New City Program Will Loan Rain Water Tanks to Land Bank Community Gardens

We are finally getting a real rain storm for the first time since May. Whoo hoo! We have had a difficult time keeping our produce and flowers sufficiently watered at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden with the light and infrequent rain we have received this growing season and the freakish thefts of our rain water from our tank and barrels. On Friday, I added a bibb lock to our tank and one of our rain barrels (to keep anyone from taking water through the spickets). However, Richard from Growing Hearts & Hands Community Garden last week told me that the City was in the process of giving away more tanks. This caused me to call Leslie Strader in the Mayor’s office to see if we could get a second tank to increase our storage capacity (in light of the drought and water thefts) and to support the Block Watch flower gardens (because they have been transporting water from home twice each week). Leslie then sent me to the Rebuilding Together Central Ohio Tool Library, which had been contracted to administer this new program.

Julie from Rebuilding Together called me yesterday and here is the low-down:

1) Councilperson Priscilla Tyson is the brainchild of this program.

2) The City will loan produce community gardens located on City Land Bank lots a rain water tank and other equipment. There are two sizes of tanks (i.e., 330 and 550 gallon). All of the tanks are black. The City will retain ownership of the tanks and equipment. Community gardens located on private property are not eligible for this program. Flower gardens are also not eligible. Eligible community gardens must be in at least their second growing season; first-year community gardens are not eligible to apply.

3) The equipment being loaned includes a solar-powered pump, hoses and a bibb lock. This will mean that we can run a hose from the tank directly into the garden and will no longer need to haul watering cans back and forth from the garden to our tank. Is that cool, or what? The equipment needs to be returned to Rebuilding Together at the end of each growing season and can be picked up at the beginning of the next growing season.

4) The tanks will be labeled as City property and that the water is non-potable (i.e., not safe to drink).

5) Three members/officers of the community garden must sign-on as responsible parties. This will involve providing your drivers’ license number.

6) Gardens must complete and submit a non-profit organization application to the Tool Library.

7) Gardens must also provide a soil sample, which will be tested by OSU for, among other things, lead. (In other words, these gardens will receive free soil testing as part of this program). The details of this are still unclear.

8) The program will only cover 30-35 gardens.

9) Rain Brothers will be providing and installing the tanks and equipment.

10) This program will also pay for Rain Brothers to fill the tank one time. In other words, you don’t have to wait for it to rain before the tank will be filled for you at no charge.

11) There will be some delays because of how the City is reimbursing Rebuilding Together, but the program will be administered over 2012 and 2013. They hope to start delivering tanks to eligible gardens by the end of July.

12) Questions and inquiries should be directed to Rebuilding Together at 258-6392.

13) A formal press release will be coming.

It’s possible that I have forgotten some details, but you can obtain the information for yourself from the Tool Library. Happy watering!

New City Program Will Loan Rain Water Tanks to Land Bank Community Gardens

We are finally getting a real rain storm for the first time since May. Whoo hoo! We have had a difficult time keeping our produce and flowers sufficiently watered at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden with the light and infrequent rain we have received this growing season and the freakish thefts of our rain water from our tank and barrels. On Friday, I added a bibb lock to our tank and one of our rain barrels (to keep anyone from taking water through the spickets). However, Richard from Growing Hearts & Hands Community Garden last week told me that the City was in the process of giving away more tanks. This caused me to call Leslie Strader in the Mayor’s office to see if we could get a second tank to increase our storage capacity (in light of the drought and water thefts) and to support the Block Watch flower gardens (because they have been transporting water from home twice each week). Leslie then sent me to the Rebuilding Together Central Ohio Tool Library, which had been contracted to administer this new program.

Julie from Rebuilding Together called me yesterday and here is the low-down:

1) Councilperson Priscilla Tyson is the brainchild of this program.

2) The City will loan produce community gardens located on City Land Bank lots a rain water tank and other equipment. There are two sizes of tanks (i.e., 330 and 550 gallon). All of the tanks are black. The City will retain ownership of the tanks and equipment. Community gardens located on private property are not eligible for this program. Flower gardens are also not eligible. Eligible community gardens must be in at least their second growing season; first-year community gardens are not eligible to apply.

