All posts by Elsa Johnson

A Highly Condensed ‘Report’ on The Three Rivers Symposium

PERIPATETIC, PERMACULTURE, PRACTICE

by Elsa Johnson

The Thursday before Thanksgiving, co-editors Heather Risher and yours truly, Elsa Johnson, got up in the wee hours of the morning and drove to Pittsburgh to attend the Three Rivers Urban Soil Symposium at the Phipps Conservatory. As these things go, the presentations were densely presented, structured to have 4 segments, each segment with three to five speakers giving short presentations on aspects of soils (you didn’t know there were so many, did you) followed by a question and answer period. The structuring topics were: Composting in Urban Soils; Growing Food in Urban Soils; Storm Water and Resilience in Urban Soils; and Urban Habitat, Trees, and Greenspace.

It is hard to take that breadth of material and make a coherent essay out of it. What we present here is more bullet points and notes rather than full-out report.

First Session: Composting in Urban Soils. 

Take away-s:   Speaker #1, Rick Carr, Compost Production Specialist, Rodale Institute: Twenty one percent of our landfills are food waste. Managed aerobic decomposition is important for soil regeneration. Use the plant as your measure of success.

Steaming compost, photo from the Rodale Institute

Speaker #2, Marguerite Manela, Senior Manager of Community Composting and Compost Distribution, NYC Department of Sanitation:  Curbside composting works like curbside recycling. Alternatively have sites where food can be dropped off for composting.

Speaker #3, Anthony Stewart, President and Environmental Director, DECO Resources:  Useful tool – XRP — an x-ray florescent “ray gun” that measures contaminates in soil. 

Speaker #4, Travis Leivo and Laura Todin Codori, vermicomposters, Shadyside Worms and Worm Return: Cold composting is slow, taking up to 2 years. Thermophilic composting is fast – only two weeks.

Heather’s notes: NYC hosted a workshop on dyeing fabric with food scraps. I’d like to see something like that locally. Is anyone else interested?

Second Session: Growing Food in Urban Soils.

Take away-s:  Speaker #1, Dr. Kirsten Schwartz, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Director of the Ecological Stewardship Institute, Northern Kentucky University: coming from a social ecological focus. She spoke about contaminated soils, such as with lead and the distance it resides in soil from house being both patchy and widespread. Soil itself is more than what is grown in it. A social ecological focus sees both bio-physical legacies and social legacies, such as farm to fork “doesn’t include us”. Community involvement is complex. One needs to find points of common interest.

Speaker #2, Dr. Patrick Dronan, Associate Professor of Pedology, Penn State University: Wealth is urban. Presented about Hilltop Farm, a planned community that failed and was abandoned and part of which has been converted to a community garden. Common problems of urban soils – compaction (hard pan, clay), high pH, low organic matter, debris, under-farming, and under-funding.

Speaker #3: Adrian Galbraith-Paul, Farm Manager, Heritage Farm: Spoke on Heritage Farm, a baseball field turned to farm lot to teach kids and give food away. Its goal is to be environmentally and economically sustainable using the Korean Natural Farming method to improve fertility, the microbiome and micronutrients: Healthy plants “power” healthy soil and photosynthetic efficiency. Flavor and nutrient density are closely linked. Waste is a resource.

Heritage Farm, image from their website

Speakers #4, Robert Grey, Farm Education and Outreach Coordinator, and Nick Lubecki, Braddock Farms Manager, Grow Pittsburgh: Grow Pittsburgh, founded 2007, to grow food and sell to the neighborhood, a food desert with limited access to fresh vegetables. Provides a work-trade program where participants receive produce for 4 hours of labor.  Also has an education outreach/apprentice program. (Note — Seems not unlike Rid-All, in Cleveland).

Heather’s notes: Inclusivity is important. Community engagement and buy-in is key. Some of the speakers mentioned setbacks when creating new programs/gardens without talking to the residents of the community to be “helped.” Having the support of a non-profit organization allows urban garden projects to survive while working towards self-sufficiency.

