SACG Opens for 11th Growing Season on Saturday, April 6, 2019

Daffodil leaves are starting to peek out of the ground, which can only mean one thing.  The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden is gearing up to open for its 11^th growing season.    In like a lion and out like a lamb?  We hope so.  To avoid a repeat of last year when we opened with snow on the ground, we will not start working this year until 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 6.  Like last year, we will be joined by a group of energetic OSU students from the First Year Leadership Group to help us spread wood chips on our paths and around our fence lines, pick up litter, etc.   Gardeners and volunteers who cannot make it on April 6 may help us on the morning of Saturday, April 13 when we will also be celebrating Earth Day and transplanting raspberry bushes and planting an apple tree (and hopefully a service berry tree).   On both days, we also hope to make progress and finish our fence straightening project and transplant kale, collard and cabbage seedlings in our neighbor plot.  There will also be compost to turn and a compost bin gate to repair. 


Gardeners who are interested in reserving their own plot to grow their own vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers should complete, sign and return an Application/Agreement along with $10/plot (preferably by check made payable to the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden).  Families in the Stoddart Avenue neighborhood are eligible for a full scholarship if the fee presents a financial hardship.  Agreements may be mailed to the SACG at P.O. Box 91106 Columbus, Ohio 43209.

Gardeners’ participation is subject to the SACG Garden Rules as well as some rules by the City of Columbus (prohibiting, for instance, being in the Garden at night, and bringing alcohol onto Garden property, etc.). Gardeners are also encouraged to donate a portion of their produce to area food pantries and shelters, like Faith Mission, Lutheran Social Services and the Salvation Army.  To date, we have collectively donated over 4,800 pounds.

The more the merrier because many hands make light work. You need not reserve a plot if you would just like to volunteer to help.   Refreshments will be served (and you should feel to bring some yourself to share).

Joining the SACG is not terribly time consuming, but Gardeners are required to help set out the Garden for three hours on Saturday, April 6, 2017 starting at 1 p.m. or Saturday, April 13, starting at 9:30 a.m. and to close the Garden on a Saturday in early November. Gardeners must also volunteer for three chores to perform for one month over the summer (like watering flowers, tending the food pantry plot, pulling weeds in the paths, mowing our lawn, picking up litter, etc.)     Between the chores and keeping your plot planted, weeded and watered, you should plan on spending on average an hour each week at the Garden during the growing season.  

When you garden and perform your chores is up to each individual gardener because the only group work days are April 6 and 13 and our Closing Day(s).  Some prefer to garden in the mornings, some in the afternoons, some in the evenings, some during the week, some during weekends, and some pick all of the above.  

Gardeners may begin planting as soon as the plots are staked out on April 6.   The Garden Manager has already started tomato and pepper seedlings (which have already sprouted), to share with the gardeners.  It’s already time to plant peas and potato season is not far behind.  Our Opening Day and Earth Day celebrations are the best (and sometimes only) times to get to know all of the gardeners.

So, if you or someone you know likes to get your hands dirty and grow your own food, you are welcome to join us at the SACG.  Plots will be assigned on a first-come-first-served basis, with preference being given to gardeners from last year who volunteered at the opening and closing work days.   Snooze and you lose.  When the Garden is full, we will put names on a wait-list (and we ALWAYS have people drop out by June when it starts to get hot and weedy).  We are generally able to supply all of the seeds, seedlings, tools, gloves and water that a gardener could need, but you know what they say about best laid plans . . . .

The SACG Board met last week for its annual organizational meeting.  This will be our first year having running water available in case our rain cisterns run dry or if there are elderly or gardeners with disabilities who find it to difficult or exhausting to walk several hundred feet carrying watering cans.  Until we incur $200 in water bills, the water will be free to gardeners when the cisterns run dry or the gardener is over the age of 70 or provides a doctor’s note showing a need to use our water hydrants.  For the first year at least, all gardeners will still be required to use watering cans, except in special occasions.

Thank You For Your Support in 2018 as We Look Foward to 2019's Growing Season

 I am writing to express the appreciation of the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for the community's support during our last growing season in 2018.   Community gardening is often exhausting, frustrating and relentless because it always involves a lot of work and challenges. We could not accomplish all that we do without your generous support. Gifts to the SACG are tax-deductible because the Garden is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity.  As we shivered during last month’s polar vortex and celebrated that Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow on Saturday, we wanted to share some of our great memories over last summer.