3) The equipment being loaned includes a solar-powered pump, hoses and a bibb lock. This will mean that we can run a hose from the tank directly into the garden and will no longer need to haul watering cans back and forth from the garden to our tank. Is that cool, or what? The equipment needs to be returned to Rebuilding Together at the end of each growing season and can be picked up at the beginning of the next growing season.

4) The tanks will be labeled as City property and that the water is non-potable (i.e., not safe to drink).

5) Three members/officers of the community garden must sign-on as responsible parties. This will involve providing your drivers’ license number.

6) Gardens must complete and submit a non-profit organization application to the Tool Library.

7) Gardens must also provide a soil sample, which will be tested by OSU for, among other things, lead. (In other words, these gardens will receive free soil testing as part of this program). The details of this are still unclear.

8) The program will only cover 30-35 gardens.

9) Rain Brothers will be providing and installing the tanks and equipment.

10) This program will also pay for Rain Brothers to fill the tank one time. In other words, you don’t have to wait for it to rain before the tank will be filled for you at no charge.

11) There will be some delays because of how the City is reimbursing Rebuilding Together, but the program will be administered over 2012 and 2013. They hope to start delivering tanks to eligible gardens by the end of July.

12) Questions and inquiries should be directed to Rebuilding Together at 258-6392.

13) A formal press release will be coming.

It’s possible that I have forgotten some details, but you can obtain the information for yourself from the Tool Library. Happy watering!

There’s No Joy in Dustville

As most of you know, much of Central Ohio is experiencing a drought. The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden has received less than an inch of rain in more than a month. On Sunday, we had exhausted the water in our tank and rain barrels. Not only is our garden thirstier than normal because of the abnormally high temperatures, but thieves have been siphoning off our water into large containers that are ferried to and from the SACG in grocery carts very early in the morning. Although we received almost half an inch of rain yesterday, our barrels did not receive any (for the second rain in a row) because this time someone who had tipped the lead barrel to get the water in the very bottom forgot to reconnect the downspout before he left. Happily, the tank captured enough to get us through the next week (as long as too much is not stolen in the meantime).

I feel like I am living in the far west about to enter an open-range water war against people who are desperate or slimy enough to steal dirty rain water. On Sundays, I posted stickers on the tank and rain barrels warning our grocery-cart thieves that the unfiltered water is unsafe to drink and is for the sole use of the SACG. (Remember folks, the rain washes pollution and bird poop off the roof and goes right into the tank).  Sadly, homeless men also have been seen bathing and washing clothes with our barrel rain water, but I cannot bring myself to object strongly to that.  Nonetheless, without that water, we have no way of watering the neighbor plots along the alley, the food pantry plots or our four new cherry trees (which need five gallons each week). While the SACG gardeners know that they might have to bring water from home to water their own plots, I can’t legitimately require them to bring water for the flower beds, the neighbor plots, the cherry trees, or the common or food pantry plots. Thus, we need the water in our tank and barrels or those plants will die.

When I realized three weeks ago that we were about to run out of water, I called Leslie Strader at the City. I knew that she had been researching our options last year. She stopped working on this project when we received rain a couple times each week, making 2011 the wettest on record in Central Ohio. I asked her to update her research and she reported that the City would supply the SACG with water from a street sweeper truck if I could find another three community gardens to join and we each paid $115. I explained that was prohibitively expensive and she suggested that I contact Rain Brothers (who has not called me back in two weeks). [Editor's Note:  Rain Brothers has since gotten back to me that their water delivery business has been swamped and are booked at least two weeks in advance.  They charge $120 for delivery of 600 gallons of water].   I could only find two other community gardens in a similar hardship because other gardens pay for City water. Morrison Hill is also getting a tank and has a little funding, but I did not tell them it would cost $115. Growing Hearts and Hands, like us, cannot afford $115, but luckily has two neighbors willing to share their garden hoses. I’ve calculated that 350 gallons of water at Bexley rates (which are higher than City rates) would cost around $55. Union rules preclude the City from asking the Fire Department to empty a truck at a community garden.

