Springing Back With a Vengeance

Spring really showed up with a vengeance this week at the Stoddart Avenue Community  Garden with temperatures in the 80’s.  We had a brilliantly sunny and warm day on Saturday and a dry and warm week.  This will really warm up the ground quickly.  No temperatures below 40 are predicted in the near term, so we may start summer planting early.

On Wednesday, Micayla and I planted potatoes in the food pantry plot and in her raised bed.  We also helped Taylor and Alyssa (who, in turn, help me to liberate the benches so that we don’t have to squat to sit).  Micayla was looking forward to a school field trip to the National Underground Railroad Center in Cincinnati.

On Saturday, I got a very late start because I hadn’t had time on Friday to visit DeMonye’s annual perennial sale.  So, I began my Saturday at DeMonye’s picking up a flat of perennial flowers and herbs and a pot of rosemary.

On Saturday, I arrived to tidy the flower beds, plant in my plot (cabbage, Chinese cabbage, broccoli leeks, and brussels sprouts)  and the food pantry plot (onions, greens, kale, broccoli) and water everything in.  Cathy and Ben were there to plant cool crops in their plot as well.  Susan arrived for planting in her plot, too.   Susan and I commiserated about how much slower we move these days… . . I just got my AARP card.

While I mowed our lot, Susan picked up litter in the neighborhood.  Our fruit trees seemed to have survived last week’s late season freezes and had lots of flowers on them.  When I returned briefly on Monday to water (due to out unseasonably warm and dry weather), Micayla showed up with her own watering can to water her potatoes with help from Gio).

This Saturday will be our annual Earth Day Celebration with Earth Day Columbus.  On Tuesday, I

picked up our supplies from Keep Columbus Beautiful, including mulch, top soil, bottled water, luna bars, litter grabbers, gloves, safety vests, trash bags, etc.  EDC CEO Kristen was there to pass out supplies, too.  Apparently, the work sites signed up for 5,700 rewards, but they only had 5,000 rewards (i.e., free Jeni’s and Bubble Tea and 2-for-1 Chipotle) to give out.  So, a lot of the community gardens returned a lot of their rewards so that there would be enough to go around.  Kristen was very impressed.  The work sites also get 2 fashionable t-shirts.

We have big plans at the SACG.  We have a small group of OSU students coming and 8 folks signed up to help us on the EDC site.  OSU's Pay It Forward told me that they actually have a wait list of students wanting to help us this weekend!  And then there are our regular gardeners.  This is the fun that we have planned:

·        Picking up litter in the neighborhood and then taking a group picture behind our stack of trash bags. 

·        Expanding our strawberry patch.   We haven’t gotten our Lowe’s voucher yet from the City and are unlikely to do so before Saturday, so it’s not going to go as planned.  We’ve put some com-til over there and KCB just gave me a lot of top soil.  I also want to add some garden soil once we get our vouchers.  Our neighbor is going to give us some strawberry seedlings (i.e., babies from the strawberry seedlings that we gave them last year).    We’ll be raking aside the wood chips, outlining the new patch with our existing stones, then fill it partially up with our donated top soil and com-til, weeding the existing patch, transplanting new seedlings and watering them in real good.

·        Planting our fourth sour cherry tree.  I’ll pick the tree up on Friday and some tree soil. 

·        Turning the compost in the bins and straightening up the leaning bin and the blocks on the other.

·        Planting beets, turnips, lettuce, etc. in the food pantry plots.

·        Mowing the lawn. 

·        If we finish early, we’ll just sit around singing If I had a hammer . . . . . Just kidding.

 

We’ll be starting at 9:30 and I plan to bring cookies. When everyone leaves, I can tend my own plot for a while before returning home.

We do have one small problem that I hope our dear readers can help alleviate.  We are out of books for our Free Little Library.  Everyone should have such problems.   Every day that I'm at the Garden, children and parents stop by to get books and all we have right now are gardening books.  Please help!