Putting Up a Bountiful Harvest Under Clear Blue Skies

We are at the height of our summer harvest season at the Stoddart Avenue  Community Garden.   Until last night, I’ve been up until midnight (literally) canning and pickling and freezing my summer’s bounty.  Otherwise, it has been pretty uneventful.  Our tanks are full after receiving two inches of rain on Monday (but virtually none the rest of the week).   

As our faithful readers may recall, we had a very weird “Spring.”  It went straight from winter to summer and this adversely affected our peach, cherry and berry crops.  Not just ours, but a lot of area community gardens.  Luckily, Lynds ordered a LOT of tart (pie) cherries from Michigan and when they did not immediately sell out, ended up selling them last Sunday for $15/10 pounds.  I bought two ten-pound buckets and spent the week canning and freezing cherries, making cherry amoretto jam and, of course, a cherry pie.  They were also selling yellow cling and free-stone peaches for $10/half-peck.  I bought a half-peck of each, took a few to my elderly parents in southern Ohio, made a lot of fuzzy naval marmalade, canned a couple pints and kept a few to eat very slowly and on cereal.  I LOVE fresh peaches.  There were two Red Haven peaches left on our peach trees yesterday at the SACG.  I doubt that they are still there.

I have had a lot of zucchini. I like to shred and sauté’ it with olive oil and garlic and then serve with macaroni and cottage cheese (as a main course a la Bittman).  You can also add basil if you want.  Or you can just shred and saute’ it with olive oil and garlic and top with parmesan cheese (as a side dish).    My favorite, but more time consuming recipe, is to brown a bit of chorizo in a cast iron skillet, then brown fideo pasta in the rendered fat (with a little oil if necessary), then adding tomato-chipotle sauce and then adding a giant zucchini which has been shredded and cook the entire dish down.  I freeze four servings for when I’m having a bad day in the winter and then try to restrain myself from eating the rest in one sitting.  The most it is has lasted is two days in my house.  I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I’ve already had to make two batches because I ate all of the frozen ones, too.  Thank you Rick Bayless for adding inches to my waistline.   I’m hoping today (ha) to make zucchini chocolate muffins or brownies and some Moosewood zuccanoes (stuffed zucchini which I also freeze to eat later in the winter).

We have had a bumper tomatillo crop, too.  I have 3 or four salsa recipes (including salsa verde and chipotle-tomatillo) that I make and can.  I also freeze a few quart bags (both roasted and regular) to use in recipes over the winter.

I harvested my edamame crop this week.  I usually steam and freeze them, but this year I blanched them in very salty water first and ate about a quarter of them the same night.  I meant to put a few more aside for my stuffed zucchini recipe, but of course, forgot. 

My green beans have not been all that impressive this year.  I had a great first harvest, which went into salads and a pint mason jar.  This week I started harvesting my shelly bean to can.  A few of them had already gone to seed (which is fine for me to save to plant next year or to eat over the winter). My asparagus beans, on the other hand, have been freakishly prolific.  I’ve even given two whole harvests of them to Sabrina to cook for herself.  I like them in stir fries, with onion, tofu and hoison sauce.

Sabrina and Carly have had prolific cucumber harvests.  Sabrina gave me a bunch of pickles, but I fell asleep on the couch while they were processing on the stove. Instead of 15 minutes, my kosher pickles were there for at least 45 minutes.  I bet that they are mush.  I made some fresh Bittman kosher dills (which do not use vinegar and only keep in the refrigerator a week or so).  I also made some bread and butter pickles, but was out of turmeric and threw in some curry powder instead.  I am curious how they will turn out).  Sabrina has become a big fan of the Bittman spicy Asian pickle recipe that I sent her last year, but they should be eaten quickly because they become spicier the longer that they sit.  I also like to put a few slices in a pitcher of cold water as a refreshing and no-calorie beverage. 

