Friday Night Buckeye Football Helps Community Gardens

October has turned out to be a freakishly productive month at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  Our produce donations have been off the charts, particularly because one of our gardeners has been donating most of his giant tomatoes.  We have also had more volunteers help than we have had at this time of year in the past.  Yesterday, we had 15 OSU students helping to clean out the Garden for the season.  We have also had some vandalism, which severely damaged our front gate.


At the beginning of the month, I took both of our Community Service volunteers to the Bexley Community Garden to help for a couple of hours put that Garden to bed for the season.  Then, we took some of their end-of-season produce (mostly green tomatoes and some okra) to a free produce giveaway at nearby Fairwood Elementary School that was organized by the Genesis of Good Samaritans.  There was a long line of people when we arrived, including many senior citizens.  Then, it was back to the SACG where we watered our food pantry and neighbor beds, harvested around 50 pounds of tomatoes and peppers, raked, mowed, etc. for a couple more hours.  It was a very, very long day of gardening, even before I returned to my own home garden.

By the time I arrived at Faith Mission’s homeless shelter to drop off the fresh produce, no one could be found to answer the kitchen door.  So, I called the Pantry Manager at the All People’s Fresh Market on Parson’s to see if she could re-open the Market for what was in my trunk.  However, she was on medical leave and could not find her replacement.  Sigh.  So, I called Faith Mission’s help line and found a social worker to let me in.  The delay kinda ruined my benevolent mood.


The next week, I had two CS volunteers who helped rake, mow, water, harvest and pick up litter.   That week, we harvested over 75 pounds of produce.  The next day, someone visited the Garden vandalized our sign, knocked over the neighbor bed tomato trellis and pulled two pickets off the front gate, breaking one of them into three pieces.  Grr.   One more thing for me to fix in all my spare time.

We finally had a frost, but it must have been light because it only killed our sweet potato vines, which turned black, and the melon vines.   So far, that is the only cold damage that we have suffered.  

Yesterday, we were blessed that the Ohio State University Pay It Forward Program wanted to return to help us clean up the Garden for the season after all of the help they gave us for their Community Commitment day in August.  Luckily, I had picked a Saturday when OSU was not playing football, so we had a great turnout.    It was nice to show them the lettuce that their group had earlier planted in August.  

Team One was tasked with cleaning out the corn co-op plot.  This involved chopping the corn and bean stalks down to no higher than 6 inches and then cutting back the out-of-control black raspberry brambles in the west fence and bagging everything.  I had to discuss the concept of lawn waste bags because it has become apparent that only suburbanites use them.

Team Two was tasked with harvesting cherry tomatoes, removing the volunteer-cherry-tomato-plant-that-almost-devoured -Columbus and had taken over the northwest corner of the Garden, harvesting sweet potatoes, bagging the tomato vines and then harvesting peppers.  I had to teach them how to harvest the sweet potatoes, so as not to destroy them, but you know what they say about best laid plans.  


As it was, the groundhog had so completely devoured the vines this season that there was only one large sweet potato to be found.  The rest might make good use for fries, but they were barely larger than my thumb.  Sigh.  We had almost 40 pounds of sweet potatoes last year, and only 5 this year.   What a difference a groundhog makes, n’est pas?  One of their team worked for years at a nursery and was all too familiar with the problems of a groundhog.  She had no wisdom for me, but suggested blood meal deters rabbits.  


Team Three was tasked with cleaning out the food pantry tomato bed, bagging the tomato vines, nesting and storing the tomato cages, and harvesting the sweet potatoes in that plot (which were even less impressive than the other bed).   We had to get some help from Team Four to remove the tomato trellises.

Team Four raked the front lawn, mowed, pruned the brambles around the shed to make room for the tomato stakes, cages and trellises, mulched the fruit trees, cleaned out the summer neighbor bed (i.e. peppers and tomatoes), cleaned out the melon plot, harvested peppers and watered the food pantry plots.

