July 13, 2006
Location: Whitehorse, Yukon
Time 6:05pm
State: Calm

Sitting in my van at Rotary Park. The sky above me is cloudy, the horizon holds onto blue and the leaves of the trees are all turned upwards as the wind stirs the intermittent thunderstorms. My roof is leaking. Not enough duct tape -- or rather, today when I was at Canadian tire, I should have bought some caulking.

I’ve positioned the plants I repotted today under the leak. Oh the plants.. I haven’t mentioned the plants yet. When Forbes and I were up in Inuvik at the Inuvik Community Greenhouse I hatched a crazy idea. The idea: The World’s Most Well Traveled Garden. I was thinking wouldn’t it be great as a side project to have a garden that has traveled all the way from Inuvik to the Panama Canal.

How would I do it? I would build a rectangular 1’ x 1’ x 4’ wooden box for my roof rack to house the soil and plants. I would then attach a hinged Plexiglas lid with air holes that I could put down when driving, giving the plants gentle air circulation, and flip open when stopped for optimal sunlight. Yes! Jessica from the greenhouse was all for it asking if they could donate the initial plants. What could be better, a greenhouse at 68 degrees North, donating plants to a mobile rooftop garden heading south.

Anyway, I haven’t gotten around to building the rooftop box, but I have started the garden. Jess at the greenhouse donated Sage, Chocolate Mint, Habenero Pepper and Black Dragons (fitting into my project title). These plants sat happily traveling on my dashboard and around my van from Inuvik to Whitehorse until today when they began showing signs of needing to be repotted (a few yellowing leaves). This morning, while running errands, I picked up a small 6” x 24” planter for their new home.

When they get bigger, or when I find some more plants, I will build the rooftop garden. My only concern: border guards. But today, the woman who sold me the planter gave me the telephone number of Agriculture Canada to have the plants checked out in advance. That only leaves Mexico and all of Central America… hmmm… I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

The plants are now in fresh soil, nestled alongside the back window of my van, just in time to help with a leaking roof, catching the rain from thunderstorms as they roll through town.

peace,
d