Almost six years to the day, the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Women’s Board returned to visit the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden as part of its annual tour of local community gardens on Wednesday. It was an even larger group than in 2010 and included Conservatory staff and even Conservatory Executive Director Bruce Harkey. (I’m glad that I did not wear my typical baggy and dirty gardening garb). As always, they were very nice and seemed very aware of how much work goes into operating a successful community garden. While in 2010 I focused on how we repurposed discarded items and the amount of corporate and community support that we had received, this time I emphasized how much work was involved and all of the changes (particularly in the last year) which had been made since their last visit. I even tried to recruit them to replace me as Garden Manager. Finally, I emphasized the diversity of our gardeners and how they are peers in the Garden, thereby reducing societal barriers which the media seems determined to emphasize. Needless to say, it was very hot and humid – even in the morning.
Our Conservatory visitors started on our front lawn. I talked briefly about our history of breaking ground in 2009 and how we worked with our neighbors, such as Urban Connections, to get the eyesore building next to us torn down on the same day as the Derecho in 2012. I also reported that we had thought to start an orchard on the newly vacant lot until a competition ensued between whether our neighbor or Urban Connections would build on that lot. There was no point in investing time and money in an orchard which will soon be uprooted. I also pointed out all of the fruit trees – Bing Cherries, Montmorency Cherries, Meteor Cherries, Contender Peaches and Red Haven Peaches which we had planted since their last visit. I pointed out that the Cherry Tree which we planted in April 2012 was twice the size as the tree which the contractor had planted a few months later after he ran over and killed its twin when preparing to demolish the next door building in June 2012.
I also reported that we had been anticipating a bumper peach crop this year. I was glad that I took plenty of pictures two weeks ago because someone came through over the Independence Day weekend and pulled all of the fruit off of the trees and threw them around the neighborhood. Sigh. Maybe when the trees get taller . . . . I also pointed out that the neighborhood block watch tends the lot across the street from us and next to us (although we have been slowly and surely since 2010 been adversely possessing more and more of that lot). They have to carry their own water to keep the flowers alive because the City still hasn’t implemented its free tank fill-up program yet this year. I pointed out the flower pot at the corner of Stoddart and Cherry, which marks the place where someone was murdered in 2011. We had three nearby murders in 2010 and 11 and another a half block away a few years ago. Finally, I pointed out that while my siblings and I hated gardening when growing up, I incorporated my favorite aspects of wild food into the SACG, such as our strawberry patch and raspberry bushes. I then took our visitors over to the Cherry Street alley and told them about our capital improvement projects in the last year:· How we carried all of the debris which we dug out of the Garden to the alley over the years form a make-shift curb and then carted it off (with the help of some neighbors) to a legal dump. Then we replaced replace that debris with beautiful landscaping stones donated by Conservatory Board member Bill Gearhart to form a uniform curb with the help of OSUand Capitalstudents. 
· Stan’s ongoing improvement project for our compost bins. His efforts to improve our cement block compost bin has been on hold as we have waited for the City’s Lowe’s voucher program to be implemented so that we could purchase more blocks (and landscaping stones to fill the gaps in the expanded strawberry patch). However, we apparently will not qualify for a Lowe’s voucher this year because the City is insisting that we figure out (which we cannot do) how much produce we collectively grow in all of our individual plots and elsewhere -- like the raspberry bushes and strawberry patch -- (so that we can report a percentage – or fraction – of what we donate and give away). While I weigh and record what we donate to area pantries and shelters, the individual gardeners are not required to report that to me, ever. No one would ever sign up for a plot at a Land Bank community garden in an urban neighborhood if they had to weigh and/or record every piece of produce they grow before they take it home. It’s all I can do to get them to perform their chores and weed their own plots, etc. I also cannot and do not even try to keep track of how many berries the neighborhood children eat, etc. Some gardeners grow a lot and some don’t. Some grow three seasons and some grow one. Some let a lot of food rot in their plot and some do not. Some grow heavy food and some grow light food. I was encouraged to make up a number. Are we really that far from the Public School’s Data Scrubbing Scandal that people think it’s now ok to make up statistics? I refuse to cooperate in such a fraud and plan to fight retaliation against us for refusing go along with this. In any event, Highland Youth Garden has offered to donate all of the cement blocks which we need. The latest problem is that I need a truck to help me transport them. (It’s not worth renting a truck because that cost would exceed the cost of the blocks). Luckily, a neighborhood landlord has agreed to help me on Tuesday.
· I also pointed out that our Stoddart Avenue neighborhood landlords have been some of our biggest supporters and fans. For instance, the newest landlord brought us cases of soda on Earth Day after watching us work so hard.
