SACG Works Hard During Derby Day and Derby Week

Frank -- the master of all he surveys

We’ve had a busy week at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  Our big tank has been raised by six inches (which makes it far easier to fill our watering cans) and we’ve been able to put some of our home-raised compost to use.  The weather has also warmed up enough for me to finally set up my rain gauge, which means I'll be able to start reporting on annual neighborhood rain fall starting next week.

Monday’s Work Day.  On Monday, we welcomed two new gardeners, Tony & John.  I recruited Tony in January while watching the Buckeyes’ national championship game (with my knitting) at Wing’s, east of Bexley.  (Wing’s is also where I recruited Neal a few years ago while watching Buckeye March Madness basketball).  As everyone knows, all I ever talk about these years is the SACG.  Wing’s has the nicest and largest public restroom in Columbus and is, by itself, worth a dinner at the restaurant just to check this out.  Neal eats at Wing’s virtually every week and takes his fresh produce there from the SACG so that Ken Yee (the owner) will cook or make him something special.  Ken, Tony and I kept an eye out for Neal on the television because, unlike us, he was at the game.  I’m giving Tony a hard time for not showing up for our opening work day, but he didn’t put 2 and 2 together (about us and the SACG) until we were celebrating Earth Day and he happened to drive by.  Neal tells me that Tony is quite the chef and used to own his own restaurant.   He wants a plot to have something to do with his kids.

John hard at work

Neal recruited John over brunch last Sunday.  John was going to start a vegetable garden at the side of his house, but was concerned about shade.  Of course, Neal convinced him to check out the SACG instead.  He and Tony also know each other (and live on the same street), so they have plots next to each other.

Tony and John helped me (with very, very close supervision by Zion) move the tank, put some large landscaping stones (which had been generously donated last week by GreenScapes Landscaping) on the platform and then reposition the tank.  Frank had fixed the spicket last week.  Before raising the tank, we could only fill watering cans half-full  while they were on their sides.  Being able to fill them to the top means fewer trips to the tank from our plots.   Even with only an inch of water in the bottom of the tank, it was very heavy.  Tony tipped it forward and a bunch of black gunk came out (showing how disgusting all of that bacteria and dirt is that gets washed into the tank with every rainfall over the past five years).  Tony and John then carried all of the remaining stones back to the alley, where we will use them to build our new curb.  Sadly, we have not gotten any measurable rain since Monday and it is still very empty.  Pray for rain everyone. 

Tony then turned the material in our western compost bin into the middle compost bin (and found several snakes in the process) and brought a half cubic yard of compost into the Garden for us to improve our plots.   John hoed a food pantry plot (which sounds easier than it was considering how dry the ground is becoming).   Neal stopped by and Lea cleaned out the rest of her plot. I helped two of the neighbor girls to start planting their raised beds, and assemble a pea/bean trellis (with help from Doug from Urban Connections and his tiny daughter).  I forgot to take a single picture.  Sigh.  

Saturday.  Despite my best efforts and organization, I made very little progress on my to-do list.  I know that none of you are surprised (because I never seem to make much progress). 

First, I discovered to my delight that Frank had reattached the repaired door to our

Free Little Library.  So, I immediately refilled it with books I’ve been hauling around in the trunk of my car. 

Second, I’ve declared war on bindweed.   This is the weed that virtually consumes our garden, paths, benches and our fences every year.  It’s a close relative of morning glory (with similar flowers and leaves).  It spreads mostly by its roots, so it’s advised to dig them out instead of just pulling the visible vine out of the ground.  It loves sun and climbs up our flowers, beans and tomatoes (as well as our fences) and covers our paths.   I circulated informationabout it from Penn State University to our gardeners last week.   I also weeded and watered my plot, where I discovered that my potatoes are already pushing through the ground.  I kinda weeded the herb garden.

Third, Melinda and a friend from next door came by to liberate some of our overgrown strawberries.   We started on the strawberry plants outside of our bed and worked our way in to thin out our strawberry bed.  They then took these seedlings to their new community garden next door to start their own strawberry patch.  We always need to thin our strawberry patch every year and have taken this opportunity to help other community gardens (like Highland Youth, Morrison Hill and Growing Hands and Hearts) start their own patches.  They also planted carrots.  I also sent them a few clumps of chives.    In return, Melinda gave me a bag of coffee grounds (which are very high in nitrogen and are welcome in compost bins everywhere). 

However, their water source has not been solidified yet.  We barely have enough water to maintain the SACG from our two tanks.   We’ve run dry twice since the 2012 drought (when we ran dry several times and I still keep a lawn waste bag in the shed and in my garage holding dozens of liter and gallon jugs so that I can bring water from home if needed).  We ran dry in May 2013 (when I arranged for our one free fill-up from Rain Brothers that came with our loaned rain tank from the City) and in September 2014 (i.e., just last Fall), when Seth arranged to put 200 gallons in our big tank to tide us over until it rained again.  

