a lot of hope for the future of biking in St. Louis. I should also add that the Gateway Greening staff did an excellent job with this ride. There were a number of group leaders who looked out for everyone. A couple of times I stopped to check out some sight or take a photo and a leader asked me if I was OK each time. The leaders waited at turns for stragglers, directed traffic when needed, offered water to riders and maintained a high level of watchfulness throughout the ride. There was even a bike and trailer with repair supplies in case of flat tires or mechanical mishaps. Kudos Gateway Greening!

The next portion of the trip was perhaps the most surprising for me. As we passed Skinker at Wells Avenue I had no idea of the intense gardening spirit we were about to encounter ahead. The surrounding housing stock is some of the worst we had seen but amidst this ugliness are three beautiful gardens, each with an amazing story. Milton told us about the garden he had begun in a narrow strip of grass along the side of a vacant building. After deciding he wanted more room he contacted the alderman and eventually the building was demolished and he expanded his flower garden across the entire lot. This garden is primarily perennials and flowering shrubs. It is very neatly organized and Milton pays close attention to the colors and textures of foliage rather than just flower color. The plantings here were among the most complex and layered beds we saw today. My picture does not give you any idea of what it looks like. Milton's garden is the 22nd Ward Community Garden.

The Ladies of Wells Avenue have a beautiful vegetable garden just two doors down. I have a feeling that Milton's hand is at work here as well. He has a strong personality and I expect that his vision is the impetus for much of what we saw. This garden is on the grounds of another vacant and greatly deteriorated house. I gestured to the house and asked Milton if getting rid of the house was next on his list. He responded with a smile and an emphatic "Yes". This garden featured numerous vegetable beds (not raised) edged with flowers and a long triple row of pincushion beds like those installed at the Missouri Botanical Garden. These beds were thematically united with a huge cup plant at the center of each one. The look is very different from those at MOBOT.

The third garden here is the Friends of Hamilton Village Community Garden at Wells and Hamilton. An ancient lady (who's name I couldn't hear) came out to greet us on her walker. She sat in the sun and explained that the enormous lot we were in was once the location of an apartment building. When it was demolished she wanted to buy the land from the city but she could not afford the $2000 sticker price. Instead she figured out how to lease the land from LRA for $1 per year and, even though they wanted her to lease it for five years, she went ahead. Ms. Ward maintains the numerous beds and the beautiful perennial borders with the assistance of several church groups in Chesterfield. There is a large mulberry tree in her "spiritual garden", an area of perennials and shade plants at the rear of the lot. Many of us crept under the limbs and snacked on the berries but our host said she never eats them. This woman was a real inspiration. She was both poised and emotional while telling her story and clearly she loves the place a great deal.

The final leg of our ride took us around Fountain Park and back to Bell Garden. On the other side of the park a large spray fixture was attached to a fire hydrant and it was turned on. The spray was coming out of a big pipe shaped like an upside down 'U'. It was large enough to ride my bike through easily so I did, twice. Sorry, no pictures. I was too busy getting wet to take pictures.

We ended our trip, hot and exhausted, back at Bell Garden. We watched the chickens for a while, had brats and root beer from 2 Girls 4 Wheels, caught our breath and headed home at about 1:30. What a wonderful day!

So what new ideas did I bring home? I really like the pincushion beds with a tall plant in the middle. The Botanical Garden does them with low flowering annuals and succulents. I might play around with this idea in the fall.

I also love the idea of putting terraced beds in a place where you need a retaining wall. This might work well for an urban orchard on a sloping lot. What urban orchard, you ask? Stay tuned!

Morgan found just the thing for his mom. She has been wanting a raised bed that is tall enough for her to sit on the side instead of bending down to garden. We saw the ideal beds at a couple of the gardens. I took a few pictures then asked James if they had been made by Gateway Greening volunteers. It turns out they were, so James said he would give me copies of the plans. I have no idea why Morgan is standing at attention; don't even ask! There are probably some other things I picked up but sitting here in this chair with my feet up, I'm about to fall asleep so I'll remember them later I'm sure.

Making jam and muffins

Serviceberries are amazing! The trees in town are carrying a bumper crop this year and the berries are large and sweet. I have made three early morning trips to gather these and will probably get a couple more trips in before they disappear.

What's a serviceberry you ask? Its in the apple family and its Latin name is Amelanchier. It looks a bit like a tiny tiny crab apple but it is very soft and not tart like a crab apple would be. It tastes -- like a serviceberry. I'm in a hurry right now so I don't have time to think of what a serviceberry tastes like. You either already know or you need to find out on your own.

While I was out foraging I came across the coolest little patio entrance I have ever seen in St. Louis. As you can see, the door features a rectangular bare wood theme, has recessed lights over the door and is topped with repurposed window panels. The little garden to the right is just formal enough to make the whole thing look special. But I digress.

