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.