As faithful readers know, we started the SACG with four rain barrels donated by Rain Brothers in 2009.  We moved them to the west side of the building when we bought our first rain tank in 2010 (with a grant from the City Health Department).  When the barrels proved inadequate during the 2012 drought, the City loaned us our 350 gallon rain tank.  In turn, we loaned one of the rain barrels to Healthy Hearts & Hands community garden and put one behind our shed (to collect rain water off the shed).  We had been storing the remaining two under the BTBO back porch, but moved them to the Carters’ for storage when Ms. Anthony put her building up for sale.  (One of the barrels used to be behind the shed and has a broken spicket, which Frank intends to replace).  We’ll be loaning them to our new neighbors until they figure out whether they will tend their garden with the city water spicket on the east side of their building (like all of the other church-sponsored community gardens I know) or get their own tank which can share our downspout or one of the other two unused downspouts on the building).   This is a bad time of year for any garden to be without water.

Fourth, John came to prepare his lot for planting.  He hoed it and worked in some soil amendments (donated last week by Scotts Miracle-Gro).  He had volunteer pansies in his plot, which he rescued to replant at home.  I also sent him home with chives to replant.    We've got more chives, oregano and mint than we know what to do with.

Fifth, John also helped me to reinforce our fence with extra fence stakes, which Rayna liberated last week when she removed part of our fence running parallel to our neighbor’s new fence.  Disappointingly, someone had tried to break into the Garden over the last week and steal our donated mulch and soil amendments.  They pushed the fence down along the alley (near the compost bins) and broke some of our raspberry brambles and a wooden fence stake in the process.  John pounded a large steel stake in that area and reinforced another one.  I weaved more brambles into the fence to make them think twice before trying to climb over it.  We similarly reinforced the fence in the front where the thieves had pushed it down last year over the flower bed.  I encouraged John and everyone else to take some mint home to make mint juleps while watching the Kentucky Derby.  I think he forgot . . .   I'll be pulling and composting a lot of that mint because it is taking over the flower bed . . .

Barb and Frank stopped by.  They have built wooden edging for all of the fruit trees and installed the first three with our sour cherries.   I noticed that someone has broken off the lead branch off of our newest Montmorency cherry tree!  The nerve!  Why???   Barb and I have very different gardening styles.   She’s very neat and likes neat lines while I am not.   They also expressed appreciation for Kinte (who can be reached at 406-9528)  stopping by to mow our grass and part of the lot next door so that he could give something back to the community.

Fifth, I planted two rows of cabbage, broccoli, herb and lettuce seedlings in our food pantry plot and herb garden.  I started the seedlings at my house in March.  No one seemed interested in them at the SACG, so they’ve been put in the food pantry plot.  I used our new compost to improve the soil in those two rows.

I also chatted with Ms. Dee's landlord.  He is trying to find a home for her 14-month old adorable black and white female kitty, named Cookie.  She's beautiful, short-haired, housebroken and very smart.   Let me know if you can give her a loving home.

Broken tree branch -- Why???!!!

I finally left just after 3.   Another potential new gardener contacted me on Friday about joining.  Rayna agreed to help her put in her work equity hours today (Sunday) since I was unavailable.   While I was thinning the strawberry patch, a neighbor on Morrison drove by and asked about also joining.  He was too busy to stay then and put in his work equity, but said he might be able to do so Sunday, if I called and reminded him.  So, hopefully, he will be helping Kaci this morning. While this is good news, I’m a little stumped whether I can create six hours of projects on short notice.   With two new gardeners, our food pantry plots will go from 400 square feet to 200 square feet.    Less work for me . . . . .

SACG Works Hard During Derby Day and Derby Week

Frank -- the master of all he surveys

We’ve had a busy week at the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden.  Our big tank has been raised by six inches (which makes it far easier to fill our watering cans) and we’ve been able to put some of our home-raised compost to use.  The weather has also warmed up enough for me to finally set up my rain gauge, which means I'll be able to start reporting on annual neighborhood rain fall starting next week.

Monday’s Work Day.  On Monday, we welcomed two new gardeners, Tony & John.  I recruited Tony in January while watching the Buckeyes’ national championship game (with my knitting) at Wing’s, east of Bexley.  (Wing’s is also where I recruited Neal a few years ago while watching Buckeye March Madness basketball).  As everyone knows, all I ever talk about these years is the SACG.  Wing’s has the nicest and largest public restroom in Columbus and is, by itself, worth a dinner at the restaurant just to check this out.  Neal eats at Wing’s virtually every week and takes his fresh produce there from the SACG so that Ken Yee (the owner) will cook or make him something special.  Ken, Tony and I kept an eye out for Neal on the television because, unlike us, he was at the game.  I’m giving Tony a hard time for not showing up for our opening work day, but he didn’t put 2 and 2 together (about us and the SACG) until we were celebrating Earth Day and he happened to drive by.  Neal tells me that Tony is quite the chef and used to own his own restaurant.   He wants a plot to have something to do with his kids.

