Today it was my first time going to the New Ark garden. I left home at about 4:pm and it took me almost an hour to find Smith Street. I wanted to make sure I was on time because I never knew there were community gardens in the South, and did not know what to look for. I went to McKinley Middle right around the corner from the garden and still passed up the street about ten times. (It made me feel so blind because I know I looked past that street sign multiple times. My GASP would not get signal so I had to try and find a map on my phone with my extremely horrible Sprint service. I stopped literally one street over for about 15 minutes and waited for my internet to load up the map. Once I found out where the street was I then turned down Smith Street and drove straight past the small garden, not noticing it until I saw Author waving to tell me to turn around. (For some reason I thought it would be bigger. ) Seeing the Garden I expected it to be In worse condition because in class It was stated that the garden owners did not have time to keep the gardens up as ouch due to their schedules. It was neatly set up. ) The garden had three sections for plants to be grown. Two sections were neatly squared off with cinderblock, and the other section had a tarp looking thing on it with neatly cut holes to allow the plants to grow out of them. (l thought this was very creative. ) Author briefed me on how to weed plants and what to pick and what I should leave in the ground. Bugs began to crawl on my feet because for some reason I chose to wear flip flops to the garden. (l do not know what I was thinking when I chose flip flops. I recognized my other class tastes and they begin talking to me about school and numerous things like class, and how Monday gardens would be the only ones most of us could make. One of my classmate, (l think her name was Bovine. I am horrible with names. ) brought along her sister who wanted something to drink from the convenient store down the street. I too was thirsty and wanted to go along so Author decided to walk us over there to get something to drink. (Such a gentleman ha ha. )We came back and begin to discuss ideas Author had for the Garden.
He wanted to make a new sign for the garden cause he felt the old one needed to be replaced. We began to come up with ideas about a new sign like having fruit and vegetables on it. (My mind immediately began to think of creative ideas for the sign. ) Also, Author began to tell us ideas he had about the next garden on the following Monday, and how he would bring music. We all got to know each other a little better. I found out that I was the only one among my classmates at the garden who was originally from Baton Rouge. (l felt cool ha ha. None of us paying attention to the time eventually saw that it was getting dark. We began to wrap up our conversation and say our good-byes until next time. (l really don’t feel like I had any major thoughts about the garden in the south because I grew up in Baton Rouge and had friends and family members who lived in the south. ) Going to the garden was a new experience. Being around classmates In that setting stay to myself and never hold a conversation longer than maybe 3 minutes. I have gained new acquaintances and look forward to going to the garden more.
I was disappointed there were no kids there because I love kids (not in a creepy way) and enjoy the humor they bring around. Even though there were no kids and I was constantly swatting away bugs I really enjoyed myself. Monday September 16 Arrive 5:pm Depart 7:pm la mm Today I had to pick up my nephew from football practice in Cervical, Louisiana and rush back to Baton Rouge to make it to the garden. When we got there my nephew did not want to walk into the garden because it had previously rained and he did not want to get his Jordan dirty. (Such a drama queen ha ha. I walked into the garden and immediately started weeding along with everyone else. Tiffany complimented me on my Vibrant toe shoes and asked me did I get them from Massey. I remembered when she came in class show us the My Life in Pink movie wearing some Vibrates (That were so cute. ) Author immediately Jumped in the conversation trying to correct her pronunciation thinking we were talking about the store Macy’s. (Mr.. Know It All. ) There were two of Author’s friends who came to the garden today. (From the way one spoke I guessed he was partially deaf. ) Author decided we should play cards and Spades was his choice. My nephew decided to finally walk into the garden. ) Bovine ND the other girl that was there (Horrible with names she sits in front of our class) did not know how to play, so each one of Author’s friends coached them. Tiffany joined the table but Just observed. Before the game started one of Author’s friends went to go get someone else. His face was sort of twisted, he spoke to us and he started to sign language with Author’s friend. (l think it’s cool to know sign language, I always wanted to learn. ) He had on green so I suspected he went to LSI (l didn’t want to ask. He sat down and watched us as we began to play. We played and the trash elk began (They reminded me of my family when we play spades. ). Author was on my team. Bovine and the other girl along with their coaches were against us. The game was very fun. (l am very competitive. ) The game went on and on with constant bragging from Author and his friends when each one would take a lead, and silence when they were losing. I