Team Four also helped me to turn off the water hydrants.  Amy and I could not figure out how to turn the water off at the meter, so I had to get a different tool and turn it off inside the Garden and this requires more upper body strength than I have.  I hadn’t planned on doing this for another couple of weeks, but Rain One called in a panic -- just after Friday’s freeze warning was announced - that they could not get into the Garden to blow out our water lines and turn off the water for the winter.  I had changed the gate combination since last year.   I had not expected this and, as I explained, we are thinking of having the water meter removed for the winter because we discovered in June that the City charges us for having the meter every month even when the water is turned off.  It might be less expensive just to have the meter removed in October and replaced next May, if there is even a SACG next May.   But, I hadn’t realized that we were looking at a freeze warning which could cause the water lines to burst when I told them not to worry about us this year.

Simon and his two set of twin daughters came to clean out his plot of their summer crops and to otherwise distract the OSU students and my CS volunteers.  


I cleaned out my 16 tomato plants, cages and trellises and harvested more of Charlie’s tomatoes and ran around answering questions.  Amy came and cleaned up two sections of the strawberry patch and pruned the remaining asters that I had started on last week.  After everyone left, I gathered up all of the tools which the OSU students left lying around the Garden and took our 41 pounds of fresh produce to Faith Mission downtown.

Next week, some of the Capital University students are   

returning after they got rained out on their volunteer day in September.

Closing Out Our Dry September With Radishes

We are still puttering around in the Garden as an extremely dry September draws to a close at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and we face another heat wave to start October.  We received about 1.6 inches of rain for the entire month and only about an inch if you exclude September 1.  And, at a time when we should be expecting our first frost, we are preparing for another heat wave.  But, happily, Fall weather will be arriving later this week, although there is no frost danger in our forecast for at least the next two weeks.  


Last week was to be the annual Capital  Crusader’s Day of Service and 13 Capital University students showed up to help us water, weed, clean out the cabbage patch, plant radishes, pick up neighborhood litter, ferret out the secret entrances of the neighbor’s marauding groundhog and clean up our compost bins. As soon as I had given them the history of the SACG and started making work assignments, it started to sprinkle.  

No worries, I said, it won’t rain.  The weather forecast from just 30 minutes ago said it would dissipate before reaching Franklin County. It will sprinkle for five minutes and then just pass us by.  We aren’t lucky enough to get any rain.  I had already brought over the lawn mower for our community service volunteer (who was raking into piles the diseased cherry leaves) and unlocked our water hydrants.  However, when it looked as though we were in danger of having a wet t-shirt contest, I sent them back to their cars for what I thought would be a brief shower.  I had not brought a rain coat with me. I checked the weather radar and saw that it was going to pour for 2 hours, so I gave them the option of calling it a day or returning in two hours.  They chose the latter.  I locked up the Garden and the hydrants, returned the lawn mower and went home and shampooed carpets.


I returned at noon for our weekly food pantry harvest, but no one else did.  One of them called and said that they would come back at a later time.  I’m here every Saturday, I told her.    Another student contacted me about returning this week and three of them came back yesterday to help us out for two hours.   (She explained that they waited until 11:45 and then left (because it stopped raining at 11:30).  Oops).  I had them water our food pantry plots, then clean out the cabbage patch and plant radishes.   Simon’s girls came by to help (or distract them). 

We had two community service volunteers yesterday. They spent the first hour cleaning up the compost bins (by bagging the weeds that our neighbor had put there last month). Then, one raked the cherry tree leaves and mowed our lawn and the orchard lot. The other watered the strawberry patch and blueberry bushes and then helped me to harvest tomatoes for our weekly food pantry harvest.  She found the groundhog munching away (to prepare for his winter hibernation) inside our neighbor’s hoop house.  As I was packing up I discovered that no one watered the fruit trees.  Sigh.    Both of our rain cisterns were empty when I left yesterday.