John hard at work

Neal recruited John over brunch last Sunday.  John was going to start a vegetable garden at the side of his house, but was concerned about shade.  Of course, Neal convinced him to check out the SACG instead.  He and Tony also know each other (and live on the same street), so they have plots next to each other.

Tony and John helped me (with very, very close supervision by Zion) move the tank, put some large landscaping stones (which had been generously donated last week by GreenScapes Landscaping) on the platform and then reposition the tank.  Frank had fixed the spicket last week.  Before raising the tank, we could only fill watering cans half-full  while they were on their sides.  Being able to fill them to the top means fewer trips to the tank from our plots.   Even with only an inch of water in the bottom of the tank, it was very heavy.  Tony tipped it forward and a bunch of black gunk came out (showing how disgusting all of that bacteria and dirt is that gets washed into the tank with every rainfall over the past five years).  Tony and John then carried all of the remaining stones back to the alley, where we will use them to build our new curb.  Sadly, we have not gotten any measurable rain since Monday and it is still very empty.  Pray for rain everyone. 

Tony then turned the material in our western compost bin into the middle compost bin (and found several snakes in the process) and brought a half cubic yard of compost into the Garden for us to improve our plots.   John hoed a food pantry plot (which sounds easier than it was considering how dry the ground is becoming).   Neal stopped by and Lea cleaned out the rest of her plot. I helped two of the neighbor girls to start planting their raised beds, and assemble a pea/bean trellis (with help from Doug from Urban Connections and his tiny daughter).  I forgot to take a single picture.  Sigh.  

Saturday.  Despite my best efforts and organization, I made very little progress on my to-do list.  I know that none of you are surprised (because I never seem to make much progress). 

First, I discovered to my delight that Frank had reattached the repaired door to our

Free Little Library.  So, I immediately refilled it with books I’ve been hauling around in the trunk of my car. 

Second, I’ve declared war on bindweed.   This is the weed that virtually consumes our garden, paths, benches and our fences every year.  It’s a close relative of morning glory (with similar flowers and leaves).  It spreads mostly by its roots, so it’s advised to dig them out instead of just pulling the visible vine out of the ground.  It loves sun and climbs up our flowers, beans and tomatoes (as well as our fences) and covers our paths.   I circulated information about it from Penn State University to our gardeners last week.   I also weeded and watered my plot, where I discovered that my potatoes are already pushing through the ground.  I kinda weeded the herb garden.

Third, Melinda and a friend from next door came by to liberate some of our overgrown strawberries.   We started on the strawberry plants outside of our bed and worked our way in to thin out our strawberry bed.  They then took these seedlings to their new community garden next door to start their own strawberry patch.  We always need to thin our strawberry patch every year and have taken this opportunity to help other community gardens (like Highland Youth, Morrison Hill and Growing Hands and Hearts) start their own patches.  They also planted carrots.  I also sent them a few clumps of chives.    In return, Melinda gave me a bag of coffee grounds (which are very high in nitrogen and are welcome in compost bins everywhere). 

However, their water source has not been solidified yet.  We barely have enough water to maintain the SACG from our two tanks.   We’ve run dry twice since the 2012 drought (when we ran dry several times and I still keep a lawn waste bag in the shed and in my garage holding dozens of liter and gallon jugs so that I can bring water from home if needed).  We ran dry in May 2013 (when I arranged for our one free fill-up from Rain Brothers that came with our loaned rain tank from the City) and in September 2014 (i.e., just last Fall), when Seth arranged to put 200 gallons in our big tank to tide us over until it rained again.  

As faithful readers know, we started the SACG with four rain barrels donated by Rain Brothers in 2009.  We moved them to the west side of the building when we bought our first rain tank in 2010 (with a grant from the City Health Department).  When the barrels proved inadequate during the 2012 drought, the City loaned us our 350 gallon rain tank.  In turn, we loaned one of the rain barrels to Healthy Hearts & Hands community garden and put one behind our shed (to collect rain water off the shed).  We had been storing the remaining two under the BTBO back porch, but moved them to the Carters’ for storage when Ms. Anthony put her building up for sale.  (One of the barrels used to be behind the shed and has a broken spicket, which Frank intends to replace).  We’ll be loaning them to our new neighbors until they figure out whether they will tend their garden with the city water spicket on the east side of their building (like all of the other church-sponsored community gardens I know) or get their own tank which can share our downspout or one of the other two unused downspouts on the building).   This is a bad time of year for any garden to be without water.

