When the snow is on the roses...

Recently I came across this photo of a snow-dusted guerrilla garden in London. The hope and anticipation that lies beneath! What would the gardener of this lush space think of Foreclosure Park in its present state:


Every rose bush at Foreclosure Park is under this pile of snow. The Ole, the Lena, my special Cary Grant Hybrid Tea, and the random additions whose names I've forgotten or never knew. They were carefully mulched with marsh hay before being tucked in for the winter, and I know they are cozy and warm under all of this. But what other damage might have they endured?

Foreclosure Park, as you will recall, is positioned between three streets. In addition there is public sidewalk down two sides of the park and a public housing apartment building across the street with sidewalks that also need to be cleared...all that snow. It has to go somewhere.


Even with that understanding, it is at times discouraging to see the damage wrought upon the park; not by vandals or careless neighbors, but by city employees doing their jobs. Note the
frozen snake of hose coiled on this mountain of snow. That's the 3/4" industrial grade hose purchased only last year. The extra investment was made with the intent that the hose would be in place for many years to come, running from the fire hydrant, down the storm drain on one side of the street, underneath , then coming out the storm drain on the other side.


Alas! Duration of the hose was short. Last fall, a week before the water permit expired, I suspect it was an overzealous water works person who cut the hose from the hydrant. There was, afterall, a certain professionalism about the cut, and the claimed calls of reports from 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 announcing the watery demise of the hose could not be verified. In my discouragement, I will admit I did not run the hose back down the drain for protection from further winter damage, and merely left it coiled on the boulevard. It was then caught by the tines of the machine used to clear the walk...slashed, punctured and tossed aside.


Guerrilla gardens are subject to more harsh treatment than private gardens. Because of the damage they incur, they take more effort to maintain. But they bring, in equal measure, more joy and delight than any private garden I've ever maintained. And for that reason, when spring does come, I will buy another hose--3/4" industrial yes!--and hoping for the best, I will uncover the Cary Grant Hybrid Tea, and reveal all that is enduring and new beneath those warming mountains of frozen snow.