Poem: "Caterpillar Park"
Jul. 24th, 2021 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem was written outside the regular prompt calls, based on discussions with dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Jumping / Skipping Rope" square in my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest, and the "Nuts" square in my 7-1-21 card for the Winterfest in July Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. This poem belongs to the Shiv and Broken Angels threads of the Polychrome Heroics series. It comes between "Oak Guilds" and "The Power of Food to Bring People Together."
"Caterpillar Park"
[Monday, May 9, 2016]
When Sally called to tell them
that she had the plants loaded
into a truck, Boss Blaster and
Shiv headed to the empty lot
in the Long Arm neighborhood.
The place was mostly empty,
ringed by trees and bushes with
a few patches of tall grass and
weeds hiding bits of rubble.
Boss Blaster had paid one
of the neighborhood teens
to mow the grass shortly after
he had purchased the lot, and it
looked better than before, but still
an odd mix of messy and barren.
"Anything that needs to come out?"
Boss Blaster asked, turning to Shiv.
The younger man paced the yard,
hands out, then paused to pull up
several lengths of rusty metal.
"Signposts," Shiv said. "They
might've been used as markers."
"We'll start a garbage pile over there,"
Boss Blaster said, indicating a bare spot
just beyond the end of the wide driveway.
Shiv dropped the signposts there
just as Sally arrived at the empty lot.
She unloaded flats of plants,
spacing them along the grass.
"I thought you were bringing
trees?" Boss Blaster said,
looking at the tiny plants.
"Two bur oaks, two pawpaws,
a linden, and a shagbark hickory,"
said Sally. "I also brought along
a few bushes and wildflowers to make
an oak guild, a bee guild, a nut guild,
and a pollinator garden. Together
they'll approximate a healthy forest."
Boss Blaster glanced at the pots.
Okay, those looked like oak leaves,
but they were no taller than his hand.
"If they manage to survive," he said.
"Eh, they'll grow, especially after
our assistant shows up," said Shiv.
"There is that," Boss Blaster said.
"All right, Sally, you're on planning.
"Figure out where you want stuff
and mark out the guild locations
so people will know where to dig."
More people were arriving,
mostly neighbors brought in
by the phone tree, but then
Bobbie arrived with Hali
and a bunch more plants.
"What's all this about?"
Boss Blaster wondered.
"Hali wanted to help plant trees,
and Cas wanted the kitchen to
himself," Bobbie explained. "Edie
sent the flower starts, because she
wanted to help Cas with cooking."
"Okay?" Boss Blaster said, looking at
the box of shoots wrapped in newspaper.
Sally came to his rescue. "Rudbeckias, or
black-eyed Susans, that bloom in summer,"
she said, pointing at one half. "Asters,
that bloom in fall. Anything that blooms
after June can be divided in the spring,
and still flower later the same year."
"Yeah, Edie said she needed to dig up
her beds because they were overcrowded,
but she's out of room," Bobbie explained.
"So she sent the extras over with us."
"We can put some in the pollinator garden
and others around the area," said Sally.
"Great, now get the spaces marked,"
Boss Blaster said, shooing her away.
Sally started marking the guild areas,
which were a lot bigger than needed
for the tiny little trees and plants, but
clearing the space around them
would cut down on competition.
There was plenty of compost
and bark mulch, so they could
fill in the freshly dug space with
material easy on the roots.
As soon as Sally finished
outlining the oak guild --
which at this stage was
really just a pair of circles --
Boss Blaster set people
to digging out the sod.
"What're we gonna do
with all these grass slabs?"
Shiv asked, kicking one.
"I don't know, ask Sally,"
Boss Blaster said, and
waved her back for a look.
"I suppose we could build
a berm. Different levels
create niches," she said.
"If we had any rubble, we
could make a hibernaculum
for wildlife to winter inside."
"We got rubble," Shiv said,
pointing out the nearest pile.
"It's all under them weeds."
Sally looked at it and said,
"Honestly, we could just throw
sod over this and call it good.
Make sure to leave some holes
so the wildlife can get inside."
Shiv held a hand over the pile.
"There's pieces of pipe in here,
like ceramic or something.
Would that work for holes?"
"Sure, if it points to the outside,"
Sally said. "Might be old tile
from a drainage system."
So Shiv pulled some pipes
to where they made entrances,
then the people cutting sod
began layering it over the top.
When Boss Blaster looked up,
he saw a little girl jumping rope
on the inside edge of the driveway.
With her were a large black man
and a tall woman with a long face.
Shiv darted past him. "Hey,
glad you could make it," he said.
"Give her a few minutes, she
needs to work off the wiggles
before doing anything serious,"
the woman said, holding up a hand.
"No problem, introduction first,"
Shiv said. "This is Boss Blaster,
who owns the park. Boss, this is
Alicia and her Guardians. Cheval
is a teleporter and bodyguard.
Nanette's a telepath and nanny."
"Welcome to Lincoln," said the boss.
"The woman in olive camo is Sally,
who's overseeing the park planting."