· I was asked about where we get our soil. I explained that we were big fans of Com-til (which is not always popular among the politically correct sect). The City used to donate 10 cubic yards each year to community gardens, but then stopped. Of course, I began whining and nagging. Bill Dawson began nodding his head (because he knows). This year, the City said we could have as much as we needed, so I ordered 30 cubic yards to split with our neighbors at Kimball Farms (the next stop on the tour). Last year, the Conservatory gave us some compost, too. I then hiked our visitors over to the south side of the Garden:· I showed them our new flower bed. The spot had been where Mike Donley had dumped our wood chips in 2015 for our Opening Day (for our paths and fence lines). Then, the City donated a truck load of premium top soil from Kurtz Brothers, which Amy and I had unloaded on top of that spot. The OSU Young Scholars then transported that soil to our planting beds, but the grass never filled in. So, when the Conservatory held its Big Dig in May, we picked up a bunch of tulip plants and replanted them in this spot. Amy even edged it into a circular flower bed. I thought that I would let them naturalize, but this year’s mini-drought again did not permit grass to take over. In June, Kossuth Community Garden donated a bunch of canna lily corns to other area community gardens and I planted six or so of them on the outer border of where the tulips where. Then, when Straders Garden Centers donated thousands of flats of flowers to GCGC this year, I picked up a dozen flats and we transplanted a bunch of salvias, petunias and begonias into this spot for form a formal flower bed (something I never otherwise do). · I pointed out that we moved our blueberry bushes from the north side of the Garden to the south side to get more sun and avoid the growing raspberry bushes. (I did not mention the damage they suffered when I fell over backwards into one last year and little Zion did the same this year). · I pointed out our shed had been robbed several times last year and we lost all of our seeds and most of our tools (which the Conservatory helped to replace). Another area landlord, Ken Turner, gave us an impressive monster lock to safeguard our assets. · I pointed out our raspberry bushes, which started with nine seedlings that Rayna brought back from her parent’s farm near Toledo in 2009. They love the wood chips and have expanded greatly. We’ve given seedlings to a number of other community gardens. They operate as an edible barrier. The berries are highly popular with gardeners, neighborhood kids and even adults.
· We talked about bindweed taking over the Garden and our bushes. (I probably won't be pulling any more for a while . . . . ).
· I took them back to our rolling compost bin and how we cannot really make use of it this year without water. Since I loaned away the rain barrel collecting rain from our shed, it’s too hard to water the compost bin and the raised beds over here.
· I showed them our new picnic table, which the neighborhood kids stained last year. I’m still working on enlarging a hole to put a patio umbrella. Sanding and re-staining it will be an upcoming group project. · I begged someone to take over for me as Garden Manager so that I could just be a gardener for a while (or forever, whatever). I got no takers. Boo hoo.
· We discussed the various volunteer groups which come to help us sometimes. They asked where we get volunteers. I pointed out that OSU sends us a few groups each year and we’re establishing a relationship with Capital as well. Urban Connections generally supplies us with extra volunteers, too, when the opportunity arises. Bexley UMC's Youth Fellowship will be visiting us in a couple of weeks (at the suggestion of one of our landlord fairy godfathers).
Then, I walked them through the Garden. Everything is big and green. (I don't post pictures here anymore to reduce the temptation to steal).
· I took them to the youth gardening area. Micayla came to show off her plot (if such a shy girl can show off anything). She had already pulled out a bunch of her carrots on Monday evening, so it was difficult finding a ripe one to pull out for our visitors). None of the other children are as conscientious in tending their beds as Micayla (who also helped me to plant potatoes in the food pantry plot). The kids also have a plot for melons and, unlike last year, we did not plant any pumpkins which could take over. · The platform raised beds had been created with two of our senior citizen gardeners in mind (who were not bending over much to weed). I explained that they were insulted by them, which surprised our visitors as much as it had me. We had one new older garden join so that she could use them, but the topography of the Garden had been an impediment. It was too hard for them to get to and from our rain cisterns to water their beds. So, the raised beds only solved bending impairments, but not their stamina or balance issues. However, I explained that the kids loved them, so I re-purposed them for our youth program. · I pointed out Marcel’s plot because she just had a new baby two weeks ago. Other gardeners had been watering it, but not weeding it.
· We talked about our pest situation. We are not strictly organic, although that is our general preference. I have diatomaceous earth, neem oil and insecticidal soap in the trunk of my car (i.e., my travelling garden shed). Grasshoppers are our biggest pest. Typically, we have lots of feral and other cats to hunt them, but I haven’t seen a single cat this growing season. We also are at war with squash bugs (which Marge at St. Vincent de Paul’s pantry garden tells me that they NEVER have). Of course, we also have aphids, which is Marge’s pest du jour this week. I didn’t mention our groundhogs and possums.