Third Session: Stormwater and Resilience in Urban Soils.

Take away-s: Speaker #1, Dr. Dustin Herman, Research Scientist, ORISE Research Program with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Evidence of a universal urban soil profile. Urban soils have fewer horizons. What is lost is the B horizon, which is unique to each place. Big equipment determines soil properties (excavation/fill) and changes water infiltration. Pre-urban soil evolved with climate and ecosystem. The convergence theory for urban soils – urban homogenizes heterogeneity. The simple needs of infrastructure and those of complex ecological support are opposites.

Speaker #2, Zinna Scott and Mike Heller, Community Activist and Director of Policy and Outreach, Nine Mile Watershed: Rain gardens built/incorporated into infrastructure were used in the Nine Mile Creek stream restoration, a buried stream/storm sewer.

Rendering from Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority

Speaker #3, Beth Dutton, Senior Group Manager, PWSA: there were 27 one inch rain events in the last decade creating excess stormwater. Green infrastructure is planned that ameliorates this problem. (we assume you know what is meant by green infrastructure – see speaker #2).

Heather’s notes: Urban soil functioning no longer matches the climate and ecosystem. Also, I learned about snakeworms (Amynthas agrestis). I knew that the European earthworm was invasive, but hadn’t realized that their Asian cousins were nearby and causing so much damage. More info here.

Fourth Session: Urban Habitat, Trees, and Greenspace.

Take away-s: Speaker #1, Dale Hendricks, President, Green Light Plants: Anthropogenic (man-made) charcoal acts like glue and sequesters carbon in the soil long term. Biochar is charcoal made in a low-oxygen environment and is added to soil.  U.S. prairies were originally up to 40% pyrolytic – not all fire is destructive. Hardwood makes more char than soft wood. The Stockholm Biochar project is large scale biochar processing, making biochar from food and yard waste.

Speaker #2, Miles Schwartz Sax, Arboretum Director, Connecticut College: The Urban Horticulture Institute (Cornell) — soil conditions outweigh tree selection. First thing to do is a soil assessment. Recommended book – Trees in the Urban Landscape. Soil remediation is a scoop and dump process by which compost is added to soils beyond a trees drip line, not directly under existing trees.

Speaker #3, Stephen W. Miller, Bartlett Tree Experts: Root invigoration helps restore health to existing trees. First do assessment. Then air channeling under the tree is done to loosen soil. Then add nutrients, including biochar. 

Heather’s notes: There are several online databases to help choose trees appropriate to the landscape. Morton Arboretum, Cornell Woody Plants, University of Connecticut.

When we were there, Phipps was in the midst of setting up their Holiday Magic Winter Flower Show and Light Garden. In my (Heather’s) opinion, it’s well worth the visit. Protip: Go on a weeknight after 7:30 pm, and dress warmly so you can enjoy the outdoor garden.

A reindeer made of reindeer moss!
Bromeliad wreath

The Fledgling

POETRY

by Elsa Johnson

Look           here is God     sparkling in the trees                  Rain

fell in the still-dark morning                                   leaving bright

drops        God-traces     caught and cupped      :    in each leaf

a God-mote       —       and look             here too is God’s bright

face                  wafting         lofting                     in the delirious

perfumed air                                and the bees rest in the phlox

so darkly sated              with God-drink                    they cannot

move                

                            //             For days now we have been hearing

first here         then there                    calling    each to each    a

hawk and her child                                    a fledgling       full lost

in the pain of its                                               impending parting

crying        find me          feed me         mother!                  Lying

here   with my knee pain                pained by the world’s deep

need    and pain               I too cry     :      Find me!         Seek  —

2

In the dark hours                            I wake   to some small beast    

in terror            fending off attack                                       In this

too    is the divine                   —                    that face we do not

like to face                                           Then in day    back on my

porch          warmth dazed once more            I watch bemused     

the hum                                and happy-seeming-ness    of life  :

goldfinch on sunflower                                      robin hopping to

feed her own fledgling                              standing in the street

with mouth agape                                     knowing that     above        

somewhere             is a young hawk                  learning to feed

itself                              It took to the air                They are aloft

