Plans for the weekend. Plans of all sorts!

Today we have a new president, and this Saturday the 24th we have a Special Guest Gardener coming (Leah) so I have informed the plants that they will need to grow some leaves and stand up straight/look bushy. Hah. I made the landscaping timbers less messy (it's all relative,) raked the mulch around ineffectively, and considered* asking the homeless guy in the bushes to become the official Pennsylvania Garden Guardian today, while wondering what on earth I can do to get this place looking inspiring by the weekend.

We need about 20 more landscaping timbers, some sand and garden pavers to make paths and steps, a lot more plants, a herd of energetic people who enjoy gardening to put them all in place, a watering system to get the plants established, and someone (or a goat) who loves weeding to remove all the ivy and so on. Oh, and what about the awful soil? Unfortunately all that falls into the realm of fantasy so we are just going to have to make do. Or... are we?

This week I decided the project needed a boost. I am spending so much money on it, and breaking my back. I need help. So I spoke to the Community Plant Bank (they are giving me some free plants on the weekend!), CalTrans (I think I can adopt the area now, and the sprinkler system might be turned on if it works), people from the ENPB Fund (who might possibly be able to fund some real, live landscaping) and people from the Potrero Hill Garden Club (who had previously been interested in the area, and who might still want to join in.) To cap it off, Leah is giving us some bricks and pavers! **

So there you go - a few emails and calls and there are all sorts of possibilities are turning up. It would be so great to sit on a bench in the garden on a warm SF summer evening (OK, the warm SF summer evening), surreptitiously sipping a glass of wine while enjoying the scent of jasmine and the company of the neighbors. Wouldn't it? I have a dream...!

*Instead I asked my friend Scott, who used to be homeless, what to do - be scared and stay away, or risk having needles thrown at me? I'll post his reply here when it comes.

**Update: Community Plant Bank plants were accidentally given away to someone else, ENPB fund is only for non profit orgs, and Potrero Hill Garden Club members are interested in a different piece of land. But I did get the bricks and pavers from Leah - hurrah!