Trees n' drama on the East Side

Last night, the Garden Posse was all set: We had our tree, we had our tools, we had our plan. As we got organized, and I carried the Meyer Lemon tree to the garden, one of the neighbors drove up, threw the car door open, and yelled, "Yo, where's my tree?!" Another man in a truck stopped to say that every time he drove by the traffic triangle, he looked to see what was going on. He said he was excited about the tree, too.

Since last week, we saw a Miller Lite had grown next to the Wild Irish Rose. Something about all the broken glass must make the soil especially fertile for alcohol.

We didn't think the same soil would work for lemons, so here is Travis, adding mulch to the box.

Other Posse members were hooking the hose up to the spigot that a local business owner gave us permission to use, when they were rolled up on by the cops. This isn't a particularly good photo, but it is evidence: We had our first run-in with the police.

They thought we were stealing the water. When Megan informed them that we had gotten permission, they told her that if they received any complaints from the neighbors, they would have to charge "the manager" for criminal trespassing, even though this cop said he agreed with what we were doing and the idea behind it. Well, okay. With the response we've been receiving from the neighbors, it seems unlikely that someone would complain. Really, who hates public gardens? Show of hands?

Undeterred and unintimidated, we planted our tree.



We had started watering it with buckets of water when the heavens decided help out by opening up and raining buckets upon us. Thanks, heavens! We all (besides Jonathan) got drenched and ran to Megan's house. Then we had a pizza party. It recalled the humble origins of the guerrilla gardening project.



We also wrote down some garden guidelines for the sign, and discussed our next potential site. Travis is working on finding a spot in South Austin, and will post some pictures on the blog for consideration.

Next week we're on hiatus, and we'll resume on Tuesday, October 28. If you find yourself without activity on Tuesday, feel free to think about guerrilla gardening projects you'd like to do, or write on the blog about how you miss guerrilla gardening.

In the meantime, if you're interested in going to Maker Faire on Sunday, let's have a response/discussion thread in the post on Maker Faire below. Then I'll email info out. Please respond by Friday, because I don't check the internet on the weekends. Otherwise, you can call me. But just to entice you to come, here's a list of the awesome things you can learn to do at Maker Faire.