Our SACG gardeners have coped in different ways. Root Barb planted succulents in the Fairy Garden which do not need much water. Beth is letting nature take its course. Barb and Frank delayed planting anything until last week in the hope that it would start raining at some point. Charlie created a volcanic hill for each seedling and planted each seedling in the crater in order to catch any water runoff. (I think he is also watering pretty frequently). His plants look fabulous. James had placed a gallon jug of water next to each plant and let the water leak out slowly through a hole in the bottom corner. You can’t argue with success because his tomatoes and okra are very green and thick. Thanks to Epworth United Methodist Church's recycling program and Sharon from the Knitwits at Christ Lutheran Church, I last week planted water bottles next to tomatoes, pumpkins and watermelon in my, the neighbor and food pantry plots and poked holes in the bottom and side in order to water the roots slowly. (The new seedlings planted without a water bottle died in one day in last weekend’s heat). About five of us have put down thick layers of straw mulch (donated by Rayna and Cathy). It ain’t pretty, any way you look at it.

On the plus side, the drought is equally tough on weeds and there are no weeds in the plots which were hoed at the beginning of May. For those who didn’t hoe in a timely fashion, the ground is hard as a rock and it has become seriously difficult to hoe in this environment. We have had one such new gardener officially throw in the towel.

We started our youth program on June 4 and all of the kids wanted to plant carrots and watermelon. To solve the problem of germinating seeds, we used a trick I read about in a Virginia newspaper a couple of years ago. After planting and watering in the seeds, we covered the rows with boards in order to slow the rate of evaporation. We still watered a couple of times each week and checked under the boards every three days. Last night, we achieved success. The seedlings emerged after only one week. We removed the boards and let the new carrots soak in the light rain. The watermelon has been a bit tougher. The seedlings are hanging in there (because most of the kids are better about watering than the adults). However, the seeds have not been able to stay moist long enough to germinate. (I am surreptitiously starting watermelon seeds at home where I can water them daily and then they will magically appear where the seeds were planted. I have no shame.).

[Editor's Note:  The Dispatch recently ran a story about how the lack of rain is adversely affecting farmers, and thus, future food prices].

As I explained to Leslie, I think our only real option is to increase our storage capacity so that we can survive lengthy dry spells.  In the meantime, we desparately need donations of empty half-gallon, liter, quart and half-liter plastic bottles which we can plant next to tomatoes, melons, peppers and squash in order to economically water our plants.  The 16 ounce bottles we retrieved from the recycling bin are really too small and require us to still water the plants more than once each week.

So, please say a prayer each night for more rain and consider contributing to our rain barrel collection. We are at least three or four inches of rain behind schedule, but even one more inch will fill our tank and barrels for another three weeks. I am behind planting flowers in the beds and they don’t have a chance without more rain. Then, there is the subject of my rows and rows of beans, our three rows of thirsty corn, our greens and our cabbage.

There’s No Joy in Dustville

As most of you know, much of Central Ohio is experiencing a drought. The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden has received less than an inch of rain in more than a month. On Sunday, we had exhausted the water in our tank and rain barrels. Not only is our garden thirstier than normal because of the abnormally high temperatures, but thieves have been siphoning off our water into large containers that are ferried to and from the SACG in grocery carts very early in the morning. Although we received almost half an inch of rain yesterday, our barrels did not receive any (for the second rain in a row) because this time someone who had tipped the lead barrel to get the water in the very bottom forgot to reconnect the downspout before he left. Happily, the tank captured enough to get us through the next week (as long as too much is not stolen in the meantime).