"What kind of park?" Alicia asked,
effortlessly twirling the rope into
intricate patterns as she skipped.
"You didn't say much earlier."
"I think the main focus is
the oak trees and whatever
goes with them. There are
a few other trees too, and
lots of flowers," Shiv said,
then pointed. "We also built
that thing with the loose sod,
for critters to climb inside."
"And you want me to make
things older?" Alicia said.
"Yeah, not so's people freak,
but enough it won't get eaten,"
Shiv said. "The trees are
like this high." He measured
the tiny space with his fingers.
"Rabbit food," Alicia agreed, then
swirled the rope into one hand and
gave it to Cheval. "Let's get digging."
She was actually dressed for it,
wearing blue denim overalls
with a flower sewn on the front.
"We're starting with the oak guild,
because that's the biggest and
the first dug," said Boss Blaster.
"It's supposed to get filled with
compost around the plants."
"What are we planting?"
Alicia asked as they walked.
"Two bur oak seedlings, each
in its own circle for now, with
wildflowers around them,"
Shiv said. "Then there are
a couple of pawpaws that go
between in separate circles.
Later it'll all get put together
in a big oval with more plants."
"That sounds fun," Alicia said.
"I can't wait to get started."
When they reached the oak guild,
Bobbie was dumping a wheelbarrow
of compost into the pit while Hali used
a hoe twice her height to spread it.
"Oh," Alicia said softly. "She has wings."
Instantly Hali flipped them closed
and turned to face the newcomers.
"Yeah, don't push that," Shiv muttered.
"Let me make introductions." That
only took a few minutes, and once
Hali realized that the new people
were Shiv's friends, she relaxed.
"I'll get the plants," said the boss.
"If we lay them out, it'll be easier
to get them in the right places."
"Do the oak first, in the middle,"
Shiv said, consulting a siteplan.
Hali, already up to her ankles in
the soft compost, scooped out
a hole to put the baby tree in.
Bobbie covered it and watered it,
then sprinkled on some wood chips.
"Okay, first the white false indigo,
blue false indigo, and Canada anemone
make a triangle on the outside," Shiv said,
pointing to the appropriate locations.
People dug more holes and put
the plants wherever he indicated.
"Butterflyweed and Pennsylvania sedge
make a smaller triangle inside," Shiv said,
and everyone filled in those spaces. Then
Bobbie spread a few more wood chips.
"My turn," Alicia said. Then she winked
at Hali. "Do you want to help too?"
"How?" Hali said, twitching her wings.
"Make a wish for the baby tree to grow,
and I'll give it a boost," Alicia said.
"Grow!" Hali said, blowing on it like
it was a dandelion. Tiny leaves stirred.
Alicia held a hand over the new guild,
and suddenly the plants grew. The bur oak,
formerly hand size, stretched up and up
until it was taller than Alicia, almost as
tall as Shiv. The flowers, formerly
thumb size, reached knee height.
"Yay!" Hali crowed, hopping
and flapping around the circle.
"Food," Alicia said, waving a hand.
Nanette handed her a mealbar of
some sort. "Don't wear yourself out."
"Cas is making supper," said Shiv.
"It's going to be awesome. Don't
faceplant, yeah, but you don't need
to worry about refilling calories."
Despite the choice of name,
Boss Blaster knew damn well
that she used more than
just calories as fuel.
Next they filled in
the other oak circle
in a similar manner.
"Be careful with planting
the pawpaws," Bobbie said.
"Sally says they're fussy."
"I can get them past
the transplant shock,"
Alicia said. "But we'll
be careful anyway."
Each pawpaw had
its own circle, arranged
between the oak trees so
the four made a diamond.
Alicia waved her hands,
and suddenly there were
several waist-high seedlings
leafing out in each of the circles.
"Whoa, what happened there?"
Shiv said, jumping away from them.
Alicia laughed. "Sorry, I forgot
they sucker -- make more trunks."
"What's next?" Boss Blaster said.
"Kato's over there working on
the bee guild," Bobbie said.
That had a littleleaf linden tree
in the center of the circle.
As Boss Blaster watched,
people put in a quartet of
hand-sized wild rose bushes.
"I brought wild chives and such.
Will you help me carry the herbs?"
Sally asked, and Boss Blaster
followed her to where several flats
were stacked in a special holder.
He recognized mint, dill, parsley
but the others were a mystery to him.
Hali and Alicia were happily digging
in the dirt when Boss Blaster and
Sally returned with the herbs.
"Scatter these around, but
plant the wild chives toward
the outside," said Sally. "Alliums
discourage pests. The others attract
pollinators and feed caterpillars."
"I'll take the wild chives,"
said Boss Blaster. Sticking
to a simple part of the project
should minimize risk of mistakes.
Honestly, the chives looked like
little tufts of grass, but soon he
learned that they didn't smell
that way if they got bruised.
"Try not to crush the chives,"
Sally said, lifting her head.
"Sorry," Boss Blaster muttered.
"I'm not exactly a gardener." He
was fast, but much better with
machines than with plants.
Still, he got the rest of them
into the ground all right.
