Getting Hot and Dirty with YouthBuild at the SACG

 A few weeks ago, I received an email from the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition about a beautiful trellis which had been donated by a Bexley area homeowner who no longer wanted it and thought a community garden might put it to good use.   I wasn’t sure where we could put it and so delayed in responding.  I finally decided to put it near the front gate and hoped that we could grow grapes up it (because the neighborhood kids periodically ask why we are not growing grapes for them to eat).   I was the third person to respond, but the first who decided we could use it.  It also came with a gate which had never been used.  After some debate, we decided to replace our long-time front gate with this newer one (although we remain concerned about thieves jumping our gates).   Cathy brought her truck to pick up and transport the trellis back to the SACG.   The problem then became, how are we going to install it (and remove our old gate) with just us little old ladies?

We were very lucky that the City told the Land Bank Community Gardens a few months ago that Americorps’ YouthBuild program was looking for a community garden where its participants could volunteer.   We scheduled work days for today and next month.   When I told them at the end of June about the trellis project (which I thought would be great for them), they wanted to come a day early to be sure that they got everything done.  No problem, I said.  I picked up post diggers and a tamper from Rebuilding Together’s Tool Library on Tuesday and they threw in a dozen bagels for free to feed my new volunteers.  (I brought some of my homemade ginger peach jam).   I also still had some bottled water that had been previously donated by Keep Columbus Beautiful for Earth Day.  I also picked up some gravel from Lowe’s to back fill the post holes.

Of course, it had to be awfully hot and humid yesterday when the 12 volunteers arrived for their appointment with SACG destiny.  One team focused on digging the post holes for the trellis, getting the trellis deep enough and level, attaching the top, removing our long-time gate and sign and attaching the new gate and latch.  While digging, they faced our long-time problem of encountering construction debris from the prior apartment building that had been on our lot.   They even reported that they found our old basement.  A few of the holes turned out to be pretty wide as they had to dig around these large stones in order to remove them.   

I won’t lie to you; they made a real mess.  I had to quickly harvest our row of beets from the food pantry plot because they needed the space to maneuver.  (They made it to the Salvation Army’s food pantry later yesterday afternoon).  I should have raked the wood chips aside from the front gate area because it’s all covered with a few inches of dirt now.

Some of our herb garden even was covered with a pile of dirt and rocks (which I’ll have to tidy up tomorrow).   But, all that being said, Cathy and I agreed that we never could have installed this trellis by ourselves (even with the help of Stan and her husband, Jason).   Removing the gate posts turned out to be equally tricky because Frank had used rebar and very long metal spikes to anchor them.

My dilemma now is where to hang our sign.   Some have suggested hanging it from the front of the trellis over the gate, but I worry about it being too heavy for the trellis top and making the trellis lean forward.  It also would detract from the trellis’ simple beauty.  We could sink some shorter posts to the right of the gate or sign some posts at an angle at the southeast corner of the Garden.  Decisions.  Decisions.

A second team was assigned to weed the paths and then half of a semi-abandoned plot (where the trellis had been temporarily stored) before planting three rows of beans.  Some of the weeding team became quickly bored and moved to weeding on the south side of the Garden, edging our new flower bed, and picking up litter.   The half that remained worked very steadily and finished all of their assigned tasks (including taking the weeds and putting them in the compost bin).   One of them wanted to start a vegetable garden at her new forever home (or maybe join a community garden and get a plot like we have).  The other wore two sweaters, but insisted that she was not hot because she had been born and lived in Haiti, where it is really hot most of the time.

Another team was lead by Stan the Man to tidy up the strawberry patch.  We built it in 2010, but many of the landscaping stones had gone askew and were no longer level or neat looking.   When Stan takes on a project like this, he always starts from scratch.  He removed the stones (even the bottom layer) to even out the base before building the retaining wall surrounding the strawberry patch.   He also helped to remove the old gate posts and helped me to get everything put away before departing.

A final team weeded along the alley and around the compost bins.

