Oh The Drama! As The Garden Turns . . . .

We have had a bit of excitement at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden in the last ten days.  Although our harvests peaked at the end of August, there is still a lot going on.  Our water lines have finally been connected to the City water main tap and passed inspection.  Yea!  A vandal came, caused a bit of senseless damage and stole pieces from the water connections.  Boo!  We expanded our pantry list. Yea!  The groundhog returned to Sabrina’s plot.  Boo!  Sabrina had to harvest her sweet potatoes early to keep the groundhog from getting them and they were large and prolific.  Yea!   I had to miss a weekend because of funerals.  Boo!  Amy stepped in with our returning CS volunteers and got the alley cleaned up in the three-day downpour known as Gordon.  Wow!

Since my last post, we had a long hot and dry spell over the three day Labor Day weekend.  Instead of my usual long Saturday, I spent just Saturday and Monday morning at the SACG.   On Saturday, I cleaned out the squash plot because it was apparent that there would be no more zucchini this season.  I also pruned back many dying sunflowers.  I don’t pull them out because our neighborhood finches love to eat the seeds in the dead flower heads.  I had watered my plot in very well on Wednesday and watered the food pantry plots heavily this morning.   I took Saturday’s food pantry harvest (melons, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, corn, collards, etc.) to Redeemer before they closed up shop for the day.   It was very hot.

On Monday, I prepared the zucchini plot to get it ready for planting on Wednesday (because it was supposed to rain all weekend).  I decided to try double digging the rows for a change of pace.  I harvested even more tomatoes and eggplant, etc., watered my plot, etc.  On Tuesday, I took the food pantry harvest to the House of Hope pantry on East Main Street in Whitehall. They were closed when I arrived, but there were volunteers inside.   Apparently, I was supposed to know to take the produce around back.  (I had called earlier and not been told that, but now I know).  

On Wednesday, our water lines were supposed to be connected and inspected that afternoon by the City.  I heard nothing.  After 30 minutes, I could not take the suspense any longer and drove over to the Garden.   I could tell that work had been done because the trench was gone and a mess was left.  I did not find a tag or anything, so I went into the Garden and was distressed by what I found.  The first thing that I noticed was that the front hydrant was in the on position.  The water has not been turned on, so we were not losing a fortune.   I turned right and the tomato plot had been ravaged.  The trellises were all horizontal and vines were damaged.  The yard waste bag that held all of the diseased and dead squash plants and sunflower branches (from my work on Saturday) had been emptied back into the plot on top of the cleaned and cultivated rows.  A green tomato was on the path with a bite taken out of it. A waste can was lying sideways in the path.  Potting soil bags had been tossed around.  Weeds had been pulled out and thrown around from one of the platform raised beds.  Wow.  

I walked out and stood along the alley when neighbor Karen came home. I asked what she knew about this.   She told me a crazy or drugged person had been there screaming that he was looking for something.  The police were called.  He was found hiding in the plumbing trench underneath the plywood.  He was taken away.  Yikes.

I went home and called our plumbing contractor.  No answer.  I called the plumber’s cell phone and he says:  What do you know?  I told him what I had just seen.  He then tells me that he was there on Tuesday, which is when the inspection was held and we passed. Yea!  When he returned to fill in the trench, he discovered the vandalism and then reported that the vandal took pieces from the plumbing fixtures, so that we could not connect the water meter until those pieces were replaced.  AAAGGGHHH.    He has since taken care of that.   I had to call the Water Department to get our meter installed, which will happen next week.   He will then return and turn the water on and test our hydrants.   Then, we will be ready for the next drought or extended dry spell.  Yea!