In February, we celebrated when we won a bicycle that Staders Garden Centers had donated to the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition and held a raffle fundraiser for the Garden to fund our activities (and a liability insurance policy) for the year.   The winning ticket was drawn at the conclusion of our Earth Day celebration in April.

April saw us break ground for our 10^thgrowing season and arriving to find the ground covered with snow and a group of OSU college students from the Pay It Forward program coming to help us despite the weather.  Because we could not see the ground under the snow, we focused on turning the compost in our bins until the snow melted, when we picked up litter, transplanted flowers and raspberry brambles, and started weeding.  As we would each weekend for the rest of the month, we found a number of hibernating garter snakes.   For our Earth Day celebration, we planted more plum and peach trees as well as two elderberry bushes and a black cherry tree donated by Earth Day Columbus (along with mulch).  We also weeded and transplanted and prepared garden beds. 

Earth Day was also the first week that the Franklin County Municipal Court sent us community service volunteers, who helped to pick up neighborhood litter, mow the community lawns around the Garden, consolidate our compost from our four bins and weeded our paths.  Over the rest of the month, we picked up the  cedar wood donated by Trudeau Fence to start our fence straightening project, painted some of the lumber to match our front picket fence,  dug post holes, weeded the fence rows, repainted the rain barrel and spinning compost bin in matching paint, dug up our wood chip paths, narrowed and edged the paths and spread more wood chips,  mowed the three corner lots (i.e., our lot, and the two Block Watch lots at the corner of Stoddart and Main) and replanted our weedy strawberry patch.  These court-ordered volunteers came almost every week until September and also helped us to distribute and relocate 10 cubic yards of com-til compost donated by the City, watered the food pantry plots and flowers, picked up neighborhood litter, mowed the corner lots, created a patio for us around our picnic table with donated pavers, dug post holes to switch our metal fence stakes for 4x4s and attached cedar and pine braces to straighten out our wire fence, prepared for and cleaned up after our water line capital improvement project, planted apple trees, and, of course, weeded.  We also had them help out some of our neighbors, like planting and weeding at next-door Kimball Farms and mowing and weeding at Urban Connections for their neighborhood youth program. 

We had two capital improvement projects this year.  The first project was to straighten our perpetually leaning wire fence (which can be a bit of an eye sore over the winter when the raspberry brambles die and are cut back).  The challenge, of course, is that we have a limited window to complete the project because raspberry bushes grow on both sides of the fence.  We cannot dig and fill post holes after mid-May or we would not have much of a raspberry crop and we cannot really cut them back too early for the same reason.   The City donated most of the supplies for this project.  We were able to complete about half of this project because our volunteers disappeared and the weather turned against us.

Our second project involved an Urban Agriculture Grant which we were awarded in May by the Mid-Ohio Food Bank through the USDA to pay for the installation of water lines and water hydrants to help us survive dry spells or another drought (like the one in 2012) when our rain cisterns run dry.  This will also make it easier for elderly and disabled gardeners to join us so that they will not have to walk hundreds of feet to get water for their plants from our rain cisterns collecting water off of the nearby J. Jireh ministry house.   Of course, ironically, last year was the wettest year in recorded history for Central Ohio so we have not used a drop of our new water.  This project did not go smoothly, but unlike a few other community gardens, we completed it within six weeks of breaking ground (whereas some other gardens have never gotten their water turned on).     I anticipate that we will need our new water source in 2019 because the drought of 2012 followed the second wettest year in our history (2011) and there is a hot El Nino currently predicted for this summer.  

We had an abundance of volunteers assist us this summer.  In addition to the court-ordered volunteers, an international group of United Methodist Women assisted us in May with volunteers from both North and South Korea as well as Florida, California, and Iowa.   They helped us weed and to plant our food pantry tomatoes and sweet corn.   A group of Ohio After-School All Star middle-schoolers returned in June and helped us to water and to plant pole beans (both in rows and near the corn planted a couple weeks earlier) as well as some squash for our three-sisters plot.  OSU students returned in August to help again with our fence straightening project by painting donated lumber, weeding, watering, etc.   Capital University students then helped in September with much of the same.  