had a study group to go to so I had to leave at 7:15. (Upset that I couldn’t finish the game because Author and I were winning at the time. I guess everyone began to leave after that because as I was walking off they also got up and began to walk off. Me and my nephew left and I drove over to my study group. He said he would like to come back when he had old shoes on that he would not mind messing up. Arrive 5:pm depart 7:pm la mm Today I went to the garden although it rained earlier I didn’t want to miss a garden because I would have no other time to make it up. When I got there I was worried because me and a few other classmates parked our cars across from the garden and there was no sign of Author anywhere. I was hoping the garden was not canceled) We all waited about 15 minutes and Author finally pulled up. Everyone got UT of their cars and began to head into the garden. We started pulling weeds from the garden and Tiffany began to say how the plants we have now are almost out of season. We began to discuss plants that are for the fall season like cabbage collard, greens, etc. We all gave ideas of plants and we all wanted a pumpkin, was told that it would take too long and would not be ready to harvest by the end of October. ( I wanted to make a Jack-O-Latter 🙁 NOT COOL. I found out that one of my classmates (l think her name was Brittany. ) was a Golden Girl for LULUS. (That would explain how fit he was. ) Author decided it would be a good idea for her to perform one of the routines she has. She said no, but promised she would do one for the last garden. I told her we have multiple witnesses that she said that so she had to do it. (ha ha) We began to discuss the new sign Author wanted for the garden. He wanted to change the name of the garden to Fruit Town Garden, because that is what the area was called that the garden is in. (l thought that was creative. Also Tiffany and Author told us to pick something we wanted to see grown in the garden and they would get the deeds and bring them, or Tiffany told us about transplanting. Author said he didn’t want to transplant he wanted things grown from the seeds. Tiffany and Author Joked on a while discussing how it was pretty much the same thing, but Author said if she wanted to transplant she would have to bring her own dirt. I could not stop laughing. Since a pumpkin was one of my ideas I really couldn’t think of nothing else. After great ideas of collard greens, cabbage and a couple of more Author wrote the ideas down and we were going to go home.
Author wanted everyone to get into a huddle ND come up with a word to say whenever we leave the gardens from now on. Author wanted us to say Thug Life, but Brittany debated to say something else (The way she pronounced the words were hilarious) after we all gave ides I said we should say “Turn Up”. Author said he did not like that saying because everyone uses it, but every else in the circle wanted to say it. Author agreed we could say “Turn Up” but he would say “turnip” as in the vegetable. (He Just had to be difficult ha ha) we all huddled and yelled “Turn Up” and began to leave the garden.
Arrive 5:pm depart 7:pm la 41 m Today I arrived at the garden ready to work on the new sign because I was told by classmates who attended the last garden that they started on the sign already. (l was now upset that my Job would not give me the day off to go to the last garden. ) Author had two young boy come to the garden named Lucas and Marketer. Marketer was a young boy,maybe 9 or 10, who was very hilarious and determined to prove to everyone he was an awesome football player. (He reminded me of my nephew. ) He constantly threw the football to Lucas and Author.
The ball went everywhere but where he tried to throw it. There were a lot of people at this garden today. ( I guess because gardens are due Thursday ha ha) I began working on the new sign with two other girls (horrible with names) we drew vines and fruit along the border. Once the rest of the people were done picking weeds they came around and watched the three of us draw. Multiple people made comments about how my grapes made them want to go get some real ones. (l felt so special ha ha) Author joked about how I drew too many grapes and asked what other fruit I would draw.
Another girl said I should draw a cucumber. Author said as long as it does not look eke “something else” and everyone laughed. Marketer began to talk about how he played football and loved the O Jays. Everyone was shocked when he started singing ” She used to be my girl”. (a boy this young singing the O Jays hilarious) Spiders and roaches began to crawl on the board so everyone immediately Jumped up and Author started smashing them with his hand. Tiffany stated she was about to gender him and said that he is such a boy because smashing bugs with his hands something a guy would do. It was funny that she brought women gender studies up because I ever really heard much about it while in the garden. ) It was dark so Author and one of the guys put the sign on a table and brought it under the street light so we could see. Tiffany had to leave. We drew a little longer but bugs began to bite so we decided to call it a day after a while. Most of the people walked off. But me and a few others stayed behind to help put the board and other stuff away. (l didn’t think people should leave without helping put stuff up. ) Then it was a few of us left we huddled said “Turn Up” I then got into my car and drove off.