When the Rain Comes, It Means Time to Weed

The word of the year for the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for 2019 is fun.  So, we do not have much planned this year.  After Earth Day, we only had two gardeners to complete their three hours of work equity.   And April showers have kept most of the gardeners away this week.  Our cherry trees are in in their beautiful, flowery glory.  BUT, the bees have not been flocking to them as they have in the past.  


On Wednesday, Phil mowed our lawn, picked up litter, edged and mulched around the Meteor cherry tree and tulips in the front lawn.   Charlie – who has not gardened with us in a few years – returned and dug through bricks and stones to help straighten out the northeast corner of the fence.   Charlie is the gardener who helped me to pick up landscaping stones and then edged the entire front flower bed.  He also built the brick pad in front of the shed and picked up our rickety wheelbarrow at a yard sale.   He left after buying his own house and thought that he would grow his food in his backyard.  You know what they say about best laid plans.  Instead, he had shade trees.  So, now he’s back.

We just have 20 feet left to complete on our fence project this year before the brambles get too tall.  We worked until dark.  I painted the wood as we installed the fence.  (The pickets were painted two years ago).  


Ken stopped by on Saturday afternoon to pick up and dispose of two of the pallets that were dumped on our lawn last week.  The rest remain and have killed the grass on the north part of the lawn.  


Sabrina came on Thursday to weed and plant some lettuce and spinach.  Her plot is again covered in purple nettles.  She again put down black garden fabric to kill them, but Friday night’s storm ripped a lot of it up.  She also had lots of volunteer daisies, so I transplanted them to make room for her vegetables.


I got a late start on Saturday because I had not planned to be there   However, it stopped six hours early.  Of course, it was muddy and chilly.  Conventional wisdom says not to garden in the mud because the soil will become too compact and restrict tender roots.  But, it is a great time to weed because the soil is soft.   I planted some lettuce seedlings and replanted my spinach (which should have sprouted before now).   I then weeded one of the food pantry plots and planted all of my extra cabbage seedlings so that they would not get root bound.  When the rain did not return, I had to water them in (if you can believe it).
in light of the anticipated rain.

I also weeded the flower beds and started digging dandelion plants out of the lawn.   You might notice that our front lawn looks amazing.  It is not a chemical blessing; it is a yoga downward dog one.  We have bent over and physically removed the dandelions (but not the violets or clover) over the years.  A thick lawn keeps them from re-establishing themselves.  So, every year I pick off the dandelions growing on the periphery.  Yes, the bees love them, but we have lots of flowers and flowering trees that need and feed them.


Our cherry trees are blooming profusely.   That being said, there was not a bee in sight (unlike Wednesday).  I'm hoping that the rain was the culprit.  The Granny Smith and Jonathon apples are also starting to bloom.  The McIntosh apples are blooming, but not the Honeycrisp that we planted last week.  It just has buds.  So, there is no chance of McIntosh or Honeycrisp apples this year.  The peach trees already bloomed so-so.  The plums are just so-so.  The elderberry bushes have quadrupled in size from last year.  


Ethan came to weed his plot and plant some onions.  He also edged a plum tree.  I edged the   Then I mulched the plum tree and elderberry bushes.  And I planted some more onions and some swiss chard.
elderberry bushes and weeded a few blueberry bushes.


I have other things to plant, but it was 2:00 and I had other things to do, like cook and clean.

When the Rain Comes, It Means Time to Weed

The word of the year for the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for 2019 is fun.  So, we do not have much planned this year.  After Earth Day, we only had two gardeners to complete their three hours of work equity.   And April showers have kept most of the gardeners away this week.  Our cherry trees are in in their beautiful, flowery glory.  BUT, the bees have not been flocking to them as they have in the past.  