While these teams worked up quite the sweat and counted the minutes to when they could return to air-conditioning, Cathy and I attacked the brambles in the kids’ gardening area.  Now that raspberry season has mostly passed, these brambles are no longer needed and they pose a threat to our youth gardeners as they continue to grow very long and into their raised beds.  We have discussed removing our old fence behind these beds because Kimball Farms installed a nicer and taller chain link fence about two feet to the west of them.  We can no longer weed or prune between the fences or behind these raised beds.  So, the brambles have all been cut back to make it easier in case we find the spare time (or volunteers) to begin pulling the fence out.  We’ll then turn the fence into bean trellises.  


Also, after the old gate had been removed and the fence was still disconnected, I got help in digging out the weed mulberry tree that had been growing behind the rose bush and liberating a misplaced hosta so that we can possibly transplant it to a more appropriate location next Fall.

After our YouthBuild volunteers departed, I returned our borrowed tools to the Tool Library, had some lunch and delivered the beets to the Salvation Army on East Main Street. I also called the landscaper who had gotten the trellis donated to GCGC, so that I could get the contact information for the donor and send her a proper thank-you note (with pictures).    That night, I also attended the monthly GCGC meeting at the very lovely Highland Youth Garden in the Hilltop.   They started the same year as the SACG, but are much, much larger and have many more volunteers and kids.  Their garden looked amazing, tidy and healthy.  They have 200 kids each week participate in their various gardening programs, several master gardeners, running water, a hoop house, a trellis, built-in benches, signs warning of video surveillance and even paid staff.   One of their leaders talked about the need to remain positive in the face of our shared obstacles (i.e., weather, vandals and thieves).  I would note that their only regular pest are feral cats, while we have thieves, cats, possums and groundhogs and other gardens face deer, squirrels, thieves and raccoons.

This morning, we reversed the gate and finished the strawberry patch project.  It was much cooler than yesterday and I’m praying for rain (even though the local YouthBuild leader always prays against me because she doesn’t like rain).  Sigh.

Getting Hot and Dirty with YouthBuild at the SACG

 A few weeks ago, I received an email from the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition about a beautiful trellis which had been donated by a Bexley area homeowner who no longer wanted it and thought a community garden might put it to good use.   I wasn’t sure where we could put it and so delayed in responding.  I finally decided to put it near the front gate and hoped that we could grow grapes up it (because the neighborhood kids periodically ask why we are not growing grapes for them to eat).   I was the third person to respond, but the first who decided we could use it.  It also came with a gate which had never been used.  After some debate, we decided to replace our long-time front gate with this newer one (although we remain concerned about thieves jumping our gates).   Cathy brought her truck to pick up and transport the trellis back to the SACG.   The problem then became, how are we going to install it (and remove our old gate) with just us little old ladies?

We were very lucky that the City told the Land Bank Community Gardens a few months ago that Americorps’ YouthBuild program was looking for a community garden where its participants could volunteer.   We scheduled work days for today and next month.   When I told them at the end of June about the trellis project (which I thought would be great for them), they wanted to come a day early to be sure that they got everything done.  No problem, I said.  I picked up post diggers and a tamper from Rebuilding Together’s Tool Library on Tuesday and they threw in a dozen bagels for free to feed my new volunteers.  (I brought some of my homemade ginger peach jam).   I also still had some bottled water that had been previously donated by Keep Columbus Beautiful for Earth Day.  I also picked up some gravel from Lowe’s to back fill the post holes.

Of course, it had to be awfully hot and humid yesterday when the 12 volunteers arrived for their appointment with SACG destiny.  One team focused on digging the post holes for the trellis, getting the trellis deep enough and level, attaching the top, removing our long-time gate and sign and attaching the new gate and latch.  While digging, they faced our long-time problem of encountering construction debris from the prior apartment building that had been on our lot.   They even reported that they found our old basement.  A few of the holes turned out to be pretty wide as they had to dig around these large stones in order to remove them.   

I won’t lie to you; they made a real mess.  I had to quickly harvest our row of beets from the food pantry plot because they needed the space to maneuver.  (They made it to the Salvation Army’s food pantry later yesterday afternoon).  I should have raked the wood chips aside from the front gate area because it’s all covered with a few inches of dirt now.

Some of our herb garden even was covered with a pile of dirt and rocks (which I’ll have to tidy up tomorrow).   But, all that being said, Cathy and I agreed that we never could have installed this trellis by ourselves (even with the help of Stan and her husband, Jason).   Removing the gate posts turned out to be equally tricky because Frank had used rebar and very long metal spikes to anchor them.

