Cherry Jubilee at the SACG Like a Well Watered Garden

We are three quarters of the way through June at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and this month has been dominated by a bumper crop of cherries and strawberries.  The Environmental Court has again been sending us Community Service volunteers who have helped tremendously.  We have also hosted elementary school students from the Urban Connections annual Bible camp and they have picked over 8 pounds of fresh cherries and black raspberries that we donated to Salvation Army’s food pantry down the street.  

At the end of May, Charlie scavenged a discarded wheelbarrow and then built new handles for it so that we could upgrade from the holey wheelbarrow he bought for $5 eight years ago that we have been using since that time.   This “new” one is much bigger and can carry more (without losing valuable compost through a hole in the corner).

During the first weekend in June, Strader’s made a monster donation of melons, basil and cucumbers to the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition.  I took a flat of each and then Amy helped me to plant a load of cantaloupes, watermelons and cucumbers in our food pantry plots.   This is going to be the year of the fruit at the SACG.   Charlie even installed a trellis so that we could grow cucumbers vertically to save space.  Then, our neighbor Isaias, stopped by and donated 8 partially grown canna lilies for our flower beds.  We had received a bunch from the Kossuth Community Garden a few years ago and they did great for a few years, but none of them came back last year. Isaias reminded me that I need to dig them up for the winter and replant them each Spring.  Let’s see if I remember or have the energy . . . . . .


I was delighted to hear back from the Environmental  Court about again receiving Community Service volunteers.  We had not had any since September.  I put them to work weeding and they exceeded my expectations (despite making a few rookie mistakes).  This was the first group of volunteers in my life that attacked weeding the brambles with gusto.  They also insisted on digging weeds out by their roots instead of just pulling the vine.  They also edged, harvested sweet bing cherries and strawberries for our first Faith Mission donation of the year, transplanted the extra Strader donations of basil and cucumbers, carried a few bags of mulch for me, and hauled and spread compost in the large food pantry plot.  And they bagged everything and dragged those lawn waste bags down to the alley.



One of them returned the following week with another group to help me help the North Bexley Community Garden weed and spread mulch (and move compost bags) and then returned with me to the SACG to pick tart pie cherries to donate to Faith Mission, mow our lawn and weed the paths.  This last week, a different one returned with the group and they picked even more tart pie cherries for me to take to Faith Mission, and turned over all of our compost bins to help it decompose faster (and uncovering the compost that had been created over the last six months).  


We had a bit of excitement one Wednesday evening.  First, an illegal dumper was dumping construction waste from the back of his pickup truck into our neighbor’s dumpster.  While I probably should be glad that he was not simply dumping it into the alley, I confronted him and told him to move along.  He insisted that he lived there, but I knew better.  I should have photographed his license plate.  A few minutes later, a very excited young man came running into our front lawn, ducked behind some trees and then did a jig holding a fifth of booze in each hand.  About 30 seconds later, a much older man came running down East Main Street whistling for a police officer.  I have to think that the two incidents were related.  The young man then hightailed it East in the alley.  Then, as I packed up for the evening, a homeless fellow came by for a drink.  I gave him two cans of ensure and he thanked me for helping him out over the years.  How sad.  Years. 


Then, Charlie told me that the postal worker had left a water bill for us on our gate.  On our gate!  We do not have a mailbox.  We registered for water last August and gave the Water Division our mailing address, but they had been mailing bills to the Garden – a vacant lot.  Gee whiz.  I emailed them to complain because they were assessing us – to my surprise – with a monthly fee (even though we disconnected the meter in November and did not reconnect it until Memorial Day weekend – and had never turned the water on yet).   They apologized and waived the late fees, etc.   I had not budgeted for a monthly water bill when we have never used the water.    We had the water lines installed in case we have another drought like in 2012.  Our rain tanks usually run dry once or twice a year, and the City only fills it for us once (for free).  Of course, as soon as we had the water lines installed, Central Ohio turned into a rain forest with inches of rain almost every week. Ironic, ne’st pas?


Our black raspberries are coming into peak season.  My nephew-in-law, Simon, came with his five    babies to pick cherries and berries.  They had such a good time that they are going to take a raised bed.  The berries did not survive the van ride back home, but there are more where they came from.

