A corps of hardworking, dedicated volunteers made all the difference today as the Burgh Bees Community Apiary was transformed from an overgrown vacant city lot into a recognizable pollinator-garden-in-progress. From this . . .
. . . to this.
. . . click on photos for a full-screen view
Meredith and the Apiary Committee organized Workday 2 around three goals: preparing the busway fence zone, planting trees and shrubs around the apiary fence, and constructing three wooden above-ground planter boxes.
The busway fence zone was probably the most challenging task. The ground rolls down in a gentle grassy slope from the fence, and digging up a five-foot-wide swath along 160 feet bordering the fence seemed like an easy task in the planning stage - just a tick off the checklist before planting and watering. But when we put the shovel to the ground during a preliminary visit and hit rock-hard dirt, then actual rocks, and in some places concrete just three inches down, it looked like a heavy-duty rototiller would be necessary. So Alex and Meredith brought in the heavy equipment a few days later - and we lost the turf war again. (Alex said that The Runaway Rototiller would have made a good addition to the Kickstarter fundraising video collection.) That left option 3: pickaxes. This is an activity that defines the phrase "back-breaking." And so the fact that in just five hours' time, the 160 by 5 foot strip of land up against the fence was broken by picks, turned over again with two rototillers, and covered with landscaping cloth - well, that defies belief. And all the debris, roots, and grass tussocks - some two feet in diameter - were raked out, bagged, and carted away to the dump. Amazing.
While the fence gang tackled the concrete planting zone, another group of volunteers, planting trees and shrubs around the apiary fence, found the digging here just about as difficult. But perseverance was the word Saturday and the photos say it best: take a look at what our volunteers accomplished in just a few hours:
Seeing is believing.
Our third goal for the Workday was to build, fill, and plant three rectangular wooden planter boxes at the intersection of the two loops of the proposed Infinity Path. Michael Madonia supervised building the planters, Anna Kim coordinated mixing the soil and setting up the seedlings (following Mel Bartholomew's models in All New Square Foot Gardening), and once again our terrific volunteers "made it so." Here's the photo-op:
A day like this is a blessing.
A day like today encourages reflection on the generous spirit resident in each of us, that natural willingness to help and cooperate and take from the day the satisfaction of having built something special together. It's an easy, intuitive leap to consider the source of today's fruitful labor: the society of bees - bees as emissaries from the ultimately unknowable world of nature, for whom we believe we act as caretakers.
Or is it the other way around? A humbling consideration.
Heartfelt gratitude goes out to all of our volunteers, to those who donated supplies, tools, seeds, and plants to the apiary, to our neighbors on Susquehanna Street, and to Burgh Bees' expanding base of financial supporters, advisors, and friends. We will follow up today's post with two more, one to map out the specific species and planting zones as they now exist in the pollinator garden, and another, at the end of our Kickstarter campaign in early June, to thank individually all of you who have contributed to making the Burgh Bees Community Apiary a success. Listed below are today's Workday Volunteers. If you don't see your name, please let me know that I've missed you and I'll add your name right away.
And to each of you: G R A C I A S !
Meredith Grelli
Mona Abdel-Halim
Alex Grelli
Michael Madonia
Alissa Burger
Mary Ellen Meyer
Mark Meyer
Anna Kim
Linda Rathburn
Joan Guerin
Missy Olah
Michael Madonia
Mary Anne Watson
Christina Joy Neumann
Tenley Schmida
Rob B.
Jonathan
Jaime Munoz
Joe Zgurzynski & Dad
Annabelle & Luca Zgurzynski
Kimberly Musial
Lydia Konecky
Alexander Flurie
Justin Parisi
Sara Parisi
Randall Hall
Susan Barclay
Daniel Hatfield
Duncan Hutty
Brianna Stauffer
Josh Kucharski
Christine Fleming
Roberta Jones
Steve Repasky
Linda...Great job on the Workday page. Mary Anne
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