Fourth, John came to prepare his lot for planting.  He hoed it and worked in some soil amendments (donated last week by Scotts Miracle-Gro).  He had volunteer pansies in his plot, which he rescued to replant at home.  I also sent him home with chives to replant.    We've got more chives, oregano and mint than we know what to do with.

Fifth, John also helped me to reinforce our fence with extra fence stakes, which Rayna liberated last week when she removed part of our fence running parallel to our neighbor’s new fence.  Disappointingly, someone had tried to break into the Garden over the last week and steal our donated mulch and soil amendments.  They pushed the fence down along the alley (near the compost bins) and broke some of our raspberry brambles and a wooden fence stake in the process.  John pounded a large steel stake in that area and reinforced another one.  I weaved more brambles into the fence to make them think twice before trying to climb over it.  We similarly reinforced the fence in the front where the thieves had pushed it down last year over the flower bed.  I encouraged John and everyone else to take some mint home to make mint juleps while watching the Kentucky Derby.  I think he forgot . . .   I'll be pulling and composting a lot of that mint because it is taking over the flower bed . . .

Barb and Frank stopped by.  They have built wooden edging for all of the fruit trees and installed the first three with our sour cherries.   I noticed that someone has broken off the lead branch off of our newest Montmorency cherry tree!  The nerve!  Why???   Barb and I have very different gardening styles.   She’s very neat and likes neat lines while I am not.   They also expressed appreciation for Kinte (who can be reached at 406-9528)  stopping by to mow our grass and part of the lot next door so that he could give something back to the community.

Fifth, I planted two rows of cabbage, broccoli, herb and lettuce seedlings in our food pantry plot and herb garden.  I started the seedlings at my house in March.  No one seemed interested in them at the SACG, so they’ve been put in the food pantry plot.  I used our new compost to improve the soil in those two rows.

I also chatted with Ms. Dee's landlord.  He is trying to find a home for her 14-month old adorable black and white female kitty, named Cookie.  She's beautiful, short-haired, housebroken and very smart.   Let me know if you can give her a loving home.

Broken tree branch -- Why???!!!

I finally left just after 3.   Another potential new gardener contacted me on Friday about joining.  Rayna agreed to help her put in her work equity hours today (Sunday) since I was unavailable.   While I was thinning the strawberry patch, a neighbor on Morrison drove by and asked about also joining.  He was too busy to stay then and put in his work equity, but said he might be able to do so Sunday, if I called and reminded him.  So, hopefully, he will be helping Kaci this morning. While this is good news, I’m a little stumped whether I can create six hours of projects on short notice.   With two new gardeners, our food pantry plots will go from 400 square feet to 200 square feet.    Less work for me . . . . .

Good News, Bad News

Well, we were going to finish off our major Earth Day projects today.  But someone forgot about the Clippers’ game.  Sigh. However, Neal recruited us another strong, burly guy to help us little old ladies with the heavy lifting.   So, we are going to regroup tomorrow, on Monday, to finally raise the rain tank.  Hopefully, we’ll also have time to weed one of the food pantry plots and plant some greens, kale, lettuce and peas.  If we’re lucky, we’ll also turn the materials in the compost bin.

Today was not a total loss.  When I arrived, Mari had already completely weeded her plot, which means that she may be planning to stay after all.   Neal emptied our overflowing trash can and finished weeding his plot.  Rayna was also already helping Giovanni and Kae-Kae prepare their raised bed and plant it with beets, cabbage, and greens, etc.  I helped fill another bed.  Shae also worked with Rayna to plant in the raised bed that she and her brother Chris will share.

Raya was super busy.  She weeded and planted in about a third of her plot, finished removing the extra fence in her plot and transplanted more raspberry seedlings. 

Amy stopped by on her bike and observed how much better the Garden looks in bright sunlight compared to our cloudy Saturday.   I couldn’t agree more.  Today, I took pictures of the projects we completed on Saturday since they didn't look so good in poor light.

Barb stopped by to report that she and Frank had planted our last cherry tree, but it needed watering.  Gio and Kae-Kae took care of that.  

Instead of turning around and going home, I gave new gardener John and his wife a tour of the SACG.  I removed raspberry bushes from a food pantry plot, hoed it and then planted potatoes, onions, beets, carrots and turnips.   While picking seeds, I was able to enjoy the convenience of having our new picnic table near the shed.  I sat at the table and looked through our seed cache.  The girls followed suit.  I also enlarged one of the blueberry turrets. When I got hungry, I realized that three hours had gone by and it was time to leave.

Even though Zion wasn't there today, I realized that I had forgotten a cute story about him.  Inside the shed, I keep a map of the Garden reflecting plot assignments and a chart reflecting chore assignments.  Zion was very upset that I only included him on the plot map and not the chore chart.  He claimed that I had renamed him (his mother's name).  He insisted that I include him on the chore chart, too.  I'm sure his mother will be very glad to hear that.