Amy had been there, too.  She bagged the cherry tree leaves on Wednesday that got left behind when  it started to rain last Saturday.  She also tidied up the dying flower beds.   Simon's wife, Erica, came yesterday too and is always a great help in picking cherry tomatoes for our weekly food pantry donation while Simon waters their raised bed.  Then, they both weeded the paths (which was Simon’s monthly chore).    He had not anticipated how much food they would have to harvest, so he didn’t bring a bag to hold their produce.  He did, however, bring their own watering can (since the volunteers have a tendency to use all five of our watering cans and I’m typically using the two that I bring with me each week).  

On my way back from Faith Mission for our weekly produce donation, I stopped by the community pocket garden off Ohio Avenue (between Main and Broad).  There was a group of fellows hanging out under the enclosure at the back of the Garden.  As I drove back there to mock them,  I discovered that enclosure also doubles as their shed.  


They were eating a lot of pizza and gave me a piece since I looked like I had also spent the morning gardening (with my hat and sweat). They had spent the morning cleaning up their community garden for an art show today and a community movie night this evening.    That pizza hit the spot and meant that I did not need to make lunch.  (The pizza was from Bexley Pizza Plus, so I told them that owner Brad and his wife are also community gardeners and that back in the day, the SACG used to barter basil for free pizza for our volunteers.  One year, we provided Brad with 16 pounds of basil, but then I stupidly let too many sunflowers grow near the herb garden and it shaded out the basil).   I congratulated them on the fine weather that they would be having.  

I also swung by Old First Presbyterian Church and the Four Seasons City Farm garden there so that I could mock Daniel, but I didn’t see anyone still working.  He was probably at the "big garden" off Carpenter. 

Closing Out Our Dry September With Radishes

We are still puttering around in the Garden as an extremely dry September draws to a close at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and we face another heat wave to start October.  We received about 1.6 inches of rain for the entire month and only about an inch if you exclude September 1.  And, at a time when we should be expecting our first frost, we are preparing for another heat wave.  But, happily, Fall weather will be arriving later this week, although there is no frost danger in our forecast for at least the next two weeks.  


Last week was to be the annual Capital  Crusader’s Day of Service and 13 Capital University students showed up to help us water, weed, clean out the cabbage patch, plant radishes, pick up neighborhood litter, ferret out the secret entrances of the neighbor’s marauding groundhog and clean up our compost bins. As soon as I had given them the history of the SACG and started making work assignments, it started to sprinkle.  

No worries, I said, it won’t rain.  The weather forecast from just 30 minutes ago said it would dissipate before reaching Franklin County. It will sprinkle for five minutes and then just pass us by.  We aren’t lucky enough to get any rain.  I had already brought over the lawn mower for our community service volunteer (who was raking into piles the diseased cherry leaves) and unlocked our water hydrants.  However, when it looked as though we were in danger of having a wet t-shirt contest, I sent them back to their cars for what I thought would be a brief shower.  I had not brought a rain coat with me. I checked the weather radar and saw that it was going to pour for 2 hours, so I gave them the option of calling it a day or returning in two hours.  They chose the latter.  I locked up the Garden and the hydrants, returned the lawn mower and went home and shampooed carpets.


I returned at noon for our weekly food pantry harvest, but no one else did.  One of them called and said that they would come back at a later time.  I’m here every Saturday, I told her.    Another student contacted me about returning this week and three of them came back yesterday to help us out for two hours.   (She explained that they waited until 11:45 and then left (because it stopped raining at 11:30).  Oops).  I had them water our food pantry plots, then clean out the cabbage patch and plant radishes.   Simon’s girls came by to help (or distract them). 

We had two community service volunteers yesterday. They spent the first hour cleaning up the compost bins (by bagging the weeds that our neighbor had put there last month). Then, one raked the cherry tree leaves and mowed our lawn and the orchard lot. The other watered the strawberry patch and blueberry bushes and then helped me to harvest tomatoes for our weekly food pantry harvest.  She found the groundhog munching away (to prepare for his winter hibernation) inside our neighbor’s hoop house.  As I was packing up I discovered that no one watered the fruit trees.  Sigh.    Both of our rain cisterns were empty when I left yesterday.