Our tomatoes are reliably prolific.  I’ve made and canned some Raphael sauce (from the Silver Palette) and some Bayless tomato-chipotle sauce.  I need to roast and can a bunch of tomatoes today, so my house will be very humid.  I may try to roast and can a pasta sauce, too, because  my basil has been prolific this year (but not as pretty as Amy’s basil).

My zinnias have done very well, and I’ve been saving seeds for next year.  I also saved seeds from last fall’s carrot crop and am eager to try them out to see if they are viable.  My fall giant cilantro went to seed in June and so I saved a bunch of coriander and seeds to plant this Fall and next Spring.

I actually harvested my garlic crop this year. It’s a guilty secret at the SACG that we love garlic and plant lots of it, but we never seem to harvest any.  Instead, the following year we end up with a clumps of garlic plants growing because each of the new cloves then forms its own new stem.  Sigh.   I even remembered to harvest most of my garlic scapes this year and used them in a recipe. 

Although Stan does not garden with us anymore and has not in two years, he has not been forgotten.  We have never been able to harvest all of the potatoes that he planted in his plot.  They become a volunteer crop the following year (in 2017) and again this year in 2018.  Yesterday, I harvested two batches of those volunteer potatoes and took them to Faith Mission.

Phil harvested his potatoes and has planted seedlings of kale, cabbage and I see he has some pea seedlings to transplant as well.   According to Accu-weather, we will continue to have temperate temperatures for another 10 days, then we will have another short, heat wave and then back to mild summer temperatures.  So, after August 11, I anticipate that we will start planting our Fall crops.  I already started a small tray of beets and lettuce.

We had two CS volunteers yesterday.  They mowed, weeded, watered the food pantry plots and then began painting the boards which will be used for our fence straightening project this Fall.  They also helped me to harvest for our 37-pound produce donation to Faith Mission.    I was so tired when I finally got home around 4 that I decided to not clean or cook after putting my harvest away.  I took a shower, and a nap and watched tv even though it was beautiful outside.   Sigh

Today, I need to clean, cook and edge my backyard flower beds.  By this time next week, I hope to be reporting on our new water line.  The forecast calls for rain for most of this week and I hope that does not interfere with our plans.  I finally updated our website photo for the first time in 5 years.  Ironically, our old photo was taken on this same weekend in 2013.  Make a mental note that this is the weekend for clear blue skies.

Putting Up a Bountiful Harvest Under Clear Blue Skies

We are at the height of our summer harvest season at the Stoddart Avenue  Community Garden.   Until last night, I’ve been up until midnight (literally) canning and pickling and freezing my summer’s bounty.  Otherwise, it has been pretty uneventful.  Our tanks are full after receiving two inches of rain on Monday (but virtually none the rest of the week).   

As our faithful readers may recall, we had a very weird “Spring.”  It went straight from winter to summer and this adversely affected our peach, cherry and berry crops.  Not just ours, but a lot of area community gardens.  Luckily, Lynds ordered a LOT of tart (pie) cherries from Michigan and when they did not immediately sell out, ended up selling them last Sunday for $15/10 pounds.  I bought two ten-pound buckets and spent the week canning and freezing cherries, making cherry amoretto jam and, of course, a cherry pie.  They were also selling yellow cling and free-stone peaches for $10/half-peck.  I bought a half-peck of each, took a few to my elderly parents in southern Ohio, made a lot of fuzzy naval marmalade, canned a couple pints and kept a few to eat very slowly and on cereal.  I LOVE fresh peaches.  There were two Red Haven peaches left on our peach trees yesterday at the SACG.  I doubt that they are still there.