That night, I returned (and almost had a car accident when I ran another car off the street when pulling over without using my turn signal to offer neighbor Rose a ride back to her house.  Yikes).  Sabrina came with Finn.  That stupid groundhog had been munching on her sweet potato vines again and had even begun to dig them up.   I thought that I had plugged the hole in the fence with bricks last week, so I threw some more stones around.  Maybe it’s coming in under the gate.   I was curious how our sweet potato crop was doing because I’m not really an expert.  I wasn’t going to start any this year when one of my sweet potatoes started forming its own leaves off of its eyes.  That’s not usually how I start our plants, but I decided to go with it this year and see how it went.  They got off to a slow start, but the vines have quite literally taken over about 25% of the SACG.  I’ve been a little concerned that they might be all vines and no potatoes.  (Like a Texan with all hat and no cattle).  But when Sabrina dug up just one of her four hills, she brought fourth many large sweet potatoes and sent one home with me.  Sweet potato fries anyone?  I’ll have to borrow the air fryer that I gave my sister for Xmas. . . . Sabrina is worn out with the Garden, her kids and her new job.  So, she’s going to pack it up early this year and put in a cover crop.

Sabrina helped me to fix the vandalism to the tomato plot and I planted a couple rows of lettuce and a row of turnips for our November harvest.   I'm not optimistic that the beets we planted with the OSU students in late August survived the heat wave over Labor Day weekend.  

On Thursday, I attended the monthly meeting of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition at the Bethany Garfield Presbyterian Church.  I was late because the mother of one of my college-Bexley friends died quite unexpectedly on Tuesday, so I baked and delivered a cherry pie (with some cherries that I picked at the SACG).   Our featured speaker was OSU Extension educator Tim McDermott who was talking about putting our gardens to bed and growing spinach over the winter.  Tim recommended planting oats right now as a cover crop in non-corn plots because it dies back pretty well when pulled up in the Spring.  In contrast, in a few weeks, rye is the recommended cover crop and it is almost impossible to kill in the Spring.    Oats and rye are not recommended for our corn plot because they are plants in the same family.  He talked about a three-year crop rotation (although I practice a four-year crop rotation with tomatoes/peppers/eggplants – beans/peas – squash – brassicas/lettuce/onions/root crops).   You can also use radishes, field peas, cow peas, Austrian winter peas, vetch, and crimson clover.   I have become partial to chick weed because it dies back on its own in the Spring and I roll it up like carpet as I plant in my plot. 

Like I tell our gardeners at the SACG, he does not recommend pulling plants out the ground at the end of the season unless they are diseased or are tomatoes, which are always diseased by the end of the season.  It is especially stupid to pull beans out of the ground because the nitrogen nodules on their roots fertilize the soil.   Pulling roots out leaves the soil without nutrients and encourages erosion over the winter.    If we don’t have time or money for cover crops, he recommends that we cover our vegetable beds with shredded leaves (which we’ve done once or twice at the SACG).   Like me, he also discourages throwing tomato vines or other diseased plants and leaves into the compost bins because then you will be cursing your compost to spread those diseases when you distribute it in your beds next season.  

He recommended that we prepare any new planting beds in the Fall instead of waiting until the Spring.  The weather is warmer now and it will not require as much work because we can kill the grass by simply depriving it of sunlight by burying it with mulch and leaves and compost, etc. 

As for growing a winter spinach crop, spinach is freakishly cold hardy.    It does NOT require a cold frame or plastic row covers.  Instead, just fold over regular row covers to make a double or triple thickness.  That will sufficiently insulate the bed and permit both oxygen and water to permeate into the bed.  You only need to check on your crop when the weather is pleasant enough.   He does not recommend planting before October because the soil is currently too warm for the seeds to germinate.  You can also plant other cold crops, like kale, bok choy and lettuce, although they will die back by Xmas because they are not as cold tolerant as spinach.  He put lots of information about growing winter spinach on his Growing Franklin blog. 

Because the father of some high school friends died, I could not make to the Garden on Saturday.  I managed to get there Friday afternoon for our food pantry harvest and delivered it to St. Vincent de Paul’s pantry.  Poor Marge told me that she has been managing 60 kids from Bishop Hartley every week because they can get out of gym class by learning to grow food at SVDP’s pantry garden.  She is completely overwhelmed.  Our bumper tomato crop came in handy.  But, I think that we probably only have a couple more weeks of tomatoes coming.  

