According to these mushrooms, they would love to have some vegetable friends nearby.

I was taking a walk down Granby Street a little while ago when I came across a surprising group of loiterers: some mushrooms.

They were little, white, and (I assume) wild. They had grown there all on their own, right in the middle of concretified downtown Norfolk between an empty building and the parking lot for the Department of Utilities.

I had to stop and psychically praise them. “You are champions of nature,” I thought. “You are everything good about the human spirit, even though you are just fungus.”

Norfolk’s downtown is very gray. It is very hard. It is a place where it is much easier to imagine young children getting scrapes on their elbows and knees than flying kites or playing tag.

That’s why these mushrooms stood as such a wonder to me. This city has done everything it can to de-green downtown, but these mushrooms somehow found their way to the light.

This got me thinking: How can we make downtown Norfolk greener?

"I love you so, so much," the mushrooms said to everyone that passed.

Obviously tearing down buildings to add legitimate park space is not an option. Not in this world where the greenish yellow shade of money is so insanely valued over the vibrant green shade of life. But there are two empty lots downtown.

There is hope.

One of the lots is between the club Fahrenheit and the Thai restaurant Rama Garden. It is smaller, but there is certainly room for at least 12 to 15 plots in a community garden. We had one of these in my neighborhood gardens in New York City. It was right in the heart of Greenwich Village, on Bleecker, next to the grocery. This was a haven from the dirt, bustle, and aggression of the city. There were birds there. There were bees. There were old ladies teaching their grandchildren how to garden.

There was a feeling of life.

The problem with this space on Granby, which we’ll call The Fahrenheit Garden, is light. It’s a skinny space with lots of shadows throughout the entire day. But that doesn’t mean things won’t grow there. I called Jimmy Winn of Winn Nursery of Virginia to get his thoughts. He was quick with a list of plants that could thrive.

“Ferns, camellias, low growing tomatoes, mahonia, hosta, liriope, heuchera,” he said. “There are some of those outside the YMCA parking lot. I’ll bet you Virginia bluebells would stand a good chance.”

What would it take to get some plant rooted and blooming in that space?

“You’d want to build a box with a foot of topsoil with good drainage,” Jimmy said. He suggested getting salt-treated wood from a scrapyard for the box, or even simple stones. Some clean topsoil doesn’t cost a lot, and he suggested a person could probably get it donated.

I can understand how, to a property owner, the thought of a community garden might be overwhelming. That’s a lot of people–and vegetation–to kick off should they ever want to build. But a simple box garden of some of the above lovelies Jimmy mentioned should be doable.

Can't you just smell the flowers already?

It wouldn’t take long to set it up. It would be zero cost to the owner of the lot. And, should they ever want to develop the site, we could promise to take the dirt away within a few days. From our end, all it would take is a little effort and a few phone calls to get some seeds and dirt donated. Maybe it’s worth an ad to someone on this website. Who knows?

There is one other lot as my second choice. It is between Scotty Quixx and 426 Granby. This lot is bigger and brighter. There is more potential there. We should look into that one as well.

So here’s the part where we go from words on a blog to action. Does anyone know who owns these lots?

Let’s find them.

Let’s sit down with them.

Let’s smile bright and not give them a reason to say No.

Let’s take it upon ourselves to make our dowtown greener.