On Wednesday, Phil mowed our lawn, picked up litter, edged and mulched around the Meteor cherry tree and tulips in the front lawn.   Charlie – who has not gardened with us in a few years – returned and dug through bricks and stones to help straighten out the northeast corner of the fence.   Charlie is the gardener who helped me to pick up landscaping stones and then edged the entire front flower bed.  He also built the brick pad in front of the shed and picked up our rickety wheelbarrow at a yard sale.   He left after buying his own house and thought that he would grow his food in his backyard.  You know what they say about best laid plans.  Instead, he had shade trees.  So, now he’s back.

We just have 20 feet left to complete on our fence project this year before the brambles get too tall.  We worked until dark.  I painted the wood as we installed the fence.  (The pickets were painted two years ago).  


Ken stopped by on Saturday afternoon to pick up and dispose of two of the pallets that were dumped on our lawn last week.  The rest remain and have killed the grass on the north part of the lawn.  


Sabrina came on Thursday to weed and plant some lettuce and spinach.  Her plot is again covered in purple nettles.  She again put down black garden fabric to kill them, but Friday night’s storm ripped a lot of it up.  She also had lots of volunteer daisies, so I transplanted them to make room for her vegetables.


I got a late start on Saturday because I had not planned to be there   However, it stopped six hours early.  Of course, it was muddy and chilly.  Conventional wisdom says not to garden in the mud because the soil will become too compact and restrict tender roots.  But, it is a great time to weed because the soil is soft.   I planted some lettuce seedlings and replanted my spinach (which should have sprouted before now).   I then weeded one of the food pantry plots and planted all of my extra cabbage seedlings so that they would not get root bound.  When the rain did not return, I had to water them in (if you can believe it).
in light of the anticipated rain.

I also weeded the flower beds and started digging dandelion plants out of the lawn.   You might notice that our front lawn looks amazing.  It is not a chemical blessing; it is a yoga downward dog one.  We have bent over and physically removed the dandelions (but not the violets or clover) over the years.  A thick lawn keeps them from re-establishing themselves.  So, every year I pick off the dandelions growing on the periphery.  Yes, the bees love them, but we have lots of flowers and flowering trees that need and feed them.


Our cherry trees are blooming profusely.   That being said, there was not a bee in sight (unlike Wednesday).  I'm hoping that the rain was the culprit.  The Granny Smith and Jonathon apples are also starting to bloom.  The McIntosh apples are blooming, but not the Honeycrisp that we planted last week.  It just has buds.  So, there is no chance of McIntosh or Honeycrisp apples this year.  The peach trees already bloomed so-so.  The plums are just so-so.  The elderberry bushes have quadrupled in size from last year.  


Ethan came to weed his plot and plant some onions.  He also edged a plum tree.  I edged the   Then I mulched the plum tree and elderberry bushes.  And I planted some more onions and some swiss chard.
elderberry bushes and weeded a few blueberry bushes.


I have other things to plant, but it was 2:00 and I had other things to do, like cook and clean.

SACG’s Earth Day Celebration for 2019

The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden celebrated another Earth Day on Saturday with the planting of another tree:  this year a honeycrisp apple tree to go with our McIntosh, Jonathon and Granny Smith. Our Stoddart/East Main corner is looking cheery with bulbs that I planted in December which were donated by Straders Garden Centers and distributed at the December GCGC holiday party meeting at the Conservatory.  

I picked up our supplies from Keep Columbus Beautiful and Green Columbus on Friday, including lots of mulch and top soil donated by Ohio Mulch (just before it started to pour rain with just the community garden guru from Olde Town East’s community garden to help me load).   We also picked up some litter (but not as much as last week, particularly because a large group of young people were out picking up litter this Saturday along East Main Street).  I did not, however, take a group photo this week.  Our dedicated volunteers and gardeners accomplished a lot and received goodies, including vouchers for free ice cream from Jeni's:

New gardener Michael moved mountains by shoveling wood chips away from the southern fence.  Anyone who wants some for their own yards or gardens are free to help themselves, because I doubt that we will need many more.   He also helped me to straighten one of the platform raised beds.  This time, we moved it completely away, straightened out the stone platforms and then returned it and tried to screw in 12-inch screws to keep it vertical (instead of leaning at a 30 degree angle like it was last week). I wore him out, so – after helping to plant the apple tree -  he went home to mow his own lawn and came back with his lovely Australian shepherd, Duke.