Hali pushed the last of
the mint into the ground,
then patted compost
around the stems.
Alicia beckoned her
to stand by the linden.
The girls held out their hands,
and the tree shot up between them,
surrounded by the burgeoning herbs.
"Wow, that is a lot of mint," Alicia said,
looking at the fluffy green carpet of it.
Then she sat down. "Hungry now."
"Bobbie, find a restaurant near here
and go get lunch," said Boss Blaster.
Cheval stepped forward. "Want a lift?"
"Oh hell yes," Bobbie said, grinning.
"How much extra weight can you carry?"
Both Alicia and Shiv cracked up laughing,
while Nanette and Cheval looked amused.
"He regularly carries a horse," Shiv said.
"Don't worry about packing a little lunch."
"Okay," Bobbie said, flitting away with Cheval.
"Meanwhile, we can start on the nut guild,"
Shiv said, pointing to where a team had
just finished dragging away the sod.
"Dig in plenty of compost first,"
Sally said. "Nut trees are like
fruit trees. Some of them
are really heavy feeders."
Shiv used the old signposts as
scrap metal to make some sort of
twisty mixing tool on a long handle,
which he used to blend compost
into the original soil of the park.
They hadn't even gotten around
to the actual planting part when
a shrill whistle interrupted them.
Everyone crowded around
the driveway where the twins
had set up an impromptu eatery.
"Okay, folks, the handwashing station
is here," Kato said pointing the way.
He had used several jumbo water bottles
along with other odds and ends to build
a rig that would wash and rinse hands.
"Once you're clean, come over here
and get your food," said Bobbie.
She had set up a sort of buffet on
a folding table covered in paper.
The meat was boiled shrimp
or fried chicken nuggets.
For the side dishes they
had pirate beans and rice,
vegetable sticks with dip,
whole fried okra fingers, and
sourdough seaweed crackers.
The dessert options included
coconut chia pudding and
pieces of eight butter cookies.
There was even a big jug
of watermelon lemonade.
Boss Blaster clapped
his hands to forestall
the general stampede.
"If you've used superpowers
for planting, then get in front,"
he said, firmly placing himself
at the end of that line. He'd
only cheated a little bit.
The rest of the volunteers
piled into line behind him.
The handwashing station
really was ingenious, using
soapy water instead of soap,
and pedals to control the flow
for washing and then rinsing.
Boss Blaster watched Shiv
help Alicia and Hali load up
their plates, then fill his own.
Cheval wasn't shy about taking
teleporter portions, either.
Boss Blaster dished up
some for himself, then
stepped out of the way.
The food was delicious,
an odd combination of
soul food and health food,
with an obvious ocean theme.
The chicken was crunchy and
fragrant, the vegetables refreshing.
The seaweed crackers were just
the thing after sweating over the park.
Perhaps inevitably, several people
seemed to be discussing bets
over the pieces of eight.
Boss Blaster shook his head
and ate his cookies. The boss
didn't need to micromanage things.
After lunch, the button twins
cleared away the remains of
the feast, but they left behind
the handwashing equipment.
Boss Blaster insisted on a break
after lunch, so nobody would be
working on too full a stomach.
People milled around the park,
talking about where to put things,
or sharing stories about parks
and gardens they'd seen before.
Then Grove Bessey pulled up
in a pickup truck loaded with ...
some sort of tree remains.
"Hey, boss!" he said cheerfully.
"I heard you were planting oak guilds
and figured I'd ask if you wanted to add
some snags or logs to your new park. I
was out cleaning up some storm damage
and you're welcome to the haul if you want it."
"Say yes," Sally urged. "Snags and logs
have high wildlife value in a forest."
"Do we have room for them here?"
Boss Blaster asked sensibly.
Sally turned in place, scanning
the park, then bounded into
the back of the pickup truck
to examine the contents.
"Okay, yeah, this long piece
will make a good snag. We can
put it over there," she said, pointing.
"Smaller logs can be placed around
the guild beds, and larger ones for
visual interest. We could also
build a brushpile somewhere."
"Great," said Grove. "Give me
a hand unloading this stuff."
In short order, volunteers
had the truck unloaded and
the logs and limbs sorted.
A tall length of trunk was
buried several feet in the ground
with its stubby branches raised
high overhead to provide perches.
"This should attract birds," Sally said,
patting the trunk. "They won't have
to wait for the saplings to grow up."
A couple of logs were placed in a bed of
woodchips with low, creeping bushes
in a rocky section of the park.
Boss Blaster and Shiv hauled
short logs to edge the guild beds.
Grove and Sally built a brush pile
with thicker logs as the base, then
smaller branches layered on top.
"Weave the long ones together,"
Alicia said. "That helps hold
everything in place, even with
critters crawling or wind blowing."
Hali was eager to clamber around
poking ends over and under each other.
"See now, rabbits and birds can get in
through the gaps, but larger predators
would have a hard time chasing them,"
Sally explained. "The brushpile also
provides shelter from bad weather."
After that, they planted the nut guild.
