We are into the dog days of summer at the Stoddart Avenue
Community Garden and nary a rain drop in sight (with our rainfall several inches below normal this year). The squash borers (not the
bugs I complain so much about) have wiped out all but three of the squash
plants in the entire Garden and, I suspect, our neighbor’s squash crop as well. Cathy even found numerous of the borer moths
mating in the raspberry bushes at Urban Connections today. Gross.
(Never fear. I’ve planted more
summer squash and zucchini). Most of my beans are mysteriously stunted this
year, but I’ve started to harvest some edamame – which have been exceptionally
prolific this year. I’m usually not a
cucumber kind of girl, but my cukes have been very productive, although Neal’s
have not. Most of my basil has died, but
Neal’s is kicking butt and taking names.
Go figure. Finally, the grasshoppers are eating the leaves off the beans (and my basil) and I have no stray cats to hunt them down.
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Our food pantry donations are head of where we were this
time the last two years and on pace for where we were in 2012 and 2013. Our tomatoes have come in on time, but we
have been inundated with blossom
end rot and with split tomatoes from sudden rain storms following extended
heat waves. I thought that I had been
watering my tomatoes enough, but apparently not.
Our neighbor Kimball Farms just got their own 550 gallon tank, so they no longer need our rain barrels. I took mine home and my next door neighbor may add it to her collection. I put one behind our shed (to collect rain from that tiny gutter) and hope to paint it this weekend so that it doesn't look quite so conspicuous from Main Street). I have no idea where we can store the last one. Contact me if you need a rain barrel for your community garden or want to rent it for a nominal fee for your home.
As for the ongoing saga with the City trying to coerce us into weighing all of the produce from each and every plot, the Land Bank emailed us last week that they "have not received the Crop Diversity and Garden
Outreach forms from many people." What a shock. I've told them repeatedly that it's too much work to keep track of how much we grow. While I keep track of what we donate, I don't keep track of what I grow, let alone what the other gardeners grow. I often can't even get them to do their chores or weed their own plots. Why on earth would they start keeping track of what they grow so that I can compare it to what we donate in order to report a percentage to the City? It's not like we're getting paid for any of it like real farmers and have to know the pounds, etc. in order to charge for it. Asking us to "estimate" under those circumstances is tantamount to asking us to make up a number in order to receiving funding and that is blatant fraud. No wonder hardly anyone has responded.
Also, the questionnaire creates a disincentive for us to donate any food because it would be easier to say that we just keep all that we grow. Flower gardeners don't have to report that piece at all, but still get their $250 voucher. In fact, I turned down a donation of wildflower seeds because it would be too hard to estimate what flowers we are growing with a wildflower mix, n'est pas? With all of the hot, unpaid, dirty work that we do, we should not be treated like this. I don't think that someone who has no actual community gardening experience should be able to blackmail us like this. But that's just my humble opinion. I certainly don't want to imply that I think these people are evil; just seriously delusional. Anyway, Keep Columbus Beautiful (which is part of the City) helped us out last week by donating a stack of lawn waste bags so that we can cut back our spreading raspberry brambles. KCB also has extensive gardening supplies for anyone who may need something (like seeds or fertilizer, etc.).
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We cannot finish the strawberry retaining wall without the City vouchers |
Also, the questionnaire creates a disincentive for us to donate any food because it would be easier to say that we just keep all that we grow. Flower gardeners don't have to report that piece at all, but still get their $250 voucher. In fact, I turned down a donation of wildflower seeds because it would be too hard to estimate what flowers we are growing with a wildflower mix, n'est pas? With all of the hot, unpaid, dirty work that we do, we should not be treated like this. I don't think that someone who has no actual community gardening experience should be able to blackmail us like this. But that's just my humble opinion. I certainly don't want to imply that I think these people are evil; just seriously delusional. Anyway, Keep Columbus Beautiful (which is part of the City) helped us out last week by donating a stack of lawn waste bags so that we can cut back our spreading raspberry brambles. KCB also has extensive gardening supplies for anyone who may need something (like seeds or fertilizer, etc.).
Finally, the canna lilies which the Kossuth Community Garden donated to us in June are starting to bloom. Whoo hoo!
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