My dilemma now is where to hang our sign.   Some have suggested hanging it from the front of the trellis over the gate, but I worry about it being too heavy for the trellis top and making the trellis lean forward.  It also would detract from the trellis’ simple beauty.  We could sink some shorter posts to the right of the gate or sign some posts at an angle at the southeast corner of the Garden.  Decisions.  Decisions.

A second team was assigned to weed the paths and then half of a semi-abandoned plot (where the trellis had been temporarily stored) before planting three rows of beans.  Some of the weeding team became quickly bored and moved to weeding on the south side of the Garden, edging our new flower bed, and picking up litter.   The half that remained worked very steadily and finished all of their assigned tasks (including taking the weeds and putting them in the compost bin).   One of them wanted to start a vegetable garden at her new forever home (or maybe join a community garden and get a plot like we have).  The other wore two sweaters, but insisted that she was not hot because she had been born and lived in Haiti, where it is really hot most of the time.

Another team was lead by Stan the Man to tidy up the strawberry patch.  We built it in 2010, but many of the landscaping stones had gone askew and were no longer level or neat looking.   When Stan takes on a project like this, he always starts from scratch.  He removed the stones (even the bottom layer) to even out the base before building the retaining wall surrounding the strawberry patch.   He also helped to remove the old gate posts and helped me to get everything put away before departing.

A final team weeded along the alley and around the compost bins.

While these teams worked up quite the sweat and counted the minutes to when they could return to air-conditioning, Cathy and I attacked the brambles in the kids’ gardening area.  Now that raspberry season has mostly passed, these brambles are no longer needed and they pose a threat to our youth gardeners as they continue to grow very long and into their raised beds.  We have discussed removing our old fence behind these beds because Kimball Farms installed a nicer and taller chain link fence about two feet to the west of them.  We can no longer weed or prune between the fences or behind these raised beds.  So, the brambles have all been cut back to make it easier in case we find the spare time (or volunteers) to begin pulling the fence out.  We’ll then turn the fence into bean trellises.  


Also, after the old gate had been removed and the fence was still disconnected, I got help in digging out the weed mulberry tree that had been growing behind the rose bush and liberating a misplaced hosta so that we can possibly transplant it to a more appropriate location next Fall.

After our YouthBuild volunteers departed, I returned our borrowed tools to the Tool Library, had some lunch and delivered the beets to the Salvation Army on East Main Street. I also called the landscaper who had gotten the trellis donated to GCGC, so that I could get the contact information for the donor and send her a proper thank-you note (with pictures).    That night, I also attended the monthly GCGC meeting at the very lovely Highland Youth Garden in the Hilltop.   They started the same year as the SACG, but are much, much larger and have many more volunteers and kids.  Their garden looked amazing, tidy and healthy.  They have 200 kids each week participate in their various gardening programs, several master gardeners, running water, a hoop house, a trellis, built-in benches, signs warning of video surveillance and even paid staff.   One of their leaders talked about the need to remain positive in the face of our shared obstacles (i.e., weather, vandals and thieves).  I would note that their only regular pest are feral cats, while we have thieves, cats, possums and groundhogs and other gardens face deer, squirrels, thieves and raccoons.

This morning, we reversed the gate and finished the strawberry patch project.  It was much cooler than yesterday and I’m praying for rain (even though the local YouthBuild leader always prays against me because she doesn’t like rain).  Sigh.

Hoarding and Purging Seeds

I usually complete my painting projects during the Independence Day weekend, but the weather was not cooperating this year, so I finally got around to purging my hoard of seeds because I was having trouble shutting the lid on my container which stores them all.  We’ve also been working hard the last few weeks to plant the approximately 10 flats of flowers donated to GCGC by Strader’s Garden Centers.  And, we’ve started our annual battle to save our zucchini plants from the dreaded squash bugs and borers.