now                 We see them      soaring      swooping    —     low

shadows        swift across the earth    

                                                                        //                There is a

cold clean current                  hidden        in the day’s warm air

3

Some weeks have passed                              My knee is healing              

It’s been a gift                       to be obliged    to                  watch

wait               wonder                     The hawk child is far ranging

now         flies wide          climbs high             it’s voice a distant

pulse          a language                             passing through the air                                

sharing                                                        information I can only

guess            —          how    perhaps    there is a  vole     darting     

from bush to hole                                      upon the earth below                     

What dangers                of rare devising                              await

 a hawk not yet wise to its world?                                 And that

other fledgling?        

                            //           It rained again               The rain fell in

the still-dark morning           God-motes       —       bright drops

sparkling             —                     caught and cupped within each

leaf                                     and the bees rest darkly in the phlox   

Cleveland Sustainability Summit 2019: The Year of People

PASSION, PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST

by Elsa Johnson

A decade ago, in 2009, I attended the first of what was planned to be ten of such forums/summits, one per year, held in Cleveland’s historic Public Auditorium. On October 16, 2019, I attended the last of these forums. And in between? I fell victim to acute avoidance syndrome. Confession: I’ve been a skeptic about whether these kinds of events are meaningful exercises.

But I’m glad to have gone to this last summit, titled The Year of People. (View the official recap here.)

In our present political climate, with so many of those in power nationally, and globally, all but declaring war on environmental science and busily pushing environmental rollbacks of crucial legislation and regulations, it’s refreshing, even hopeful, to learn that Cleveland is one of five international cities named for leadership for its sustainability plan. In a situation where intended failure and deregulation at the national level must be countered at the state level, and/or the city level, it seems Cleveland has been quietly rising to the challenge. A lot has changed since the Cuyahoga River last burned fifty years ago, on June 22, 1969…. (and never since) … (and is now designated officially a Water Trail) … (and yes, you can safely eat the fish that come out of it) … (and no, now you won’t die from industrial contamination if you fall in).

But back to the subject at hand. This Summit asked this question: Are we functioning in a way that is best for all the people? Are we achieving the environmental justice and economic equity that must be at the core of sustainability? The answer is obviously mixed  (ten years is not a long time for the ship that is government, which Obama noted in 2008, moves oh-so-slowly, to turn) … but the list of cool stuff happening in Cleveland is long: community gardens/urban hydroponic greenhouse/Rid-All –  supplying local food in the urban food desert ; Green Corp/Cleveland Community Canopy Program — planting trees (one of the most important things we can do — did you know that Cleveland has lost half of its tree canopy in the last 50 years?); Upcycle (turning throw-away stuff into new stuff you can use); Bike Cleveland – scooters and bikes for public use; advances in renewable energy (now at 13%); the new Children’s Museum 100% LED … and that’s not half of it. Accomplishments.

All this was the lead up to the morning speakers. The first two were of particular interest to this attendee.

Nik Engineer (The Ellen Macarthur Foundation) led. His topic was The Circular Economy, which he set against the linear economy, giving as an example the lightbulb manufacturers “cartel”, who met in 1920 and redesigned lightbulbs to perform worse. Yep, you read that right. The bulb burned up faster and then you threw it away. They designed in obsolescence, a hallmark of the linear economy. Another example is plastics. By 2050, says Nik Engineer, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. (Reminder – Cuyahoga County is enacting a plastic bag ban: plan accordingly) (why can’t I remember to actually take my recyclable grocery bags into the store?}

The circular economy designs things to work better. In a circular economy, theoretically, everyone prospers, and damage to the environment is limited (ideally…. parentheses my own). Imagine a circle. At top left put regenerate natural systems for positive effect. At top right put design out waste and pollution. At the bottom of the circle put keeping product materials in use.  It seems to me both the linear economy and the circular economy assume unending economic growth, but clearly circular is better because it does less harm, leaves less waste. As the child of depression era socialists, I have reservations about capitalism’s theoretically unending growth, whether linear or circular. Quite possibly you, and my fellow Gardenopolis Cleveland readers/writers/editors, have other opinions.