Urban Connections received grants from the United Way and the Columbus Foundation this year to work with the SACG and other community partners for its annual Bible Day Camp.  This year’s theme is Growing Together in Christ.   In addition to visits to the Conservatory’s children’s garden, Slate Run Farm, and the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, the kids and the volunteers from Gallion's Alliance  Church participated in crafts and bible study.  I gave two lessons and took them back to the SACG to volunteer for about 30 minutes.  Our first lesson was about the parable of sowing seeds and was to have been followed with weeding (since we’re mostly fully planted by now).  However, our CS volunteers did a pretty good job of weeding for us.  I showed them Paul’s weedy plot (which he then weeded the next day) and put them to work picking cherries and berries that I then took to the Salvation Army.  Then, the next lesson was about the many passages where God promises to bless us like a watered garden (and other passages about rain and living water, etc.) to be followed by helping me to water the food pantry plots.  However, you know what they say about best laid plans, it rained two inches the night before.  Sigh.  So, we picked more cherries and lots of black raspberries.   The pastor's wife pulled our forest of thistles growing along our southwestern fence.  Bless her heart.  She also weeded our blueberry bushes (and spared the volunteer petunias). 
   

We had a bumper crop of tart pie cherries.  Some years, we do not have time to pick them.  However,  this year, I’ve managed to convince enough people to help themselves and even bring their own ladders.   I made a pie, made and canned cherry-almond jam, and canned a few pints myself.  Our black raspberries are not quite as plentiful as in past years and I blame our fence straightening project for that.  We usually have a black raspberry festival (with plant and bake sale), but this week’s rain has scared me off.  Last year, it started raining after only an hour and that was a lot of wasted work.   Of course, now that we will not be having it, it will probably be dry.   That’s always the way, right?

Our overly abundant rain has not hurt us too much.  Unlike some gardens, we have a slight incline so that none of the rain pools or floods us.   Our peas are giant and popping.  The kale has been gigantic.  Oh and the grapes are gigantic and plentiful. I cannot wait until they change colors.   It is sometimes hard to keep up with the weeds, though.  We have never had as many thistles as this year. 

Cherry Jubilee at the SACG Like a Well Watered Garden

We are three quarters of the way through June at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and this month has been dominated by a bumper crop of cherries and strawberries.  The Environmental Court has again been sending us Community Service volunteers who have helped tremendously.  We have also hosted elementary school students from the Urban Connections annual Bible camp and they have picked over 8 pounds of fresh cherries and black raspberries that we donated to Salvation Army’s food pantry down the street.  

At the end of May, Charlie scavenged a discarded wheelbarrow and then built new handles for it so that we could upgrade from the holey wheelbarrow he bought for $5 eight years ago that we have been using since that time.   This “new” one is much bigger and can carry more (without losing valuable compost through a hole in the corner).

During the first weekend in June, Strader’s made a monster donation of melons, basil and cucumbers to the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition.  I took a flat of each and then Amy helped me to plant a load of cantaloupes, watermelons and cucumbers in our food pantry plots.   This is going to be the year of the fruit at the SACG.   Charlie even installed a trellis so that we could grow cucumbers vertically to save space.  Then, our neighbor Isaias, stopped by and donated 8 partially grown canna lilies for our flower beds.  We had received a bunch from the Kossuth Community Garden a few years ago and they did great for a few years, but none of them came back last year. Isaias reminded me that I need to dig them up for the winter and replant them each Spring.  Let’s see if I remember or have the energy . . . . . .


I was delighted to hear back from the Environmental  Court about again receiving Community Service volunteers.  We had not had any since September.  I put them to work weeding and they exceeded my expectations (despite making a few rookie mistakes).  This was the first group of volunteers in my life that attacked weeding the brambles with gusto.  They also insisted on digging weeds out by their roots instead of just pulling the vine.  They also edged, harvested sweet bing cherries and strawberries for our first Faith Mission donation of the year, transplanted the extra Strader donations of basil and cucumbers, carried a few bags of mulch for me, and hauled and spread compost in the large food pantry plot.  And they bagged everything and dragged those lawn waste bags down to the alley.



One of them returned the following week with another group to help me help the North Bexley Community Garden weed and spread mulch (and move compost bags) and then returned with me to the SACG to pick tart pie cherries to donate to Faith Mission, mow our lawn and weed the paths.  This last week, a different one returned with the group and they picked even more tart pie cherries for me to take to Faith Mission, and turned over all of our compost bins to help it decompose faster (and uncovering the compost that had been created over the last six months).  