I have had a lot of zucchini. I like to shred and sauté’ it with olive oil and garlic and then serve with macaroni and cottage cheese (as a main course a la Bittman).  You can also add basil if you want.  Or you can just shred and saute’ it with olive oil and garlic and top with parmesan cheese (as a side dish).    My favorite, but more time consuming recipe, is to brown a bit of chorizo in a cast iron skillet, then brown fideo pasta in the rendered fat (with a little oil if necessary), then adding tomato-chipotle sauce and then adding a giant zucchini which has been shredded and cook the entire dish down.  I freeze four servings for when I’m having a bad day in the winter and then try to restrain myself from eating the rest in one sitting.  The most it is has lasted is two days in my house.  I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I’ve already had to make two batches because I ate all of the frozen ones, too.  Thank you Rick Bayless for adding inches to my waistline.   I’m hoping today (ha) to make zucchini chocolate muffins or brownies and some Moosewood zuccanoes (stuffed zucchini which I also freeze to eat later in the winter).

We have had a bumper tomatillo crop, too.  I have 3 or four salsa recipes (including salsa verde and chipotle-tomatillo) that I make and can.  I also freeze a few quart bags (both roasted and regular) to use in recipes over the winter.

I harvested my edamame crop this week.  I usually steam and freeze them, but this year I blanched them in very salty water first and ate about a quarter of them the same night.  I meant to put a few more aside for my stuffed zucchini recipe, but of course, forgot. 

My green beans have not been all that impressive this year.  I had a great first harvest, which went into salads and a pint mason jar.  This week I started harvesting my shelly bean to can.  A few of them had already gone to seed (which is fine for me to save to plant next year or to eat over the winter). My asparagus beans, on the other hand, have been freakishly prolific.  I’ve even given two whole harvests of them to Sabrina to cook for herself.  I like them in stir fries, with onion, tofu and hoison sauce.

Sabrina and Carly have had prolific cucumber harvests.  Sabrina gave me a bunch of pickles, but I fell asleep on the couch while they were processing on the stove. Instead of 15 minutes, my kosher pickles were there for at least 45 minutes.  I bet that they are mush.  I made some fresh Bittman kosher dills (which do not use vinegar and only keep in the refrigerator a week or so).  I also made some bread and butter pickles, but was out of turmeric and threw in some curry powder instead.  I am curious how they will turn out).  Sabrina has become a big fan of the Bittman spicy Asian pickle recipe that I sent her last year, but they should be eaten quickly because they become spicier the longer that they sit.  I also like to put a few slices in a pitcher of cold water as a refreshing and no-calorie beverage. 

Our tomatoes are reliably prolific.  I’ve made and canned some Raphael sauce (from the Silver Palette) and some Bayless tomato-chipotle sauce.  I need to roast and can a bunch of tomatoes today, so my house will be very humid.  I may try to roast and can a pasta sauce, too, because  my basil has been prolific this year (but not as pretty as Amy’s basil).

My zinnias have done very well, and I’ve been saving seeds for next year.  I also saved seeds from last fall’s carrot crop and am eager to try them out to see if they are viable.  My fall giant cilantro went to seed in June and so I saved a bunch of coriander and seeds to plant this Fall and next Spring.

I actually harvested my garlic crop this year. It’s a guilty secret at the SACG that we love garlic and plant lots of it, but we never seem to harvest any.  Instead, the following year we end up with a clumps of garlic plants growing because each of the new cloves then forms its own new stem.  Sigh.   I even remembered to harvest most of my garlic scapes this year and used them in a recipe. 

Although Stan does not garden with us anymore and has not in two years, he has not been forgotten.  We have never been able to harvest all of the potatoes that he planted in his plot.  They become a volunteer crop the following year (in 2017) and again this year in 2018.  Yesterday, I harvested two batches of those volunteer potatoes and took them to Faith Mission.

Phil harvested his potatoes and has planted seedlings of kale, cabbage and I see he has some pea seedlings to transplant as well.   According to Accu-weather, we will continue to have temperate temperatures for another 10 days, then we will have another short, heat wave and then back to mild summer temperatures.  So, after August 11, I anticipate that we will start planting our Fall crops.  I already started a small tray of beets and lettuce.