In July, we were for the first time part of the annual Old Town East Neighborhood Association Historic Home and Garden Tour, which focused this year on the Franklin Park neighborhood where we are technically located.  Sadly, it was very hot and most tourists opted to stay on the bus when it drove by the Garden.  However, Cathy made some awesome mint iced tea (with mint from our Garden) which made stopping very worthwhile.  One of our neighbors also volunteered and obtained donated plants to install a native plants flower garden at the corner of East Main and Stoddart in time for the Tour.   We held off on breaking ground for the water line installation project until after the Tour so that we could look as pretty as possible.

Although we have had a relatively mild winter until very recently, early November was freakishly cold and, for the first time in our history, we had to postpone our closing day because it was too cold for man and beast.  (That is saying something considering that we worked in the snow on our 2018 Opening Day).   

Our food pantry donations were down a bit this year.  First, we were affected by a late freeze in April and May that hurt our peach, cherry and raspberry harvests.  Second, the water line installation project meant taking a food pantry plot out of cultivation for most of the summer because of the mid-season timing of OTENA tour. Third, having a new group of volunteers every week meant that our kale/collard plot had trouble getting established when the inexperienced volunteers kept killing the new seedlings while weeding.   Another weird aspect this year was that the primary recipient of our fresh produce donations (the LSS Food

pantry) closed without us knowing and we are having to re-think how and where we donate our fresh produce.  Faith Mission became overwhelmed this summer with all of the produce donated by us and a few other sources and most of the other pantries are too far away to be convenient or are not open on Saturday afternoons when I typically deliver the produce (after the court volunteers leave).  We do not have electricity or refrigeration available or weekday volunteers.  Accordingly, this year, we are likely to focus our food pantry crops on those that can safely be stored in a root cellar and be donated on Mondays.   This will mean growing mostly tomatoes, squash and beans instead of kale, collards and lettuce, etc. which must be refrigerated within two hours of harvest.

We are only able to overcome our various challenges because of the generosity, well wishes and material support from generous folks like you.   Thanks again and feel free to stop by and mock us while we work.   

P.S.  One of our benches fell apart when a volunteer put our giant (20 gallon) canteen of water on it and we are in need of repair or replacement.   Franklin Park Conservatory donated an old bench to us in 2009, so it is a miracle that it lasted this long when exposed to the elements all year.   If you know anyone looking to upgrade a garden bench, we would be delighted to take their old one off of their hands and put it to good use.  

For that matter, September’s tornado also destroyed our patio umbrella (that we use to shade the picnic table when we have volunteer groups, etc.).  It had been donated to us back in 2012 and, again, if you know anyone upgrading their patio umbrella, we could certainly put their old one to good use. 

Thank You For Your Support in 2018 as We Look Foward to 2019's Growing Season

 I am writing to express the appreciation of the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden for the community's support during our last growing season in 2018.   Community gardening is often exhausting, frustrating and relentless because it always involves a lot of work and challenges. We could not accomplish all that we do without your generous support. Gifts to the SACG are tax-deductible because the Garden is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt public charity.  As we shivered during last month’s polar vortex and celebrated that Buckeye Chuck saw his shadow on Saturday, we wanted to share some of our great memories over last summer.

In February, we celebrated when we won a bicycle that Staders Garden Centers had donated to the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition and held a raffle fundraiser for the Garden to fund our activities (and a liability insurance policy) for the year.   The winning ticket was drawn at the conclusion of our Earth Day celebration in April.

April saw us break ground for our 10^th growing season and arriving to find the ground covered with snow and a group of OSU college students from the Pay It Forward program coming to help us despite the weather.  Because we could not see the ground under the snow, we focused on turning the compost in our bins until the snow melted, when we picked up litter, transplanted flowers and raspberry brambles, and started weeding.  As we would each weekend for the rest of the month, we found a number of hibernating garter snakes.   For our Earth Day celebration, we planted more plum and peach trees as well as two elderberry bushes and a black cherry tree donated by Earth Day Columbus (along with mulch).  We also weeded and transplanted and prepared garden beds. 