As faithful readers recall, in May, we retrieved a bunch of tulip plants from Franklin Park Conservatory during its Big Dig.  Amy thought we could turn a bare spot (where we had dumped a load of top soil donated by the City last year) into a flower bed.  During June’s GCGC meeting, Kossuth Community Gardens donated leftover canna lily corns (from their fundraiser) to us and other community gardens and I planted them in a circle in that same flower bed.  Then, Straders donated thousands of flats of flowers and some vegetable plants to GCGC, so I picked up two flats of peppers and several flats of flowers for the Garden.  Amy and I have been busy in June planting the flowers in our several flower beds (where I dig out the dying daisies to make room).    This has caused me to work unusually long hours at the SACG in June (i.e., from 8 until 5 or 6 almost every Saturday – even when it’s ungodly hot).   At least our bee balm and coneflowers are in bloom.  Who knows if they will be next week, though.

We also had a minor tragedy when the key to our shed lock (donated last year by Ken Turner) broke in the lock.  One of the gardeners found a lock smith to get the broken piece out, but it took several trips to find someone who could duplicate our spare key for that lock.  Zipf’s was able to do it.  However, this was one more giant expense that we can ill afford.  And, if you can believe it, our downspout keeps getting clogged with each of these monster rains (i.e., 2.5+ inches)  over the last week that we've blessedly received (thus, keeping our tanks from getting re-filled).  I've had to haul my extension ladder to the Garden in my tiny Jetta at least three times this season to clear debris from the gutters and the downspout strainer.

Can you see the strainer under the debris?

Last week, Cathy and I discovered that squash bugs had invaded the zucchini plant in two plots, which will mean weekly inspection of their leaves.  Luckily, they had not invaded my plants yet (which I attribute to the fact that I always plant mint around my zucchini to temporarily confuse the bugs and delay the inevitable).   The only reliable way to avoid them killing your zucchini plants is to find and destroy the squash bug eggs before they hatch.  However, sometimes they are tricky where they lay eggs and some hatch.  They are relatively easy to kill in the light grey nymph stage because they are not smart enough to run and hide when you find them.  By the time they reach adult stage, they are lightening quick and will run to the base of the stem or even onto nearby plants.  The only concoction that I’ve found which will kill them on contact is to mix water with a bit of soap and neem oil.  However, regular dish soap will scorch and kill plant leaves if left to dry in the hot July sun.  So, this weekend, I purchased some proper insecticidal soap that is supposed to avoid the sun scorch issue.  I’ll keep you posted.

We’ve also seen squash borer moths, which means that we have a bigger problem if borer eggs have been laid in our stems.  I think it’s completely gross to slice a stem to remove the borer worm and it often isn’t effective anyway (because the damage often kills the plant faster than the worm).  Sigh.   I refuse to use row covers and to hand pollinate my  zucchini flowers.  Grrr.

Our food pantry donations are ahead of their usual pace this year.  I attribute this to our unseasonably warm and dry June (which caused some food to ripen earlier, but also smaller, than usual).  In anticipation of this week's seasonably hot weather, I harvested most of the rest of our lettuce because it will likely bolt and get bitter in this heat.  The food pantry volunteers were impressed with how pretty our leaf lettuce is because they are mostly used to seeing only romaine and iceberg lettuce at the grocery.  Sadly, we did not have enough volunteers this year to take full advantage of our black raspberry crop.  (It can take an hour to pick a pint of berries), so we were not able to donate as many as in past years when we had a WEP volunteer assigned.

As for purging my seed collection, I had not done this in years and still had some seeds in my stache from 2008.  I rarely use all of the seeds in a seed packet in any given year and often try to save seeds of various plants each year in case I can’t find that variety (or get it donated) in the following year.   I store most of my seeds in coin envelopes, but only started to reliably note the year in 2012.  When I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to separate the seed from the seed head or I plan to store a large volume of seeds, I use paper wine bags.  Some seeds, like onions, oregano and chives, only reliably germinate within the next year.  Some – like eggplant, zinnias, basil, dill,  cucumbers, lettuce, radishes and turnips, can reliably germinate 5 years later and many seeds can less reliably germinate as long as ten years later (which has been  my experience with tomatoes, for instance).  There are a few websiteswith chartsnoting the ranges of viability years for different seeds.  But none of the websites were exhaustive and I still had to search for a few individual plants that we regularly grow at the SACG or in my back yard (like chamomile). 

