Looking on the Brighter Side of Life for Earth Day 2018

It almost always rains on the Earth Day Celebration at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  After all, April showers bring May flowers, so they say.  We had fabulous weather in 2009 and 2010, but in 2011 it started raining within an hour or so after we picked up 14 bags of litter.  This year, we were very lucky and it did not start raining until almost 2 p.m., permitting us to accomplish most of our tasks with a great group of gardeners and volunteers.  Unlike last week, there was no snow on the ground and we had a nice breeze to keep us cool.   Although there were a few hiccups, I’ve decided that I want to look on the brighter side of life.  We planted three fruit trees and two elderberry bushes, and got a lot of weeding accomplished.   We also raffled off a bicycle that had been donated to us by Strader’s Garden Centers through the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition.

Saturday was the culmination of our major fundraiser this year.  In February, we won a door prize at the GCGC meeting of a sweet Schwinn Signature Series bicycle.  The Board decided to have a raffle to raise money and each Board member was required to sell at least 20 raffle tickets (although I provided them each with 40 raffle tickets).   One Board member sold all 40 tickets to his breakfast group at the Bexley United Methodist Church and they each agreed that if any of them won, they would hold another raffle of the bike at BUMC to raise more money for the SACG.  So, for weeks, that’s who I hoped would win the bike.  Some Board members sold more than 40 tickets, which was a achievement because, with the weather as cold as it has been, no one has been in the mood to buy a bicycle.  Sabrina and I camped out in front of the Bexley Public Library this week with the bike and sold over $100 tickets. 

A lot of people (including several Board members) donated money without filling out any tickets.  Some folks told me (and Taylor) to give the bike away or give their tickets to someone else.  For instance, I put the name of Zion (a boy whose mother gardens with us) on two tickets that were purchased by one of the Garden’s neighbor landlords.  One little boy came by on Friday and only had a quarter, so I put his name on a ticket and let him keep his quarter.  A lady who lives about 3 blocks from me bought a ticket and so I briefly wished that she would win because it would help me get the bike out of my garage sooner than later.  One of our Board members put in the name of a neighbor who has done a lot for our Garden.  (I wish that I had realized that before the raffle and I would have filled out all of the unassigned- but-paid -for raffle tickets with his name, but I didn’t go through most of tickets until after the raffle).   So, without further ado, the winning ticket was Barbara who bought 5 tickets Friday afternoon and plans to give the bike to her husband.   We had little Zion pull the winning ticket out of the bucket (which we raised so that he could not look inside for his own name).  She could not be more excited.

Last Sunday, I went over to Strader’s and purchased a peach and plum tree for us to plant on Saturday.   Ken picked them up on Thursday and delivered them yesterday.    I'm a bit worried about our peach crop for this summer because -- as you can see -- the peach trees are in blossom (with bees and everything) and it's predicted to snow on Monday, probably killing  the blossoms and our  peach crop this year.  Keep Columbus Beautiful also donated about 50 bareroot native trees to GCGC, so Ken went over and picked us up some elderberry bushes to plant as well.  We had wanted to also add 2 serviceberry trees, but they were taken before he got there.  Melissa gave him redbud trees to compensate, but our orchard is ONLY for fruit trees, so I sent them back.  He then came back with black cherry trees and so we planted one of them and sent the other home with Rayna.  I grew up with a black cherry tree in my back yard, so I know how tall that they get and don’t want them taking over the entire lot.   Elderberry has become increasingly popular and wild/black cherry is often used to flavor jams, syrups and brandy.   This is the information that Melissa sent along about our new “native” trees:

Elderberry:  Sometimes propagated as an ornamental shrub, the elderberry bush attracts birds and butterflies and can be pruned back every few years to keep it looking good in a landscaped garden. This deciduous shrub produces a fruit that, in recent years has become very popular. The white flowers transform into dark purple fruit late summer. Although the flowers and berries are edible all other parts of this bush are poisonous containing toxic calcium oxalate crystals. This shrub has soft, smooth, gray-brownish bark with corky bumps. There is spongy, white pith inside the twigs and branches. The elderberry bush produces showy white umbel flowers in the spring. Edible purplish-black fruit ripens in drooping clusters late summer. Elderberry prefers moist soil but tolerates dry soil as well. It grows best in full sun. It is native to a large area of North America, east of the Rocky Mountains.  The berries and flowers are edible. Flowers can be tossed into a salad. Elderberries tend to end up as pies, in pancakes, jams, jellies, and in wine making.