I feel like I am living in the far west about to enter an open-range water war against people who are desperate or slimy enough to steal dirty rain water. On Sundays, I posted stickers on the tank and rain barrels warning our grocery-cart thieves that the unfiltered water is unsafe to drink and is for the sole use of the SACG. (Remember folks, the rain washes pollution and bird poop off the roof and goes right into the tank).  Sadly, homeless men also have been seen bathing and washing clothes with our barrel rain water, but I cannot bring myself to object strongly to that.  Nonetheless, without that water, we have no way of watering the neighbor plots along the alley, the food pantry plots or our four new cherry trees (which need five gallons each week). While the SACG gardeners know that they might have to bring water from home to water their own plots, I can’t legitimately require them to bring water for the flower beds, the neighbor plots, the cherry trees, or the common or food pantry plots. Thus, we need the water in our tank and barrels or those plants will die.

When I realized three weeks ago that we were about to run out of water, I called Leslie Strader at the City. I knew that she had been researching our options last year. She stopped working on this project when we received rain a couple times each week, making 2011 the wettest on record in Central Ohio. I asked her to update her research and she reported that the City would supply the SACG with water from a street sweeper truck if I could find another three community gardens to join and we each paid $115. I explained that was prohibitively expensive and she suggested that I contact Rain Brothers (who has not called me back in two weeks). [Editor's Note:  Rain Brothers has since gotten back to me that their water delivery business has been swamped and are booked at least two weeks in advance.  They charge $120 for delivery of 600 gallons of water].   I could only find two other community gardens in a similar hardship because other gardens pay for City water. Morrison Hill is also getting a tank and has a little funding, but I did not tell them it would cost $115. Growing Hearts and Hands, like us, cannot afford $115, but luckily has two neighbors willing to share their garden hoses. I’ve calculated that 350 gallons of water at Bexley rates (which are higher than City rates) would cost around $55. Union rules preclude the City from asking the Fire Department to empty a truck at a community garden.

Our SACG gardeners have coped in different ways. Root Barb planted succulents in the Fairy Garden which do not need much water. Beth is letting nature take its course. Barb and Frank delayed planting anything until last week in the hope that it would start raining at some point. Charlie created a volcanic hill for each seedling and planted each seedling in the crater in order to catch any water runoff. (I think he is also watering pretty frequently). His plants look fabulous. James had placed a gallon jug of water next to each plant and let the water leak out slowly through a hole in the bottom corner. You can’t argue with success because his tomatoes and okra are very green and thick. Thanks to Epworth United Methodist Church's recycling program and Sharon from the Knitwits at Christ Lutheran Church, I last week planted water bottles next to tomatoes, pumpkins and watermelon in my, the neighbor and food pantry plots and poked holes in the bottom and side in order to water the roots slowly. (The new seedlings planted without a water bottle died in one day in last weekend’s heat). About five of us have put down thick layers of straw mulch (donated by Rayna and Cathy). It ain’t pretty, any way you look at it.

On the plus side, the drought is equally tough on weeds and there are no weeds in the plots which were hoed at the beginning of May. For those who didn’t hoe in a timely fashion, the ground is hard as a rock and it has become seriously difficult to hoe in this environment. We have had one such new gardener officially throw in the towel.

We started our youth program on June 4 and all of the kids wanted to plant carrots and watermelon. To solve the problem of germinating seeds, we used a trick I read about in a Virginia newspaper a couple of years ago. After planting and watering in the seeds, we covered the rows with boards in order to slow the rate of evaporation. We still watered a couple of times each week and checked under the boards every three days. Last night, we achieved success. The seedlings emerged after only one week. We removed the boards and let the new carrots soak in the light rain. The watermelon has been a bit tougher. The seedlings are hanging in there (because most of the kids are better about watering than the adults). However, the seeds have not been able to stay moist long enough to germinate. (I am surreptitiously starting watermelon seeds at home where I can water them daily and then they will magically appear where the seeds were planted. I have no shame.).

[Editor's Note:  The Dispatch recently ran a story about how the lack of rain is adversely affecting farmers, and thus, future food prices].

As I explained to Leslie, I think our only real option is to increase our storage capacity so that we can survive lengthy dry spells.  In the meantime, we desparately need donations of empty half-gallon, liter, quart and half-liter plastic bottles which we can plant next to tomatoes, melons, peppers and squash in order to economically water our plants.  The 16 ounce bottles we retrieved from the recycling bin are really too small and require us to still water the plants more than once each week.