Good News, Bad News

Well, we were going to finish off our major Earth Day projects today.  But someone forgot about the Clippers’ game.  Sigh. However, Neal recruited us another strong, burly guy to help us little old ladies with the heavy lifting.   So, we are going to regroup tomorrow, on Monday, to finally raise the rain tank.  Hopefully, we’ll also have time to weed one of the food pantry plots and plant some greens, kale, lettuce and peas.  If we’re lucky, we’ll also turn the materials in the compost bin.

Today was not a total loss.  When I arrived, Mari had already completely weeded her plot, which means that she may be planning to stay after all.   Neal emptied our overflowing trash can and finished weeding his plot.  Rayna was also already helping Giovanni and Kae-Kae prepare their raised bed and plant it with beets, cabbage, and greens, etc.  I helped fill another bed.  Shae also worked with Rayna to plant in the raised bed that she and her brother Chris will share.

Raya was super busy.  She weeded and planted in about a third of her plot, finished removing the extra fence in her plot and transplanted more raspberry seedlings. 

Amy stopped by on her bike and observed how much better the Garden looks in bright sunlight compared to our cloudy Saturday.   I couldn’t agree more.  Today, I took pictures of the projects we completed on Saturday since they didn't look so good in poor light.

Barb stopped by to report that she and Frank had planted our last cherry tree, but it needed watering.  Gio and Kae-Kae took care of that.  

Instead of turning around and going home, I gave new gardener John and his wife a tour of the SACG.  I removed raspberry bushes from a food pantry plot, hoed it and then planted potatoes, onions, beets, carrots and turnips.   While picking seeds, I was able to enjoy the convenience of having our new picnic table near the shed.  I sat at the table and looked through our seed cache.  The girls followed suit.  I also enlarged one of the blueberry turrets. When I got hungry, I realized that three hours had gone by and it was time to leave.

Even though Zion wasn't there today, I realized that I had forgotten a cute story about him.  Inside the shed, I keep a map of the Garden reflecting plot assignments and a chart reflecting chore assignments.  Zion was very upset that I only included him on the plot map and not the chore chart.  He claimed that I had renamed him (his mother's name).  He insisted that I include him on the chore chart, too.  I'm sure his mother will be very glad to hear that.

Beating the Rain Drops at 2015 SACG Earth Day Celebration

Right right Now now.  I thought that this was a very strange slogan for this year’s Earth Day Columbus campaign.  However, on Wednesday, I picked up our Earth Day participation rewards from Keep Columbus Beautiful and discovered the motivation for this year’s slogan.  Apparently, there is a Beastie Boys’ song with a refrain of “right right now now.”  So, the Earth Day 2015 t-shirts say on the back:

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.  The next best time is right right now now.

With that in mind, I was feeling very pessimistic all week about the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden Earth Day “celebration,” especially after all of the work we did on Wednesday to get supplies, etc.  Rain has dominated the weather forecast and the chance of rain increased as each day went by.  My labor attorney volunteers wimped out.  Even the organizer cancelled on Friday.  Sigh.

Then, Tyler from the Ohio Association of Food Banks emailed me about assigning the SACG 4 Work Experience Program (WEP) volunteers.  Whoo hoo!  Two of them contacted me Friday and were willing to come on Saturday morning to help us for four hours.  Yipee!  They asked if I could come up with anotherfour hours of work for them by Thursday (which I did after recruiting additional SACG gardeners to supervise them).   I wasn’t sure if anyone else would come, but at least the trees would get planted.  Then, last night’s late night news reported that it might not start raining until the afternoon.  That became a sure thing with this morning’s newscast.  A little chair dancing, everyone.

I arrived at 9:30 this morning and there were a dozen cars parked in front of the Garden.  J. Jireh was building the raised beds for the community garden they are starting in the lot right next to us.  They had pretty much already built all of the raised beds by the time I arrived.  Two of their gardener volunteers, including Melinda Woda, were parked in front of me.  We chatted briefly.  As the morning progressed, their volunteers built some beautiful trellises for their beans and worked on improving the soil in front of their building so they could improve their flower garden.   They had lots of volunteers and I wondered where my volunteers would park and if any would come at all. . . .

I noticed that Frank, Rayna and Neal had been at the SACG on Friday evening.  Frank

replaced the broken spicket on the large tank and put up the sign on the front gate (with help from Barb, I’m sure).  The grass in the Block Watch lots had also been mowed.  Rayna had started to remove the fence on the west side of her plot (which is no longer necessary in light of the better J. Jireh fence and would only harbor unreachable weeds).  Neal had finished weeding the rest of his plot.

I measured off and put a stake where each fruit tree would go.  Then, I started to dig the hole for the Montmorency cherry tree would go in front of the Garden (finding a few bricks and large stones in the process) when Amy arrived.   

