You know what they say about best laid plans. We were supposed to open for the season, this
Saturday, March 28. (We’ve only opened
this early once before). However, the
temperature is not supposed to even reach the 40’s in the afternoon, which
makes it pretty darn cold to be working in the morning. It might even snow on Friday (and snowed last night). So, we’re going to put our shovels and rakes on
stand-by for two weeks. As of today, we
have only 3-4 plots remaining, so interested gardeners should sign up promptly
to reserve a plot.
In the meantime, we had posted a new lawn sign at the SACG
so that passersby could get critical information about contacting and joining
us. Donley
Complete Tree Care also dropped off a truckload of wood chips (mostly pine)
in a brand new shiny truck yesterday. Mike Donley is also starting a community
flower garden on Latta street on the Near East side (west of the SACG) and has
volunteered to similarly provide free wood chips to other community gardens. 
On Friday, Barb Seckler notified us that we were receiving a
community garden grant from the City of Columbus and the Institute for Active Living Fund of the Columbus Foundation to purchase three new fruit trees to add
to our “orchard” of peach and cherry trees and to replace our make-shift “curb”
of construction debris along the alley side of the Garden with landscaping
stones which are being generously donated by GreenScapes. Scotts Miracle grow is also generously donating
60 bags of soil amendments and mulch. Yea
team! Hopefully, we’ll have received our
grant check before the volunteer lawyers from the OSBA come on April 25 so that
I can take advantage of their strong backs.
Mike Donley was also telling me about this wonderful tool he has to
pulverize dirt, which is perfect for digging large holes in which to plant
trees. (A tree professional would have
such a nifty tool, wouldn’t he). In the
past, we’ve just used pick axes and shovels . . . . .
I mentioned last month that the City is planning to treat
the rain tanks at Land Bank community gardens (like the SACG) for
mosquitoes. Seth has since shared
additional information about this:
A microbial larvicide only affecting mosquito larvae is the
single product we use to treat rain barrels/cisterns. The water is still safe
to use for gardening, in fact, Columbus Public Health treats residential rain
barrels with the same product throughout the City of Columbus. The active
ingredients, Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus thuringiensis
israelensis, are bacteria and work when they’re ingested and activated by
the specific pH inside the mosquitoes gut. Once activated, the bacteria will
create a toxin causing the mosquito larvae to stop eating and starve or die
from infection. If people ingest the product, the bacteria wouldn’t become
activated or make a toxin.
I thought this was fascinating and found a similar product
at Dill’s Greenhouse last week which I purchased for my own three rain barrels
at home.
While I was at the Garden yesterday to watch the wood chips
being delivered, I noticed that another anonymous donor filled our Free Little
Library with children’s books. Thanks
mystery donor! Fairy Garden Barb is
moving to Powell and also donated a slew of children’s books and back issues of
Mother Jones magazine for our Free
Little Library. That’s a nifty little
magazine, so I’ll be putting in an issue each week as I read through them
myself . . . . Finally, our tulips, daisies and daffodils are poking through the soil. Susan and I visited the Garden in December to plant tulips and daffodil bulbs that had been donated by Strader's Nursery. Postponing our Opening Day means that we'll likely have blooming flowers to welcome us in April.
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