We had a bit of excitement one Wednesday evening.  First, an illegal dumper was dumping construction waste from the back of his pickup truck into our neighbor’s dumpster.  While I probably should be glad that he was not simply dumping it into the alley, I confronted him and told him to move along.  He insisted that he lived there, but I knew better.  I should have photographed his license plate.  A few minutes later, a very excited young man came running into our front lawn, ducked behind some trees and then did a jig holding a fifth of booze in each hand.  About 30 seconds later, a much older man came running down East Main Street whistling for a police officer.  I have to think that the two incidents were related.  The young man then hightailed it East in the alley.  Then, as I packed up for the evening, a homeless fellow came by for a drink.  I gave him two cans of ensure and he thanked me for helping him out over the years.  How sad.  Years. 


Then, Charlie told me that the postal worker had left a water bill for us on our gate.  On our gate!  We do not have a mailbox.  We registered for water last August and gave the Water Division our mailing address, but they had been mailing bills to the Garden – a vacant lot.  Gee whiz.  I emailed them to complain because they were assessing us – to my surprise – with a monthly fee (even though we disconnected the meter in November and did not reconnect it until Memorial Day weekend – and had never turned the water on yet).   They apologized and waived the late fees, etc.   I had not budgeted for a monthly water bill when we have never used the water.    We had the water lines installed in case we have another drought like in 2012.  Our rain tanks usually run dry once or twice a year, and the City only fills it for us once (for free).  Of course, as soon as we had the water lines installed, Central Ohio turned into a rain forest with inches of rain almost every week. Ironic, ne’st pas?


Our black raspberries are coming into peak season.  My nephew-in-law, Simon, came with his five    babies to pick cherries and berries.  They had such a good time that they are going to take a raised bed.  The berries did not survive the van ride back home, but there are more where they came from.

Urban Connections received grants from the United Way and the Columbus Foundation this year to work with the SACG and other community partners for its annual Bible Day Camp.  This year’s theme is Growing Together in Christ.   In addition to visits to the Conservatory’s children’s garden, Slate Run Farm, and the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, the kids and the volunteers from Gallion's Alliance  Church participated in crafts and bible study.  I gave two lessons and took them back to the SACG to volunteer for about 30 minutes.  Our first lesson was about the parable of sowing seeds and was to have been followed with weeding (since we’re mostly fully planted by now).  However, our CS volunteers did a pretty good job of weeding for us.  I showed them Paul’s weedy plot (which he then weeded the next day) and put them to work picking cherries and berries that I then took to the Salvation Army.  Then, the next lesson was about the many passages where God promises to bless us like a watered garden (and other passages about rain and living water, etc.) to be followed by helping me to water the food pantry plots.  However, you know what they say about best laid plans, it rained two inches the night before.  Sigh.  So, we picked more cherries and lots of black raspberries.   The pastor's wife pulled our forest of thistles growing along our southwestern fence.  Bless her heart.  She also weeded our blueberry bushes (and spared the volunteer petunias). 
   

We had a bumper crop of tart pie cherries.  Some years, we do not have time to pick them.  However,  this year, I’ve managed to convince enough people to help themselves and even bring their own ladders.   I made a pie, made and canned cherry-almond jam, and canned a few pints myself.  Our black raspberries are not quite as plentiful as in past years and I blame our fence straightening project for that.  We usually have a black raspberry festival (with plant and bake sale), but this week’s rain has scared me off.  Last year, it started raining after only an hour and that was a lot of wasted work.   Of course, now that we will not be having it, it will probably be dry.   That’s always the way, right?

Our overly abundant rain has not hurt us too much.  Unlike some gardens, we have a slight incline so that none of the rain pools or floods us.   Our peas are giant and popping.  The kale has been gigantic.  Oh and the grapes are gigantic and plentiful. I cannot wait until they change colors.   It is sometimes hard to keep up with the weeds, though.  We have never had as many thistles as this year. 

May Flew By at the SACG

The Garden Manager is wearing out and is trying to have more fun and not work so much this year.  When last I reported on the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden in April, our cherry trees were in full bloom and we were expanding the fence braces along the northern edge of the fence before the raspberry brambles took over.


Someone finally hauled away the wooden pallets that had been mysteriously placed behind our Free Little Library.  Whew!