Earth Day was also the first week that the Franklin County Municipal Court sent us community service volunteers, who helped to pick up neighborhood litter, mow the community lawns around the Garden, consolidate our compost from our four bins and weeded our paths.  Over the rest of the month, we picked up the  cedar wood donated by Trudeau Fence to start our fence straightening project, painted some of the lumber to match our front picket fence,  dug post holes, weeded the fence rows, repainted the rain barrel and spinning compost bin in matching paint, dug up our wood chip paths, narrowed and edged the paths and spread more wood chips,  mowed the three corner lots (i.e., our lot, and the two Block Watch lots at the corner of Stoddart and Main) and replanted our weedy strawberry patch.  These court-ordered volunteers came almost every week until September and also helped us to distribute and relocate 10 cubic yards of com-til compost donated by the City, watered the food pantry plots and flowers, picked up neighborhood litter, mowed the corner lots, created a patio for us around our picnic table with donated pavers, dug post holes to switch our metal fence stakes for 4x4s and attached cedar and pine braces to straighten out our wire fence, prepared for and cleaned up after our water line capital improvement project, planted apple trees, and, of course, weeded.  We also had them help out some of our neighbors, like planting and weeding at next-door Kimball Farms and mowing and weeding at Urban Connections for their neighborhood youth program. 

We had two capital improvement projects this year.  The first project was to straighten our perpetually leaning wire fence (which can be a bit of an eye sore over the winter when the raspberry brambles die and are cut back).  The challenge, of course, is that we have a limited window to complete the project because raspberry bushes grow on both sides of the fence.  We cannot dig and fill post holes after mid-May or we would not have much of a raspberry crop and we cannot really cut them back too early for the same reason.   The City donated most of the supplies for this project.  We were able to complete about half of this project because our volunteers disappeared and the weather turned against us.

Our second project involved an Urban Agriculture Grant which we were awarded in May by the Mid-Ohio Food Bank through the USDA to pay for the installation of water lines and water hydrants to help us survive dry spells or another drought (like the one in 2012) when our rain cisterns run dry.  This will also make it easier for elderly and disabled gardeners to join us so that they will not have to walk hundreds of feet to get water for their plants from our rain cisterns collecting water off of the nearby J. Jireh ministry house.   Of course, ironically, last year was the wettest year in recorded history for Central Ohio so we have not used a drop of our new water.  This project did not go smoothly, but unlike a few other community gardens, we completed it within six weeks of breaking ground (whereas some other gardens have never gotten their water turned on).     I anticipate that we will need our new water source in 2019 because the drought of 2012 followed the second wettest year in our history (2011) and there is a hot El Nino currently predicted for this summer.  

We had an abundance of volunteers assist us this summer.  In addition to the court-ordered volunteers, an international group of United Methodist Women assisted us in May with volunteers from both North and South Korea as well as Florida, California, and Iowa.   They helped us weed and to plant our food pantry tomatoes and sweet corn.   A group of Ohio After-School All Star middle-schoolers returned in June and helped us to water and to plant pole beans (both in rows and near the corn planted a couple weeks earlier) as well as some squash for our three-sisters plot.  OSU students returned in August to help again with our fence straightening project by painting donated lumber, weeding, watering, etc.   Capital University students then helped in September with much of the same.  

In July, we were for the first time part of the annual Old Town East Neighborhood Association Historic Home and Garden Tour, which focused this year on the Franklin Park neighborhood where we are technically located.  Sadly, it was very hot and most tourists opted to stay on the bus when it drove by the Garden.  However, Cathy made some awesome mint iced tea (with mint from our Garden) which made stopping very worthwhile.  One of our neighbors also volunteered and obtained donated plants to install a native plants flower garden at the corner of East Main and Stoddart in time for the Tour.   We held off on breaking ground for the water line installation project until after the Tour so that we could look as pretty as possible.

Although we have had a relatively mild winter until very recently, early November was freakishly cold and, for the first time in our history, we had to postpone our closing day because it was too cold for man and beast.  (That is saying something considering that we worked in the snow on our 2018 Opening Day).   