It centered on a shagbark hickory
the size of a pencil. Around that
went several elderberry bushes, then
rings of thyme and sweet woodruff.
Alicia and Hali once more urged
the new plants to grow. The hickory
wound up close to Alicia's height,
the elderberries more hip height,
and the herbs a low dense mat.
"That looks great," said Grove.
"What else do we have left?"
"Wildflowers," said Boss Blaster.
"Sally brought some, and one of
my neighbors sent over a bunch
of starts from dividing her beds."
"I'll lay out the mixed wildflower bed
first," said Sally. "We can put some
of the donated flowers in there."
"What about the rest of them?"
Boss Blaster asked her.
"Make a couple of other beds
for single plantings," said Sally.
"Butterflies find it easier to spot
big drifts of color than small dots."
"Works for me," said Boss Blaster.
"Just show everyone where to dig."
The wildflower bed turned into
a large, rough oval outline studded
with several rocks removed from
other beds, edged in long branches.
It was big enough for lots of people
to plant things at the same time,
working from the center out.
They put in black-eyed Susan,
aster, coreopsis, butterflyweed,
yarrow, purple coneflower, beebalm
and other things Boss Blaster
could not even recognize.
"Hey boss, folks brought
some other stuff that isn't
plants," Kato said. "Should
we put them in this bed?"
Boss Blaster looked at
the stuff Kato held. "Sally,
what do you think?" he said.
"That's a good idea," she agreed.
The tall wooden box with slits
turned out to be a butterfly house.
The glass bowl on a long stake
could hold water, birdseed,
or overripe fruit for butterflies.
There was a flat stone with
a hollow space to hold water,
so small animals could drink.
Those all got tucked into
the garden amongst the plants.
Alicia and Hali flitted among them
like little fairies, encouraging
the plants to grow. Some
burst into unseasonal blooms.
"Oops," Alicia muttered.
"My control's getting iffy."
"That's okay, you have been
working hard today," said Shiv.
"Mine's about crapped out too."
Sally looked around the place,
which looked a lot more like
a park than it had this morning.
"I think the only thing we have left
is the mass plantings," she said.
"Put the black-eyed Susans here,
and the asters over there."
The wildflower team split
into two groups, with
Boss Blaster and Hali
going for the asters.
"In autumn, these will
bloom purple," said Sally.
"Well, probably -- some are
pink, blue, or white instead."
Those beds wound up
more or less bean-shaped.
Boss Blaster helped put
the bark mulch on top,
then watched as the girls
helped the plants grow.
These didn't burst
into bloom, though.
Several people went
around watering plants.
He leaned on the shovel.
"Anything else to do?"
"Not today," said Sally.
"Let's give these plants
a chance to settle in and
start forming relationships.
We can add more later."
"What do you have in mind
for that?" Grove wondered.
Shiv pulled out a sheaf of
grimy, folded papers.
"Later on, the oak guild
gets hazels and comfrey,"
Shiv read. "The bee guild
gets more herbs and flowers."
"We can't plant the spring bulbs
until fall," Sally pointed out.
"Gooseberry bushes and
more herbs for the nut guild,"
Shiv said. "Other plantings will
add American plum, black cherry,
partridge pea, and so forth."
Boss Blaster looked around
at the clusters of saplings and
drifts of young wildflowers,
trying to imagine how it
would look fully grown.
"Okay, start cleaning up and
packing," said Boss Blaster.
"We'll head back to my place.
Cas will serve supper soon."
People began gathering
the scattered equipment.
A bird wheeled through
the sky, then landed
on top of the new snag.
Sally caught her breath.
"Oh, wow, that's a kestrel!"
The bird fluttered away again.
"Still, it's a good sign," Sally said.
"They like perches over open areas."
"Should we put up birdhouses or
something?" Boss Blaster said.
"Not yet, but maybe later,"
said Sally. "It depends on
whether you want to encourage
birds, butterflies, or both. Just
remember, the birds will eat
quite a lot of the caterpillars."
"But you'll have lots of places
for caterpillars to live, so you should
still have plenty left," Grove said.
"Then that's what we should call
this place," said Boss Blaster.
"Welcome to Caterpillar Park."
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere.
dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "Jumping / Skipping Rope" square in my 6-1-21 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest, and the "Nuts" square in my 7-1-21 card for the Winterfest in July Bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. This poem belongs to the Shiv and Broken Angels threads of the Polychrome Heroics series. It comes between "Oak Guilds" and "The Power of Food to Bring People Together.""Caterpillar Park"
[Monday, May 9, 2016]
When Sally called to tell them
that she had the plants loaded
into a truck, Boss Blaster and
Shiv headed to the empty lot
in the Long Arm neighborhood.
The place was mostly empty,
ringed by trees and bushes with
a few patches of tall grass and
weeds hiding bits of rubble.
Boss Blaster had paid one
of the neighborhood teens
to mow the grass shortly after
he had purchased the lot, and it
looked better than before, but still
an odd mix of messy and barren.
"Anything that needs to come out?"
Boss Blaster asked, turning to Shiv.