John picked up more litter, and dug some holes for us for the apple tree and for the southern fence posts, picked up some litter, and tried to paint the bare fence wood (with the paint left in the shed that did not over winter well). Then, he got his own plot cleaned out and planted some turnips, cabbage, and lettuce.  He also disposed of our rotting stakes and some giant sunflower stalks from last year.


Ethan raked away the dead grass in front of the sign and cultivated the soil so that I could plant grass seeds.  Curses that it may not rain again the rest of the week.  Sigh.  Just my luck.  He also helped to move the raised bed so that we could straighten it out, help plant and back fill the apple tree.


Any fixed the strawberry patch that had been damaged by the wood chip delivery truck.  She dug up the crushed strawberry plants, spread some of the donated top soil and come of our compost and transplanted and watered in the strawberry plants.   She also pruned some of our roses and started to clean out flower beds.

Whitney – Michael’s better half – came to transport compost into some of the plots whose gardeners did not use enough of it (IMHO) last year.  She also sanded the shed’s peeling rain barrel and painted it.  She then helped to clean out the flower beds.



Ellen also helped to distribute compost and then refilled the platform raised beds with the soil we removed last week and then topped it off with new potting soil I picked up at Lowe’s on Friday. She also helped to clean out flower beds and helped to plant lettuce, onion and cabbage in the neighbor bed along our alley where anyone can help themselves.  She and Whitney also preserved a large number of volunteer black raspberry bush seedlings in the raised bed.  I will transplant some of them next week into bare spots along our exterior fence.  However, the rest of them are free to any other community garden and for a donation (or some time volunteering) to any individual gardeners would like to start their own yummy and nutritious raspberry patch.

Sabrina and her two boys came and sorted our dwindling supply of tomato and trellis stakes.  The boys also watered in the new apple trees and carried water for me to water in transplanted daisies and bachelor buttons.  She also helped to transplant cabbage, onion and lettuce seedlings in the neighbor bed and cleaned out a flower bed.

I helped Michael with the raised bed, cleaned out flower beds, transplanted volunteer daisies and bachelor buttons into more appropriate places, brought refreshments to keep everyone sugar up, assembled supplies and tried to keep everyone busy.  After they left, I tended my own plot for a bit, picked up mulch for my own home, planted a ton of perennial flowers that I picked up from DeMonye’s perennial sale on Friday, and then returned to plant some flowers, and then spinach, Chinese, red and white cabbage, Italian, curly and red kale, lettuce, brussells sprouts, potatoes, broccoli, onions, and transplant a lot of garlic.   I had already planted my snow peas a few days earlier.

Sadly, some misguided fool dropped off a dozen or so wood pallets at the Garden on Thursday without first asking me.  Two of our compost bins are made from such pallets.  Granted, they are probably due to be replaced soon, but I do not have the energy or volunteers to do it this year and would only need 6 pallets, not 12.  They stacked them neatly on our lawn, but it will kill the grass in short order, creating more work for me.   Pastor Brown did not want them, but found a volunteer to haul them away.  However, when that volunteer arrived, he could not fit them on his overflowing trailer.  Although he said he would return later in the day, he did not and they were still there when I left around 7:30.   I emailed GCGC members and posted on a local gardening site advertising their free availability to anyone wanting to build their own compost bin.  Two of my Board members also volunteered to dispose of a few of them.  So, hopefully, they will be gone when I return . . . . . .   this was not a problem that I identified this week.  Perhaps coincidentally, Cathy later photographed a mounted police officer patrolling the Garden.  Hilarious.


We still have 4 plots available for new gardeners.  One of our former gardeners, Charlie, stopped by on Wednesday to rejoin us after a few years of trying to have his own garden at his new home.  He took his original plot from 2010.   