Amy took over digging that hole when my two new WEP volunteers arrived.  I gave them a tour of the SACG and told them about all of the projects we had lined up for them to complete today and over the next few weeks.  (In hindsight, that was probably a mistake).  They went right to work planting the peach tree and then started the nearly impossible task of planting the sweet cherry tree across the street.  However, when they mentioned that it was almost solid aggregate, I told them I would go to the Carter’s down the street to retrieve their pick-axe (which we used in 2012 when planting the two cherry trees already there).  As soon as I got to the Carter’s porch, my phone rang.  They said my name and then hung up.  I called back, but it rolled voice mail. I tried again with the same result.  When I returned to the SACG, they were gone.  I had hoped that they simply went to the Tool Library to get their own pick axe.  But no.  When I returned home, I had a message from them that it wasn’t going to work out because it had sprinkled for about 30 seconds and they thought it might make them sick.   They lasted all of 40 minutes.  At least we got a peach tree planted.    Thanks guys.

In the interim, Amy’s friend, Sarah, came and went right to work helping her plant the

cherry tree.  Much like Amy, she likes to be very busy.  They went right to work moving our five blueberry bushes from the south side of the Garden (where the greedy raspberries are hogging all of the sunlight) to the north side.   This way, we can have our wood chips dumped on the south side next year without having to worry about burying the blueberry bushes.  Methodical me had explained how I wanted the blueberry bushes (along with their stone turrets and special soil) moved one at a time, starting with the back one.   I’m not just a control freak.  I wanted to be sure that we used the correct number of stones for each turret and knew that we could get interrupted by bad weather at any moment. However, they wanted to make the most of their limited time by getting as much work done before they had to leave.    Sarah started digging out all of the bushes at once before we even had anywhere to put them.    They dug out all of the stones at once, so we ended up with extra when we were finished.    Happily, we ended up completing the entire project before the rain came, so all’s well that end well.    It was a lot of work and would’ve gone faster if we had another wheelbarrow or two.  (As previously mentioned, I had strong doubts that we would even be working this morning, so I hadn’t rounded up any extra barrows for us from Cathy or the Carters).

Sarah is also a gardener.  Amy and I tried to talk her into taking a plot.   After Neal arrived, it turned out they were friends, too.  Small world.  Neal worked on recruiting her, too, while he helped to move the blueberry bushes.     Then, Tony stopped by and said he wanted to join.   Neal knows him (and everyone else), so they chatted for a while, too.

Sabrina and Zephyr came and went to work spreading wood chips around our new picnic table.  I had given them a stack of newspaper to place under the chips and kill the grass (so it won’t grow up through the chips).  There were a lot of comic pages in there.  Zephyr couldn’t take the temptation; he grabbed the comics and read them in the car.    When they finished that, I put Sabrina to work spreading our donated soil in the Neighbor plot and planting seedlings in it (of cabbage, lettuce, collard greens and broccoli).  I’ll put some kale in there tomorrow.  Tom arrived and filled the flat tires on our cart (which apparently had been flat for several weeks).   This is made it much easier to lug the turret stones from the south side to the north side of the Garden.  Then, we developed a system where we lugged stones north and returned with wood chips to fill in the holes where the berry bushes used to be.

Lea and Zion arrived and went to work cleaning out the rest of the northeast plot.  They then helped us clean up and move blueberry bushes.     While I was raking up wood chips, I discovered a baby garden snake, to Zion’s delight.  I showed everyone and then released it in the flower bed so that it wouldn’t get hurt while we continued to work in the wood chip pile.   When Zephyr and Zion heard nature’s call, Pastor Brown graciously allowed them to make use of his facilities.

Amy went to work on tidying up the south flower bed so that we could spread wood chips around it, too.  She also made a point of finding bugs to entertain Zion.  He walked around for about 10 minutes carrying a worm.  Boys.   Lea relocated the bags of mulch to the back food pantry plot where I’ll plant tomatoes in late May.

I gave everyone the Earth Day volunteer rewards, which included free Chipotle

burritos, a free Gateway movie, Jeni’s ice cream, etc.  I had a t-shirt, which went to Neal when Lea refused to take it.   We also had Cliff Bars to feed everyone, courtesy of Keep Columbus Beautiful.

Shortly after 1, Neal and I started to put everything back in the shed.  As we did so, it started to rain.  It wouldn’t be Earth Day at the SACG without rain.   While we were walking out to our cars, a truck pulled up and it was Kinte, Ms. Dee’s nephew.  He had left a flyer in our gate this morning about his  2 Neighbors & A Lawnmower service (which can be reached at 406-9528).  He volunteered to mow our lawn this summer whenever he was in the neighborhood, but wanted my permission to do so.  What a sweetie!  I hadn’t brought gas with me for our lawnmower, so it wasn’t going to get mowed this week.  Now, I don’t have to worry.

