The morning started around 9:30 with filling the new
neighbor raised bed along Cherry Street.
As I was unpacking my supplies, neighbor Rose stopped by and said that
she wanted to help. So, we pulled weeds,
laid newspaper down, spread bags of hummus/manure donated on Monday by Scotts
Miracle-Gro and then bags of similarly donated Garden Soil. While we worked, new gardener Greg joined
us. After filling this bed, we then
moved to top off the youth raised beds inside the fence. After those were filled, I sent Rose and Greg
to reconfigure the new raised flower bed outside the southwestern part of our
fence (parallel to East Main Street) and fill that bed with donated soil. Sadly, I forgot to pack my car with the
perennial flowers I purchased during DeMonye’s sale a few weeks ago. So, the flower-planting will have to wait
until next Saturday. While they worked
on that project, I planted seedlings of cabbage, broccoli, kale, and lettuce in
the neighbor raised bed and planted seeds of collard greens.
Sabrina came (sans her men – who were at COSI) and I put her
to work weeding and prepping the food pantry plot to plant carrots, lettuce and
potatoes. She was the only one of us smart enough to pack a lunch for today. (I had some refreshments, but nothing substantive). Sabrina also did something none of us thought was humanly possible: She broke a hoe while creating a ditch for the potoates. I should have had her cultivate the soil first, but I didn't realize it was that compacted . . . . . She was embarassed, but we still have four other hoes in our shed . . .
Cassie came and I had her help me put a section of fence (which
we repurposed from the demolished building next door) over the neighbor
plot. As you may recall, we used to have
three neighbor raised beds along Cherry Street.
However, the dozen or so stray cats that hang out at the Garden had
turned them into a litter box and some neighbors were not anxious to eat the
food which grew out of them. So, now
those beds are now compost bins and we have constructed a new – and higher –
raised bed for the neighbors. I put this
wire fence (which coincidentally fit perfectly) over the bed to keep the cats
from jumping into it. We’ll remove the
fence and turn it back into a trellis once the bed is fully planted and the
seedlings are big enough to deter the cats. (The fence idea was actually suggested to me
last week by Sabrina. She suggested
chicken wire, but I realized that the fence would do and was free).
Cassie then went to work on digging out our excess spearmint
from the front southeast flower bed. One
of our neighbors stopped by last week to complain that her house is being overrun
by mice (from the vacant houses on each side of her). She had heard that mint plants would deter
mice and asked me where she could get some. I suggested that she get a cat, but one of her
children has cat allergies. (I still think
she should start feeding one of the neighborhood’s 50 stray cats on her back
porch to deter the mice). I don’t know about the affect of mint on
mice, but I told her that she could have our spearmint, which was taking over
the front flower bed. Since Cassie offered to help, she dug up and
potted the spearmint and I dropped off several pots on the neighbor’s front
porch.
Neal surprised me by showing up and offering to help (after
first asking for planting advice for his plot).
He’d been travelling for the past few weeks, so Sabrina hoed his plot
for him. I put him to work digging a
hole for a rose bush and then transplanting one of our front yellow roses. Last year, the drought took its toll on our
yellow tea roses. Then, they were
affected by black spot disease. Rootbarb
pruned them in November and one of them has come back beautifully, but the
northern one looked almost dead. Instead
of pitching it, I thought we’d give it a last shot by planting it at the
southeast corner of the flower bed. Neal
dug a very deep and wide hole for it and then covered the bush with wood
chips. Time will tell if it will
survive. I then ran to Lowe’s to find a
replacement (because we need a thorny rose bush by our front gate to keep n’ere-do-wells
from sneaking in between the fence and the gate). There were no yellow tea roses, but there was
a yellow knock-out rose bush. While it
will not be symmetrical with the yellow tea rose bush to the south of the gate,
I have become a huge fan of knock-out roses because of the two overgrown ones
we have by our back gates. At least it’s
yellow.
Orlando stopped by.
He’s going to convert our excess lumber (from old compost bins, etc.)
into firewood to heat his auto garage. He also picked up some lettuce seeds for his
home garden.
Rose brought brownies for us all to share. Then she and Greg turned to putting wood
chips around the platform raised bed at the northeast corner of the
Garden. Greg had to leave for work, but
will be returning to tidy up our wood chip pile. Rose decided to garden with us and took that
raised bed to plant radishes, cilantro and lettuce.
Ben, Hope, Cathy, and her mother stopped by. Hope will be gardening with us again and
picked out her raised bed. This year,
she will grow more food instead of mostly flowers. The Urban Connections folks were busy across
the street planting grass in the lot where they play with the kids over the
summer (next to their basketball court).
We have an overabundance of oregano in our herb garden this
year. I need to make room for the basil
which we grow for Bexley Pizza Plus (in exchange for the pizza they provide us gratis on our opening work day). I encouraged Rose, Sabrina and Cassie to
divide the plants and take some.
Otherwise, I will have to pack it up and take it to a food pantry. Maybe Charlie will help us out (since he
wants some in his plot and saved one of the oregano bushes last year from the
rototiller . . . . )
I planted some more lettuce and potatoes in my plot, packed
up the shed and called it a day. Cassie
was still there planting in her own plot and Sabrina was still weeding the food
pantry plot when I left. Whew. (I had
to return to pick up my garden rake, which I left by mistake . . . . )
This was a longer day than I intended. Next week, I will be focusing almost
exclusively on the front and new flower beds.
We have lots of daisies and other perennials coming up. We need to weed it and then plant some other
flowers, like cosmos and sunflowers, and the rest of the perennials I picked up
at DeMonye’s. (I usually don’t get to
this until near the end of May). As always, I could use whatever help is
offered so that I can spend more time on my own plot . . . .
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