I really wanted to get the alley cleaned up from the plumbing project because it was a mess and we needed to get the curb back in place to keep all of the mud from washing into the street during this week’s tropical storm Gordon.  We haven’t had CS volunteers in a couple of weeks and I hated to cancel again. So heroic Amy stepped into the breech for two hours and Brenda from the court agreed to pick up the volunteers early ( so Amy could go to her next volunteer gig with domestic violence victims).  It was NOT supposed to rain until late Saturday afternoon, but it started raining by 4 a.m.  They were supposed to mow our lot and the orchard, but could not because of the never ending rain.   I gave Amy the option of pulling the plug in light of the weather (especially if the volunteers were not dressed appropriately in rain gear), but she was game and so were they.   They shoveled mud from the alley back onto our lot, re-laid the curb stones and then took the cement blocks from our two destroyed compost bins and restacked them neatly.    We realized that we were going to lose a compost bin to the plumbing project, but the placement of the water meter (after the City installed a new tap where the meter was supposed to have gone) means that we lost two whole compost bins.  I’m not exactly sure where or how we will reconstruct them because we will still need a staging area for our wood chips every Spring along the alley. . . . . .   Our volunteers also picked up litter in the neighborhood during the steady and sometimes driving rain while Amy weeded along the alley. 

We are now turning to that part of the year when we will start cleaning out the Garden.  I think that we may also be planting some apple trees this Fall, to give them a jump on possibly fruiting next year or the year after.    We will have lots of corn stalks to bag or give away to anyone who wants to decorate for Fall . . . . . . . . 

I have had a bumper crop of zinnias this year.  Usually, I suffer powdery mildew, but not this year.  I have four vases of them throughout my house.  They last about a week and I replace flowers twice a week.  I didn’t take any on Friday, though, and I am regretting it because they are starting to dry out . . . .

Oh The Drama! As The Garden Turns . . . .

We have had a bit of excitement at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden in the last ten days.  Although our harvests peaked at the end of August, there is still a lot going on.  Our water lines have finally been connected to the City water main tap and passed inspection.  Yea!  A vandal came, caused a bit of senseless damage and stole pieces from the water connections.  Boo!  We expanded our pantry list. Yea!  The groundhog returned to Sabrina’s plot.  Boo!  Sabrina had to harvest her sweet potatoes early to keep the groundhog from getting them and they were large and prolific.  Yea!   I had to miss a weekend because of funerals.  Boo!  Amy stepped in with our returning CS volunteers and got the alley cleaned up in the three-day downpour known as Gordon.  Wow!

Since my last post, we had a long hot and dry spell over the three day Labor Day weekend.  Instead of my usual long Saturday, I spent just Saturday and Monday morning at the SACG.   On Saturday, I cleaned out the squash plot because it was apparent that there would be no more zucchini this season.  I also pruned back many dying sunflowers.  I don’t pull them out because our neighborhood finches love to eat the seeds in the dead flower heads.  I had watered my plot in very well on Wednesday and watered the food pantry plots heavily this morning.   I took Saturday’s food pantry harvest (melons, tomatoes, beans, eggplant, corn, collards, etc.) to Redeemer before they closed up shop for the day.   It was very hot.

On Monday, I prepared the zucchini plot to get it ready for planting on Wednesday (because it was supposed to rain all weekend).  I decided to try double digging the rows for a change of pace.  I harvested even more tomatoes and eggplant, etc., watered my plot, etc.  On Tuesday, I took the food pantry harvest to the House of Hope pantry on East Main Street in Whitehall. They were closed when I arrived, but there were volunteers inside.   Apparently, I was supposed to know to take the produce around back.  (I had called earlier and not been told that, but now I know).  