The younger man paced the yard,
hands out, then paused to pull up
several lengths of rusty metal.
"Signposts," Shiv said. "They
might've been used as markers."
"We'll start a garbage pile over there,"
Boss Blaster said, indicating a bare spot
just beyond the end of the wide driveway.
Shiv dropped the signposts there
just as Sally arrived at the empty lot.
She unloaded flats of plants,
spacing them along the grass.
"I thought you were bringing
trees?" Boss Blaster said,
looking at the tiny plants.
"Two bur oaks, two pawpaws,
a linden, and a shagbark hickory,"
said Sally. "I also brought along
a few bushes and wildflowers to make
an oak guild, a bee guild, a nut guild,
and a pollinator garden. Together
they'll approximate a healthy forest."
Boss Blaster glanced at the pots.
Okay, those looked like oak leaves,
but they were no taller than his hand.
"If they manage to survive," he said.
"Eh, they'll grow, especially after
our assistant shows up," said Shiv.
"There is that," Boss Blaster said.
"All right, Sally, you're on planning.
"Figure out where you want stuff
and mark out the guild locations
so people will know where to dig."
More people were arriving,
mostly neighbors brought in
by the phone tree, but then
Bobbie arrived with Hali
and a bunch more plants.
"What's all this about?"
Boss Blaster wondered.
"Hali wanted to help plant trees,
and Cas wanted the kitchen to
himself," Bobbie explained. "Edie
sent the flower starts, because she
wanted to help Cas with cooking."
"Okay?" Boss Blaster said, looking at
the box of shoots wrapped in newspaper.
Sally came to his rescue. "Rudbeckias, or
black-eyed Susans, that bloom in summer,"
she said, pointing at one half. "Asters,
that bloom in fall. Anything that blooms
after June can be divided in the spring,
and still flower later the same year."
"Yeah, Edie said she needed to dig up
her beds because they were overcrowded,
but she's out of room," Bobbie explained.
"So she sent the extras over with us."
"We can put some in the pollinator garden
and others around the area," said Sally.
"Great, now get the spaces marked,"
Boss Blaster said, shooing her away.
Sally started marking the guild areas,
which were a lot bigger than needed
for the tiny little trees and plants, but
clearing the space around them
would cut down on competition.
There was plenty of compost
and bark mulch, so they could
fill in the freshly dug space with
material easy on the roots.
As soon as Sally finished
outlining the oak guild --
which at this stage was
really just a pair of circles --
Boss Blaster set people
to digging out the sod.
"What're we gonna do
with all these grass slabs?"
Shiv asked, kicking one.
"I don't know, ask Sally,"
Boss Blaster said, and
waved her back for a look.
"I suppose we could build
a berm. Different levels
create niches," she said.
"If we had any rubble, we
could make a hibernaculum
for wildlife to winter inside."
"We got rubble," Shiv said,
pointing out the nearest pile.
"It's all under them weeds."
Sally looked at it and said,
"Honestly, we could just throw
sod over this and call it good.
Make sure to leave some holes
so the wildlife can get inside."
Shiv held a hand over the pile.
"There's pieces of pipe in here,
like ceramic or something.
Would that work for holes?"
"Sure, if it points to the outside,"
Sally said. "Might be old tile
from a drainage system."
So Shiv pulled some pipes
to where they made entrances,
then the people cutting sod
began layering it over the top.
When Boss Blaster looked up,
he saw a little girl jumping rope
on the inside edge of the driveway.
With her were a large black man
and a tall woman with a long face.
Shiv darted past him. "Hey,
glad you could make it," he said.
"Give her a few minutes, she
needs to work off the wiggles
before doing anything serious,"
the woman said, holding up a hand.
"No problem, introduction first,"
Shiv said. "This is Boss Blaster,
who owns the park. Boss, this is
Alicia and her Guardians. Cheval
is a teleporter and bodyguard.
Nanette's a telepath and nanny."
"Welcome to Lincoln," said the boss.
"The woman in olive camo is Sally,
who's overseeing the park planting."
"What kind of park?" Alicia asked,
effortlessly twirling the rope into
intricate patterns as she skipped.
"You didn't say much earlier."
"I think the main focus is
the oak trees and whatever
goes with them. There are
a few other trees too, and
lots of flowers," Shiv said,
then pointed. "We also built
that thing with the loose sod,
for critters to climb inside."
"And you want me to make
things older?" Alicia said.
"Yeah, not so's people freak,
but enough it won't get eaten,"
Shiv said. "The trees are
like this high." He measured
the tiny space with his fingers.
"Rabbit food," Alicia agreed, then
swirled the rope into one hand and
gave it to Cheval. "Let's get digging."
She was actually dressed for it,
wearing blue denim overalls
with a flower sewn on the front.
"We're starting with the oak guild,
because that's the biggest and
the first dug," said Boss Blaster.
"It's supposed to get filled with
compost around the plants."
"What are we planting?"
Alicia asked as they walked.
"Two bur oak seedlings, each
in its own circle for now, with
wildflowers around them,"
Shiv said. "Then there are
a couple of pawpaws that go
between in separate circles.