So, please say a prayer each night for more rain and consider contributing to our rain barrel collection. We are at least three or four inches of rain behind schedule, but even one more inch will fill our tank and barrels for another three weeks. I am behind planting flowers in the beds and they don’t have a chance without more rain. Then, there is the subject of my rows and rows of beans, our three rows of thirsty corn, our greens and our cabbage.

Some Other Interesting Gardening Websites

Occasionally, I happen upon or am referred an interesting or inspirational website with useful or just fascinating information about gardening. I’ve added a few to this site in case you get bored, but want to keep reading.



Wizard’s Harvest to Table. Earlier this week, my friend Mary recommended a website by a California master gardener who has parlayed his gardening into useful tips and even a book. She thought of me because he had recently blogged about how a hot summer (like the one we just had) would delay the ripening of tomatoes (and even delay the setting of fruit) because tomatoes won’t ripen at temperatures above 85 degrees or below 55 degrees. My harvest is at least three weeks behind because of our July heat wave (on top of BER and cracked tomatoes). His website has lots of useful tips and is particularly well organized. So, check out Wizard’s Harvest to Table. Unfortunately, he does not include pictures with his posts, but that probably makes it easier to read from your cell phone.



The BBC. The British pretty much mastered all things gardening ages and ages ago. The BBC website understandably has a load of information. It was fascinating to read about “allotments.” This is basically the British version of community gardening. It has been legally required for each community to “allot” land for cultivation by the masses since 1908. Nonetheless, two-thirds of communities had a waiting list of 57 people for every 100 plots, although there was some concern that some people remained on a waiting list after getting a plot somewhere else or had their names on multiple lists.



Another fascinating article had to do with essentially creating an underground pond beneath your vegetable garden or hoop house that will collect rain water from your property so that you never have to water again. It was called a self-watering polytunnel. It reminded me of moats and tunnels I’ve seen. My brother-in-law was born and raised in Cameroon and surrounded his plot in Dublin with a moat which he dug himself. It looked like a lot of work to me, but he said his father always did it and he believed that it prevented flooding and helped conserve water. Last year, Jeff dug deep trenches between his rows of tomatoes and his tomatoes were large and beautiful. Again, it looked like a lot of work to me. I plant on flat earth and spread straw everywhere in between my rows to keep the weeds at bay.



Wilmington College’s Grow Food Grow Hope. I went home to God’s Country a few weeks ago for a family reunion to celebrate my grandfather’s 96th birthday. My Uncle Marshall is a serious gardener, my Aunt Brenda puts up a serious amount of food each summer and their grandson, Tyler (making him my second cousin or first cousin once removed), will be graduating in December from nearby Wilmington College with an agriculture degree. (I should mention that he is also a rodeo champion and has competed in national high school events. His aunt (my cousin) Rhonda is also a champion barrel rider). This summer he is interning on the college farm and I was fascinated. He says they harvest 300 pounds of produce each day. Half goes to the college cafeterias and the other half is donated to area food pantries. That’s a lot of food. We commiserated about tomato horn worms and he looked at me like I was from outer space when I suggested planting basil between each tomato plant (because they have over 300 plants). He recently helped to build a hoop house and was telling me how financially lucrative it is to grow winter tomatoes. He observed a farm where easily half of their income comes from growing cherry tomatoes in a hoop house. The plant is still planted in the ground, but the vines are trained up twine, which is suspended from the ceiling. As the tomatoes are harvested, the spent part of the vine is coiled on the ground and the newly grown vine continues to grow up the twine. This way, they can grow the same tomato plant for six months or more. Isn’t that riveting?



Anyway, Wilmington College also has a community garden program which provides plots to members of the community to grow their own food. Clinton County has been particularly economically distressed since the closing of the Airborne facility and this is one way that the college is helping out. I think it’s sweet and I’m proud to be from the area. (For that matter, a church is my hometown is cultivating eight acres for the to grow fresh food for area food pantries. Be sure to check out the video. They don't measure their harvest in pounds, but in bushels). My only complaint is that WC does not sell their nifty GFGH t-shirts online.