Today, I get to return the tools that we borrowed from Keep Columbus Beautiful and the Tool Library and pick up new paint for our fence.

SACG’s Earth Day Celebration for 2019

The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden celebrated another Earth Day on Saturday with the planting of another tree:  this year a honeycrisp apple tree to go with our McIntosh, Jonathon and Granny Smith. Our Stoddart/East Main corner is looking cheery with bulbs that I planted in December which were donated by Straders Garden Centers and distributed at the December GCGC holiday party meeting at the Conservatory.  

I picked up our supplies from Keep Columbus Beautiful and Green Columbus on Friday, including lots of mulch and top soil donated by Ohio Mulch (just before it started to pour rain with just the community garden guru from Olde Town East’s community garden to help me load).   We also picked up some litter (but not as much as last week, particularly because a large group of young people were out picking up litter this Saturday along East Main Street).  I did not, however, take a group photo this week.  Our dedicated volunteers and gardeners accomplished a lot and received goodies, including vouchers for free ice cream from Jeni's:

New gardener Michael moved mountains by shoveling wood chips away from the southern fence.  Anyone who wants some for their own yards or gardens are free to help themselves, because I doubt that we will need many more.   He also helped me to straighten one of the platform raised beds.  This time, we moved it completely away, straightened out the stone platforms and then returned it and tried to screw in 12-inch screws to keep it vertical (instead of leaning at a 30 degree angle like it was last week). I wore him out, so – after helping to plant the apple tree -  he went home to mow his own lawn and came back with his lovely Australian shepherd, Duke.

John picked up more litter, and dug some holes for us for the apple tree and for the southern fence posts, picked up some litter, and tried to paint the bare fence wood (with the paint left in the shed that did not over winter well). Then, he got his own plot cleaned out and planted some turnips, cabbage, and lettuce.  He also disposed of our rotting stakes and some giant sunflower stalks from last year.


Ethan raked away the dead grass in front of the sign and cultivated the soil so that I could plant grass seeds.  Curses that it may not rain again the rest of the week.  Sigh.  Just my luck.  He also helped to move the raised bed so that we could straighten it out, help plant and back fill the apple tree.


Any fixed the strawberry patch that had been damaged by the wood chip delivery truck.  She dug up the crushed strawberry plants, spread some of the donated top soil and come of our compost and transplanted and watered in the strawberry plants.   She also pruned some of our roses and started to clean out flower beds.

Whitney – Michael’s better half – came to transport compost into some of the plots whose gardeners did not use enough of it (IMHO) last year.  She also sanded the shed’s peeling rain barrel and painted it.  She then helped to clean out the flower beds.



Ellen also helped to distribute compost and then refilled the platform raised beds with the soil we removed last week and then topped it off with new potting soil I picked up at Lowe’s on Friday. She also helped to clean out flower beds and helped to plant lettuce, onion and cabbage in the neighbor bed along our alley where anyone can help themselves.  She and Whitney also preserved a large number of volunteer black raspberry bush seedlings in the raised bed.  I will transplant some of them next week into bare spots along our exterior fence.  However, the rest of them are free to any other community garden and for a donation (or some time volunteering) to any individual gardeners would like to start their own yummy and nutritious raspberry patch.

Sabrina and her two boys came and sorted our dwindling supply of tomato and trellis stakes.  The boys also watered in the new apple trees and carried water for me to water in transplanted daisies and bachelor buttons.  She also helped to transplant cabbage, onion and lettuce seedlings in the neighbor bed and cleaned out a flower bed.

I helped Michael with the raised bed, cleaned out flower beds, transplanted volunteer daisies and bachelor buttons into more appropriate places, brought refreshments to keep everyone sugar up, assembled supplies and tried to keep everyone busy.  After they left, I tended my own plot for a bit, picked up mulch for my own home, planted a ton of perennial flowers that I picked up from DeMonye’s perennial sale on Friday, and then returned to plant some flowers, and then spinach, Chinese, red and white cabbage, Italian, curly and red kale, lettuce, brussells sprouts, potatoes, broccoli, onions, and transplant a lot of garlic.   I had already planted my snow peas a few days earlier.