Frank has volunteered to plant our cherry tree, as though he doesn’t already do enough.  He’s fixed the door for our free little library and will be able to reinstall it tomorrow.   Because I want to get Tony (and hopefully Sarah) on board as soon as possible and get our big tank back in business, we’ll be re-convening tomorrow (Sunday) at 2.  I have to leave at 5 because it is my niece’s 18^th birthday.   This is what we’ll be doing on Sunday:

·        Planting the cherry tree (which could easily take the entire afternoon . . . . )

·        Raising the tank with the stones donated on Wednesday by GreenScapes

·       Preparing three food pantry plots for planting.

·        Planting in the food pantry plots (if it's dry enough): potatoes, onions, beets, turnips, lettuce, peas, kale and greens

·        Picking up litter along Stoddart Avenue, and maybe

·        Turning the material in the compost bins. 

 

Whew!  Before I headed over today, I meant to fill my slow-cooker with a chicken mole recipe, but as I was filling it, I changed my mind and made coq au vin instead.  I had a nice hot meal waiting for me when I came home this afternoon.   Yummy.

Beating the Rain Drops at 2015 SACG Earth Day Celebration

Right right Now now.  I thought that this was a very strange slogan for this year’s Earth Day Columbus campaign.  However, on Wednesday, I picked up our Earth Day participation rewards from Keep Columbus Beautiful and discovered the motivation for this year’s slogan.  Apparently, there is a Beastie Boys’ song with a refrain of “right right now now.”  So, the Earth Day 2015 t-shirts say on the back:

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago.  The next best time is right right now now.

With that in mind, I was feeling very pessimistic all week about the Stoddart Avenue Community Garden Earth Day “celebration,” especially after all of the work we did on Wednesday to get supplies, etc.  Rain has dominated the weather forecast and the chance of rain increased as each day went by.  My labor attorney volunteers wimped out.  Even the organizer cancelled on Friday.  Sigh.

Then, Tyler from the Ohio Association of Food Banks emailed me about assigning the SACG 4 Work Experience Program (WEP) volunteers.  Whoo hoo!  Two of them contacted me Friday and were willing to come on Saturday morning to help us for four hours.  Yipee!  They asked if I could come up with another four hours of work for them by Thursday (which I did after recruiting additional SACG gardeners to supervise them).   I wasn’t sure if anyone else would come, but at least the trees would get planted.  Then, last night’s late night news reported that it might not start raining until the afternoon.  That became a sure thing with this morning’s newscast.  A little chair dancing, everyone.

I arrived at 9:30 this morning and there were a dozen cars parked in front of the Garden.  J. Jireh was building the raised beds for the community garden they are starting in the lot right next to us.  They had pretty much already built all of the raised beds by the time I arrived.  Two of their gardener volunteers, including Melinda Woda, were parked in front of me.  We chatted briefly.  As the morning progressed, their volunteers built some beautiful trellises for their beans and worked on improving the soil in front of their building so they could improve their flower garden.   They had lots of volunteers and I wondered where my volunteers would park and if any would come at all. . . .

I noticed that Frank, Rayna and Neal had been at the SACG on Friday evening.  Frank

replaced the broken spicket on the large tank and put up the sign on the front gate (with help from Barb, I’m sure).  The grass in the Block Watch lots had also been mowed.  Rayna had started to remove the fence on the west side of her plot (which is no longer necessary in light of the better J. Jireh fence and would only harbor unreachable weeds).  Neal had finished weeding the rest of his plot.

I measured off and put a stake where each fruit tree would go.  Then, I started to dig the hole for the Montmorency cherry tree would go in front of the Garden (finding a few bricks and large stones in the process) when Amy arrived.   

Amy took over digging that hole when my two new WEP volunteers arrived.  I gave them a tour of the SACG and told them about all of the projects we had lined up for them to complete today and over the next few weeks.  (In hindsight, that was probably a mistake).  They went right to work planting the peach tree and then started the nearly impossible task of planting the sweet cherry tree across the street.  However, when they mentioned that it was almost solid aggregate, I told them I would go to the Carter’s down the street to retrieve their pick-axe (which we used in 2012 when planting the two cherry trees already there).  As soon as I got to the Carter’s porch, my phone rang.  They said my name and then hung up.  I called back, but it rolled voice mail. I tried again with the same result.  When I returned to the SACG, they were gone.  I had hoped that they simply went to the Tool Library to get their own pick axe.  But no.  When I returned home, I had a message from them that it wasn’t going to work out because it had sprinkled for about 30 seconds and they thought it might make them sick.   They lasted all of 40 minutes.  At least we got a peach tree planted.    Thanks guys.