On Wednesday, our water lines were supposed to be connected and inspected that afternoon by the City.  I heard nothing.  After 30 minutes, I could not take the suspense any longer and drove over to the Garden.   I could tell that work had been done because the trench was gone and a mess was left.  I did not find a tag or anything, so I went into the Garden and was distressed by what I found.  The first thing that I noticed was that the front hydrant was in the on position.  The water has not been turned on, so we were not losing a fortune.   I turned right and the tomato plot had been ravaged.  The trellises were all horizontal and vines were damaged.  The yard waste bag that held all of the diseased and dead squash plants and sunflower branches (from my work on Saturday) had been emptied back into the plot on top of the cleaned and cultivated rows.  A green tomato was on the path with a bite taken out of it. A waste can was lying sideways in the path.  Potting soil bags had been tossed around.  Weeds had been pulled out and thrown around from one of the platform raised beds.  Wow.  

I walked out and stood along the alley when neighbor Karen came home. I asked what she knew about this.   She told me a crazy or drugged person had been there screaming that he was looking for something.  The police were called.  He was found hiding in the plumbing trench underneath the plywood.  He was taken away.  Yikes.

I went home and called our plumbing contractor.  No answer.  I called the plumber’s cell phone and he says:  What do you know?  I told him what I had just seen.  He then tells me that he was there on Tuesday, which is when the inspection was held and we passed. Yea!  When he returned to fill in the trench, he discovered the vandalism and then reported that the vandal took pieces from the plumbing fixtures, so that we could not connect the water meter until those pieces were replaced.  AAAGGGHHH.    He has since taken care of that.   I had to call the Water Department to get our meter installed, which will happen next week.   He will then return and turn the water on and test our hydrants.   Then, we will be ready for the next drought or extended dry spell.  Yea!

That night, I returned (and almost had a car accident when I ran another car off the street when pulling over without using my turn signal to offer neighbor Rose a ride back to her house.  Yikes).  Sabrina came with Finn.  That stupid groundhog had been munching on her sweet potato vines again and had even begun to dig them up.   I thought that I had plugged the hole in the fence with bricks last week, so I threw some more stones around.  Maybe it’s coming in under the gate.   I was curious how our sweet potato crop was doing because I’m not really an expert.  I wasn’t going to start any this year when one of my sweet potatoes started forming its own leaves off of its eyes.  That’s not usually how I start our plants, but I decided to go with it this year and see how it went.  They got off to a slow start, but the vines have quite literally taken over about 25% of the SACG.  I’ve been a little concerned that they might be all vines and no potatoes.  (Like a Texan with all hat and no cattle).  But when Sabrina dug up just one of her four hills, she brought fourth many large sweet potatoes and sent one home with me.  Sweet potato fries anyone?  I’ll have to borrow the air fryer that I gave my sister for Xmas. . . . Sabrina is worn out with the Garden, her kids and her new job.  So, she’s going to pack it up early this year and put in a cover crop.

Sabrina helped me to fix the vandalism to the tomato plot and I planted a couple rows of lettuce and a row of turnips for our November harvest.   I'm not optimistic that the beets we planted with the OSU students in late August survived the heat wave over Labor Day weekend.  

On Thursday, I attended the monthly meeting of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition at the Bethany Garfield Presbyterian Church.  I was late because the mother of one of my college-Bexley friends died quite unexpectedly on Tuesday, so I baked and delivered a cherry pie (with some cherries that I picked at the SACG).   Our featured speaker was OSU Extension educator Tim McDermott who was talking about putting our gardens to bed and growing spinach over the winter.  Tim recommended planting oats right now as a cover crop in non-corn plots because it dies back pretty well when pulled up in the Spring.  In contrast, in a few weeks, rye is the recommended cover crop and it is almost impossible to kill in the Spring.    Oats and rye are not recommended for our corn plot because they are plants in the same family.  He talked about a three-year crop rotation (although I practice a four-year crop rotation with tomatoes/peppers/eggplants – beans/peas – squash – brassicas/lettuce/onions/root crops).   You can also use radishes, field peas, cow peas, Austrian winter peas, vetch, and crimson clover.   I have become partial to chick weed because it dies back on its own in the Spring and I roll it up like carpet as I plant in my plot. 