OSU arranged for our soil to be tested.  Our pH was still a bit high, at 7.3.  All of that compost has a tendency to raise our pH.   I added some aluminum sulfate to my plot and to the food pantry potatoes.  I also added some to our blueberries and WOW they really exploded this year.  Our best crop EVER.  I had been topping them off every year with peat moss, but apparently that was not acidic enough for them.  Live and learn.


So far, we have only had one gardener drop out – because she moved away.  We had two new gardeners join us in May, but we never see them.  One keeps her plot completely weed free, although not much else seems to be growing.  The other has some tomatoes and squash and is otherwise overrun with weeds.  Sigh.

Our super former Board member, Ken  Turner, took home one of our broken benches early this Spring to fix it and returned it sturdier than it had ever been with all new wood.  The benches were initially created for Ameriflora (and were stamped with Ameriflora 1992 on the metal frame.   Franklin Park Conservatory donated them to us in 2009 shortly after we broke ground.  We have tried to maintain them by sanding and staining every year or so (usually by OSU Pay-It-Forward volunteers in August), but they could not be saved.  We have another bench which could use similar treatment, but Ken has run for the hills when I mentioned it . . . . . ha ha.  Can’t say I blame him.  I  bet it was a lot of work.

First Congregational Church held a special offering on Earth Day Sunday for the SACG, Highland Youth, Fourth Street Farms and a garden on the South Side.  The treasurer from Highland Youth and I attended the service and stayed afterwards to answer questions and attempt to recruit volunteers, etc.   This unexpected support was much appreciated because we have recently learned that we have to pay a monthly fee to the City of Columbus just for having access to running water even if we never use it.  Sigh.


May, as usual, was very busy with planting lots of seeds and seedlings between rain drops.  Sabrina broke my heart by giving up her plot for the season.  Our new gardener, John, however, has really stepped up to the fill the considerable void that she left.  He has done a lot of weeding for me.   And Charlie, who comes on most Wednesday evenings, also helps out a lot with installing trellises and posts, etc.  One Saturday, Cathy came with chocolate dipped strawberries for us.  Yumm!  


The gardeners this year  wanted to start their own seeds for have the most part, so I will be composting tons of extra tomatoes seedlings this year.  There is no point of giving them away because Straders has donated hundreds of flats of tomato seedlings to GCGC.  

I am so excited that we are going to have grapes for the first time this year.  I know that I should be pruning our vines, but I do not know how.  We damaged the white grape vine when we repaired the trellis gate in April, but I'm sure that it will return to vigor by this time next year.

Our daisies did not disappoint this year and our strawberries came back before Memorial Day so that I could introduce them to a new crop of neighborhood children that moved in between growing seasons. 

May Flew By at the SACG

The Garden Manager is wearing out and is trying to have more fun and not work so much this year.  When last I reported on the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden in April, our cherry trees were in full bloom and we were expanding the fence braces along the northern edge of the fence before the raspberry brambles took over.


Someone finally hauled away the wooden pallets that had been mysteriously placed behind our Free Little Library.  Whew!


OSU arranged for our soil to be tested.  Our pH was still a bit high, at 7.3.  All of that compost has a tendency to raise our pH.   I added some aluminum sulfate to my plot and to the food pantry potatoes.  I also added some to our blueberries and WOW they really exploded this year.  Our best crop EVER.  I had been topping them off every year with peat moss, but apparently that was not acidic enough for them.  Live and learn.


So far, we have only had one gardener drop out – because she moved away.  We had two new gardeners join us in May, but we never see them.  One keeps her plot completely weed free, although not much else seems to be growing.  The other has some tomatoes and squash and is otherwise overrun with weeds.  Sigh.

Our super former Board member, Ken  Turner, took home one of our broken benches early this Spring to fix it and returned it sturdier than it had ever been with all new wood.  The benches were initially created for Ameriflora (and were stamped with Ameriflora 1992 on the metal frame.   Franklin Park Conservatory donated them to us in 2009 shortly after we broke ground.  We have tried to maintain them by sanding and staining every year or so (usually by OSU Pay-It-Forward volunteers in August), but they could not be saved.  We have another bench which could use similar treatment, but Ken has run for the hills when I mentioned it . . . . . ha ha.  Can’t say I blame him.  I  bet it was a lot of work.

First Congregational Church held a special offering on Earth Day Sunday for the SACG, Highland Youth, Fourth Street Farms and a garden on the South Side.  The treasurer from Highland Youth and I attended the service and stayed afterwards to answer questions and attempt to recruit volunteers, etc.   This unexpected support was much appreciated because we have recently learned that we have to pay a monthly fee to the City of Columbus just for having access to running water even if we never use it.  Sigh.