Here is what I brought home:

and....

This was quite a lot of serviceberries. I ate a ton while picking (as one does), made a couple batches of muffins, five pints of preserves and froze eight quart bags of them. I think I'll make jelly next.

And lest I forget, here are the jars of mulberry syrup. The half-full jar had olives in it and I decided to repurpose it after finishing the olives. I washed it carefully and let it air out for a couple weeks so I thought it would be OK. Sadly, that bit of mulberry syrup is inedible. Mulberry and pickled olives do not make a good combination. Lesson learned -  if you can't replace the lid with a new one, don't reuse the jar for canning. 

Early Summer Foraging

I know, I know, summer isn't really here yet but it sure feels like it at times. Friday was a magnificent day. I did a little work out doors and then the rain threatened so I went back inside to write. I was restless though and decided to check out the neighborhood mulberry trees instead. I grabbed my backpack and bike and set out for adventure. After an hour or so the sun came out. By dark I had collected a pack full of berries, documented the locations of dozens of trees, and written this post in my mind.



Each purple square marks thelocation of a mulberry tree.
There are many others in the nearby alleys and vacant lots!
Click map to enlarge.


Background: I have noticed that mulberries are ubiquitous here in St. Louis. They come up through the cracks in the street, out of mortar joints in walls, sprout in gutters, fence lines, flower beds, just about any place you can imagine. They are very difficult to uproot after they are more than a few months old. As a result, there are probably millions of mulberry trees in St. Louisans' fence lines and borders. Said trees have been snipped off year after year until they develop a large root/ stump and a fairly small canopy.

Growing out of a concrete wall!

I have been battling one of these for several years in the fence line in front of my house. I inherited this monster. It was left to grow through the chain link fence for years so the trunk is now a permanent part of the fence. Every few months I remove the newly sprouted limbs, hoping that the tree will just decide to die already. It never does! Why go to so much trouble? I have planted other things in this area and the gnarled stump-trunk with its spindly branches looks too weedy. Perhaps my desire for order is to fault for my protracted and futile battle with this tree.


I'm discussing the little shrubby thing in the middle of the picture, not the real tree in the background!

I had not previously considered eating mulberries until I read something about urban foraging a couple of years ago. I tasted a few and liked them but it was a little too late in the season to harvest more than a few. Last year I didn't get any. The berries ripened during finals week and were gone by the time I had turned in my students' grades. This year the timing was perfect for me so I decided to try them out.

My neighbor has a huge mulberry tree in his back yard and it is always loaded with large luscious berries. Said neighbor, though, is a bit difficult and rather than risk unpleasantness, I have been keeping my eyes out for other trees on my walks and bike rides. Sticking to the 'keep it local' ethos, I decided to follow the Highway 44 fence line and see how many mulberries I could find.

What I found was astounding. Mulberries may be the most common tree species growing on this fence line. As far as I can tell they are nearly all red mulberries (Morus rubra - the native variety). There is a wide range of variation in fruit size, flavor, and ripeness stage. Large fruits are less common than small fruits, but most are fairly sweet. I guess that tells us which characteristic the birds are going for when they eat the fruits (and then later disperse the seeds).

I have since learned that mulberries are a member of the Rosales order of flowering plants. This means they share a level of kinship with roses, blackberries, apples, hawthorns, and (OMG!) marijuana. To my taste, the flavor is mildly sweet, with hints of blackberry and blueberry. Some of the sweetest fruits were also the smallest.

How can I have lived here for 13 years and not known about this little slice of life? Needless to say, by dark, my consciousness regarding mulberries was transformed. I have not previously considered the place of mulberry in the aboriginal landscape of St. Louis. I know this tree does not survive fires well so it was probably less common on the prairies than it is today. This species may have been confined to forested locations and along waterways. I do not recall having seen very many reports of mulberry seeds from local archaeological excavations.

My total haul for the day was about a gallon of berries. I rinsed them twice, made a buttery crust from scratch and baked a pie. It tasted much like the fresh berries - blueberry/ blackberry flavor. This morning after my breakfast of steel cut oats and maple syrup I had another slice of pie. Amazing! Definitely let this pie cool before eating. Wow!

I still have a big bowl full of berries so I'm going to muddle and cook them down into a syrup that I will seal into small jars for pouring over cake, ice cream, yoghurt, who knows what all? Maybe later this weekend I'll gather some more for jam. The berries appear to be ripening in stages this year; some trees have no ripe fruits at all yet. The season may be a long one!

I've decided that my battle with the old man in the fence line is now at a temporary truce. I will let him grow and fruit. If the fruits are big and tasty he stays. If not, the battle will continue. Regardless, I have a new respect for these trees. I used to think they were an invasive species from Asia. Although there are introduced white mulberries, we seem to have plenty of our own variety here in St. Louis. I am adding this one to foraging schedule. Next up on the schedule: service berries!