Sadly, some misguided fool dropped off a dozen or so wood pallets at the Garden on Thursday without first asking me.  Two of our compost bins are made from such pallets.  Granted, they are probably due to be replaced soon, but I do not have the energy or volunteers to do it this year and would only need 6 pallets, not 12.  They stacked them neatly on our lawn, but it will kill the grass in short order, creating more work for me.   Pastor Brown did not want them, but found a volunteer to haul them away.  However, when that volunteer arrived, he could not fit them on his overflowing trailer.  Although he said he would return later in the day, he did not and they were still there when I left around 7:30.   I emailed GCGC members and posted on a local gardening site advertising their free availability to anyone wanting to build their own compost bin.  Two of my Board members also volunteered to dispose of a few of them.  So, hopefully, they will be gone when I return . . . . . .   this was not a problem that I identified this week.  Perhaps coincidentally, Cathy later photographed a mounted police officer patrolling the Garden.  Hilarious.


We still have 4 plots available for new gardeners.  One of our former gardeners, Charlie, stopped by on Wednesday to rejoin us after a few years of trying to have his own garden at his new home.  He took his original plot from 2010.   


Today, I get to return the tools that we borrowed from Keep Columbus Beautiful and the Tool Library and pick up new paint for our fence.

Not Too Proud to Beg: SACG's Earth Day Celebration

Tomorrow, the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden -- like much of the City of Columbus -- will be celebrating Earth Day a little early.  The Easter holiday weekend makes next weekend a little impractical and having it early means that we get an extra week to use the gifts showered upon us: like FREE JENI'S ICE CREAM of your choice to every volunteer.  We are not too proud to beg for volunteers to help us move mountains (literally) at the SACG.  It will be dry, and suitably cooler than our Opening Day last Saturday (when we were all in t-shirts).

If you come volunteer with the SACG (starting at around 9ish and ending noonish) tomorrow, Saturday, April 13, you will get at least one (and possibly more) of the following free gifts

·         A free yoga class at Yogaheartfeltstudio on East Fifth or can of Ensure protein beverage.

·         $8 coupon off a general COSI admission for a family of 4 that is good for the rest of the year

·         A voucher that you have to use by April 28 for:

o   Free scoop of Jeni’s

o   One free shareable item at The Crest Gastropub

o   One free coffee at Roosevelt Coffee House

o   Half off a dessert at Harvest Pizza

·         A large Earth Day t-shirt to the our best volunteer who can fit into it

I will also be bringing donuts and my famous chocolate no-bake oatmeal cookies.

We have a lot to do in just three hours, but many hands make light work:

1)      Reinforce and refill the platform raised beds;

2)      Spread wood chips around those raised beds;

3)      Plant a honeycrisp apple tree to round out our fruit orchard and a milkweed bush to feed monarch butterflies;

4)      Top off the compost in our raised beds and plant lettuce, broccoli, kale and collards in the neighbor bed;

5)      Rake the rest of the wood chips away from the southern fence and strawberry patch;

6)      Distribute compost in the plots whose gardeners did not add much to their plots last year (such as Marcel’s, Alyssa and Carly’s);

7)      Clean up the flower beds and transplant volunteers into better places;

8)      Mow the lawns;

9)      Paint the rain barrel and some fence wood;

10)   Hopefully, dig some more post holes along the south side and hang a few braces; and

11)   Fill the damaged strawberry patch with donated top soil and compost and then transplant strawberries and raspberry bushes to fill in bare spots.

12)  Possibly spread mulch (donated by Ohio Mulch) and compost around our fruit trees (i.e., apples, plums, peaches, apricot and elderberry). 