Later it'll all get put together
in a big oval with more plants."
"That sounds fun," Alicia said.
"I can't wait to get started."
When they reached the oak guild,
Bobbie was dumping a wheelbarrow
of compost into the pit while Hali used
a hoe twice her height to spread it.
"Oh," Alicia said softly. "She has wings."
Instantly Hali flipped them closed
and turned to face the newcomers.
"Yeah, don't push that," Shiv muttered.
"Let me make introductions." That
only took a few minutes, and once
Hali realized that the new people
were Shiv's friends, she relaxed.
"I'll get the plants," said the boss.
"If we lay them out, it'll be easier
to get them in the right places."
"Do the oak first, in the middle,"
Shiv said, consulting a siteplan.
Hali, already up to her ankles in
the soft compost, scooped out
a hole to put the baby tree in.
Bobbie covered it and watered it,
then sprinkled on some wood chips.
"Okay, first the white false indigo,
blue false indigo, and Canada anemone
make a triangle on the outside," Shiv said,
pointing to the appropriate locations.
People dug more holes and put
the plants wherever he indicated.
"Butterflyweed and Pennsylvania sedge
make a smaller triangle inside," Shiv said,
and everyone filled in those spaces. Then
Bobbie spread a few more wood chips.
"My turn," Alicia said. Then she winked
at Hali. "Do you want to help too?"
"How?" Hali said, twitching her wings.
"Make a wish for the baby tree to grow,
and I'll give it a boost," Alicia said.
"Grow!" Hali said, blowing on it like
it was a dandelion. Tiny leaves stirred.
Alicia held a hand over the new guild,
and suddenly the plants grew. The bur oak,
formerly hand size, stretched up and up
until it was taller than Alicia, almost as
tall as Shiv. The flowers, formerly
thumb size, reached knee height.
"Yay!" Hali crowed, hopping
and flapping around the circle.
"Food," Alicia said, waving a hand.
Nanette handed her a mealbar of
some sort. "Don't wear yourself out."
"Cas is making supper," said Shiv.
"It's going to be awesome. Don't
faceplant, yeah, but you don't need
to worry about refilling calories."
Despite the choice of name,
Boss Blaster knew damn well
that she used more than
just calories as fuel.
Next they filled in
the other oak circle
in a similar manner.
"Be careful with planting
the pawpaws," Bobbie said.
"Sally says they're fussy."
"I can get them past
the transplant shock,"
Alicia said. "But we'll
be careful anyway."
Each pawpaw had
its own circle, arranged
between the oak trees so
the four made a diamond.
Alicia waved her hands,
and suddenly there were
several waist-high seedlings
leafing out in each of the circles.
"Whoa, what happened there?"
Shiv said, jumping away from them.
Alicia laughed. "Sorry, I forgot
they sucker -- make more trunks."
"What's next?" Boss Blaster said.
"Kato's over there working on
the bee guild," Bobbie said.
That had a littleleaf linden tree
in the center of the circle.
As Boss Blaster watched,
people put in a quartet of
hand-sized wild rose bushes.
"I brought wild chives and such.
Will you help me carry the herbs?"
Sally asked, and Boss Blaster
followed her to where several flats
were stacked in a special holder.
He recognized mint, dill, parsley
but the others were a mystery to him.
Hali and Alicia were happily digging
in the dirt when Boss Blaster and
Sally returned with the herbs.
"Scatter these around, but
plant the wild chives toward
the outside," said Sally. "Alliums
discourage pests. The others attract
pollinators and feed caterpillars."
"I'll take the wild chives,"
said Boss Blaster. Sticking
to a simple part of the project
should minimize risk of mistakes.
Honestly, the chives looked like
little tufts of grass, but soon he
learned that they didn't smell
that way if they got bruised.
"Try not to crush the chives,"
Sally said, lifting her head.
"Sorry," Boss Blaster muttered.
"I'm not exactly a gardener." He
was fast, but much better with
machines than with plants.
Still, he got the rest of them
into the ground all right.
Hali pushed the last of
the mint into the ground,
then patted compost
around the stems.
Alicia beckoned her
to stand by the linden.
The girls held out their hands,
and the tree shot up between them,
surrounded by the burgeoning herbs.
"Wow, that is a lot of mint," Alicia said,
looking at the fluffy green carpet of it.
Then she sat down. "Hungry now."
"Bobbie, find a restaurant near here
and go get lunch," said Boss Blaster.
Cheval stepped forward. "Want a lift?"
"Oh hell yes," Bobbie said, grinning.
"How much extra weight can you carry?"
Both Alicia and Shiv cracked up laughing,
while Nanette and Cheval looked amused.
"He regularly carries a horse," Shiv said.
"Don't worry about packing a little lunch."
"Okay," Bobbie said, flitting away with Cheval.
"Meanwhile, we can start on the nut guild,"
Shiv said, pointing to where a team had
just finished dragging away the sod.
"Dig in plenty of compost first,"
Sally said. "Nut trees are like
fruit trees. Some of them
are really heavy feeders."