Our food pantry donations were down a bit this year.  First, we were affected by a late freeze in April and May that hurt our peach, cherry and raspberry harvests.  Second, the water line installation project meant taking a food pantry plot out of cultivation for most of the summer because of the mid-season timing of OTENA tour. Third, having a new group of volunteers every week meant that our kale/collard plot had trouble getting established when the inexperienced volunteers kept killing the new seedlings while weeding.   Another weird aspect this year was that the primary recipient of our fresh produce donations (the LSS Food

pantry) closed without us knowing and we are having to re-think how and where we donate our fresh produce.  Faith Mission became overwhelmed this summer with all of the produce donated by us and a few other sources and most of the other pantries are too far away to be convenient or are not open on Saturday afternoons when I typically deliver the produce (after the court volunteers leave).  We do not have electricity or refrigeration available or weekday volunteers.  Accordingly, this year, we are likely to focus our food pantry crops on those that can safely be stored in a root cellar and be donated on Mondays.   This will mean growing mostly tomatoes, squash and beans instead of kale, collards and lettuce, etc. which must be refrigerated within two hours of harvest.

We are only able to overcome our various challenges because of the generosity, well wishes and material support from generous folks like you.   Thanks again and feel free to stop by and mock us while we work.   

P.S.  One of our benches fell apart when a volunteer put our giant (20 gallon) canteen of water on it and we are in need of repair or replacement.   Franklin Park Conservatory donated an old bench to us in 2009, so it is a miracle that it lasted this long when exposed to the elements all year.   If you know anyone looking to upgrade a garden bench, we would be delighted to take their old one off of their hands and put it to good use.  

For that matter, September’s tornado also destroyed our patio umbrella (that we use to shade the picnic table when we have volunteer groups, etc.).  It had been donated to us back in 2012 and, again, if you know anyone upgrading their patio umbrella, we could certainly put their old one to good use. 

Calling It A Year

The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden called it a year yesterday, a day later than usual.   With only a few hiccups, Sabrina, Phil and I were able to get the rest of the Garden put to bed despite having the cold and wet weather.  The Mid-Ohio Food Bank held a lovely reception on Thursday for the recipients of the 2018 Urban Agriculture Grant and we received formal Congressional Recognition from Representative Joyce Beatty’s office.  I dropped off our final produce donation of the year to Faith Mission around dinner time last night.

After the amazing progress that we made on October 20 in getting the exterior brambles pruned back, the weather was not so cooperative the following Saturday and we were rained out.  So much for any chance of completing the fence straightening project this year.   On November 3, we started later than usual, but still got a lot accomplished.  Amy arrived as early as usual and started clearing out some flower beds of dead annuals that had not survived our recent frosts.   Phil cut back the brambles in the food pantry plots, picked up litter in the neighborhood and consolidated our fence lumber to a sheltered location.  I emptied half of the big rain cistern, edged flower beds and trees so that they would look neat over the winter, mowed our lot, the orchard lot, the Block Watch lot, Urban Connections play lot, the strip along the alley and half of the lot next to the body shop’s paint shop in order to empty the mower.   I also harvested radishes, greens and turnips for the food pantry harvest and delivered it to Community Development for All People’s Fresh Market on Parson’s Avenue, which was pretty much empty of fresh produce when I arrived shortly before 1 p.m.   It was a long day.

On Thursday, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank formally recognized the recipients of the 2018 Urban Agriculture grants.  MOFB has such an amazing new facility in Grove City.  About half of their distributions consist of fresh produce. Matt Habash, Bobby Moser, Sarah Lenkay and a representative from Rep. Beatty’s office spoke.   The 2018 grant recipients included community gardens like the SACG as well as urban farms, including the Nabrit Memorial Garden on Brentnell, Foraged & Sown, Freshtown Farms, Happy Toes Homestead, Harriet Gardens, Highland Youth Garden, Magic House Farms, Mother’s Peace Urban Farm, Over the Fence Urban Farm, Second Baptist Community Garden, South Side Community Action Network, and Sunbury Urban Farm.  Our certificate, while lovely, was not entirely correct.  The SACG’s grant was focused only on obtaining running water, not an irrigation system, electricity or an outdoor community pavilion.  (Where would we find time?)  Seth from the City Land Bank was encouraging me to think about what else we might need next year.  I am too tired to consider another major project next year, other than adding another apple tree, although bee hives would be nice . . . .   There will be another (third) round of grant funding and this time will focus on youth education.  

