mjfromkc's Blog

Sassy June and her Deer garden
Dec 10, 2007 | 1:29 PM PST

Marci Jane sat there starring out the window of her parents home in the hills of Pennsylvania. She was only 5 years old but she could not believe the beauty of it all.. The thought of the vegetables under the snow made her near tears , not because of the death of the garden and its demise but rather the life pending underneath. As each day brought light she would sit and wait for the deer and turkey to come down the hill to eat  from the frozen garden. Something we would have to break them of come Spring but now was a welcome site.

That evening her granny , Sassy June ,came for supper .She made the trip all the way from Negro Mountain and planned on staying for a day maybe two. With her she brought some deer jerky and some seeds . Now Marci Jane and her mama had all of the seeds that a person would want but she accepted them to be nice . They were in a jar labeled Supper Seeds  , all mixed together .This actuallly annoyed Marci jane who liked everything to be labelded and kept in porper order . There was no arguing with Sassy June Borden though.  She had been selling her wildflowers to the town folks as near as long as anyone could remember . Sassy  knew all that there was needed to know about gardening .

The day after next , when they all had enough of Sassy June and her sassiness , It was time for Granny to go .  Marci Jane suddenly wanted her to stay. As Sassy June leaned in to kiss her goodbye , she whispered to Marci Jane , "Plant them in the shadows of the fence out yonder near the edge of the property line where Scribners medow and your Pa's land meets  yins will see , yins will have a nice supper ." That was all she said and she was gone with Papa ,

All Winter Marci  Jane would sit with that old jar of seeds and look out the window at the beautiful frozen land ,.Then in the Spring she did as Sassy June had said. She planted and made a garden out near the edge of the property of the seeds that Sassy had given her . She watched it grow and wondered what on Earth Sassy had wanted the garden all the way out here for? Then one night as she caught lightning bugs , she saw them ..The deer and she knew what Sassy knew all along .. The garden was for the deer not for her . This was to keep the deer from eating her own wonderful garden that she and Mama worked so hard for .

"You got to keep the deer fed and healthy if n you want to keep your family fed and healthy ." that was one of Sassy June and Old Pa's sayings. I never looked at a deer the same again , although I knew that they were a valuable food source for my family , I now thought of them as a family who was only searching for food to feed their own family.

A garden for Rufus
Nov 27, 2007 | 7:33 AM PST

Rufus was a friend of my husbands . He was a mechanic at the car lot where my Paul worked at . He was a more colorful charcter than I ever could have written in one of my stories. He was so old and frail you could not imagine that he could walk but he managed nicely . He had glasses so thick that they looked like old fashioned  coke bottles. He wore an old mechanics uniform like a badge  of honor with his name proudly displayed on it . .  Though long since retired he showed for work everyday. Legend has it he was still on the clock  You could often find him under the hood of a car giving Bucky , the current mechanic  unwanted advice .Rufus too deaf to really know what was going on and Buck too nice to tell him so . Rufus also  had a unique way of expressing himself . A colorful  vulgarity that he used to its fullist .

He was pretty good at spinnin tales and tellin a good yarn so he did it often.  This made it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. .He loved to tell you about Kansas City when it was at its finest . "A fine time to be a black man,"  he would say. I would sit and listen to stories of The Kansas City Negro League , he swore he knew Buck O'Neil personally . He grew young talking about the 18th and Vine Jazz distrrict of yesterday. Of Charlie Bird Parker and the band ,of being a boy.  but ,My most favorite stories were of him gardening and fishing on the Kaw. Even as old as he was his eyes kind of had a boyish charm to his stories .

He was a bit anry though , he had out lived many wives , all of them May Decembers ...This current one was no exception. She drove him around in a caddy that the lot gave him a few years back. She was something else too . Dare I say it , she was an avenue rental .... forgive me , she was awful nice and she did love him and he her . She saved him from old age and he saved her from ..hmmer mm uh ..a life of crime?

In the summer of 2000 he began to slow things down a bit . He never ventured far from the car lot and his friends. They gave him a garden right in the back of the car lot where he grew collards, turnips , spinach and such. He would sit out back in his paradise of a garden and watch the folks buy cars . He got to know the neighbors and he seemed very happy.Although with his vulgar language it was hard to tell. He was often racist in his vulgar language , I guess because he was so old we accepted it since he just geared it towards those he loved.

On no particular day that sumer he was sitten out in the garage near his garden listening to all of us talk. We were discussing the dilema of the trash that keeps building up in the vacant lots the owner had purchased awhile back. He neede the lots to have the votes for the neighborhood association because he wanted to expand the lot. When rufus says "Why don't yins just put up a sign?" Well , we all turned to look at him . Since he is hard of hearing we all assumed he was only half listening to us . Tony says "What  Rufus?"