This week, we have a volunteer group coming to help us get ready for a visit next week by the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Women’s Board.  Of course, it would have to get hot again when we have a lot of work to do.

Hoarding and Purging Seeds

I usually complete my painting projects during the Independence Day weekend, but the weather was not cooperating this year, so I finally got around to purging my hoard of seeds because I was having trouble shutting the lid on my container which stores them all.  We’ve also been working hard the last few weeks to plant the approximately 10 flats of flowers donated to GCGC by Strader’s Garden Centers.  And, we’ve started our annual battle to save our zucchini plants from the dreaded squash bugs and borers.

As faithful readers recall, in May, we retrieved a bunch of tulip plants from Franklin Park Conservatory during its Big Dig.  Amy thought we could turn a bare spot (where we had dumped a load of top soil donated by the City last year) into a flower bed.  During June’s GCGC meeting, Kossuth Community Gardens donated leftover canna lily corns (from their fundraiser) to us and other community gardens and I planted them in a circle in that same flower bed.  Then, Straders donated thousands of flats of flowers and some vegetable plants to GCGC, so I picked up two flats of peppers and several flats of flowers for the Garden.  Amy and I have been busy in June planting the flowers in our several flower beds (where I dig out the dying daisies to make room).    This has caused me to work unusually long hours at the SACG in June (i.e., from 8 until 5 or 6 almost every Saturday – even when it’s ungodly hot).   At least our bee balm and coneflowers are in bloom.  Who knows if they will be next week, though.

We also had a minor tragedy when the key to our shed lock (donated last year by Ken Turner) broke in the lock.  One of the gardeners found a lock smith to get the broken piece out, but it took several trips to find someone who could duplicate our spare key for that lock.  Zipf’s was able to do it.  However, this was one more giant expense that we can ill afford.  And, if you can believe it, our downspout keeps getting clogged with each of these monster rains (i.e., 2.5+ inches)  over the last week that we've blessedly received (thus, keeping our tanks from getting re-filled).  I've had to haul my extension ladder to the Garden in my tiny Jetta at least three times this season to clear debris from the gutters and the downspout strainer.

Can you see the strainer under the debris?

Last week, Cathy and I discovered that squash bugs had invaded the zucchini plant in two plots, which will mean weekly inspection of their leaves.  Luckily, they had not invaded my plants yet (which I attribute to the fact that I always plant mint around my zucchini to temporarily confuse the bugs and delay the inevitable).   The only reliable way to avoid them killing your zucchini plants is to find and destroy the squash bug eggs before they hatch.  However, sometimes they are tricky where they lay eggs and some hatch.  They are relatively easy to kill in the light grey nymph stage because they are not smart enough to run and hide when you find them.  By the time they reach adult stage, they are lightening quick and will run to the base of the stem or even onto nearby plants.  The only concoction that I’ve found which will kill them on contact is to mix water with a bit of soap and neem oil.  However, regular dish soap will scorch and kill plant leaves if left to dry in the hot July sun.  So, this weekend, I purchased some proper insecticidal soap that is supposed to avoid the sun scorch issue.  I’ll keep you posted.

We’ve also seen squash borer moths, which means that we have a bigger problem if borer eggs have been laid in our stems.  I think it’s completely gross to slice a stem to remove the borer worm and it often isn’t effective anyway (because the damage often kills the plant faster than the worm).  Sigh.   I refuse to use row covers and to hand pollinate my  zucchini flowers.  Grrr.

Our food pantry donations are ahead of their usual pace this year.  I attribute this to our unseasonably warm and dry June (which caused some food to ripen earlier, but also smaller, than usual).  In anticipation of this week's seasonably hot weather, I harvested most of the rest of our lettuce because it will likely bolt and get bitter in this heat.  The food pantry volunteers were impressed with how pretty our leaf lettuce is because they are mostly used to seeing only romaine and iceberg lettuce at the grocery.  Sadly, we did not have enough volunteers this year to take full advantage of our black raspberry crop.  (It can take an hour to pick a pint of berries), so we were not able to donate as many as in past years when we had a WEP volunteer assigned.