It snowed on Friday morning.  When I woke up on Saturday for our 10^th Closing Day, the winds were whipping and the wind chill was only 6 degrees.  Marcel emailed me at 6:30 a.m. that it was too cold for her or her children to work.   So, I made a few calls (waking up a number of people) and postponed our work day until 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 11.    I cut back the native plants in the corner garden, cut back the annuals and tender perennials in the circle flower bed, and started cutting back all of the flowers (other than the coneflowers) in the south front flower bed.  Sabrina arrived and started to do the same on the north front flower bed.  We then tackled the center flower bed together (but Amy had already taken care of most of that).  I generally leave the coneflowers up for the winter to feed our neighborhood finches and sparrows.  I also left collard greens in our neighbor plot because they will survive and continue to grow most of the winter.

Seth had asked me on Thursday if we clean out the Garden at the end of the year.  Of course we do.  We like to remove places for mold, fungus and bugs to thrive.  However, we cut the plants down, instead of pulling them out of the ground, so that the soil microbes have something to eat and there are roots in place to hold in the soil from the winter winds.  Sabrina and I also rely on cover crops (sometimes known as weeds) to protect our plots over the winter.    Truth is, I still haven’t raked out my plot for the winter and may do that this afternoon.   (I would really like to take my lawn mower . . . . ) 

Phil arrived and helped to cover our lumber from the elements, I emptied the rest of the big rain cistern (so that Ken can replace the leaky spicket at his leisure before April) and unhooked a hydrant.  Sabrina and I harvested the rest of the winter crops and herbs for our final produce donation of the year.  Sabrina then cleaned out and organized the shed.  Phil picked up more litter than had blown into the area, cut out the broken umbrella stand from the picnic table, raked out one of the neighbor beds and helped me to take down the sign.  Nothing says that we are closed for the season like taking down our sign.

We ended the season with having donated 512 pounds of fresh produce.  This was better than our harvests in 2009-12 and 2014, but considerably below last year’s level.   While our 2018 harvest of potatoes and lettuce was better than last year, everything else was less.  This is most apparent when it comes to our donation of greens (i.e., kale and collards).  Last year we donated over 100 more pounds of greens than this year.  That was in no small part due to our CS volunteers killing our seedlings at the beginning of the season while weeding that plot.  Our greens crop was also adversely affected by our over tolerance of our abundant sunflowers (which shade everything around them).  We also had 100 sf of growing space out of circulation this year due to the water project.    I am thinking about no longer focusing on greens as a donation crop in the future because they have to be taken to a food pantry within 2 hours of harvest (in order to be edible) and there are no pantries open on Saturday afternoons any longer.   This makes me sad because greens are so nutritious and difficult to find at local food pantries, but it was created a lot of stress for me this year.  I may postpone the food pantry harvests to Sunday evenings next year and then make the donations on Mondays, like we did in 2009 and 2010.

We expanded our pantry distribution this year because of the unexpected closure of the Lutheran Social Services Choice food pantry at Champion and Frebis (where we have typically donated about 50% of our produce over the years).  This year, for the first time, we also donated produce to Redeemer Lutheran Church at James and Scottwood, the House of Hope on East Main Street in Whitehall, Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church on East Main Street and the Community Development for All People Fresh Market on Parsons.  We also continued to donate produce to the Salvation Army on East Main Street, St. Vincent de Paul's pantry next to Christ the King Catholic Church on Livingston and Faith Mission's Homeless Shelter on Grant downtown. 

This afternoon, Amy will return to the SACG to carry the lawn waste bags to the curb (to be picked up by Rumpke tomorrow).  I realized this morning, that I forgot to clean out the raised vegetable bed in the orchard plot.   Maybe if I make it back to rake out my plot, I can clean it out then. . . . .  

Before I left yesterday, I harvested from my own plot some lettuce, arugula, parsley, cilantro, snow peas, leeks, bok choy and kale.    All of those are cold hardy and survived our recent cold nights.   The brussels sprouts and cabbage that I belatedly planted in mid-September still have not ripened, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will continue to grow, albeit slowly, before we suffer a polar vortex.   I’m even considering putting row covers on them to lengthen their growing season.

