Once again I’ve been asked to create a garden for ‘Mansions in May’,  a local designer show house that will benefit Morristown Memorial Hospital, specifically the Emergency Services Unit.

I want to give back in as many ways as I can so I  put my own spin on the process this year by creating an organic producing vegetable garden, depicted in the plan.  The produce harvested in the 1/4 acre garden and orchard will be donated to a local soup kitchen.

The Orchard

I have already taken on several partners who are donating goods and services including a landscape contractor, a master carpenter, a nursery, a  lumber supplier and a stone yard who will be announced if we are able to build the garden.  With all of the donated labor and materials we are still coming up 5-6K short.   The garden will have high local visibility and will be promoted via the Mansion staff and my own.  It is a wonderful opportunity to give back to the community.  If you know of someone–corporate or otherwise who would be willing to help make this project happen please contact me using the contact tab above.

Even with my activist background as a young adult, several years ago I became more ‘enlightened’. I read Cradle to Cradle, visited and wrote about my reaction to sustainable gardens in Southern California and of course I saw An Inconvenient Truth. I have always turned out lights when I leave the room, have recycled and reused (including a long history dumpster diving) and I plant trees and other oxygenating plants as part of how I make my living. So far so good, right?

The trouble, for me, became when I started to be involved with social media. All this talk and posturing about being green, being sustainable, helping the planet. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing–at least the conversation is happening. What get’s me though is that it often all seems so selfish. I’m green, hire me! I can help you save the planet, hire me! I’m an expert in sustainability, hire me! I write a blog about sustainability, hire me! What!!! You still buy XXX’s product–shame on you, I don’t, I’m green, hire me! ME, ME, ME.

What about helping each other just because we all share the same planet? Does it always have to be about me and how I can profit by this or ‘make good by doing good’…why not just because it’s the right thing to do?

Notice the portapotty, cherry picker and gravel that have been stored in the space. Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll re-name it the Johnny on the Spot garden!

The view out shows the new poolhouse and greenhouse which are still under construction. Major money is being spent to make sure it all looks as if it’s always been there. I’ll get some better images later.

This last one is really short and a bit mysterious because I could discuss the issues and film at the same time! We were trying to figure out how to make the new transitions work.

Last Thursday an estate gardener who sometimes plants for me called to say he’d been asked to plant the entry to the showhouse and that the plants were going to be donated. Could I design it for him? This guy has done me many favors in the past so I was delighted to help. He sent over some pictures of the area and I told him I would go and measure it next week. I put the matter aside for a while.

On Friday, as I was getting ready to leave town for an APLD meeting, the landscape chairwoman emails me to ask if I can do an illustration for the journal of the area. She needed it quickly because it was past the actual deadline. So of course, I said yes. The two main features of this area are a stone wall with two driveway pillars, a semi-boarded up carriage house and a HUGE Japanese stone lantern. So, without a plan, here’s a photo of the raw space from a slightly different view from the sketch (directly below)…I just can’t say no.