We had two CS volunteers yesterday.  They mowed, weeded, watered the food pantry plots and then began painting the boards which will be used for our fence straightening project this Fall.  They also helped me to harvest for our 37-pound produce donation to Faith Mission.    I was so tired when I finally got home around 4 that I decided to not clean or cook after putting my harvest away.  I took a shower, and a nap and watched tv even though it was beautiful outside.   Sigh

Today, I need to clean, cook and edge my backyard flower beds.  By this time next week, I hope to be reporting on our new water line.  The forecast calls for rain for most of this week and I hope that does not interfere with our plans.  I finally updated our website photo for the first time in 5 years.  Ironically, our old photo was taken on this same weekend in 2013.  Make a mental note that this is the weekend for clear blue skies.

Steady as She Goes as the SACG Prepares for Running Water

It was a slower week (for a change) at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden as  we  prepare for the installation of a water line for the first time since we broke ground in 2009 courtesy of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Urban Agriculture Grant program.  We had two very strong yet tidy CS volunteers to help us empty and reconfigure a compost bin and clear space for the equipment.  Other than that, it was steady as she goes this week.

 On Wednesday, Sabrina, Taylor and I watered quite a bit, harvested a lot and weeded a little.  I noticed that the City had been by earlier that day to re-mark our water tap and they also apparently tested the tap and it still works.  Hooray!  On Friday, the inch and a half of predicted rain was only a half inch.  On Saturday, we got a late start,

but our two volunteers did a fabulous job of clearing out a compost bin to make room for the water meter.  They dug all the way down to the sidewalk that was there before we took over the lot in 2009.  (That sidewalk had already been covered with dirt and grass when we arrived in 2009.  We had never seen it before this Saturday, but we suspected it was there because we kept hitting a hard surface whenever we tried to dig there.  As a result, we moved our northern fence 10 feet south to avoid it.  In the beginning, we grew pumpkins and had compost bins out there, but then in 2013, we moved the compost bins back there (after moving them south in 2010).  

Our CS volunteers also made room for the line zipping equipment to enter the Garden by consolidating our com-til pile, leveling out our extra wood chips, moving our lovely landscaping stone curb, and cutting back and bagging the raspberry brambles on both sides of six feet of the fence.  We will cut the fence and bend it back when the equipment arrives. Our CS volunteers also mowed our lot and the orchard lot and helped me to harvest for our 23 pound fresh produce donation to Faith Mission’s Homeless shelter.  We harvested zucchini, collard greens, green beans, turnip greens, beets and tomatoes.   I also spent time tidying up the squash and hunting squash bugs, weeding the new native plant bed at the corner of Stoddart and Main, mulching that bed, pruning flowers, planting coleus and snapdragons donated to GCGC by Strader’s Garden Centers, watering in the new plantings,  and, of course, harvesting.  I was actually able to leave on time today, which was exciting all by itself. 

Back in March, we applied to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Urban Agriculture Grant program for funds to provide the SACG with City water, and learned in May that we had been selected. The MOFBUAG program started last year and is focused mostly on purchasing hoop houses for community gardens and urban farms, like the one that Kimball Farms installed right behind the SACG last year.  However, I belatedly learned that those funds could also be used to install water lines for community gardens, which is what Franklinton Farms, Four Seasons City Farm and the Miracle Garden all did last year.  

Thing is, all of the plumbing projects turned into lengthy ordeals and none of them went as planned.  For instance, Franklinton got their water turned on first and the email describing the process was hair-raising.  I am hoping that we will avoid that fate.  Also, all of those projects involved digging trenches for the water lines, which is a non-starter for me during the growing season, but we are required to have spent all of the funds by mid-November – about four days after we typically close for the season.  I have found a contractor that says that it can zip the lines in without digging a trench (and this was confirmed by one of the plumbers who completed the project for one of the other gardens; in fact he suggested that we hire him for the water meter portion and this other company to just connect the lines).   I am concerned about all of the construction debris that remains in the lot, under the extensive amount of soil and compost we have added.  We are planning on laying most of the line underneath the path.  The contractor wants to put the line only about 6-8 inches down, but I would like to be deeper (especially in the garden plots) because rototillers might cut the line).  