Calling It A Year

The Stoddart Avenue Community Garden called it a year yesterday, a day later than usual.   With only a few hiccups, Sabrina, Phil and I were able to get the rest of the Garden put to bed despite having the cold and wet weather.  The Mid-Ohio Food Bank held a lovely reception on Thursday for the recipients of the 2018 Urban Agriculture Grant and we received formal Congressional Recognition from Representative Joyce Beatty’s office.  I dropped off our final produce donation of the year to Faith Mission around dinner time last night.

After the amazing progress that we made on October 20 in getting the exterior brambles pruned back, the weather was not so cooperative the following Saturday and we were rained out.  So much for any chance of completing the fence straightening project this year.   On November 3, we started later than usual, but still got a lot accomplished.  Amy arrived as early as usual and started clearing out some flower beds of dead annuals that had not survived our recent frosts.   Phil cut back the brambles in the food pantry plots, picked up litter in the neighborhood and consolidated our fence lumber to a sheltered location.  I emptied half of the big rain cistern, edged flower beds and trees so that they would look neat over the winter, mowed our lot, the orchard lot, the Block Watch lot, Urban Connections play lot, the strip along the alley and half of the lot next to the body shop’s paint shop in order to empty the mower.   I also harvested radishes, greens and turnips for the food pantry harvest and delivered it to Community Development for All People’s Fresh Market on Parson’s Avenue, which was pretty much empty of fresh produce when I arrived shortly before 1 p.m.   It was a long day.

On Thursday, the Mid-Ohio Food Bank formally recognized the recipients of the 2018 Urban Agriculture grants.  MOFB has such an amazing new facility in Grove City.  About half of their distributions consist of fresh produce. Matt Habash, Bobby Moser, Sarah Lenkay and a representative from Rep. Beatty’s office spoke.   The 2018 grant recipients included community gardens like the SACG as well as urban farms, including the Nabrit Memorial Garden on Brentnell, Foraged & Sown, Freshtown Farms, Happy Toes Homestead, Harriet Gardens, Highland Youth Garden, Magic House Farms, Mother’s Peace Urban Farm, Over the Fence Urban Farm, Second Baptist Community Garden, South Side Community Action Network, and Sunbury Urban Farm.  Our certificate, while lovely, was not entirely correct.  The SACG’s grant was focused only on obtaining running water, not an irrigation system, electricity or an outdoor community pavilion.  (Where would we find time?)  Seth from the City Land Bank was encouraging me to think about what else we might need next year.  I am too tired to consider another major project next year, other than adding another apple tree, although bee hives would be nice . . . .   There will be another (third) round of grant funding and this time will focus on youth education.  

It snowed on Friday morning.  When I woke up on Saturday for our 10^th Closing Day, the winds were whipping and the wind chill was only 6 degrees.  Marcel emailed me at 6:30 a.m. that it was too cold for her or her children to work.   So, I made a few calls (waking up a number of people) and postponed our work day until 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 11.    I cut back the native plants in the corner garden, cut back the annuals and tender perennials in the circle flower bed, and started cutting back all of the flowers (other than the coneflowers) in the south front flower bed.  Sabrina arrived and started to do the same on the north front flower bed.  We then tackled the center flower bed together (but Amy had already taken care of most of that).  I generally leave the coneflowers up for the winter to feed our neighborhood finches and sparrows.  I also left collard greens in our neighbor plot because they will survive and continue to grow most of the winter.

Seth had asked me on Thursday if we clean out the Garden at the end of the year.  Of course we do.  We like to remove places for mold, fungus and bugs to thrive.  However, we cut the plants down, instead of pulling them out of the ground, so that the soil microbes have something to eat and there are roots in place to hold in the soil from the winter winds.  Sabrina and I also rely on cover crops (sometimes known as weeds) to protect our plots over the winter.    Truth is, I still haven’t raked out my plot for the winter and may do that this afternoon.   (I would really like to take my lawn mower . . . . ) 

Phil arrived and helped to cover our lumber from the elements, I emptied the rest of the big rain cistern (so that Ken can replace the leaky spicket at his leisure before April) and unhooked a hydrant.  Sabrina and I harvested the rest of the winter crops and herbs for our final produce donation of the year.  Sabrina then cleaned out and organized the shed.  Phil picked up more litter than had blown into the area, cut out the broken umbrella stand from the picnic table, raked out one of the neighbor beds and helped me to take down the sign.  Nothing says that we are closed for the season like taking down our sign.