Shiv used the old signposts as
scrap metal to make some sort of
twisty mixing tool on a long handle,
which he used to blend compost
into the original soil of the park.
They hadn't even gotten around
to the actual planting part when
a shrill whistle interrupted them.
Everyone crowded around
the driveway where the twins
had set up an impromptu eatery.
"Okay, folks, the handwashing station
is here," Kato said pointing the way.
He had used several jumbo water bottles
along with other odds and ends to build
a rig that would wash and rinse hands.
"Once you're clean, come over here
and get your food," said Bobbie.
She had set up a sort of buffet on
a folding table covered in paper.
The meat was boiled shrimp
or fried chicken nuggets.
For the side dishes they
had pirate beans and rice,
vegetable sticks with dip,
whole fried okra fingers, and
sourdough seaweed crackers.
The dessert options included
coconut chia pudding and
pieces of eight butter cookies.
There was even a big jug
of watermelon lemonade.
Boss Blaster clapped
his hands to forestall
the general stampede.
"If you've used superpowers
for planting, then get in front,"
he said, firmly placing himself
at the end of that line. He'd
only cheated a little bit.
The rest of the volunteers
piled into line behind him.
The handwashing station
really was ingenious, using
soapy water instead of soap,
and pedals to control the flow
for washing and then rinsing.
Boss Blaster watched Shiv
help Alicia and Hali load up
their plates, then fill his own.
Cheval wasn't shy about taking
teleporter portions, either.
Boss Blaster dished up
some for himself, then
stepped out of the way.
The food was delicious,
an odd combination of
soul food and health food,
with an obvious ocean theme.
The chicken was crunchy and
fragrant, the vegetables refreshing.
The seaweed crackers were just
the thing after sweating over the park.
Perhaps inevitably, several people
seemed to be discussing bets
over the pieces of eight.
Boss Blaster shook his head
and ate his cookies. The boss
didn't need to micromanage things.
After lunch, the button twins
cleared away the remains of
the feast, but they left behind
the handwashing equipment.
Boss Blaster insisted on a break
after lunch, so nobody would be
working on too full a stomach.
People milled around the park,
talking about where to put things,
or sharing stories about parks
and gardens they'd seen before.
Then Grove Bessey pulled up
in a pickup truck loaded with ...
some sort of tree remains.
"Hey, boss!" he said cheerfully.
"I heard you were planting oak guilds
and figured I'd ask if you wanted to add
some snags or logs to your new park. I
was out cleaning up some storm damage
and you're welcome to the haul if you want it."
"Say yes," Sally urged. "Snags and logs
have high wildlife value in a forest."
"Do we have room for them here?"
Boss Blaster asked sensibly.
Sally turned in place, scanning
the park, then bounded into
the back of the pickup truck
to examine the contents.
"Okay, yeah, this long piece
will make a good snag. We can
put it over there," she said, pointing.
"Smaller logs can be placed around
the guild beds, and larger ones for
visual interest. We could also
build a brushpile somewhere."
"Great," said Grove. "Give me
a hand unloading this stuff."
In short order, volunteers
had the truck unloaded and
the logs and limbs sorted.
A tall length of trunk was
buried several feet in the ground
with its stubby branches raised
high overhead to provide perches.
"This should attract birds," Sally said,
patting the trunk. "They won't have
to wait for the saplings to grow up."
A couple of logs were placed in a bed of
woodchips with low, creeping bushes
in a rocky section of the park.
Boss Blaster and Shiv hauled
short logs to edge the guild beds.
Grove and Sally built a brush pile
with thicker logs as the base, then
smaller branches layered on top.
"Weave the long ones together,"
Alicia said. "That helps hold
everything in place, even with
critters crawling or wind blowing."
Hali was eager to clamber around
poking ends over and under each other.
"See now, rabbits and birds can get in
through the gaps, but larger predators
would have a hard time chasing them,"
Sally explained. "The brushpile also
provides shelter from bad weather."
After that, they planted the nut guild.
It centered on a shagbark hickory
the size of a pencil. Around that
went several elderberry bushes, then
rings of thyme and sweet woodruff.
Alicia and Hali once more urged
the new plants to grow. The hickory
wound up close to Alicia's height,
the elderberries more hip height,
and the herbs a low dense mat.
"That looks great," said Grove.
"What else do we have left?"
"Wildflowers," said Boss Blaster.
"Sally brought some, and one of
my neighbors sent over a bunch
of starts from dividing her beds."
"I'll lay out the mixed wildflower bed
first," said Sally. "We can put some
of the donated flowers in there."
"What about the rest of them?"
Boss Blaster asked her.
"Make a couple of other beds
for single plantings," said Sally.
"Butterflies find it easier to spot
big drifts of color than small dots."
"Works for me," said Boss Blaster.
"Just show everyone where to dig."
The wildflower bed turned into
a large, rough oval outline studded
with several rocks removed from
other beds, edged in long branches.
It was big enough for lots of people
to plant things at the same time,
working from the center out.