May, as usual, was very busy with planting lots of seeds and seedlings between rain drops.  Sabrina broke my heart by giving up her plot for the season.  Our new gardener, John, however, has really stepped up to the fill the considerable void that she left.  He has done a lot of weeding for me.   And Charlie, who comes on most Wednesday evenings, also helps out a lot with installing trellises and posts, etc.  One Saturday, Cathy came with chocolate dipped strawberries for us.  Yumm!  


The gardeners this year  wanted to start their own seeds for have the most part, so I will be composting tons of extra tomatoes seedlings this year.  There is no point of giving them away because Straders has donated hundreds of flats of tomato seedlings to GCGC.  

I am so excited that we are going to have grapes for the first time this year.  I know that I should be pruning our vines, but I do not know how.  We damaged the white grape vine when we repaired the trellis gate in April, but I'm sure that it will return to vigor by this time next year.

Our daisies did not disappoint this year and our strawberries came back before Memorial Day so that I could introduce them to a new crop of neighborhood children that moved in between growing seasons. 

When the Rain Comes, It Means Time to Weed

The word of the year for the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for 2019 is fun.  So, we do not have much planned this year.  After Earth Day, we only had two gardeners to complete their three hours of work equity.   And April showers have kept most of the gardeners away this week.  Our cherry trees are in in their beautiful, flowery glory.  BUT, the bees have not been flocking to them as they have in the past.  


On Wednesday, Phil mowed our lawn, picked up litter, edged and mulched around the Meteor cherry tree and tulips in the front lawn.   Charlie – who has not gardened with us in a few years – returned and dug through bricks and stones to help straighten out the northeast corner of the fence.   Charlie is the gardener who helped me to pick up landscaping stones and then edged the entire front flower bed.  He also built the brick pad in front of the shed and picked up our rickety wheelbarrow at a yard sale.   He left after buying his own house and thought that he would grow his food in his backyard.  You know what they say about best laid plans.  Instead, he had shade trees.  So, now he’s back.

We just have 20 feet left to complete on our fence project this year before the brambles get too tall.  We worked until dark.  I painted the wood as we installed the fence.  (The pickets were painted two years ago).  


Ken stopped by on Saturday afternoon to pick up and dispose of two of the pallets that were dumped on our lawn last week.  The rest remain and have killed the grass on the north part of the lawn.  


Sabrina came on Thursday to weed and plant some lettuce and spinach.  Her plot is again covered in purple nettles.  She again put down black garden fabric to kill them, but Friday night’s storm ripped a lot of it up.  She also had lots of volunteer daisies, so I transplanted them to make room for her vegetables.


I got a late start on Saturday because I had not planned to be there   However, it stopped six hours early.  Of course, it was muddy and chilly.  Conventional wisdom says not to garden in the mud because the soil will become too compact and restrict tender roots.  But, it is a great time to weed because the soil is soft.   I planted some lettuce seedlings and replanted my spinach (which should have sprouted before now).   I then weeded one of the food pantry plots and planted all of my extra cabbage seedlings so that they would not get root bound.  When the rain did not return, I had to water them in (if you can believe it).
in light of the anticipated rain.

I also weeded the flower beds and started digging dandelion plants out of the lawn.   You might notice that our front lawn looks amazing.  It is not a chemical blessing; it is a yoga downward dog one.  We have bent over and physically removed the dandelions (but not the violets or clover) over the years.  A thick lawn keeps them from re-establishing themselves.  So, every year I pick off the dandelions growing on the periphery.  Yes, the bees love them, but we have lots of flowers and flowering trees that need and feed them.


Our cherry trees are blooming profusely.   That being said, there was not a bee in sight (unlike Wednesday).  I'm hoping that the rain was the culprit.  The Granny Smith and Jonathon apples are also starting to bloom.  The McIntosh apples are blooming, but not the Honeycrisp that we planted last week.  It just has buds.  So, there is no chance of McIntosh or Honeycrisp apples this year.  The peach trees already bloomed so-so.  The plums are just so-so.  The elderberry bushes have quadrupled in size from last year.  


Ethan came to weed his plot and plant some onions.  He also edged a plum tree.  I edged the   Then I mulched the plum tree and elderberry bushes.  And I planted some more onions and some swiss chard.
elderberry bushes and weeded a few blueberry bushes.