As you can tell, there is a lot of handwringing involved.   I am a professional worrier and worry about everything.  This is by far the most complicated project that we have undertaken and everybody is giving us different advice and opinions. I know that I am driving our contractor crazy with my questions and concerns.  They will probably want hazard pay after working with me.  

Running out of water in both of our tanks and rain barrels (i.e., 900 gallon capacity) just a few days before the ONTENA tour really highlighted how much we need a reliable back-up supply.   We can get one free fill-up from the City per year, but it often takes more than a week after making the request to get that water, since it always comes during a dry period when Rain Brothers is busy fulfilling other requests. 

I planned on two weekends after the OTNEA tour before tearing up the Garden for the project because, this being Ohio, you can almost count on bad weather taking over one of the weekends.  Leigh Anne was concerned about rain this last Saturday, but it didn’t start until about 5 p.m. yesterday, so we had no difficulty completing everything.   We are ready for the plumber to come anytime.   

Next weekend, we will be back to our “typical” routine of watering, weeding, planting and harvesting.  After the lines are installed, and assuming no hiccups, we will probably replace the fence posts in that area and add braces to straighten the fence.  Then, we will have 100 square feet to plant in. Last Sunday, I started lettuce and beet seedlings for our Fall harvest and they sprouted this morning. 

Other than this, the Garden is looking lovely.  There was a beautiful black and blue butterfly hanging out in the herb garden.  I had started pinching back the basil and it was not too disturbed by that and stuck around a couple of hours.    The finches have returned en masse to enjoy our sunflowers in bloom.  Unlike the bees, which pose patiently for photos, I have never in 10 years been able to photograph any of the dozens of yellow finches that hang out at the SACG between July and September.   Sigh. 

Steady as She Goes as the SACG Prepares for Running Water

It was a slower week (for a change) at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden as  we  prepare for the installation of a water line for the first time since we broke ground in 2009 courtesy of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Urban Agriculture Grant program.  We had two very strong yet tidy CS volunteers to help us empty and reconfigure a compost bin and clear space for the equipment.  Other than that, it was steady as she goes this week.

 On Wednesday, Sabrina, Taylor and I watered quite a bit, harvested a lot and weeded a little.  I noticed that the City had been by earlier that day to re-mark our water tap and they also apparently tested the tap and it still works.  Hooray!  On Friday, the inch and a half of predicted rain was only a half inch.  On Saturday, we got a late start,

but our two volunteers did a fabulous job of clearing out a compost bin to make room for the water meter.  They dug all the way down to the sidewalk that was there before we took over the lot in 2009.  (That sidewalk had already been covered with dirt and grass when we arrived in 2009.  We had never seen it before this Saturday, but we suspected it was there because we kept hitting a hard surface whenever we tried to dig there.  As a result, we moved our northern fence 10 feet south to avoid it.  In the beginning, we grew pumpkins and had compost bins out there, but then in 2013, we moved the compost bins back there (after moving them south in 2010).  

Our CS volunteers also made room for the line zipping equipment to enter the Garden by consolidating our com-til pile, leveling out our extra wood chips, moving our lovely landscaping stone curb, and cutting back and bagging the raspberry brambles on both sides of six feet of the fence.  We will cut the fence and bend it back when the equipment arrives. Our CS volunteers also mowed our lot and the orchard lot and helped me to harvest for our 23 pound fresh produce donation to Faith Mission’s Homeless shelter.  We harvested zucchini, collard greens, green beans, turnip greens, beets and tomatoes.   I also spent time tidying up the squash and hunting squash bugs, weeding the new native plant bed at the corner of Stoddart and Main, mulching that bed, pruning flowers, planting coleus and snapdragons donated to GCGC by Strader’s Garden Centers, watering in the new plantings,  and, of course, harvesting.  I was actually able to leave on time today, which was exciting all by itself. 