They put in black-eyed Susan,
aster, coreopsis, butterflyweed,
yarrow, purple coneflower, beebalm
and other things Boss Blaster
could not even recognize.
"Hey boss, folks brought
some other stuff that isn't
plants," Kato said. "Should
we put them in this bed?"
Boss Blaster looked at
the stuff Kato held. "Sally,
what do you think?" he said.
"That's a good idea," she agreed.
The tall wooden box with slits
turned out to be a butterfly house.
The glass bowl on a long stake
could hold water, birdseed,
or overripe fruit for butterflies.
There was a flat stone with
a hollow space to hold water,
so small animals could drink.
Those all got tucked into
the garden amongst the plants.
Alicia and Hali flitted among them
like little fairies, encouraging
the plants to grow. Some
burst into unseasonal blooms.
"Oops," Alicia muttered.
"My control's getting iffy."
"That's okay, you have been
working hard today," said Shiv.
"Mine's about crapped out too."
Sally looked around the place,
which looked a lot more like
a park than it had this morning.
"I think the only thing we have left
is the mass plantings," she said.
"Put the black-eyed Susans here,
and the asters over there."
The wildflower team split
into two groups, with
Boss Blaster and Hali
going for the asters.
"In autumn, these will
bloom purple," said Sally.
"Well, probably -- some are
pink, blue, or white instead."
Those beds wound up
more or less bean-shaped.
Boss Blaster helped put
the bark mulch on top,
then watched as the girls
helped the plants grow.
These didn't burst
into bloom, though.
Several people went
around watering plants.
He leaned on the shovel.
"Anything else to do?"
"Not today," said Sally.
"Let's give these plants
a chance to settle in and
start forming relationships.
We can add more later."
"What do you have in mind
for that?" Grove wondered.
Shiv pulled out a sheaf of
grimy, folded papers.
"Later on, the oak guild
gets hazels and comfrey,"
Shiv read. "The bee guild
gets more herbs and flowers."
"We can't plant the spring bulbs
until fall," Sally pointed out.
"Gooseberry bushes and
more herbs for the nut guild,"
Shiv said. "Other plantings will
add American plum, black cherry,
partridge pea, and so forth."
Boss Blaster looked around
at the clusters of saplings and
drifts of young wildflowers,
trying to imagine how it
would look fully grown.
"Okay, start cleaning up and
packing," said Boss Blaster.
"We'll head back to my place.
Cas will serve supper soon."
People began gathering
the scattered equipment.
A bird wheeled through
the sky, then landed
on top of the new snag.
Sally caught her breath.
"Oh, wow, that's a kestrel!"
The bird fluttered away again.
"Still, it's a good sign," Sally said.
"They like perches over open areas."
"Should we put up birdhouses or
something?" Boss Blaster said.
"Not yet, but maybe later,"
said Sally. "It depends on
whether you want to encourage
birds, butterflies, or both. Just
remember, the birds will eat
quite a lot of the caterpillars."
"But you'll have lots of places
for caterpillars to live, so you should
still have plenty left," Grove said.
"Then that's what we should call
this place," said Boss Blaster.
"Welcome to Caterpillar Park."
* * *
Notes:
This poem is long, so its notes appear elsewhere.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-25 01:26 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2021-07-25 02:37 am (UTC)Note that most of the landscaping is self-maintaining once established, mostly native species. The only major planting of non-natives that I've seen was the tulips in Stone Soup Park, and those were left over from someone else's job.
Re: Yes ...
Date: 2021-07-25 06:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-25 05:08 am (UTC)How much is Hali really helping? Is she giving energy for Alicia to guide, or does she have more mojo than that?
"How much can you carry?" LOL!! good one!
Thoughts
Date: 2021-07-25 05:25 am (UTC)We have them around here, central Illinois being mostly open space with occasional trees or telephone poles. Sometimes in the spring I see their courting dances in the sky over our yard. :D
>> How much is Hali really helping? Is she giving energy for Alicia to guide, or does she have more mojo than that? <<
At this stage, I think Hali is just throwing handfuls of energy at the plants -- which would do some good on its own, but is more use when picked up and directed by a skilled worker like Alicia.
If Hali decides that she enjoys gardening, she can probably refine her abilities to include some sort of plant-blessing.
>> "How much can you carry?" LOL!! good one! <<
Heh, yeah. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-25 08:57 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2021-07-25 09:31 pm (UTC)Couple of questions
Date: 2021-07-27 01:18 am (UTC)Also, you have one reference to a "the nut guilt" rather than "guild."
I'm liking this trptych.
Re: Couple of questions
Date: 2021-07-27 01:37 am (UTC)It should say Kato; Cato is a typo. He is the twin brother of Bobbie. They first appeared in "The Caliber of People."
>>Also, you have one reference to a "the nut guilt" rather than "guild."<<
Fixed, thanks.
>>I'm liking this trptych.<<
Yay! :D Boss "I'm car guy" Blaster is really getting into the idea of parks as a way to improve both life and property values.
I have at least one other idea, for a food truck park in an empty lot.