Amy had been there, too.  She bagged the cherry tree leaves on Wednesday that got left behind when  it started to rain last Saturday.  She also tidied up the dying flower beds.   Simon's wife, Erica, came yesterday too and is always a great help in picking cherry tomatoes for our weekly food pantry donation while Simon waters their raised bed.  Then, they both weeded the paths (which was Simon’s monthly chore).    He had not anticipated how much food they would have to harvest, so he didn’t bring a bag to hold their produce.  He did, however, bring their own watering can (since the volunteers have a tendency to use all five of our watering cans and I’m typically using the two that I bring with me each week).  

On my way back from Faith Mission for our weekly produce donation, I stopped by the community pocket garden off Ohio Avenue (between Main and Broad).  There was a group of fellows hanging out under the enclosure at the back of the Garden.  As I drove back there to mock them,  I discovered that enclosure also doubles as their shed.  


They were eating a lot of pizza and gave me a piece since I looked like I had also spent the morning gardening (with my hat and sweat). They had spent the morning cleaning up their community garden for an art show today and a community movie night this evening.    That pizza hit the spot and meant that I did not need to make lunch.  (The pizza was from Bexley Pizza Plus, so I told them that owner Brad and his wife are also community gardeners and that back in the day, the SACG used to barter basil for free pizza for our volunteers.  One year, we provided Brad with 16 pounds of basil, but then I stupidly let too many sunflowers grow near the herb garden and it shaded out the basil).   I congratulated them on the fine weather that they would be having.  

I also swung by Old First Presbyterian Church and the Four Seasons City Farm garden there so that I could mock Daniel, but I didn’t see anyone still working.  He was probably at the "big garden" off Carpenter. 

Children of the Corn

We survived the heat wave this week at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and have a few gallons left in our rain cisterns.  I do not expect any more rain until October, truth be told.  The neighborhood kids came by yesterday "to help."

I put them to work picking grapes for our weekly  Faith Mission donation.  They ate most of them and donated three grapes.  I then tasked them with helping John tidy his plot so that he could transplant some turnips that I had thinned earlier.  Then, I had them weed the cucumber patch so that we could plant some radish seeds that I've had in the shed since 2013.

Once they finished their work, I turned them loose in our corn patch.  They played hide and seek and enjoyed running up and down the rows.  It's only 150 square feet, so Lynds is not facing any real competition. But it's nearby and free.

They found a few leftover ears, so I gave one to John and they took the rest home.

Children of the Corn

We survived the heat wave this week at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and have a few gallons left in our rain cisterns.  I do not expect any more rain until October, truth be told.  The neighborhood kids came by yesterday "to help."

I put them to work picking grapes for our weekly  Faith Mission donation.  They ate most of them and donated three grapes.  I then tasked them with helping John tidy his plot so that he could transplant some turnips that I had thinned earlier.  Then, I had them weed the cucumber patch so that we could plant some radish seeds that I've had in the shed since 2013.

Once they finished their work, I turned them loose in our corn patch.  They played hide and seek and enjoyed running up and down the rows.  It's only 150 square feet, so Lynds is not facing any real competition. But it's nearby and free.

They found a few leftover ears, so I gave one to John and they took the rest home.

Buckeyes Help Kick Off the SACG's Fall Season

This dry and hot summer has been exhausting at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  We never would have made it this long without our newly installed running water though, courtesy of a federal grant through the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.  Also, because watering each of our plants by hand takes so much time, we have been very fortunate to have assistance from community service volunteers from the Franklin County Environmental Court.  They mow our lawn, pick up neighborhood litter, water our plants, and weed around the Garden, etc.   We have also been blessed with a return visit from Ohio State University students through the Pay It Forward program.

