What Can Go Wrong?

It’s been a month since I’ve updated our readers.  In my defense, it’s the height of growing season and I’ve been busy with my real job.   But, the fun never stops at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and August 2018 has been no exception.  We’ve had some great volunteers, including the OSU Pay-It-Forward Community Service Day cohort and some very helpful Community Service volunteers from the local court system.    I’ve also included a link to a movie of a really friendly farm dog (that I’ve petted) helping to eat the tomato horn worms off the tomato plants.  I needed that dog in my back yard this summer.  

Since my last posting, our contractor came, dug up the Garden paths and a plot and installed some fancy water hydrants and water lines.  Problem is, the tap that had been marked and approved by the City wasn’t the right tap or even the right size.  Our plumber was afraid to touch it in case it cracked, but he got nowhere with the Water Department.   I pleaded with the MOFB and the Land Bank for help.  They did their best, but did not think that they made any headway.  Then, I reached out to a few City Council members, sent photos and statistics and wouldn’t you know that Councilman Mike Stinziano came to the rescue of the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  He emailed me at 11:21  at night to assure me that he would share my  "frustration" in the morning.  

Later the next day, I heard from friendly Joe at the Water Department who pushed and pushed and pushed until he got the problem fixed.  He sent his crew over to find the tap.  No luck.  He sent the regular tap tracers out the following week.  No luck.  Then he sent the Distribution Department who said that they would find it or install a new one.    They brought a backhoe with them to be sure.   And install a new one they did.   Of course, my neighbors are probably not happy that our newly repaved alley is messed up and the crew backfilled all of the trenches dug by our contractor, but hey, we have a working and new water tap and that is worth celebrating.

The contractor came out yesterday and dug new trenches.  My neighbors are probably not happy that they left a pile of dirt in the alley, but they promise me that they will be done on Wednesday.  A week from today.  Our plumber will connect the water lines to the tap and the Water Department will come, inspect his work, and hopefully bless it.  Then, there will be a rainbow in the sky signifying that God is in his Heaven and all is right with the world.  At least I hope so. 

We had a trio of Community Service volunteers come after a two week hiatus.  One weekend, I was really tired and overwhelmed with canning tomatoes and, as mentioned below, I really wanted to go peach picking, despite the heat.  There was a need for volunteers to clean up the alleys around OSU with all of the couches and mattresses left behind by departing students, so I took a week off and let them focus on that.  The following Saturday,  it rained four inches in one morning.  No point in gardening then.  I cleaned house instead.  Then, we had a trio of volunteers who dug three post holes, sunk three new fence posts, attached two sets of braces (where the contractor had run lines), mowed our lawn, tidied and reorganized our shed, watered our food pantry plots, weeded along the alley, and harvested for our weekly food pantry donation.  Joe even had the brilliant idea (after reorganizing our shed) that we should put hooks in there for the watering cans to keep them out of the way.  Duh.  We should have thought of that ourselves.

Speaking of food pantry donations.  I’ve basically let our kale and collards become caterpillar food because I’ve tried to just take our donations to the Salvation Army on Monday mornings and greens have to be refrigerated within two hours of being harvested.   However, our August harvests tend to be HUGE and hauling them and storing them in my cool basement isn’t really an option.  I took one two weeks ago to Faith Mission and they turned me away because they had too much food.  Apparently, the Worthington Farmer’s Market gal had beat me there and completely overwhelmed them with fresh produce.  The poor cook didn’t know what she was going to do with what she had and refused to take any more.  She sent me to Community Development for All People on Parsons.  They usually close at 1 p.m. on Saturdays, but they were having some sort of festival.  I drove down there for the first time and couldn’t find a place to park close by and I was not going to haul 44 pounds of tomatoes by myself.  I stopped in front and honked my horn until two well dressed folks with cameras came over and I told them to get the produce in my trunk (which I just popped open), but to leave the cart.  They told me that they took it all, but they left behind ALL the sweet corn that I had harvested an hour earlier and the zucchini.  Sigh.   That went to the Salvation Army on Monday morning.   Gee whiz.

Last Saturday, after the OSU kids left, I again drove down to the CD4AP and they were closed.  Sigh.  I had 42 pounds in the trunk and had driven all the way there.  I saw two well dressed folks across the street and yelled at them (over traffic) to open the gosh-darned Fresh Market for the produce I had the trunk.   They realized that I was crazy, but called the manager nonetheless.  Kay Perry came back and let me in.  She LOVED our tomatoes.  While I was waiting, a fellow came by looking for food.  The pantry might be closed, but I gave him a 7 pound bag of fresh tomatoes and 4 ears of fresh sweet corn.  