I have other things to plant, but it was 2:00 and I had other things to do, like cook and clean.

When the Rain Comes, It Means Time to Weed

The word of the year for the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for 2019 is fun.  So, we do not have much planned this year.  After Earth Day, we only had two gardeners to complete their three hours of work equity.   And April showers have kept most of the gardeners away this week.  Our cherry trees are in in their beautiful, flowery glory.  BUT, the bees have not been flocking to them as they have in the past.  


On Wednesday, Phil mowed our lawn, picked up litter, edged and mulched around the Meteor cherry tree and tulips in the front lawn.   Charlie – who has not gardened with us in a few years – returned and dug through bricks and stones to help straighten out the northeast corner of the fence.   Charlie is the gardener who helped me to pick up landscaping stones and then edged the entire front flower bed.  He also built the brick pad in front of the shed and picked up our rickety wheelbarrow at a yard sale.   He left after buying his own house and thought that he would grow his food in his backyard.  You know what they say about best laid plans.  Instead, he had shade trees.  So, now he’s back.

We just have 20 feet left to complete on our fence project this year before the brambles get too tall.  We worked until dark.  I painted the wood as we installed the fence.  (The pickets were painted two years ago).  


Ken stopped by on Saturday afternoon to pick up and dispose of two of the pallets that were dumped on our lawn last week.  The rest remain and have killed the grass on the north part of the lawn.  


Sabrina came on Thursday to weed and plant some lettuce and spinach.  Her plot is again covered in purple nettles.  She again put down black garden fabric to kill them, but Friday night’s storm ripped a lot of it up.  She also had lots of volunteer daisies, so I transplanted them to make room for her vegetables.


I got a late start on Saturday because I had not planned to be there   However, it stopped six hours early.  Of course, it was muddy and chilly.  Conventional wisdom says not to garden in the mud because the soil will become too compact and restrict tender roots.  But, it is a great time to weed because the soil is soft.   I planted some lettuce seedlings and replanted my spinach (which should have sprouted before now).   I then weeded one of the food pantry plots and planted all of my extra cabbage seedlings so that they would not get root bound.  When the rain did not return, I had to water them in (if you can believe it).
in light of the anticipated rain.

I also weeded the flower beds and started digging dandelion plants out of the lawn.   You might notice that our front lawn looks amazing.  It is not a chemical blessing; it is a yoga downward dog one.  We have bent over and physically removed the dandelions (but not the violets or clover) over the years.  A thick lawn keeps them from re-establishing themselves.  So, every year I pick off the dandelions growing on the periphery.  Yes, the bees love them, but we have lots of flowers and flowering trees that need and feed them.


Our cherry trees are blooming profusely.   That being said, there was not a bee in sight (unlike Wednesday).  I'm hoping that the rain was the culprit.  The Granny Smith and Jonathon apples are also starting to bloom.  The McIntosh apples are blooming, but not the Honeycrisp that we planted last week.  It just has buds.  So, there is no chance of McIntosh or Honeycrisp apples this year.  The peach trees already bloomed so-so.  The plums are just so-so.  The elderberry bushes have quadrupled in size from last year.  


Ethan came to weed his plot and plant some onions.  He also edged a plum tree.  I edged the   Then I mulched the plum tree and elderberry bushes.  And I planted some more onions and some swiss chard.
elderberry bushes and weeded a few blueberry bushes.


I have other things to plant, but it was 2:00 and I had other things to do, like cook and clean.

SACG’s Earth Day Celebration for 2019

The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden celebrated another Earth Day on Saturday with the planting of another tree:  this year a honeycrisp apple tree to go with our McIntosh, Jonathon and Granny Smith. Our Stoddart/East Main corner is looking cheery with bulbs that I planted in December which were donated by Straders Garden Centers and distributed at the December GCGC holiday party meeting at the Conservatory.  