Black Cherry:  Black cherry is an attractive deciduous tree that reaches heights of 50 to 80 feet at maturity. The tree is somewhat drought-tolerant and grows well in sunlight or partial shade and well-drained, loose soil. Black cherry is valued for its many ornamental and practical uses. Also known as wild cherry, black cherry displays fragrant white blooms in early spring and reddish-black berries in summer. The large, dark green leaves turn yellow, orange and red in autumn. The bark of young trees is smooth and reddish-brown, maturing to an interesting scaly texture. To minimize cleanup, plant black cherry trees away from sidewalks and other paved areas. Lumber from black cherry trees has been in high demand by cabinetmakers, fine furniture makers and other woodworkers since Colonial days. Although the wood is relatively hard, it holds screws securely and is easy to saw. The wood is also used for veneers, flooring, wall paneling, interior trim, handles and toys. The tart fruit of the black cherry tree is an important source of nutrition for many animals, including deer, rabbits, foxes and squirrels. The fruit also provides sustenance for a large variety of birds, including sparrows, mockingbirds, chickadees, woodpeckers, robins, bluebirds, cardinals and bluejays. The leaves provide food for the caterpillars of butterflies such as red spotted purple, painted lady and viceroy butterflies.

I stopped by Keep Columbus Beautiful on Friday to pick up supplies (like snacks, litter grabbers, safety vests, trash bags, lawn waste bags, etc. and volunteer rewards (from Jeni’s and Chipotle, etc.).  Ken picked up mulch and soil donated by Ohio Mulch.  As always, I made some chocolate no-bake cookies for the volunteers and picked up some donuts.  I also soaked and cooked some chickpeas to make some hummus (with fresh carrots) for lunch. 

I started off the morning running over to Lowe’s to pick up tree soil for our new trees and then l loaded up my car.  When I arrived to the SACG at 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, Rayna was already there weeding the strawberry patch (which I had started to weed last Saturday).  She remained there for about five hours and got half of it weeded.  She eventually concluded that the weeds (including ragweed and mint) were so well entrenched, that it made more sense to simply dig everything out and replant the strawberries.  Because it had been predicted that we would receive two inches of rain over the next two days, that seemed like a good plan.  However, that prediction was then cut in half.  I  may need to go over and water them in some more in a few days.  Both of our tanks were empty yesterday (since we did not get any rain this week after I connected the big tank on Saturday).   She still had a whole bucket of seedlings left to replant when we were chased out by the rain and we didn’t have time to do anything with them, so she said that she’d take them home and put them in some water until we figure out what to do with them.  We sold a bunch of strawberry plants back in 2010 or 2011 and raised $110, but that was before Four Seasons City Farm also started selling their extra strawberry crowns . . ..   We also give them away to other community gardens (like Highland Youth, Kimball Farms and Morrison Hill) who are looking to start their own strawberry patches, so any community garden should contact me asap if you want some strawberry plants.  Rayna hopes to find time to come back and finish the rest of the strawberry patch. (I hope that she does because this requires a certain level of skill and gardening experience and I'd like to focus this week on planting the neighbor beds and possibly a food pantry plot).

New gardener Phil came to put in his work equity to join the SACG.  He lives just a few blocks from the Garden.  I showed him around and then set him on finishing what the OSU students started last week – weeding out around the compost bins before they become overtaken again with weeds.  That took him most of the morning until he had to leave to referee a volleyball game.

Bill Dawson – the Growing to Green Coordinator from Franklin Park Conservatory – stopped by to wish us well.  His van was well stocked with supplies that he was distributing to 20 different gardens in all quadrants of the City.  He applauded us for starting early before the rain. He brought us another Garden fork to turn our compost and a compost thermometer so that we could see how hot it getting in the middle.   I never would have thought about buying one of those.   One of our gardeners, Alyssa, took a six week course at the Conservatory over the winter and plans to start her own compost bin at home.  She had the opportunity to get one of those thermometers, but turned it down, silly girl.  I can’t wait to try it out.  I’ve always been curious (and a little dubious) whether our compost piles get hot enough to kill microbes and seeds, etc.  Now, we’ll be able to figure that out.  Rayna reported that she planned to start vermicomposting with her special needs class with their lunchtime food scraps.  Bill’s an old hand at that and so they chatted a bit about different approaches (with different price points) that she could consider.  Alyssa had been asking about a particular weed which had popped up in Sabrina’s old plot, so we asked Bill to identify it for us. I had no idea, but observed it showed up where there used to be potatoes.  It was wild parsnip. 

Alyssa and Taylor came to put in their work equity.  They anticipated our usual chore of distributing wood chips, but instead, I put them to work digging up volunteer raspberries all around the inside and outside of the Garden that were more than two feet from the fence.   They had quite the time with that.  They also sanded the peeling rain barrel and Alyssa painted it until we ran out of paint.   Then, I had them weed some other areas.  Marcel came with her new baby and Zion and I put them to work weeding the south side of the Garden (which is a challenge to do when they both want your undivided attention).  Zion did his best to distract all of us from our work.  Taylor had to give him chase a few times;-)   Neighbor Rose stopped by to see the baby, chat with Marcel and I caught her weeding, too.  She then gave them shelter on her front porch when it began to rain. 

