"I don't like living in a dirty town

This is the context of my urban garden this summer: Canada Line construction (and Cambie Street deconstruction and worst of all, merchant devastation) one block to the east; high-rise condo construction 1/2 block to the west; busy alley less than 50 feet from my balcony. Tearing down and building up, digging holes and filling holes, and the daily traffic to and from work -- all this generates a lot of dirt. Not the good kind that nourishes plants. It's what I call dead dirt, or simply, filth.

So today, after spending two hours cleaning the grime and dust from my balcony garden, a task I should repeat weekly, nothing expresses my feelings better than this song by Mother, Mother:

Dirty Town (excerpt)

I don't like living in a dirty town
Cause a dirty town gets me down

I saved up and i bought some land
Cause i can't stand living in a dirty town
Yeah i pinched my pennies and i put em down
And i washed my hands of a dirty town

Plant my seeds in the ground
Yeah i put em down in my new found land
Cause you can't plant seeds in a dirty town
No you can't plant seeds in a dirty town

I choppin' firewood choppin' firewood
Chop chop chop
Just like a country boy should be chopping wood
I country
My kindling sticks are the perfect little width
Kindling sticks

Get gone from a dirty town
Everybody now
Get gone from a dirty town
Ah-ah-ah-all i need is a chicken wire / and a chicken feed
And a ah-ah-ah-all i see is a new found land fertility, yeah!

You can listen to this fun, smart song on the band's My Space page here.