While I waited some more, the Worthington Farmer’s Market gal came with her SUV filled with hundreds of pounds of fresh produce.  She decided NOT to freak out the Faith Mission cook again this week.  We commiserated over those sweet days when we made our Saturday afternoon deliveries to Gene at the now-closed LSS food pantry and his corny jokes.  Kay reported that the CD4AP Fresh Market serves 350 people every day.  She was delighted to take our produce off of our hands. She even gave us her cell phone number so that I can call her before I drive over.  I’m allowed to share it, and she approved me posting it here.  But there are a lot of crazy people out there, so let me know if you need to donate some produce and I’d be delighted to give you her number.   I’ve already emailed it to a few people that I know have been as inconvenienced as me that LSS closed its food pantry on Saturdays.

Last Saturday, we had another productive weekend with the OSU Pay It Forward program.  They sent fewer volunteers than usual and left an hour earlier than planned, but they mowed our lot and the Block Watch orchard lot, painted six braces for our northern fence, planted a row of beets and pepper seedlings, harvested 42 pounds of fresh produce, watered our food pantry plots and new trees, picked up 2.5 bags of litter from our neighborhood and, most importantly, found and returned our only wheelbarrow which had been stolen this week.  

One of the ladies went on and on about how many butterflies we have at the SACG.  Yes, we do.  But some of what she saw were cabbage moths that lie the eggs of the caterpillars that eat our kale.  Grrr.   Two of the crew were twins.  Keep Columbus Beautiful again supplied us with litter grabbers, trash bags and lawn waste bags.   Amy brought them refreshments and Sabrina stayed to help supervise. 

Robert Seed wanted me to write an article about saving seeds.   Because I am a cheapskate, I try to save as many seeds as possible each season because I never know what will be donated next season.  I have a whole table in my kitchen where I organize my bean seeds.  Last year, I got lazy and just dumped beans in a pile on that table, thinking that I would get to them later.  Instead, they got moldy and left a black stain on the wood.  A few years earlier, I used to store the beans in bags, but had the same thing happen.  Sigh.  I store the pepper and tomato seeds in jar lids on my sink window sill.  That can get dangerous (for the seeds) when things go flying.   This year, I’ve become an expert on saving zinnia seeds.  The seeds are at the end of the petals.  I pluck them out before I replace the flowers in my vases twice each week.  I won’t repeat my entire process for saving seeds because I have blogged about it before – a few years ago.   I once even travelled to visit a friend in Louisville to attend a seed swap where lots of gardeners get together to trade their extra seeds for seeds that they don’t have but want.   GCGC keeps saying that they will organize a seed swap, but then we get so many seeds donated by area gardening clubs and Livingston Seeds that it hardly seems worth it.

Last week, I also visited Rock Dove Farm in West Jefferson as part of our MOFB Urban Agriculture grant for our water project.   Although I don’t think he intended it, the most memorable part was that his pup, Reggie, is extremely helpful and entertaining.  For instance, as we went through the tomato field, Reggie loves tomato horn worms.  Todd would pull them off and Reggie would grab them.  Sometimes, Todd would just bend a branch out and Reggie would lick the worm right off of the vine.  Totally gross but totally cool.  Very, very helpful dog.  He also loved to run around and chase flies.  Todd says that he has never had a problem with deer, or rabbits or raccoons.  No wonder.   Todd also had a nice high tunnel and great composting operation.   We spent a lot of time talking about the business side of farming.   He has had trouble hiring enough help, even at $11/hour because farming is very physical.  Don’t we know it.

As I was pulling links to the farm to include in my article, I found Rock Dove’s Facebook page and he has posted a movie of Reggie eating the dreaded tomato horn worm right off the vine.   You HAVE to watch it.   I could have used Reggie in my backyard earlier this summer.  I saw the tell-tail evidence of a worm, but could not find it for the life of me.  A few weeks passed and then I found it had eaten and entire bell pepper plant and was finishing off an orange bell pepper.  Sigh.  I killed it with Neem Oil.   At least it didn’t eat the Marconi peppers. 

One the day when the CS volunteers concentrated on the OSU area, I was able to pick peaches at Lynds' Blue Frog farm, something that I otherwise would not have had time to do on Saturday or weekend.  It was great to see mature peach trees so that I have a better idea of what our peach trees should look like when full of fruit. I was never sure if I was suppose the thin the peaches out and now I know that I do not need to do that.  There's also nothing unusual about our peach trees leaning because those trees did too.  Whew. 

It's too bad that I haven't had time to write, because I have a LOT of photos of how great the Garden has looked this summer.  It's nice to see that most of the grass from where the com-til pile had been has filled back in.  If anything, our grass grows too quickly.  It looks great for about two days before it looks shaggy again.