To conclude, I walked them over to Kimball Farms where our rain cisterns are located. I talked about how often the gutters have gotten clogged this year and how we have run out of water twice already. The Fire Department filled us up once at the beginning of June and we paid a third of our limited savings to fill it up a second time at the end of June. We talked about our food pantry donations and how I am not civil to people who interrupt me while I’m rushing to harvest before everything wilts.
Kimball Farms was the second stop on the garden tour. Melinda worked in extreme heat and humidity on Monday and Tuesday to get them ready. Pastor Brown entertained the group (from the applause that I frequently overheard from across the street). I was concerned about running past my 9:45 a.m. time, but Bill told me that I had more time. I wasn’t thinking that Kimball wasn’t planning on starting until 10 a.m. 
I ran over to Urban Connections to get some cold water (because I was hot and thirsty). Urban Connections was holding its annual summer camp for the neighborhood children, who were having lots of fun. After I left, they held their photography classes. (Urban Connections borrowed lots of cameras to provide the kids to teach them about photography). They came over to the SACG to take artsy pictures of our flowers (some of which I've attached here). 
I ran over to the Tool Library to return some shears before heading home. I ran into lady who was picking up tools for a new community garden on Franklin Avenue. I encouraged her to join GCGC to get some flowers, etc. She told me that she knew about the SACG, but I didn’t believe her until she dropped Mari Sunami’s name. Small world. At lunch time, I headed over to Bethany Bronzeville Community Garden at the Bethany Presbyterian Church on North Garfield (behind the Kings Art Complex), where there was yet another Straders’ donation being unloaded for GCGC members. (I picked up some flowering baskets on Thursday from yet another Straders' donation to GCGC and dropped them off on the front porches of the SACG's nearest neighbors and for Stan (a block away) who has worked so hard the last few weeks).
Then, I tried to get some “real” work done for my day job. And prayed for rain. Our visitors commented that I had a lot of energy. That's not how it feels . . ..
Wednesday was our annual water gun fight (shootout at the SACG Corral) with the neighborhood kids at the SACG. I had warned the gardeners not to come unless they wanted to risk getting wet. It was very hot and humid. When I arrived, Neal was there tending his plot, and had planted new cucumber seedlings a few days earlier. He had extra, so I put them in other plots. Paulie from Highland Youth Garden (in the Hilltop) stopped by to drop off some cinder blocks for one of our compost bins. I also gave him a tour of the Garden, where he admired the strawberry patch and our rain cisterns. After Neal left, I invited the neighborhood kids to a water gun fight. Shae initially said no (because she didn’t want to mess up her new hairdo), but came back with her own gun. Miko, Chris and Jo all borrowed guns from me (who kept my supersoaker). Micayla came over, but hung out near her garden bed instead of joining in. She and Jo harvested carrots from their bed and left. After I was pretty soaked and we had each refilled twice, I withdrew to finish watering my plot, but was still able to get home early. 
Stan stopped by to tend his plot, harvest some summer squash and to complete the cinder block compost bin. I told him that I wanted the BUMCYF to complete the bin on Sunday, but he had been waiting for months to finish it and would not be deterred. I had been saving two bags of leaves to put in it, but he put the leaves in a different bin. (Not to be deterred, I put one of the bags in the cinder block bin on Sunday). 
In May, the BUMC Youth Fellowship contacted me about volunteering at the end of July (at the suggestion of one of our neighborhood landlords). I was thrilled because none of the Bexley churches has ever volunteered here. (We’ve had churches from other suburbs, but not neighbor Bexley). Their leader wanted to keep their normal meeting time of 5 p.m., although I told her that most rational gardeners work during cooler morning or evening hours. Neither of us realized that Sunday would be the hottest day of the year near the end of a regional heat dome. Then, a half-hour before they were supposed to arrive, the weather radar revealed a large line of thunderstorms. While I wanted the rain, I also wanted the volunteers. But, I knew –and turned out to be correct -- that the storms would break up as the approached downtown so that the SACG ended up not getting a drop of rain.
The YF arrived on time and ready to work. I gave them a quick tour and brief history of the Garden. Then, I assigned two of them watering duties and showed them how to water the roots, instead of the leaves. Plants do not absorb water through their leaves, so the spouts need to be pointed near the ground. The rest were tasked with weeding the strawberry patch, adding some new garden soil (that had been donated a few months ago by the Conservatory), watering the patch, spreading straw, and weeding along the alley. I even was able to show them a creepy, crawly squash borer in the stem of another dead squash plant after I pulled and pitched it. I thought that this would keep them busy until their 6:30 departure, but they were finished in pretty short order, so I assigned another team with sanding and staining our picnic table. They were old hands at this kind of task from their prior mission camps (at, for instance, West Virginia earlier this summer).
They completed that task before 6:15. Rather than let them leave early, I explained our problem with bind weed and let them pull it away from the bushes. (I suppose that I could have loaned them my water guns to cool themselves off). Then, they were off to Johnson’s ice cream while I locked up. 