We ended the season with having donated 512 pounds of fresh produce.  This was better than our harvests in 2009-12 and 2014, but considerably below last year’s level.   While our 2018 harvest of potatoes and lettuce was better than last year, everything else was less.  This is most apparent when it comes to our donation of greens (i.e., kale and collards).  Last year we donated over 100 more pounds of greens than this year.  That was in no small part due to our CS volunteers killing our seedlings at the beginning of the season while weeding that plot.  Our greens crop was also adversely affected by our over tolerance of our abundant sunflowers (which shade everything around them).  We also had 100 sf of growing space out of circulation this year due to the water project.    I am thinking about no longer focusing on greens as a donation crop in the future because they have to be taken to a food pantry within 2 hours of harvest (in order to be edible) and there are no pantries open on Saturday afternoons any longer.   This makes me sad because greens are so nutritious and difficult to find at local food pantries, but it was created a lot of stress for me this year.  I may postpone the food pantry harvests to Sunday evenings next year and then make the donations on Mondays, like we did in 2009 and 2010.

We expanded our pantry distribution this year because of the unexpected closure of the Lutheran Social Services Choice food pantry at Champion and Frebis (where we have typically donated about 50% of our produce over the years).  This year, for the first time, we also donated produce to Redeemer Lutheran Church at James and Scottwood, the House of Hope on East Main Street in Whitehall, Bethlehem Temple Apostolic Church on East Main Street and the Community Development for All People Fresh Market on Parsons.  We also continued to donate produce to the Salvation Army on East Main Street, St. Vincent de Paul's pantry next to Christ the King Catholic Church on Livingston and Faith Mission's Homeless Shelter on Grant downtown. 

This afternoon, Amy will return to the SACG to carry the lawn waste bags to the curb (to be picked up by Rumpke tomorrow).  I realized this morning, that I forgot to clean out the raised vegetable bed in the orchard plot.   Maybe if I make it back to rake out my plot, I can clean it out then. . . . .  

Before I left yesterday, I harvested from my own plot some lettuce, arugula, parsley, cilantro, snow peas, leeks, bok choy and kale.    All of those are cold hardy and survived our recent cold nights.   The brussels sprouts and cabbage that I belatedly planted in mid-September still have not ripened, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will continue to grow, albeit slowly, before we suffer a polar vortex.   I’m even considering putting row covers on them to lengthen their growing season.

Closing Postponed

It's too cold for man or beast.  Last year was pretty brutal, but this morning we woke up to wind chills in the single digits.  While I was prepared to proceed, my first cancellation came in at 6:30 a.m.  I don't really want to be out there this morning by myself cleaning out flower beds, so I made a few calls and woke a few people up and we are going to put the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden to bed tomorrow (Sunday), November 11 at 2 p.m.  

We will be:

·         Emptying the rest of the big tank

·         Cleaning out the flower beds

·         Taking down the sign

·         Raking out plots

·         Removing the umbrella stand

·         Tidying up the shed

·         Unhooking/unlocking the hydrants

·         Final food pantry harvest (turnips, greens, radishes, herbs)

·         Covering the fence wood with a tarp

It will still be cold tomorrow, but not as cold as this morning with all of the wind.  We will be finished long before sundown.  It's been my experience that we work faster when it's cold;-) 

Closing Postponed

It's too cold for man or beast.  Last year was pretty brutal, but this morning we woke up to wind chills in the single digits.  While I was prepared to proceed, my first cancellation came in at 6:30 a.m.  I don't really want to be out there this morning by myself cleaning out flower beds, so I made a few calls and woke a few people up and we are going to put the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden to bed tomorrow (Sunday), November 11 at 2 p.m.  

We will be:

·         Emptying the rest of the big tank

·         Cleaning out the flower beds

·         Taking down the sign

·         Raking out plots

·         Removing the umbrella stand

·         Tidying up the shed

·         Unhooking/unlocking the hydrants

·         Final food pantry harvest (turnips, greens, radishes, herbs)

·         Covering the fence wood with a tarp

It will still be cold tomorrow, but not as cold as this morning with all of the wind.  We will be finished long before sundown.  It's been my experience that we work faster when it's cold;-)