The dry and hot summer has made gardening challenging, but we have also suffered from extensive groundhog damage and two-legged thieves who stole almost all of our cabbages, pulled up much of our kale and collards and took a week’s worth of heirloom tomatoes.   Kimball Farms next door did not plant this season and so the groundhog and thieves that usually feed over there have returned to the SACG.  The thieves built a staircase out of our cinder block compost bins and then used the empty rain barrel to destroy raspberry bushes so that they could climb over our fence.  Sigh.   They broke our gate on their way out.

We have continued to make weekly food pantry donations and are only slightly behind last year’s pace.  Weirdly, we have not been able to grow any winter squashes to save our lives.  I am completely mystified.  We had only 2 delicatta squashes in the co-op plot and I had only one acorn and one butternut in my plot.  Usually, we have dozens of winter squashes.  Not this year.  I’m wondering if it is the new fertilizer that I started using . . . . . .



Our melon crop did better this year than in years  past.  Straders every year donates lots of melon and cucumber seedlings, so I planted a bunch in a food pantry plot and they have done great, as have the basil seedlings. 


We are having a bumper grape crop because I completely failed to in any way prune the grape vines last year.  This means that we will have a miserable crop next year, although I intend to prune them way back this fall and recommend that they be pruned again in the Spring.  They started turning ripe a few weeks ago.  The neighborhood kids like to pick them and we have taken some to Faith Mission.


Our corn crop has done really well this year.  I staggered the plantings so that we could extend the season.  The last couple weeks have not been impressive, but I suspect that is because they were not getting enough water.  The ears were really small the last week.   Not even worth cooking.


Yesterday, we had a bumper cherry tomato crop.  Simon’s four young daughters and his better half helped me to fill a bag to take to Faith Mission.


The groundhog every week comes and chews on the sweet potato vines in the food pantry plots and sometimes my or Simon’s plot.  I put bird netting over them, but that did not help much.  I expect that this will result in some very puny sweet potatoes next month because the vines have never been able to grow much.  They regenerate after every groundhog “pruning,’ but they have never gotten very long, like last year’s bumper sweet potato crop.

The groundhog also loves to chomp down on my kale and to eat half of a tomato on our vines, particularly my heirloom tomatoes.  Grr.   One of our gardeners brought her dog into the Garden and it chased the critter out of Phil’s plot.   We’d trap it, but we don’t have anyone to check the traps every day until it is captured.

This year’s OSU group was one of the best that we’ve ever had.  They came three weeks ago and I split them into four teams.  The first team watered all of the food pantry plots, the strawberry patch, the blueberries, the fruit orchard, and the neighbor beds and then began harvesting peppers, etc.  They took a few peppers from Simon’s plot (which we returned to him) and a few tomatoes from mine and Charlie’s plot, but otherwise did a good job.   One guy mowed our lot, the orchard lot, the Block Watch lot, the Urban Connections lot and the UC backyard.  I let him harvest our tomatoes.  One team weeded the dill and mint forest and then planted beets and turnips.   One team weeded along the alley, picked up neighborhood litter and reorganized our shed.  One team weeded the west chain link fence and then harvested a row of potatoes and planted five rows of lettuce.  They were amazing.


Even better, they called this week and wanted to return this month or next.  I asked them to come  after our typical first frost because they could help me to harvest and clear out the food pantry tomatoes, pack up the tomato cages and trellises and cut back the corn stalks, etc. No one ever wants to help me clean out the Garden once it starts to get cold and bleak.  An OSU sorority came one year and we wreaked devastation on the dying plants.  I am psyched.


In two weeks, Capital University students will be coming to help weed, water, mow and plant radishes.  We are not finished at the SACG by a longshot.  

Buckeyes Help Kick Off the SACG's Fall Season

This dry and hot summer has been exhausting at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  We never would have made it this long without our newly installed running water though, courtesy of a federal grant through the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.  Also, because watering each of our plants by hand takes so much time, we have been very fortunate to have assistance from community service volunteers from the Franklin County Environmental Court.  They mow our lawn, pick up neighborhood litter, water our plants, and weed around the Garden, etc.   We have also been blessed with a return visit from Ohio State University students through the Pay It Forward program.