Back in March, we applied to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Urban Agriculture Grant program for funds to provide the SACG with City water, and learned in May that we had been selected. The MOFBUAG program started last year and is focused mostly on purchasing hoop houses for community gardens and urban farms, like the one that Kimball Farms installed right behind the SACG last year.  However, I belatedly learned that those funds could also be used to install water lines for community gardens, which is what Franklinton Farms, Four Seasons City Farm and the Miracle Garden all did last year.  

Thing is, all of the plumbing projects turned into lengthy ordeals and none of them went as planned.  For instance, Franklinton got their water turned on first and the email describing the process was hair-raising.  I am hoping that we will avoid that fate.  Also, all of those projects involved digging trenches for the water lines, which is a non-starter for me during the growing season, but we are required to have spent all of the funds by mid-November – about four days after we typically close for the season.  I have found a contractor that says that it can zip the lines in without digging a trench (and this was confirmed by one of the plumbers who completed the project for one of the other gardens; in fact he suggested that we hire him for the water meter portion and this other company to just connect the lines).   I am concerned about all of the construction debris that remains in the lot, under the extensive amount of soil and compost we have added.  We are planning on laying most of the line underneath the path.  The contractor wants to put the line only about 6-8 inches down, but I would like to be deeper (especially in the garden plots) because rototillers might cut the line).  

As you can tell, there is a lot of handwringing involved.   I am a professional worrier and worry about everything.  This is by far the most complicated project that we have undertaken and everybody is giving us different advice and opinions. I know that I am driving our contractor crazy with my questions and concerns.  They will probably want hazard pay after working with me.  

Running out of water in both of our tanks and rain barrels (i.e., 900 gallon capacity) just a few days before the ONTENA tour really highlighted how much we need a reliable back-up supply.   We can get one free fill-up from the City per year, but it often takes more than a week after making the request to get that water, since it always comes during a dry period when Rain Brothers is busy fulfilling other requests. 

I planned on two weekends after the OTNEA tour before tearing up the Garden for the project because, this being Ohio, you can almost count on bad weather taking over one of the weekends.  Leigh Anne was concerned about rain this last Saturday, but it didn’t start until about 5 p.m. yesterday, so we had no difficulty completing everything.   We are ready for the plumber to come anytime.   

Next weekend, we will be back to our “typical” routine of watering, weeding, planting and harvesting.  After the lines are installed, and assuming no hiccups, we will probably replace the fence posts in that area and add braces to straighten the fence.  Then, we will have 100 square feet to plant in. Last Sunday, I started lettuce and beet seedlings for our Fall harvest and they sprouted this morning. 

Other than this, the Garden is looking lovely.  There was a beautiful black and blue butterfly hanging out in the herb garden.  I had started pinching back the basil and it was not too disturbed by that and stuck around a couple of hours.    The finches have returned en masse to enjoy our sunflowers in bloom.  Unlike the bees, which pose patiently for photos, I have never in 10 years been able to photograph any of the dozens of yellow finches that hang out at the SACG between July and September.   Sigh. 

And So It Goes

What a week.  It has not rained much in 10 days.   We had a great crew of CS volunteers who moved mountains in time for the OTENA Tour on Sunday.   I have already canned some tomatillo salsas and beans and will start canning tomatoes and pickles this week.  We’re already saving seeds and I’ve started some trays of lettuce and beets for our Fall season.   We’ll take a slight breath before preparing for out next big project:  a water line.

The ground is so dry where we have not watered that deep cracks are forming in the crust.  Some of melons are collapsing.  Of course, when it is super hot like it was last week, fruiting plants (like tomatoes and peppers) drop their flowers (and thus, don’t fruit).  We will have to encourage more flowering to get more fruit.  I sometimes cheat with Miracle Gro’s Bloom Buster.  It works with flowers (which is how I got our flowers and roses to look so spectacular for the OTENA Tour).  Desperate times for call for desperate measures.  It has been so dry for so long that our tanks ran dry over the weekend.  I was freaked, but que sera sera. We received a wee bit of rain on Tuesday and it was enough to fill 2/3 of the big tank.  That’s enough to get us to Friday, when we are supposed to get almost an  inch (followed by ¾ inch on Saturday).  When we have a long, hot spell like last week, the skins of our tomatoes also thicken, making them susceptible to splitting skins when followed with a heavy rain, like is expected this weekend.   Uneven watering can also contribute to blossom-end rot.

