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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