These are presented for your reading pleasure and edification.

Some Other Interesting Gardening Websites

Occasionally, I happen upon or am referred an interesting or inspirational website with useful or just fascinating information about gardening. I’ve added a few to this site in case you get bored, but want to keep reading.

Wizard’s Harvest to Table. Earlier this week, my friend Mary recommended a website by a California master gardener who has parlayed his gardening into useful tips and even a book. She thought of me because he had recently blogged about how a hot summer (like the one we just had) would delay the ripening of tomatoes (and even delay the setting of fruit) because tomatoes won’t ripen at temperatures above 85 degrees or below 55 degrees. My harvest is at least three weeks behind because of our July heat wave (on top of BER and cracked tomatoes). His website has lots of useful tips and is particularly well organized. So, check out Wizard’s Harvest to Table. Unfortunately, he does not include pictures with his posts, but that probably makes it easier to read from your cell phone.

The BBC. The British pretty much mastered all things gardening ages and ages ago. The BBC website understandably has a load of information. It was fascinating to read about “allotments.” This is basically the British version of community gardening. It has been legally required for each community to “allot” land for cultivation by the masses since 1908. Nonetheless, two-thirds of communities had a waiting list of 57 people for every 100 plots, although there was some concern that some people remained on a waiting list after getting a plot somewhere else or had their names on multiple lists.

Another fascinating article had to do with essentially creating an underground pond beneath your vegetable garden or hoop house that will collect rain water from your property so that you never have to water again. It was called a self-watering polytunnel. It reminded me of moats and tunnels I’ve seen. My brother-in-law was born and raised in Cameroon and surrounded his plot in Dublin with a moat which he dug himself. It looked like a lot of work to me, but he said his father always did it and he believed that it prevented flooding and helped conserve water. Last year, Jeff dug deep trenches between his rows of tomatoes and his tomatoes were large and beautiful. Again, it looked like a lot of work to me. I plant on flat earth and spread straw everywhere in between my rows to keep the weeds at bay.

Wilmington College’s Grow Food Grow Hope. I went home to God’s Country a few weeks ago for a family reunion to celebrate my grandfather’s 96th birthday. My Uncle Marshall is a serious gardener, my Aunt Brenda puts up a serious amount of food each summer and their grandson, Tyler (making him my second cousin or first cousin once removed), will be graduating in December from nearby Wilmington College with an agriculture degree. (I should mention that he is also a rodeo champion and has competed in national high school events. His aunt (my cousin) Rhonda is also a champion barrel rider). This summer he is interning on the college farm and I was fascinated. He says they harvest 300 pounds of produce each day. Half goes to the college cafeterias and the other half is donated to area food pantries. That’s a lot of food. We commiserated about tomato horn worms and he looked at me like I was from outer space when I suggested planting basil between each tomato plant (because they have over 300 plants). He recently helped to build a hoop house and was telling me how financially lucrative it is to grow winter tomatoes. He observed a farm where easily half of their income comes from growing cherry tomatoes in a hoop house. The plant is still planted in the ground, but the vines are trained up twine, which is suspended from the ceiling. As the tomatoes are harvested, the spent part of the vine is coiled on the ground and the newly grown vine continues to grow up the twine. This way, they can grow the same tomato plant for six months or more. Isn’t that riveting?

Anyway, Wilmington College also has a community garden program which provides plots to members of the community to grow their own food. Clinton County has been particularly economically distressed since the closing of the Airborne facility and this is one way that the college is helping out. I think it’s sweet and I’m proud to be from the area. (For that matter, a church is my hometown is cultivating eight acres for the to grow fresh food for area food pantries. Be sure to check out the video. They don't measure their harvest in pounds, but in bushels). My only complaint is that WC does not sell their nifty GFGH t-shirts online.

These are presented for your reading pleasure and edification.