"A sign ."  explicits , vulgarity , racist remark towards Tony ..   " that sez , neighborhood clean up free garden space ." vulgarity , explicts ....." Do I have to do everything for yins ? Geeze Lawhd .. If n yins want the votes yous got to do somfin for the comunity too." ....    We fell silent . Would this work ?

Ureka . The Historic North East Neighborhood Garden of 12th Street was born. The neighborhood still keeps it up today . The lots stay clean so the neighborhood is happy .Tony got his votes and expaned the car lot . One small business man made a small differance . the community made a big differance .

Of the many things I learned from Rufus the most important was patience in humanity . I am proud to have been his apprentince . This past season I had a memorial garden for him .I grew collards , mustard greens  and the biggest , juciest turnips you ever ate . This garden of all of my containers on Hawthorne , grew the most yield.I can honestly hear him gloating . Full of vulgarity , racisim and mostly wisdom . He helped me to carry on the traditon of his family threw the seeds we reaped and the stories he told. Such a colorful charcter full of boysih charm once you knew him a bit.  

"You can share with a neighbor from your garden today , and they wiil eat today only .If you invite them to  your garden and teach them to help , then you will break bread together for life . " ....   Rufus

 

In her shoes
Oct 28, 2007 | 2:34 PM PST

Today was community garden clean up once again. We tore out all of the furrow gardens and removed our potted plants. We also  had to move some of the boxes to make room for our new plans. Our boxes wil now be 24 inches high and 4 by 8 feet . The longest part extending to the fence line. We also need a more reliable waterin source other that the huge barrells that are currently being used. This is a huge task considering I am the only one left to do this due to only one water key.We voted to put in a differant type of system next season .Although none of us know what to replace it with .Seeing how we have no money.

We did leave one garden  untouched except for the produce we took from it. This garden belongs to Ms.sharon one of the founding members of the Garden Club. She is a fistey senior who fell ill and suddenly died this year. She was mildly cantankerous but soft as kitten when she was in her garden. She always shared her vegetables and herbs. Her mums were always the biggest. "An ancient secret ." she once told me. Even though she shared all of her garden secrets with me she never shared that one . Her cabbage was the deepest royal purple and looked like artwork from the street. I will miss her friendship and her advice on life as well as gardening. I have her house plants and other potted plants in my basement .Tonight she is providing my family with winter squash and the  herbs to liven it up. In my freezer I have many of her veggies and in my cabinets I have many seeds. All given to me with hand written notes on how to cook, grow , harvest  or store .i have no idea how to begin to tell you how much needed our friendship was for me. She saved me  with these gardens. I would not be president  if it were not for her nominating me in first. How will I ever be  president without her advice? No ,we did not remove her garden just yet. There is something so finale about seeing a garden's winter demise. Seeing it all covered and hidden in the snow is one of my favoriate memmories of being youn . Knowing that it all comes back again gives me a little tickle .I want to remove  her garden in the spring .That way it will be a new beginning not a finale  farewell. I only hope to fill her shoes next season.

Hawthorne Place Community Garden
Oct 22, 2007 | 7:59 AM PST

I am a president of our local community garaden. Our little gaden sits in an income based housing community . We are low income families who garden out of necessity. We not only feed our families but we feed other low income families .What we do not  eat , freeze or can we donate to our local food pantries. .

This year our little garden went from bad to worse. We did however recieve a grant form the Health Department and Parks and Recreation to fullfill some of our needs.With the late freeze ,then the flodding  rain nd do not forget the drought , we did not have a chance . We produced little to no substance foods. Mostly herbs and flowers. When we brought in the Agriculture team from the Health Department we found out our boxes were built totally wrong. It was time to tear down and start over. An official barn raising was declared and we asked for help from our community .

We had 22 , 4 x 4  f t . plots. Plus the fence line. We are currently under a mass construction . We are trying to make this a more inclusive garden. We are raising our boxes off of the ground and taking the new boxes all the way to the fence. All of this is being done on a voulnteer basis . We are doing most of the work ourselves. We have little to no donations other than the two grants. The problem is ...most of my gardners are senior citizens . Untill I joined the garden club it was all seniors and a few immigrants . While both of these groups were exceptional gardners I wanted the rest of the income based housing memebers to get excited. I finally got my wish this year at the end of the season. We had more families join the community garden than ever before. Next year with the new members and new garden we all hope to have a more succesfull season in 2008.

We now have many gardners in our club. The seniors have general knoledge needed  for our group .The immigrants bring in gardening tips from their native countries and the low income families are bringing a togetherness I only could have hoped for. I can hardly stand the wait for next season !!!!

mjfromkc