Cherry Jubilee at the SACG Like a Well Watered Garden

We are three quarters of the way through June at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden and this month has been dominated by a bumper crop of cherries and strawberries.  The Environmental Court has again been sending us Community Service volunteers who have helped tremendously.  We have also hosted elementary school students from the Urban Connections annual Bible camp and they have picked over 8 pounds of fresh cherries and black raspberries that we donated to Salvation Army’s food pantry down the street.  

At the end of May, Charlie scavenged a discarded wheelbarrow and then built new handles for it so that we could upgrade from the holey wheelbarrow he bought for $5 eight years ago that we have been using since that time.   This “new” one is much bigger and can carry more (without losing valuable compost through a hole in the corner).

During the first weekend in June, Strader’s made a monster donation of melons, basil and cucumbers to the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition.  I took a flat of each and then Amy helped me to plant a load of cantaloupes, watermelons and cucumbers in our food pantry plots.   This is going to be the year of the fruit at the SACG.   Charlie even installed a trellis so that we could grow cucumbers vertically to save space.  Then, our neighbor Isaias, stopped by and donated 8 partially grown canna lilies for our flower beds.  We had received a bunch from the Kossuth Community Garden a few years ago and they did great for a few years, but none of them came back last year. Isaias reminded me that I need to dig them up for the winter and replant them each Spring.  Let’s see if I remember or have the energy . . . . . .


I was delighted to hear back from the Environmental  Court about again receiving Community Service volunteers.  We had not had any since September.  I put them to work weeding and they exceeded my expectations (despite making a few rookie mistakes).  This was the first group of volunteers in my life that attacked weeding the brambles with gusto.  They also insisted on digging weeds out by their roots instead of just pulling the vine.  They also edged, harvested sweet bing cherries and strawberries for our first Faith Mission donation of the year, transplanted the extra Strader donations of basil and cucumbers, carried a few bags of mulch for me, and hauled and spread compost in the large food pantry plot.  And they bagged everything and dragged those lawn waste bags down to the alley.



One of them returned the following week with another group to help me help the North Bexley Community Garden weed and spread mulch (and move compost bags) and then returned with me to the SACG to pick tart pie cherries to donate to Faith Mission, mow our lawn and weed the paths.  This last week, a different one returned with the group and they picked even more tart pie cherries for me to take to Faith Mission, and turned over all of our compost bins to help it decompose faster (and uncovering the compost that had been created over the last six months).  


We had a bit of excitement one Wednesday evening.  First, an illegal dumper was dumping construction waste from the back of his pickup truck into our neighbor’s dumpster.  While I probably should be glad that he was not simply dumping it into the alley, I confronted him and told him to move along.  He insisted that he lived there, but I knew better.  I should have photographed his license plate.  A few minutes later, a very excited young man came running into our front lawn, ducked behind some trees and then did a jig holding a fifth of booze in each hand.  About 30 seconds later, a much older man came running down East Main Street whistling for a police officer.  I have to think that the two incidents were related.  The young man then hightailed it East in the alley.  Then, as I packed up for the evening, a homeless fellow came by for a drink.  I gave him two cans of ensure and he thanked me for helping him out over the years.  How sad.  Years. 


Then, Charlie told me that the postal worker had left a water bill for us on our gate.  On our gate!  We do not have a mailbox.  We registered for water last August and gave the Water Division our mailing address, but they had been mailing bills to the Garden – a vacant lot.  Gee whiz.  I emailed them to complain because they were assessing us – to my surprise – with a monthly fee (even though we disconnected the meter in November and did not reconnect it until Memorial Day weekend – and had never turned the water on yet).   They apologized and waived the late fees, etc.   I had not budgeted for a monthly water bill when we have never used the water.    We had the water lines installed in case we have another drought like in 2012.  Our rain tanks usually run dry once or twice a year, and the City only fills it for us once (for free).  Of course, as soon as we had the water lines installed, Central Ohio turned into a rain forest with inches of rain almost every week. Ironic, ne’st pas?


Our black raspberries are coming into peak season.  My nephew-in-law, Simon, came with his five    babies to pick cherries and berries.  They had such a good time that they are going to take a raised bed.  The berries did not survive the van ride back home, but there are more where they came from.

Urban Connections received grants from the United Way and the Columbus Foundation this year to work with the SACG and other community partners for its annual Bible Day Camp.  This year’s theme is Growing Together in Christ.   In addition to visits to the Conservatory’s children’s garden, Slate Run Farm, and the Scioto Audubon Metro Park, the kids and the volunteers from Gallion's Alliance  Church participated in crafts and bible study.  I gave two lessons and took them back to the SACG to volunteer for about 30 minutes.  Our first lesson was about the parable of sowing seeds and was to have been followed with weeding (since we’re mostly fully planted by now).  However, our CS volunteers did a pretty good job of weeding for us.  I showed them Paul’s weedy plot (which he then weeded the next day) and put them to work picking cherries and berries that I then took to the Salvation Army.  Then, the next lesson was about the many passages where God promises to bless us like a watered garden (and other passages about rain and living water, etc.) to be followed by helping me to water the food pantry plots.  However, you know what they say about best laid plans, it rained two inches the night before.  Sigh.  So, we picked more cherries and lots of black raspberries.   The pastor's wife pulled our forest of thistles growing along our southwestern fence.  Bless her heart.  She also weeded our blueberry bushes (and spared the volunteer petunias). 
   

We had a bumper crop of tart pie cherries.  Some years, we do not have time to pick them.  However,  this year, I’ve managed to convince enough people to help themselves and even bring their own ladders.   I made a pie, made and canned cherry-almond jam, and canned a few pints myself.  Our black raspberries are not quite as plentiful as in past years and I blame our fence straightening project for that.  We usually have a black raspberry festival (with plant and bake sale), but this week’s rain has scared me off.  Last year, it started raining after only an hour and that was a lot of wasted work.   Of course, now that we will not be having it, it will probably be dry.   That’s always the way, right?

Our overly abundant rain has not hurt us too much.  Unlike some gardens, we have a slight incline so that none of the rain pools or floods us.   Our peas are giant and popping.  The kale has been gigantic.  Oh and the grapes are gigantic and plentiful. I cannot wait until they change colors.   It is sometimes hard to keep up with the weeds, though.  We have never had as many thistles as this year.