It Takes a Village - Tree Pit Update

Successful guerrilla gardening is a community effort.  After checking periodically on the tree pits on 81st, and bringing water, which seemed barely able to be absorbed each time for how compacted the soil had become, I got it in my head to try to work organic matter in, and to see if I could give the maple seedlings some company.  So this past weekend, while running errands, I stopped into the farmers' market and got over the anxiety about the awkwardness and just went ahead and asked the Sikking Flowers farmer for her stem end waste, and she generously invited me to take as much as I wanted.  So, after cutting it all into bits, I went off to amend the soil, with the goal of planting Mirabilis and cleome seeds gathered in Carl Schurz Park last autumn, and getting everything in to take advantage of the forecasted rains.

At the tree pit with the live seedling, I happened to meet the nice lady who provided the stake, and who promised a taller one since the seedling has actually taken to its home and gained several inches and a bunch of leaves.  I met a nice man who says his daughter takes a photo each time she passes, and that it brought them great joy when a tree went in, and that they do check to see if it looks thirsty, but it hadn't.  (The Collin Dry Cleaners guys seem to have the water handled.)  And I met another gentleman who suggested a nonprofit - New York Tree Trust - that might provide a tree pit guard.  And different other folks seem willing to water if they happen by and the seedling looks thirsty, part of my conversations acknowledging that, yes, I was the tree planter, they are most welcome, and yes, please do water it if it looks thirsty.  So folks seem invested now, and maybe the seedling will keep growing.  I am going to give it a hashtag - #YorkvilleUESTreePit507E81, in case any of those folks goes searching and wants to follow along, and I will add it in a tag at the pit one of these days.  So, I dropped Mirabilis seeds in each of the four corners and cleome seeds on either side of the maple and behind it.

Then, to the pit with the dearly departed seedling (I bent parts of the top and it snapped - no give at all, so no life left, I don’t think).  Here I decided on two Mirabilis at the sides and a ring around the departed seedling with cleomes.  Maybe the now-amended and turned soil will trap water at the edge of the seedling’s roots, and if there IS any life remaining, the roots can take up some water.

The thing with this one, we’ll call it #YorkvilleUESTreePit530E81, is no one seemed to have taken any interest, and there just wasn't a ready water source around.  I had used both my bottles on the other pit, and was hoping against hope there might be a spigot somewhere at that end of the block ... none.  As I labored on, the nice lady who had put in the stake at the other pit passed by, and remarked, "You again?"  And we had more conversation about THIS tree pit, and the lack of water leading to the demise, which is when I met Jane of the window overlooking #YorkvilleUESTreePit530E81, who is home bound, and overheard us.  I had seen her before when I stopped by on other days to water in hopes of resuscitating the departed seedling, but today introduced myself.  Jane offered water by lowering down a bag on a rope from her window to fill my bottles, and offered to do it again if I am by and call up to her window.  Then a custodian at the building came along and asked if there would be flowers, and offered to let me in to the basement sink for more water.  He seems inclined to water occasionally and out of pity for the potential of flowers.  So maybe, maybe, this one will have life again too, so Jane will have something to look out upon.

And finally, after I got home, hours later, it rained some, so the seeds got some reinforcement moisture.  Hopefully they'll take.  Time will tell.