13) Picking up litter in the neighborhood and alleys

Be there or be square;-)

Not Too Proud to Beg: SACG's Earth Day Celebration

Tomorrow, the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden -- like much of the City of Columbus -- will be celebrating Earth Day a little early.  The Easter holiday weekend makes next weekend a little impractical and having it early means that we get an extra week to use the gifts showered upon us: like FREE JENI'S ICE CREAM of your choice to every volunteer.  We are not too proud to beg for volunteers to help us move mountains (literally) at the SACG.  It will be dry, and suitably cooler than our Opening Day last Saturday (when we were all in t-shirts).

If you come volunteer with the SACG (starting at around 9ish and ending noonish) tomorrow, Saturday, April 13, you will get at least one (and possibly more) of the following free gifts

·         A free yoga class at Yogaheartfeltstudio on East Fifth or can of Ensure protein beverage.

·         $8 coupon off a general COSI admission for a family of 4 that is good for the rest of the year

·         A voucher that you have to use by April 28 for:

o   Free scoop of Jeni’s

o   One free shareable item at The Crest Gastropub

o   One free coffee at Roosevelt Coffee House

o   Half off a dessert at Harvest Pizza

·         A large Earth Day t-shirt to the our best volunteer who can fit into it

I will also be bringing donuts and my famous chocolate no-bake oatmeal cookies.

We have a lot to do in just three hours, but many hands make light work:

1)      Reinforce and refill the platform raised beds;

2)      Spread wood chips around those raised beds;

3)      Plant a honeycrisp apple tree to round out our fruit orchard and a milkweed bush to feed monarch butterflies;

4)      Top off the compost in our raised beds and plant lettuce, broccoli, kale and collards in the neighbor bed;

5)      Rake the rest of the wood chips away from the southern fence and strawberry patch;

6)      Distribute compost in the plots whose gardeners did not add much to their plots last year (such as Marcel’s, Alyssa and Carly’s);

7)      Clean up the flower beds and transplant volunteers into better places;

8)      Mow the lawns;

9)      Paint the rain barrel and some fence wood;

10)   Hopefully, dig some more post holes along the south side and hang a few braces; and

11)   Fill the damaged strawberry patch with donated top soil and compost and then transplant strawberries and raspberry bushes to fill in bare spots.

12)  Possibly spread mulch (donated by Ohio Mulch) and compost around our fruit trees (i.e., apples, plums, peaches, apricot and elderberry). 

13) Picking up litter in the neighborhood and alleys

Be there or be square;-)

How Firm Thy Friendship: SACG Opens For 11th Growing Season

What a difference a year makes.   Last year, the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden’s opening day started with an inch of snow on the ground.  This year, we had sunshine and 70 degrees.   Last year, we turned compost and picked up litter.  This year, we accomplished an amazing amount of work with a group of amazing OSU students from the First Year Leadership Initiative and three new burly male neighbor gardeners.  Whoo hoo! Last year we wore winter coats and this year we wore t-shirts.


I picked up supplies yesterday and baked some brownies to keep up the energy of our hardworking volunteers.   I arrived a bit early to get the supplies organized for the group.  Sadly, we did not have as much painted wood as I recalled (because last year’s volunteers only painted one side of most of the fence boards before we had to pack up for the season).  I had hoped to prune the peach trees, but did not have time. Cathy brought by a wheelbarrow to loan us to spread wood chips (which were again generously donated by Tree King).

Three of our new gardeners put in their work equity today and all of them live in the neighborhood.  One has lived in the neighborhood since 1992, but the other two just moved in within the past year.  They were a god send for the hard work that we had to accomplish today.  Amy came with cookies and helped John pick up litter in and around the Garden.  A lot of it had blown into the fence and brambles over the winter and someone had dumped a bunch of trash in the alley.  


Michael and Ethan took on our most complicated job:  straightening our trellis gate which has not been straight since the year it was installed.  Every year it leans a bit more north (i.e., downhill) and we could no longer latch or lock the gate.  I arrived early to unwind and dig up the clematis vines growing up the sides.  They took off the top of the trellis, dug out the footings, straightened the sides, backfilled and reattached the top.   They did all of this without killing or moving the grape vines that were growing up the sides of the trellis.  After everyone had left, I transplanted the clematis vines again and watered them in.