Leigh Anne also sent us four volunteers at 9:10 a.m. to help with some major projects.  One lady picked up litter in the neighborhood for four hours.  Ken picked up a little, too.   One of the gentlemen mowed our lawn and the two block watch lots.    He also finished up weeding around the compost bins after Phil left.  He and two other gentlemen also finished emptying out the compost from two of the bins and put it in our neighbor beds (along the alley) as well as with some of the soil donated by Ohio Mulch.  Two of the gentlemen dug the holes and helped me to plant the fruit trees and elderberry bushes.  When I discovered that we were not going to get the service berry trees after all, I had them refill two of the holes.  They did such an exceptional job that you couldn’t even tell that there had ever been a hole there.  Then, they had to re-dig a hole when Ken returned with a wild black cherry tree.  After lunch I had them to begin weeding the paths inside the Garden, which is what they were doing when it started to rain.

I ran around to keep everyone engaged, etc. and managed to finally weed two rows in my plot and get some lettuce, bok choy, spinach and onions planted.  I also distributed some seed potatoes and seed onions to Alyssa and Rayna.  I also connected the tall rain cistern. 

When I turned around, I found a volunteer had veered off the path and into an unassigned plot, where he was digging up giant weeds. I walked over and redirected him back to weeding just the path.   About ten minutes later, however, he had again veered off the wood chip path and had started to dig up the flowers in the center flower bed, including tulips, daisies, salvia, bachelor buttons, irises, etc.  I had been tending that bed for three weeks now (even before we broke ground last Saturday for our 10^th growing season) to weed, transplant and thin it.  I NEVER assign unskilled volunteers to do anything in any of the flower beds because they

Wild parsnip weed

rarely can tell a flower from a weed.  It is an understatement to say that I freaked out.  It was the screech heard in Licking County as I screamed for him to stop what he was doing and get back on the path.  Realizing that I was displeased as I ran towards him, he then instead decided to try and fix his mistake by digging new holes and to possibly replant some of these items.  I screamed louder for him to stop and get out on to the lawn and away from the flower bed.   Stay there I said.  I cannot fix tulip bulbs that had been split in half and separated from their stems.  Some root systems were separated from the plants.  Hours of work down the drain.  No amount of rain today can bring back some of those flowers this season.  I sat there on my knees as it started to rain and tried to fix what I could.  Rayna tried to take charge of the situation and redirect the volunteer.  Everyone spoke in whispers for the rest of the day because I was in no mood for anything after that.  I had no interest in going out and putting that volunteer to work on anything else, so Rayna had him pack up my car with everything that was still laying around.  

This is not how I would have liked to have finished out an otherwise fabulously productive day.  I did manage to compliment all of the volunteers on all of their work before they left, but I didn’t get the keys or codes distributed because of the rain.   There’s always Wednesday. . .  . .  It’s going to rain all day today and, groan, snow flurries on Monday.

Meanwhile, Urban Connections had a volunteer crew of 48 folks show up at 1 p.m. to pick up litter, etc. for their Earth Day celebration.  Just in time for the rain.   They hoped that our crew wouldn’t pick up all of the litter, but to be safe, Doug had scoped out nearby areas that had lots of litter to pick up and took them South of Main to clean up some seriously neglected alleys.  Closer to the SACG, Cathy 

supervised a crew of middle schoolers to mulch the areas around the Ministry House.  Their group leaders said that they would be happy to work in a warm drizzle like we had yesterday, as long as there was no thunder, lightning or downpour.  (Meanwhile, I learned during last night’s CSO concert that the Nature Conservancy was postponing until June their planned nature walk today).

There’s still work left to do, of course, at the SACG.  Three of our gardeners will be starting their work equity this week and Phil will be finishing up his.  We still have a few plots available for anyone brave enough to join us.  I’m unlikely to screech again if you stay away from digging up established perennial flower beds.  My rule of thumb:  don’t dig it up unless you KNOW what it is.   If you only recognize dandelions, then that is the only weed you should be digging up.  Otherwise, ASK ME FIRST;-) 

Today, I hoped to try and head back to the Garden and water in the new bareroot trees because I doubt that we have received enough rain to soak more than an inch or two into the ground.  (I had planned before my meltdown to dump the water left in my 10 gallon orange thermos into the trees).   I also need to check on whether the rain cisterns are collecting any water (because the gutters or downspout strainer might be clogged again).  We will need to water in the seedlings and seeds that will be going into the ground next weekend.  Or, if I look on the brighter side of life, I might find that they are collecting water dandily and are full to the top.