Engineer was followed by Michael Waas, of Terracycle, a for profit global company that collects and repurposes difficult-to-recycle waste. This was such a good follow-up to the Circular Economy, as the very first thing Waas mentioned was that waste does not exist in nature; output and input are circular. But oil, via the products made out of it, changes that. They are extremely convenient, but they are undisposable, and thus are the largest component of linear economy waste. Only burial or burning gets ‘rid’ of plastics; both with unacceptable consequences.

Upcycling takes them and makes other products, preferably with direct community involvement. The example he gave was ‘the milkman model’ : the product (the bottle) is an asset to the milkman in and of itself. …as opposed to the ubiquitous single use plastics (that are filling up the seas), which are valuable to no one once they’ve been used and pitched. Waas acknowledges that scaling a circular economy is hugely challenging. There are no easy solutions to finding a balance (plastic waste vs. benefits of plastic), and the extractive industries essentially don’t fit into the circular economy.  Note that word: essentially.

Other speakers followed (Dr. Richard Zinke, on inequity reduction; India Birdsong on transportation; Michael Shank on communication/conflict resolution) but these were the two who spoke to me.

The afternoon was devoted to breakout groups addressing many finely tuned issues.

This summit gave me perspective and hope. I remembered working for a planning and architecture firm downtown, in 1985, right out of graduate school (landscape architecture), driving the desolate decaying mid-town corridor, collecting data for a study, trying to envision a future for it.

It’s no longer desolate.

View the culmination video below:

Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit

PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST, PRACTICE, PRESERVATION

Gardenopolis Cleveland’s editors are looking forward to tomorrow’s event: Sustainable Cleveland’s 2019 Summit. Every year, 500+ community and business leaders, government officials, students, and residents work together to help transform Cleveland into a “green city on a blue lake.”

Sustainable Cleveland launched in 2009, and on Wednesday they will celebrate 10 years of progress and build their future.

The one-day Summit at Cleveland Public Auditorium will start at 8am and last until 5pm, followed by an evening reception. The Summit will include remarks from Mayor Frank Jackson, keynote presentations, recognition and awards, facilitated discussions on key priorities going forward, and much more. Sustainable Cleveland will:

  • Celebrate Cleveland’s progress in sustainability and share stories of collaboration and action inspired through the SC2019 initiative
  • Recognize individuals, organizations, and businesses leading by example to advance sustainability in Cleveland
  • Feature keynote presentations focused on taking climate action, transportation equity, and creating a circular economy
  • Advance Cleveland Climate Action Plan priorities that depend on the whole community, such as reaching 100% renewable electricity, access to trees and green space, sustainable transportation, clean water, and waste
  • Chart a path forward beyond 2019

We hope to see you there!

Pollinator Symposium 2019

PERMACULTURE, POLLINATION, PRACTICE

text by Elsa Johnson, photos by Ann McCulloh

A brief summary follows of the talk by the keynote speaker at the 2019 pollinator symposium — Larry Weaner: Breaking the Rules / Ecological Landscape for Small Scale Residential Properties.

The biggest take-away from Larry Weaner’s talk for this Gardenopolis writer/editor was the difference, as he saw it, between traditional landscape design – which he described as seeing the garden as separate plants in ‘designs’  — and a contemporary response of seeing the landscape as an ecology, as an evolving restoration. That traditional garden scale, says Weaner, doesn’t work, and, indeed, many of his examples were of large scale projects, though the process is workable at any scale, as one picture of his own backyard patio showed.

What is meant by seeing a landscape as an ecology? Such an approach begins with native flora because one needs native flora (supplying food, water, cover) to attract native fauna – no; not talking about our backyard deer. Rather, he gave the example of putting a stick over water to draw in dragonflies, an example that begins to bring an awareness of nature’s micro-scale natural complexity and inter-connectedness. Within this context, however, he stipulates that the client’s level of comfort – he calls it ‘happiness’—with this concept, dictates how far to push. It is a different kind of order, one that by its very nature changes over time.