In the interim, Amy’s friend, Sarah, came and went right to work helping her plant the

cherry tree.  Much like Amy, she likes to be very busy.  They went right to work moving our five blueberry bushes from the south side of the Garden (where the greedy raspberries are hogging all of the sunlight) to the north side.   This way, we can have our wood chips dumped on the south side next year without having to worry about burying the blueberry bushes.  Methodical me had explained how I wanted the blueberry bushes (along with their stone turrets and special soil) moved one at a time, starting with the back one.   I’m not just a control freak.  I wanted to be sure that we used the correct number of stones for each turret and knew that we could get interrupted by bad weather at any moment. However, they wanted to make the most of their limited time by getting as much work done before they had to leave.    Sarah started digging out all of the bushes at once before we even had anywhere to put them.    They dug out all of the stones at once, so we ended up with extra when we were finished.    Happily, we ended up completing the entire project before the rain came, so all’s well that end well.    It was a lot of work and would’ve gone faster if we had another wheelbarrow or two.  (As previously mentioned, I had strong doubts that we would even be working this morning, so I hadn’t rounded up any extra barrows for us from Cathy or the Carters).

Sarah is also a gardener.  Amy and I tried to talk her into taking a plot.   After Neal arrived, it turned out they were friends, too.  Small world.  Neal worked on recruiting her, too, while he helped to move the blueberry bushes.     Then, Tony stopped by and said he wanted to join.   Neal knows him (and everyone else), so they chatted for a while, too.

Sabrina and Zephyr came and went to work spreading wood chips around our new picnic table.  I had given them a stack of newspaper to place under the chips and kill the grass (so it won’t grow up through the chips).  There were a lot of comic pages in there.  Zephyr couldn’t take the temptation; he grabbed the comics and read them in the car.    When they finished that, I put Sabrina to work spreading our donated soil in the Neighbor plot and planting seedlings in it (of cabbage, lettuce, collard greens and broccoli).  I’ll put some kale in there tomorrow.  Tom arrived and filled the flat tires on our cart (which apparently had been flat for several weeks).   This is made it much easier to lug the turret stones from the south side to the north side of the Garden.  Then, we developed a system where we lugged stones north and returned with wood chips to fill in the holes where the berry bushes used to be.

Lea and Zion arrived and went to work cleaning out the rest of the northeast plot.  They then helped us clean up and move blueberry bushes.     While I was raking up wood chips, I discovered a baby garden snake, to Zion’s delight.  I showed everyone and then released it in the flower bed so that it wouldn’t get hurt while we continued to work in the wood chip pile.   When Zephyr and Zion heard nature’s call, Pastor Brown graciously allowed them to make use of his facilities.

Amy went to work on tidying up the south flower bed so that we could spread wood chips around it, too.  She also made a point of finding bugs to entertain Zion.  He walked around for about 10 minutes carrying a worm.  Boys.   Lea relocated the bags of mulch to the back food pantry plot where I’ll plant tomatoes in late May.

I gave everyone the Earth Day volunteer rewards, which included free Chipotle

burritos, a free Gateway movie, Jeni’s ice cream, etc.  I had a t-shirt, which went to Neal when Lea refused to take it.   We also had Cliff Bars to feed everyone, courtesy of Keep Columbus Beautiful.

Shortly after 1, Neal and I started to put everything back in the shed.  As we did so, it started to rain.  It wouldn’t be Earth Day at the SACG without rain.   While we were walking out to our cars, a truck pulled up and it was Kinte, Ms. Dee’s nephew.  He had left a flyer in our gate this morning about his  2 Neighbors & A Lawnmower service (which can be reached at 406-9528).  He volunteered to mow our lawn this summer whenever he was in the neighborhood, but wanted my permission to do so.  What a sweetie!  I hadn’t brought gas with me for our lawnmower, so it wasn’t going to get mowed this week.  Now, I don’t have to worry.

Frank has volunteered to plant our cherry tree, as though he doesn’t already do enough.  He’s fixed the door for our free little library and will be able to reinstall it tomorrow.   Because I want to get Tony (and hopefully Sarah) on board as soon as possible and get our big tank back in business, we’ll be re-convening tomorrow (Sunday) at 2.  I have to leave at 5 because it is my niece’s 18^th birthday.   This is what we’ll be doing on Sunday:

·        Planting the cherry tree (which could easily take the entire afternoon . . . . )

·        Raising the tank with the stones donated on Wednesday by GreenScapes

·       Preparing three food pantry plots for planting.

·        Planting in the food pantry plots (if it's dry enough): potatoes, onions, beets, turnips, lettuce, peas, kale and greens

·        Picking up litter along Stoddart Avenue, and maybe

·        Turning the material in the compost bins. 

 

Whew!  Before I headed over today, I meant to fill my slow-cooker with a chicken mole recipe, but as I was filling it, I changed my mind and made coq au vin instead.  I had a nice hot meal waiting for me when I came home this afternoon.   Yummy.