Like I tell our gardeners at the SACG, he does not recommend pulling plants out the ground at the end of the season unless they are diseased or are tomatoes, which are always diseased by the end of the season.  It is especially stupid to pull beans out of the ground because the nitrogen nodules on their roots fertilize the soil.   Pulling roots out leaves the soil without nutrients and encourages erosion over the winter.    If we don’t have time or money for cover crops, he recommends that we cover our vegetable beds with shredded leaves (which we’ve done once or twice at the SACG).   Like me, he also discourages throwing tomato vines or other diseased plants and leaves into the compost bins because then you will be cursing your compost to spread those diseases when you distribute it in your beds next season.  

He recommended that we prepare any new planting beds in the Fall instead of waiting until the Spring.  The weather is warmer now and it will not require as much work because we can kill the grass by simply depriving it of sunlight by burying it with mulch and leaves and compost, etc. 

As for growing a winter spinach crop, spinach is freakishly cold hardy.    It does NOT require a cold frame or plastic row covers.  Instead, just fold over regular row covers to make a double or triple thickness.  That will sufficiently insulate the bed and permit both oxygen and water to permeate into the bed.  You only need to check on your crop when the weather is pleasant enough.   He does not recommend planting before October because the soil is currently too warm for the seeds to germinate.  You can also plant other cold crops, like kale, bok choy and lettuce, although they will die back by Xmas because they are not as cold tolerant as spinach.  He put lots of information about growing winter spinach on his Growing Franklin blog. 

Because the father of some high school friends died, I could not make to the Garden on Saturday.  I managed to get there Friday afternoon for our food pantry harvest and delivered it to St. Vincent de Paul’s pantry.  Poor Marge told me that she has been managing 60 kids from Bishop Hartley every week because they can get out of gym class by learning to grow food at SVDP’s pantry garden.  She is completely overwhelmed.  Our bumper tomato crop came in handy.  But, I think that we probably only have a couple more weeks of tomatoes coming.  

I really wanted to get the alley cleaned up from the plumbing project because it was a mess and we needed to get the curb back in place to keep all of the mud from washing into the street during this week’s tropical storm Gordon.  We haven’t had CS volunteers in a couple of weeks and I hated to cancel again. So heroic Amy stepped into the breech for two hours and Brenda from the court agreed to pick up the volunteers early ( so Amy could go to her next volunteer gig with domestic violence victims).  It was NOT supposed to rain until late Saturday afternoon, but it started raining by 4 a.m.  They were supposed to mow our lot and the orchard, but could not because of the never ending rain.   I gave Amy the option of pulling the plug in light of the weather (especially if the volunteers were not dressed appropriately in rain gear), but she was game and so were they.   They shoveled mud from the alley back onto our lot, re-laid the curb stones and then took the cement blocks from our two destroyed compost bins and restacked them neatly.    We realized that we were going to lose a compost bin to the plumbing project, but the placement of the water meter (after the City installed a new tap where the meter was supposed to have gone) means that we lost two whole compost bins.  I’m not exactly sure where or how we will reconstruct them because we will still need a staging area for our wood chips every Spring along the alley. . . . . .   Our volunteers also picked up litter in the neighborhood during the steady and sometimes driving rain while Amy weeded along the alley. 

We are now turning to that part of the year when we will start cleaning out the Garden.  I think that we may also be planting some apple trees this Fall, to give them a jump on possibly fruiting next year or the year after.    We will have lots of corn stalks to bag or give away to anyone who wants to decorate for Fall . . . . . . . . 

I have had a bumper crop of zinnias this year.  Usually, I suffer powdery mildew, but not this year.  I have four vases of them throughout my house.  They last about a week and I replace flowers twice a week.  I didn’t take any on Friday, though, and I am regretting it because they are starting to dry out . . . .

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 movieof 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.  

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.