This is a key point: Natural compositions do not remain stable over time.

An aside here – what garden designer/artist/architect does not have a client or clients who expect their landscape to remain static, like a living room that’s been decorated and expected to forever remain just-so?

Forget ‘proper spacing’, said Weaner. Forgo mulch – which has no value at all for animals — in favor of suppressing weeds with dense planting. Allow natural succession. Plants go – if you allow them – where they want to grow. Knowing this one can use targeted disturbance to achieve design by removal.  Notice where and how each plant grows. There is a learning curve: one plant teaches you about many. Species can be planted as seed sources that will find their own places to grow – and not necessarily where you planted them. Weaner stresses habitat fidelity over imposed design – use plants that have traditionally grown together.

Become aware of micro habitats in site design. There are plants that Weaner calls ‘generalists’, and then there are ‘specialists.’ Knowing the levels of disturbance, for example, offers opportunity to use plants like cardinal flower whose seeds will migrate to disturbed areas. This is ‘design’ that allows the landscape to be a series of evolving compositions, multi-layered evolving composition, over time.

Go ahead. Break the rules.  

After lunch I attended a breakout session lead by John Barber, who spoke on planting native plants for birds. Want birds? Here’s what to do: provide clean and safe water; plant native trees and shrubs; never use insecticides (95% of birds feed their chicks insects) or rodenticides (hawks eat rodents — you end up killing the hawk also); and never ever let your cats outside.

Further, bird feeders, says Barber, have no real positive impact on birds, and winter survival is not  actually improved by winter feeding. Additionally, the foods you are providing may have a large carbon footprints.  Feeders also may concentrate birds unnaturally, making it easier to spread diseases. Additionally, feeders bring blue jays and grackles. Both are baby bird predators of cup nests birds.

Instead of bird feeders, plant native plants. They have co-evolved with native birds, are adapted to the environment, are more nutritious, and, once established, require less maintenance. Birds have highest nesting success when at least 70% of the plants in a landscape are native. In the fall avoid the nursery and landscape maintenance model of landscape care—i.e., early fall cleanup. Leave plants up longer; leave some litter, logs, and bare earth.

Barber recommends the book Planting Natives to Attract Birds to Your Yard, by Sharon Sorenson.

And finally, did you know that Virginia creeper won’t make berries unless it climbs? — Neither did I.  

The last speaker I heard was Susan Carpenter, Senior Outreach Specialist at the Wisconsin Native Plant Garden, who spoke on creating and maintaining Pollinator habitat. This was a dense fast talk and I was not able to get much of it down on paper. She said, however, that it is all accessible on line at https://go.wisc.edu//pg8340.

Sorry not to report on Przemek Walczak’s talk Restoring Bell’s Woodland, or Sam Droege’s talk Native Bees: Protecting our Urban Pollinators. I was obliged to miss these.

GardenWalk Cleveland 2019

PASSION, PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST

Slavic Village by Elsa Johnson

Gardenopolis Cleveland has, since our inception, been a firm supporter of GardenWalk Cleveland, and has covered it with pictures and text on our blog. This year for various reasons we were only able to commit ourselves to one day, and we chose Slavic Village because it was a place we had not yet been. As Inner Ring Suburb Eastsiders, we’re not very familiar with the neighborhoods of the once great industrial heart of our city.

We got off to a late start due to some trauma inflicted upon one of us by the cat affectionately nicknamed The Brat Prince (there was a lot of blood involved), and then we had trouble getting a map — neither of the two Dave’s we stopped at had maps or even any idea they were supposed to have them.

But we did eventually wend our way to Slavic Village. Like many of Cleveland’s ‘working class’ neighborhood’s it is a place of pleasant sturdy houses, often designed for two families (mostly up and down duplexes), in an area now somewhat denuded by housing-stock loss. But people still make the most of their garden spaces, and have both vegetable gardens and gardens to please the eyes (and birds and pollinators). People express their personal creativity, and enjoy their yards in the summer.