As for purging my seed collection, I had not done this in years and still had some seeds in my stache from 2008.  I rarely use all of the seeds in a seed packet in any given year and often try to save seeds of various plants each year in case I can’t find that variety (or get it donated) in the following year.   I store most of my seeds in coin envelopes, but only started to reliably note the year in 2012.  When I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to separate the seed from the seed head or I plan to store a large volume of seeds, I use paper wine bags.  Some seeds, like onions, oregano and chives, only reliably germinate within the next year.  Some – like eggplant, zinnias, basil, dill,  cucumbers, lettuce, radishes and turnips, can reliably germinate 5 years later and many seeds can less reliably germinate as long as ten years later (which has been  my experience with tomatoes, for instance).  There are a few websites with charts noting the ranges of viability years for different seeds.  But none of the websites were exhaustive and I still had to search for a few individual plants that we regularly grow at the SACG or in my back yard (like chamomile). 

This week, we have a volunteer group coming to help us get ready for a visit next week by the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Women’s Board.  Of course, it would have to get hot again when we have a lot of work to do.

When One Day’s Rain Equals the Entire Growing Season to Date

Last night, we received around 2.5 inches of rain in one morning.    Other areas northeast of us received as much as six inches.    However, as of midnight last night, we had only received 2.9 inches of rain since May 1.    Compare this to 2015 and 2014 when we had received over 9.5 inches of rain during the same period.  (Our neighbors still remember that it rained 21 out of the first 24 days in June last year).   During the 2012 drought, we had received 1.3 inches in the first three weeks of June alone (since I wasn’t measuring rain in May back then).  Both of our giant rain cisterns have gone dry twice this year and it’s only June.  We just paid over $100 (which was almost a third of our cash on hand) to get 550 gallons delivered earlier this week.  As I kibbutz with other community gardens, I know that they are struggling with this drought as well and gardens much farther south of Main got much less rain last night than we did. 

 

I’m pretty freaked because it’s hard to grow plants when it’s dry and hot.  Some of my newish gardeners have had to replant crops a few times when the first batch didn't germinate or quickly died.  We prioritize our vegetables and fruit over the flowers.  Other than the early daisies, phlox and bee balm, none of our flowers (including our giant sunflowers) are more than hip high and most are shorter than that.  Our berries have suffered as well.  They are smaller and scraggier than normal.  They plumped up a bit after the half inch of rain that we received last week and I expect that our few remaining red berries will now plump up nicely as they ripen in the next few days.   Our cherries were not affected much, but our peaches have appeared pretty small.  (I’m hoping that they will plump up now as they ripen over the upcoming month).   I’ve included a picture of the cherries on our new Meteor cherry tree.  We also had a lot of cherries on our Montmorency Cherry trees, which ripened a week earlier.   Sadly, I've had to spend so much time watering this June that I haven't had a lot of time to pick berries and many of them have gone to waste.

The City usually gives us one free tank refill (i.e., 550 gallons) each year, but we haven't needed it in a while.   Sadly, its new accounting system is being blamed for the delay in starting this valuable resource this growing season.  I am reliably informed that it should be operational again in July.  That's none too soon for us.    September is  usually the driest month of the year.

I am pretty critical of the coverage of our weather by Fox/ABC WTTE/WSYX because they have been routinely acting as though this dry and hot weather is great.  A few days ago, Bill Kelly even conducted the forecast from a golf course.  They act as though everyone is thrilled to have Arizona weather and almost never mention the rain deficit (or act as though the rain we received in February is relevant to our lawns or gardens).  Accordingly, there are brown lawns all over the East Side because our tv personalities didn’t think it was relevant to mention that we were not getting enough rain.  (My lawn, dear readers, is fine because I measure the rain every morning and use a sprinkler accordingly).  So, this emoji morning approach to weather has lost them a fan here.

June has not been an entire loss.  I have made way too much strawberry jam (and I don’t even usually eat bread).  I found lots of interesting recipes and bought lots of cute jam jars this year.   I made a batch with balsamic vinegar, a batch with thyme, a batch with tequila, lime juice and triple sec, and a batch with lemon peel (i.e., a strawberry-lemon marmalade).  Yumsters.  These will make it into gift baskets in December.

I also visited the Columbus Arts Festival downtown again this year.  I’m too frugal to pay a lot for parking, and so I found a parking meter near the community garden operated by the Franklin County Juvenile Court which is tended by youth offenders. 