On Saturday, Leigh Anne sent me a fantastic crew of big strong guys to help us get ready for the OTENA Tour on another 90 degree plus day.   In four hours, two of the guys picked up all of the litter in the square between East Main and Bryden and Morrison and Fairwood, including all of the alleys in between.  OTENA sent a crew – including Keep Columbus Beautiful’s Robert Seed who stopped by to borrow the Carter's litter grabber – to pick up the litter on the Tour route, but our crew had already cleaned up Fairwod and East Main Street.   It was a good thing, too, because Sunday’s tourists did not stick to the tour route and used the alleys instead as a shortcut because it was so hot.  They picked up 6 bags.  

One of the guys mowed our lawn, the orchard lawn, borrowed Frank’s weed wacker to slay the weeds on the Block Watch lot and around one of our raised beds and put mulch around our newer fruit trees.  Two of the guys played tetris with patio pavers donated by Ken’s Bexley neighbors, Rick & Connie, to lay a patio platform for our picnic table and for the Block Watch’s bench across the street and then they spread com-til in the co-op plot and in Carly’s plot.    Because it was again over 90 degrees and extremely humid, Cathy again came by with ice water, popsickles and ice cream sandwiches.  It was much appreciated and, for them, unexpected.  One of our volunteers is a Kenyan native and one of our newer Stoddart neighbors and OTENA visitors was too.  This continues our very cosmopolitan year at the SACG because we have also had volunteers from North and South Korea and Albania. 

Amy and Sabrina arrived early to help spruce up the Garden as well.  They both weeded and pruned quite a bit.  We ran out of water on Friday night (so Carly told me) and so Sabrina and I brought buckets of water.  Sadly, I hit my brakes one my way and about five gallons gushed onto my car floor and in the trunk.  It still smells.  Sigh.    When I told the rest of the gardeners on Tuesday that we had received enough rain to get us through until Friday, Ken reminded me that he could have replaced the big tank spicket (which is leaking) if I had told him earlier that it had been empty.  Duh!  I should have thought of that.    I was a bit distracted. 

Barb and Frank worked really hard as well sprucing up the Block Watch lot across the street. They were wearing long sleeves in 90+ degree heat because of the poison ivy that grows in that area. 

There was a miracle of sorts on Stoddart Avenue when I arrived on Saturday.  As you know, we have a number of vacant lots on Stoddart, although not as many as we used to have.  Vacant lots typically mean shoulder-high grass. A few of our neighbors, including Urban Connections and Andy Buss, mow some of the vacant lots in order to improve the appearance and safety of the neighborhood.  On Saturday, every single vacant lot had been mowed.  There was nothing but short grass up and down Stoddart Avenue.  It was a miracle (and reflected an enormous amount of work).  A bunch of people cared enough to clean up the neighborhood before the OTENA tour because they knew several hundred visitors would be travelling up and down the street.  

For the pre-tour on Saturday evening (with the OTENA Board and homeowners), it was scorching hot with brutal sunshine.  The first three stops were along the Conservatory and then it was a several block hike to Fairwood.  At that point, only me, a couple homeowners and the OTNEA Board walked the block to the SACG.  The rest skipped us and went to the next stop (which, was air conditioned).  They had spent the day cleaning up their homes and yards and were too tired to stop.  Sigh.   But, OTENA gave us a nice gift basket, which I shared with the volunteers the next day.  

