Summer Evenings

Near my apartment building, there is a somewhat abandoned, yet regularly used piece of land. Over the years, I've watched how people use the land and talked to some of those people. No one has ever said they liked how it is being used right now. The current plant coverage and accommodations brings many issues with it including trash, rats, homeless individuals, tagging and lack of necessary pathways. Pretty much everyone would like to see it in more of a park-like state friendly for people sitting, walking their dogs and possibly some community garden aspects. I've been trying to work with some of my neighborhood associations, but it seems to be a semi-slow process.

Next to this piece of land is another little strip of land that no one seems to pay attention to and no one claims to own. It pretty much consists of trash, dead plants, plants with giant burrs and dandelions.

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to spend time outside dealing with these areas. On one hand, I just want it fixed and what better way than to do it myself. I use this land every day when walking to my destinations and it bothers me. I am sure the trash there only makes people see it as being ownerless.

The first evening I went out with a plastic grocery bag and went to work. After only a couple of minutes someone came up to me and asked if I was being paid to do this. In the conversation that followed I made a friend and found someone that was older, but excited to see someone doing something. He gave me some suggestions and encouragement and was excited to see what I could do. I ended up collecting probably 8 bags of trash that evening. I picked up bag after bag, easily recycled cans and bottles, paper of all sorts, plastic wrappers and other random plastic pieces.

A week later, the plants were already filled with trash again, but I held back and instead started focusing on the little, somewhat super abandoned land without anyone claiming it. I started intensely weeding it, getting deep at the roots of the plants and digging into the ground. I was surprised to find it's quite a few inches of rocks with some dirt.

I haven't made too much progress with that, but the process of digging in the soil, sifting it through my fingers and picking up things is somewhat soothing. My friend came out again this evening while I worked, excited as ever, wondering what I have in store. I guess he's been trying to get someone to do something with this land for a while, trying to find the owner, but no one wants to claim it. I managed to pick up some baby aloe plants on freecycle recently, so I'm thinking about adding some of those. I'm somewhat interested in the possible challenge of trying to fill the space with freecycle or gathered plant seeds/sprouts, but we'll see. In some ways I've started approaching this as a challenge to myself to see what I can do. While I always played in the dirt growing up and helped my mom and whatnot in the garden, I've never done something like this as an adult.