I picked up our supplies from Keep Columbus Beautiful and Green Columbus on Friday, including lots of mulch and top soil donated by Ohio Mulch (just before it started to pour rain with just the community garden guru from Olde Town East’s community garden to help me load).   We also picked up some litter (but not as much as last week, particularly because a large group of young people were out picking up litter this Saturday along East Main Street).  I did not, however, take a group photo this week.  Our dedicated volunteers and gardeners accomplished a lot and received goodies, including vouchers for free ice cream from Jeni's:

New gardener Michael moved mountains by shoveling wood chips away from the southern fence.  Anyone who wants some for their own yards or gardens are free to help themselves, because I doubt that we will need many more.   He also helped me to straighten one of the platform raised beds.  This time, we moved it completely away, straightened out the stone platforms and then returned it and tried to screw in 12-inch screws to keep it vertical (instead of leaning at a 30 degree angle like it was last week). I wore him out, so – after helping to plant the apple tree -  he went home to mow his own lawn and came back with his lovely Australian shepherd, Duke.

John picked up more litter, and dug some holes for us for the apple tree and for the southern fence posts, picked up some litter, and tried to paint the bare fence wood (with the paint left in the shed that did not over winter well). Then, he got his own plot cleaned out and planted some turnips, cabbage, and lettuce.  He also disposed of our rotting stakes and some giant sunflower stalks from last year.


Ethan raked away the dead grass in front of the sign and cultivated the soil so that I could plant grass seeds.  Curses that it may not rain again the rest of the week.  Sigh.  Just my luck.  He also helped to move the raised bed so that we could straighten it out, help plant and back fill the apple tree.


Any fixed the strawberry patch that had been damaged by the wood chip delivery truck.  She dug up the crushed strawberry plants, spread some of the donated top soil and come of our compost and transplanted and watered in the strawberry plants.   She also pruned some of our roses and started to clean out flower beds.

Whitney – Michael’s better half – came to transport compost into some of the plots whose gardeners did not use enough of it (IMHO) last year.  She also sanded the shed’s peeling rain barrel and painted it.  She then helped to clean out the flower beds.



Ellen also helped to distribute compost and then refilled the platform raised beds with the soil we removed last week and then topped it off with new potting soil I picked up at Lowe’s on Friday. She also helped to clean out flower beds and helped to plant lettuce, onion and cabbage in the neighbor bed along our alley where anyone can help themselves.  She and Whitney also preserved a large number of volunteer black raspberry bush seedlings in the raised bed.  I will transplant some of them next week into bare spots along our exterior fence.  However, the rest of them are free to any other community garden and for a donation (or some time volunteering) to any individual gardeners would like to start their own yummy and nutritious raspberry patch.

Sabrina and her two boys came and sorted our dwindling supply of tomato and trellis stakes.  The boys also watered in the new apple trees and carried water for me to water in transplanted daisies and bachelor buttons.  She also helped to transplant cabbage, onion and lettuce seedlings in the neighbor bed and cleaned out a flower bed.

I helped Michael with the raised bed, cleaned out flower beds, transplanted volunteer daisies and bachelor buttons into more appropriate places, brought refreshments to keep everyone sugar up, assembled supplies and tried to keep everyone busy.  After they left, I tended my own plot for a bit, picked up mulch for my own home, planted a ton of perennial flowers that I picked up from DeMonye’s perennial sale on Friday, and then returned to plant some flowers, and then spinach, Chinese, red and white cabbage, Italian, curly and red kale, lettuce, brussells sprouts, potatoes, broccoli, onions, and transplant a lot of garlic.   I had already planted my snow peas a few days earlier.

Sadly, some misguided fool dropped off a dozen or so wood pallets at the Garden on Thursday without first asking me.  Two of our compost bins are made from such pallets.  Granted, they are probably due to be replaced soon, but I do not have the energy or volunteers to do it this year and would only need 6 pallets, not 12.  They stacked them neatly on our lawn, but it will kill the grass in short order, creating more work for me.   Pastor Brown did not want them, but found a volunteer to haul them away.  However, when that volunteer arrived, he could not fit them on his overflowing trailer.  Although he said he would return later in the day, he did not and they were still there when I left around 7:30.   I emailed GCGC members and posted on a local gardening site advertising their free availability to anyone wanting to build their own compost bin.  Two of my Board members also volunteered to dispose of a few of them.  So, hopefully, they will be gone when I return . . . . . .   this was not a problem that I identified this week.  Perhaps coincidentally, Cathy later photographed a mounted police officer patrolling the Garden.  Hilarious.


We still have 4 plots available for new gardeners.  One of our former gardeners, Charlie, stopped by on Wednesday to rejoin us after a few years of trying to have his own garden at his new home.  He took his original plot from 2010.   


Today, I get to return the tools that we borrowed from Keep Columbus Beautiful and the Tool Library and pick up new paint for our fence.