When Sunday arrived, I brought more buckets of water over to refresh the flowers (which were wilting in the heat).  I also set up a table for refreshments (pink lemonade) and literature about the SACG and opportunities to volunteer or register for a plot.  It was hot and humid, but very cloudy (which made it more bearable than Saturday).   Cathy made the very best mint iced tea ever.  She brought it over just before 3 (along with a gallon thermos of ice water)  and it was extremely refreshing.  I pushed it to the visitors (who would roll their eyes).  But as soon as they tasted it, their eyes would widen because they realized that I was NOT overselling how good that tea was.  Everyone was asking for the recipe, but I did not know.  Cathy tells me that when she pours the hot water over the tea bags and sugar, she also added a few branches of mint from the SACG and let it steep with the tea for no more than 10 minutes (or it becomes bitter).    She also created and posted some very cute signs reminding our visitors to stay on the wood chip path, because they always seem to wonder into Alyssa's plot to get a closer look at her massive sunflower.

I also brought the extremely cute tri-fold board that Rayna made for us in 2010 which happily showed what the SACG looked like before we broke ground and in our very early years, before the trellis and picket fence, etc.  As I drove up with it, Ms. Jeannie was coming back from church down the alley all dressed up.  I stopped her and showed her the poster and photos of her from our first two years breaking ground, spreading compost and wood chips and picking strawberries with her granddaughter. 

Unlike Saturday, there was a shuttle bus on Sunday to ferry folks from Franklin Park South to Fairwood and then to the next stop on Bryden.  Thing is; the shuttle skipped the SACG altogether.  So, lots of hot people who were on foot skipped visiting the SACG in order to take the shuttle.  They drove by and we waved as they passed.   However, other people continued to stop by on foot, by car and by bicycle.  They came from all directions (because some people decided to take the tour in reverse order).  We had between 100 and 150 visitors, which is a lot for us.  Some people took self-tours, others got the nickel tour (inside the fence) and some got the quarter tour which included the orchard and north side.    Lush was the word of the day because pretty much everything was growing and blooming (including our sunflowers and white garden phlox -- which all started blooming on Sunday morning – another miracle).   Even our corn had started to form husks – just to show off.

We continued to have visitors even after the OTENA tour concluded. We also had a few neighbors stop by to ask how it went and some to ask why all these people were walking up and down the street reading pamphlets.   Cathy came back to help us back up (and to retrieve her thermoses).  Luckily, she arrived late enough for me to dump my lemonade on top of the bare spot and to pour some of her leftover tea into my thermos to take home.  Sabrina then invited me to a cookout at her home.  By the time I arrived home and unpacked everything, it was 9 p.m.

We watered quite a bit on Wednesday and harvested quite a bit, too.  This week, Strader's Garden Centers made three large donations to GCGC to benefit local community gardens.  Two of them were yesterday at the Godman Guild.  It was geranimumpalooza, but there were also coleus and tomatoes and begonias, etc.

This weekend, weather permitting, we will start emptying the northern compost bin and moving/narrowing it to make room for a ford pit for the water meter that will be installed there on July 29.  If the weather does not permit this, we will do it next weekend when we will also be digging out brambles, cutting the fence where the equipment will be entering and then tying it up.  The City came by this week to again mark where our water tap is located and to test whether it still works.  We will also be cutting back 5 feet of brambles on both sides of the north fence to make room for the line zipping equipment to get into the Garden and install pipes from the meter to two hydrants.   By then, we will have harvested the rest of the beets that we planted on May 17 and turnips.  The first weekend in August, we will have a 100 sf plot available (with lots of com-til in it) if anyone wants it.  But if no one jumps on that, we will be planting more root crops and probably some beans.  I will probably leave some space to add some lettuce by the end of the month.  We will also be replanting brambles back in their old spot (and supplementing them with brambles that we temporarily planted in a raised bed earlier this season) and possibly placing some fence posts and braces along the top of the replaced fence, etc.  The rest of the month, we will be weeding, watering, mowing and harvesting, etc.

It never stops.