Yeah, yeah, I know, we’re not quite there yet, but I can hardly wait. Know why? Thereby hangs a tale.
A small but intrepid group showed up for the first annual (?) Make A Difference Day work event on Saturday, October 27. Not exactly surprising, since it was plenty chilly and plenty rainy and not looking like your standard “Hey, let’s all do work outside” sort of day. Anyway, I don’t know how the project went over in the old Baptist Cemetery behind the Veterans’ Memorial–that was supposed to be about fixing and trimming and general clean-up, I gather–but the detail that I joined up with was down behind Main Street, on the banks of the creek, along the Boardwalk and down almost to the falls. There were loppers of several sorts in evidence, looked like at least one small general-purpose chainsaw, then I showed up with a bucketful of gloves and trowels. And what were those for, you ask. Why, to plant things I reply. What things? Roots and bulbs…bulbs and roots…the better to green up the historic atmosphere of the place, my dears.
Before we even got to that part, clean-up was accomplished in several parts of the locale; discarded cans, bottles and paper products are not very historic, although a couple of artifacts worth noting were found in the dirt (I got two pennies but that was the extent of my discoveries) and some property owners had already done considerable work in that regard. The loppers got plenty of play and there were small piles of kindling-size pieces left around. There are some trees that have unfurled their last leaves and will need to be taken out but that is work for another day…and a drier one at that, when would-be lumberjacks won’t have to stand in water up to the knee or rappel down the high side of the bank.
So, when I got there with my bucket of trowels and gloves, I also brought several bags of–guess what–bulbs and roots, roots and bulbs. The crews split up, one on either side of the creek (Eagle Creek? Silver Creek? Camp Creek? It matters not, there was water and a lot of it going over the dam; nobody was going to wade from one side to another.). On the shadier side we planted Grape Hyacinths (Muscari), Lillies of the Valley, Hosta and–I think– some Astilbe.
The other side, right behind Main Street, got Tulips, Crocus (There might have been some of those on the other side too, gold and purple, I think.), Anemones and at least one other variety that I have forgotten–you see one bulb, you’ve seen ‘em all, for all practical purposes.
Each side of the rushing creek had its own challenges. On the lower side it was all about getting to the planting sites at all; there really are no steps down to the creekside. Mountain climbing–or descending, actually–in G-Ville! How about that!
The upper side had steps from the walkway above and a gate through the fencing, however, the slope there down to the creek is probably somewhere around a forty-five degree angle, much of it fairly loose soil. Adventure! Right here in River City! Anyway, John Crawford and I took that side and pretty much finished off all of the bags that we had and got down nearly to the water across the entire hillside, all totally random. It’s going to be interesting to see if there are any patterns or clumps when they do finally bloom.
And that’s why I can hardly wait until Spring. I want to see how many of them make it into bloom, not devoured by critters making use of the brand-new salad bar or washed away by a rising creek or torrential rainfall or turned into floral raisins by a serious drought of some sort.
After all of the planting and cleaning up after that, there was a time of clearing out some debris from the opening of the millrace and a giant timber at the side of the dam. A plastic crate and an extension cord enabled the removal of a log perched on the lip of the dam. The whole enterprise was nothing if not ingenious. Later another whole bag of crocus happened to be left, so I took my trusty trowel and stuck them in on the side by that small fountain back by the parking lot. In doing all of this planting–without the gloves that I had brought–I managed to work up a blister in the palm of my hand (improper trowel use, probably), and to break it. If there are any rogue bacteria around, I may be building up a resistance, aided by a slathering of Neosporin.
Then, when all of that was over, I went home, looked around and decided that as long as I was soaked through anyway, I might as well clean out and hose down the coolers which had been sitting out since the summer entertaining season ended. Where do all of these brilliant ideas come from?
Anyway, watch the creek banks this Spring…after you watch the lighting of the Falls, beginning on November 1, just as the Christmas Walk kicks off with the Candlelight Tour. Never a dull moment around here!