We were especially interested to find one resident with an extensive bee keeping industry. You could wander among the hives and enjoy the singing bees wandering about around your head and in the air.

We hope you’ll enjoy our pictures.

The bee keeper

People found ways to bring comfort into their outdoor environments

And they found ways to add small scale personal touches

They brightened their environments with the colors of flowers

And many people were serious vegetable gardeners

There were handsome houses and handsome trees

Someone was claiming a corner to make an in progress pocket park

This gentleman had been fishing for Lake Erie Walleye.

Little Italy by Ann McCulloh

Little Italy, the other neighborhood visited by one of the Gardenopolis editors, offered more than 30 gardens this year. There are a surprising number of small but lush oases tucked away among the brick fronted homes and hilly side streets. Traditionally Italian grape arbors and fig trees, impressively well-tended vegetable gardens and whimsical decorative touches abound. A brand-new garden discovered at the end of an unpromising alley turned out to be an extensive and delightful outdoor entertainment space, with a pizza oven, water gardens and not one, but two welcoming patios.

Full disclosure: Ann has been involved with the committee that plans GardenWalk Cleveland since its inception.

Garden Tour Season is Upon Us!

PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST, PRACTICE

by Elsa Johnson

Garden tour season is upon us, and we’re doing our best, weather permitting, to cover the various events. We went on the Shaker Heights Garden tour about a month ago. We managed to see 5 out of the 7 homes on the tour before we gave up because of all the rain. We loved the variety on this tour, which bridged from the spacious very English manor garden professionally designed and maintained….

to the tiny and intensely intimate in scale, overflowing with plants and hidden nooks and crannies

to the fantastically imagined Japanese garden, which at the time we saw it was under about an inch and a half of water —

and a bit more. 

Meanwhile, In Forest Hill Park…

Some of you may know that I work closely with various organizations to do environmental work (removing invasive species, planting trees) in Forest Hill Park, in both the East Cleveland and Cleveland Heights ‘sides’ (in much of the park there really is no way to know when you’ve passed from one governmental entity to the other). She has followed the death of so many of the park’s great old oaks with great distress. Last year, working with Dominic Liberatore, one organization she works with test (East Cleveland Parks Association) inoculated one of the oaks that seemed to be in the direct path of possible oak wilt (a year later the tree is still standing and alive). This year working with Chad Clink (Bartlett) we treated 4 oaks – one of them a recognized Moses Cleveland tree (although an inventory of trees in that area revealed that quite a few of them also qualify)  —  for Two Lined Chestnut Borer.  Two were chestnut oaks showing some crown die-back and retrenchment, and two were close- by white oaks. We shall see what we shall see. Here are a few pictures from that process, which involves drilling tiny holes at the base of the tree into the capillary system of the root flares, and then using pressure to inject small amounts of the same pesticide used on Emerald Ash Borer.

The bigger question is – does it make sense to try to save such aging trees? Do you have an opinion? Let us know….

Serendipity at Spirit Corner

PASSION, PERMACULTURE, PERTINENT, POPULAR INTEREST

by Elsa Johnson and Bob Brown

Join the Spirit Corner neighborhood on Sunday, June 30 for a neighborly get together to celebrate this friendly, quirky, ‘spirited’ gathering space. The event takes place from 12 noon to 2 PM.

I recently saw this short piece by Bob Brown on Next Door Neighbors. It was charming, and spoke to what makes a place special, the space being, in this case, Spirit Corner.

Serendipity at Spirit Corner

It never ceases to amaze me how our little Spirit Corner green space is put to such unexpectedly wonderful uses!  This morning as I walked Ori down the block, I saw a group of little children and parents at Spirit Corner.  When we walked onto the site, I saw that they had a large silver cooking pot sitting on our tree-stump table and a copy of the book “Stone Soup.” 

I saw the children collecting stones and sticks and dropping them into the pot.  When I asked what they were doing, I was told that they were on a little outing to act out the story of Stone Soup.

