Hidden Within at Scarcyny Garden

There were so many exciting events going on in the city today. It was hard to decide what to do first, but I started with this one, the grand opening of Scarcyny Garden in southwest Detroit.

Back in the spring, the owner of the Ideal Group, Frank Venegas, decided he wanted to do something with the vacant lots that bordered his business on the old Clark Street Cadillac plant property and partnered with Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision and several other neighborhood groups to make it happen.

Chris, who came up with the name for the garden, draped in ribbon from the opening ceremony

This guy named the garden. He lives around the corner, and started coming by to work on it. While doing some homework, he stumbled across a word (or maybe made it up, it doesn't seem to be googleable) that he says means "hidden within". For him, and for the other people working on the garden, this summed up all that they wanted to do with it... reveal the potential for beauty and community hidden within our city.

Before the ribbon cutting, there were a few different stories told by garden volunteers. Park Ranger Steve (in the white hat at left), who has lived in a house overlooking the vacant lots for 40 years, spoke of watching the initial garden clean up from his back porch. He wondered what was going on, wandered over to find out, and soon gained his official park ranger title from 6 AM plant waterings and eagle-eyed 24 hour lookout duty.

There is a Buddhist monastery across the street, and the monks have taken on cleaning and maintaining the lots on the other side of the street. They also inspired a meditation corner in the garden, with comfy chairs and the respite of shade.

Pinatas, face painting, and a potato sack race were all part of the opening day festivities.

The garden and park were designed by my friend Sarah Clark from Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. The garden is a series of interlinked circles, with sections for native plants, low-maintenance shrub roses, plants for birds and butterflys, and the beginnings of a planned fruit orchard and raised bed vegetable garden. The park has a soccer field and a small hill for winter sledding so far. The park is located off Junction at Merritt, halfway between the thriving commercial district along Vernor and St. Hedwig, so it is ideally located to be an island linking those areas together.

As metaphors go, this is a pretty good one for what's right and hopeful in Detroit. I can't wait to see what it looks like in the spring.