While they worked on that, I started digging post holes in order to complete the fence straightening   John finished picking up litter and took over for me digging post holes (so that we could replace the wooden and metal shorter fence posts with 2x4s and top each
section with braces.  Ethan and Michael then came over to help finish that project as well.
project on the south side of the Garden.


Meanwhile, we had nine OSU students from the First Year Leadership Initiative arrive from to help us with two giant projects.  (Thank you Bill Dawson!).  As with most opening days, we needed to spread wood chips along the fence lines and along the paths.  That is an exhausting project.  However, we only used about half of the wood chips.  And, because of a miscommunication, the wood chips were dumped on top of the northern fence and western part of the strawberry patch, so we needed to rake the chips off of the strawberry patch and away from the fence line (which we need to straighten this month like we did the southern fence).   

Once the wood chips were mostly distributed, the students then turned to another troublesome project.   Two of our platform raised beds were, like the trellis, leaning north (i.e., downhill).  One of them was so out of plumb that the twelve-inch screws holding it together had started to break.  Two years ago, we tried to straighten them with a group of burly-men OSU students from the August Pay-It-Forward event, but even 10 of them were unable to lift the beds to straighten them out while the beds were full of soil.  So, this time, we emptied the beds first. At that point, they were easy to lift.  I could even lift a corner all by myself.   Like with the trellis, we dug down to the footings and raised the north end about an inch higher than the south side to compensate for the slope of the hill.  Then, we reinforced the bottom brace to keep the beds from sagging in the middle.  Sadly, they had to leave before we could refill the beds.


Our newest member of our Board of Trustees, newly retired Robert Seed, and his bride, Ruthie, stopped by to help, too.  They helped move the gate latches back to their original placement (before we had to move them last year due to the leaning).  Then, Robert inserted new three inch screws into the platform raised beds to hold them in place.   (I still have some of the original screws left over to bring with me next week).  Cathy loaned us her drill to help us work on this project while we completed the fence project.

Another new neighbor, Brian, from the newly opened Fairwood Commons one block from the Garden, also stopped by to help us with moving the wood chips away from the fence and to sweep them up from the alley.  He was quite enthusiastic.

Amy helped to transplant and thin strawberry plants and organize all of the tools back into the shed.  Some of the OSU students helped me hang our sign.

Ethan stayed behind to help me with returning wheelbarrows that we borrowed from Cathy and Kimball Farms and to put the rain barrel back behind the shed.  (It had blown down the street last month during the wind storms and Cathy put in in Phil’s old plot for safekeeping).

Cathy and I observed that the tulips are not doing well this year, except for the bulbs that I planted in December.  This is true at both our homes and at the Garden.  I suspect that the mild winter or wet year we had have something to do with that.   We have lots of leaves, but no flower stalks.  Sigh.  


Next week, we will be having our Earth Day celebration, where new gardeners can complete their work equity.  We need as many volunteers as possible.  This is what we have in store:

1)      Refill the platform raised beds;

2)      Spread wood chips around those raised beds;

3)      Plant a honeycrisp apple tree to round out our fruit orchard;

4)      Top off the soil in our raised beds and plant lettuce, broccoli, kale and collards in the neighbor bed;

5)      Rake the rest of the wood chips away from the southern fence and strawberry patch;

6)      Distribute compost in the plots whose gardeners did not add much to their plots last year;

7)      Clean up the flower beds, pruning the rose bushes and transplant volunteer bachelor buttons and daisies into better places;

8)      Maybe prune some fruit trees;

9)      Paint the rain barrel and some fence wood;

10)   Hopefully, dig some more post holes along the south side and hang a few braces; and

11)   Transplant strawberries and raspberry bushes to fill in bare spots.

Many hands make light work.