Rainy Days and Mondays . . . .

After all of the work we performed at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden last week to

celebrate Earth Day, we took it easier this week (unless your name is Stan because he is still working on rebuilding all of our compost bins).  Amy also came over to weed the flower beds and Susan watered our new strawberry plants and new cherry tree.  We also want to give a shout-out to Half Price Books for donating two heavy boxes of books for our Free Little Library.   Sadly, it’s been very cloudy all week, which makes it harder to take good pictures.

On Wednesday, I headed over and found Rayna and Amy gardening and Stan completing the rebuild of our middle compost bin.   I watered everything in my plot and the food pantry and neighbor plots.   The neighborhood girls came over to water their beds and brought a new neighborhood girl.  Her bed wont’ be ready for a while because we’re still waiting on the City’s Lowe’s voucher program to begin.    We need to top off her bed with some potting soil, but she apparently has become impatient because I found a hoe in the bed this morning.

We’ve been running chronically low on books

for our Free Little Library.  The neighborhood kids (and their parents) frequently stop by to peruse and/or pick up something to read.   Pastor Burt from Urban Connections put a bunch of books in it last week.   On Thursday, I drove over to Hilliard to pick up books being donated by Half-Price Books.  The last time we participated in their book drive, Roberts Road was under construction and the line of cars snaked for almost a mile.  I remember waiting for approximately an hour.  So, I brought magazines with me this time to read while I waited.  However, this year, there was no construction and no line at the HPB Warehouse.  They put two heavy books into the trunk of my car and that should last us a month or so.

Also on Thursday, I discovered that OSU has re-vamped its online gardening newsletter.  It is so much easier to access and read now.  And, instead of publishing the entire newsletter at once on Thursdays, they are simply posting new articles as they are prepared throughout the week.  I love the newsletter mostly for talking about things that you never find in books:  weeds and bugs.   They also often focus on a flower each week and a vegetable, but you can find information on them almost anywhere.  I've always had a link to Buckeye Lawn & Garden onLine on our website, but it's easier to follow now on your own schedule.

This morning, I arrived to find Aaron mowing and Stan edging our yard.  They then left to grab some breakfast and then returned to deconstruct and straighten our eastern compost bin.  Stan also wants to extend our front flower bed edging all the way to the alley. I worry that he’ll burn out before he plants much in his plot or finishes all of these projects.  I quickly re-filled our Free Little Library with our new books.
 

Earlier this week, Four Seasons City Farm
advertised that they were selling bare root strawberry plants for $.30/each, so I bought a bunch for the SACG and offered to sell some to the gardeners for $.50/each.  I began my work this morning planting the plants into our strawberry patch.  They aren’t expected to bear fruit this year, but you never know. . … .  I also planted a bunch of perennial flowers into our various flower beds.  Our early daisies are beginning to pop, which is always a happy event.  I even found some baby volunteer sunflowers.   Of course, our bindweed has also shown its ugly head and I probably spent an hour pulling it wherever I found it.  One of the neighborhood landlords was busy tending to a nearby yard and asked me if I was a one-man band.  Not at all, I said.  The guys were here before me this morning to mow and edge the lawn.
I mulched our new cherry tree with mulch donated by Keep Columbus Beautiful.  Also, I transplanted some vegetable seedlings into my plot and the food pantry plot and then it began to rain – four hours earlier than predicted.   I ignored it for the first half hour, but even a light rain begins to add up to wet pavement and mud after a while.   There have been predictions of an inch of rain this weekend, but at sundown, we’ve still only received .2 inch (on top of .3 inches earlier in the week).   However, a nice gentle rain are seeds’ best friends.  This afternoon alone, my peas, spinach and bok choy have doubled in size from yesterday.   My azaleas and clematises are also blooming and the peonies are not far behind.

Well, a rainy days means that I get to catch up
on my housework.  Before I left this morning, I started my eggplant simmering sauce (that I made last Fall) in the slow cooker and slow cooked lamb, couscous and quinoa in it for dinner and then roasted some brussels sprouts.