The dry and hot summer has made gardening challenging, but we have also suffered from extensive groundhog damage and two-legged thieves who stole almost all of our cabbages, pulled up much of our kale and collards and took a week’s worth of heirloom tomatoes.   Kimball Farms next door did not plant this season and so the groundhog and thieves that usually feed over there have returned to the SACG.  The thieves built a staircase out of our cinder block compost bins and then used the empty rain barrel to destroy raspberry bushes so that they could climb over our fence.  Sigh.   They broke our gate on their way out.

We have continued to make weekly food pantry donations and are only slightly behind last year’s pace.  Weirdly, we have not been able to grow any winter squashes to save our lives.  I am completely mystified.  We had only 2 delicatta squashes in the co-op plot and I had only one acorn and one butternut in my plot.  Usually, we have dozens of winter squashes.  Not this year.  I’m wondering if it is the new fertilizer that I started using . . . . . .



Our melon crop did better this year than in years  past.  Straders every year donates lots of melon and cucumber seedlings, so I planted a bunch in a food pantry plot and they have done great, as have the basil seedlings. 


We are having a bumper grape crop because I completely failed to in any way prune the grape vines last year.  This means that we will have a miserable crop next year, although I intend to prune them way back this fall and recommend that they be pruned again in the Spring.  They started turning ripe a few weeks ago.  The neighborhood kids like to pick them and we have taken some to Faith Mission.


Our corn crop has done really well this year.  I staggered the plantings so that we could extend the season.  The last couple weeks have not been impressive, but I suspect that is because they were not getting enough water.  The ears were really small the last week.   Not even worth cooking.


Yesterday, we had a bumper cherry tomato crop.  Simon’s four young daughters and his better half helped me to fill a bag to take to Faith Mission.


The groundhog every week comes and chews on the sweet potato vines in the food pantry plots and sometimes my or Simon’s plot.  I put bird netting over them, but that did not help much.  I expect that this will result in some very puny sweet potatoes next month because the vines have never been able to grow much.  They regenerate after every groundhog “pruning,’ but they have never gotten very long, like last year’s bumper sweet potato crop.

The groundhog also loves to chomp down on my kale and to eat half of a tomato on our vines, particularly my heirloom tomatoes.  Grr.   One of our gardeners brought her dog into the Garden and it chased the critter out of Phil’s plot.   We’d trap it, but we don’t have anyone to check the traps every day until it is captured.

This year’s OSU group was one of the best that we’ve ever had.  They came three weeks ago and I split them into four teams.  The first team watered all of the food pantry plots, the strawberry patch, the blueberries, the fruit orchard, and the neighbor beds and then began harvesting peppers, etc.  They took a few peppers from Simon’s plot (which we returned to him) and a few tomatoes from mine and Charlie’s plot, but otherwise did a good job.   One guy mowed our lot, the orchard lot, the Block Watch lot, the Urban Connections lot and the UC backyard.  I let him harvest our tomatoes.  One team weeded the dill and mint forest and then planted beets and turnips.   One team weeded along the alley, picked up neighborhood litter and reorganized our shed.  One team weeded the west chain link fence and then harvested a row of potatoes and planted five rows of lettuce.  They were amazing.


Even better, they called this week and wanted to return this month or next.  I asked them to come  after our typical first frost because they could help me to harvest and clear out the food pantry tomatoes, pack up the tomato cages and trellises and cut back the corn stalks, etc. No one ever wants to help me clean out the Garden once it starts to get cold and bleak.  An OSU sorority came one year and we wreaked devastation on the dying plants.  I am psyched.


In two weeks, Capital University students will be coming to help weed, water, mow and plant radishes.  We are not finished at the SACG by a longshot.