Since I didn’t recognize anyone in the group, I asked one of the adults how they had chosen to do this at Spirit Corner.  The lead person in the group said simply, “This is such a magical place.  The children love coming here.”

Moments later another visitor arrived at Spirit Corner.  It was a lone deer, who surveyed the activity on the site, apparently decided that all was well, and then proceeded to munch leaves on one of the trees, while the children continued to make their stone soup.

When we designed Spirit Corner, none of us expected it to become the site of a Stone Soup cook-off!  Just as none of us expected a group of Tibetan monks to hold a ceremony here and consecrate the site (as happened last year).  And certainly none of us expected Spirit Corner to become a Pokemon Go gym, which it is!

We named Spirit Corner after the spirits who were assumed to inhabit the house that sat here vacant for over 55 years.  Maybe we should expand the name of the place to become “Serendipity Place at Spirit Corner”!  What do you think?

The Origins of Spirit Corner

How did Spirit Corner come to be? A few years back (8? 9? 10?)  Green Paradigm Partners (and Gardenopolis Cleveland Co-Editors) Tom Gibson and Elsa Johnson taught a class on permaculture (Tom) and design (Elsa), which was attended by Cleveland Heights resident Laura Marks, who was at that time living on upper Hampshire Road in the Coventry neighborhood. Instead of working with her own plot Laura chose to work with a plot across the street. This was a small corner lot that had had a house sit vacant on it for 55 years. A mythos had grown up around the structure. I was supposed to be haunted. It was a little spooky, and very, very sad. Finally came a release from its misery, and the house was torn down (in itself an event that is always a little sad, though it was a very tight cramped fit on the lot).

Laura wanted to see the space become a public green space. She got the neighborhood engaged in this project and we worked closely with Laura and the neighborhood to design a space that the neighborhood could call its own. It included two gathering ‘pods’ and a walk-through pathway that crossed the site diagonally. It was originally intended to follow permaculture concepts and include appropriate permaculture plantings, and also include as many native plants as possible.

Delightfully, the City of Cleveland Heights was willing to support the project, and supplied many of the trees, as well as ground bricks for the path, and some tree stumps for children to climb and play on.  A friend who was deconstructing a tepee donated the long pole supports, which were used to create a sense of enclosure in which a picnic table now resides. Several benches were donated, and two more were constructed from raw materials. A man driving by saw the neighbors building a stone wall and stopped to help. The neighborhood took the space, made changes, donated plants, and made it their own.

Spirit Corner, as the following pictures show you, is not a groomed, polished public space. It is rough and ready; full of weeds as well as flowers; a place where imagination can find space to play. It is a place where this is not forbidden by the unwritten codes of ‘Behavior for Polished Public Spaces’.

It has not evolved exactly as intended: It has strayed from its permaculture intentions, and, to be completely honest, as a landscape architect, there is a part of me that is disappointed by Spirit Corner — that it is not that more polished public place. It will never win an award from the Society of Landscape Architects.

But perhaps that is a good thing. It is a place to hold a stone soup cook-off; that is irreplaceable.

Spirit Corner is one block east of Coventry Village on Hampshire Road. Parking is available in the city parking deck off Coventry.

Deer: Remnant Anomaly

POETRY, POPULAR INTEREST

by Elsa Johnson

It pauses me                      this thing     I have found             that

is not of                        the awakening world                    hidden

halfway up the slope                   halfway           up the trail    in

winter’s windfall of       downed limbs        dead leaves       last

year’s dry crushed grass     :     Stiff leather         with battered 

bits  /  tufts  /  patchy-furred       on it          —        a tired thing 

lying     lasting here                                    Some creature’s coat

The wild’s    beasts of prey               have done their work well

This is not the first    part    I have found                           Decay

has long since                     eroded out                  its essence   —

the spirit of what lived             :             its run               its grace

its bound         its bounce      —     all fled                       Toeing it

over                                   do  I not touch            briefly            its

terror    /      the short chase     /     tear    /     the taking down