In the past two weeks, Straders Garden Centers has recommenced making massive plant donations to the members of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition (GCGC).  We’ve gotten a flat of sweet peppers and several flats of petunias, salvia and begonias to replace the dying daisies and to create a new flower bed (where I added some canna lilies donated by the Kossuth Community Garden).    Many GCGC members showed up to help unload these donations at Grace United Church on Shady Lane and the St. Vincent de Paul pantry garden.  I’ve included some pictures.  It’s almost like having our own garden store.  These flowers go a long way to beautify the community gardens and their neighborhoods throughout Columbus.

I’ve been very busy planting these flowers at the SACG and have been spending more than six hours every Saturday at the SACG (and several hours on a few evenings during the week).  Amy helped to prepare a new flower bed.  Sabrina helped by tending the food pantry plots and, with Zion, picking berries for our weekly Faith Mission donation.   Stan also extended our flower bed edging all the way to the alley and is anxiously waiting for the City's Lowe's voucher program to re-start so that he can finish one of our compost bins.  This was on top of their regular chores. 

Another piece of good news this month has been that the The Woda Group informed the Franklin Park Civic Association that the tax credits needed to proceed with the proposed Fairwood Commons a block east of the Garden have been approved by the state.  We are delighted that it looks like we will have a wonderful new neighbor that will likely to lead to other improvements in the neighborhood and provide necessary housing for our older residents. 

I also finally got around to trimming the garlic scapes off of my garlic crop this year.   I probably waited a wee bit too long.  You are supposed to remove them so that the plant's energy can focus on increasing the size of the bulb below ground instead of on the flower.  Rumor has it that these stems are edible, so I'm planning on a stir fry or something this week.   I've pulled a few recipes and have a lot of scapes to work with.

Well, I’m hoping that both of our tanks are full and am grateful that I won’t have to water anything for the next week.  Of course, all of this rain means that the weeds (which have mostly suffered, too) will be growing with a vengeance.  This weekend, I will hopefully finish planting in the food pantry plots and putting in the rest of our donated flowers.   Then, it will be back to focusing on capital improvement projects.  We received a beautiful trellis through a donation to GCGC and need help installing it.   We may even replace our front gate with it.    Then, we will plant some grapes to grow up its sides.  We also have had a groundhog spotted in the Garden and will need to take steps to deter it from returning. . . . . . . There’s always something.   If only I could communicate with it so that it could dig our four post holes where we need them for the trellis. . .  Where’s Dr. Doolittle when you need him?

When One Day’s Rain Equals the Entire Growing Season to Date

Last night, we received around 2.5 inches of rain in one morning.    Other areas northeast of us received as much as six inches.    However, as of midnight last night, we had only received 2.9 inches of rain since May 1.    Compare this to 2015 and 2014 when we had received over 9.5 inches of rain during the same period.  (Our neighbors still remember that it rained 21 out of the first 24 days in June last year).   During the 2012 drought, we had received 1.3 inches in the first three weeks of June alone (since I wasn’t measuring rain in May back then).  Both of our giant rain cisterns have gone dry twice this year and it’s only June.  We just paid over $100 (which was almost a third of our cash on hand) to get 550 gallons delivered earlier this week.  As I kibbutz with other community gardens, I know that they are struggling with this drought as well and gardens much farther south of Main got much less rain last night than we did. 

 

I’m pretty freaked because it’s hard to grow plants when it’s dry and hot.  Some of my newish gardeners have had to replant crops a few times when the first batch didn't germinate or quickly died.  We prioritize our vegetables and fruit over the flowers.  Other than the early daisies, phlox and bee balm, none of our flowers (including our giant sunflowers) are more than hip high and most are shorter than that.  Our berries have suffered as well.  They are smaller and scraggier than normal.  They plumped up a bit after the half inch of rain that we received last week and I expect that our few remaining red berries will now plump up nicely as they ripen in the next few days.   Our cherries were not affected much, but our peaches have appeared pretty small.  (I’m hoping that they will plump up now as they ripen over the upcoming month).   I’ve included a picture of the cherries on our new Meteor cherry tree.  We also had a lot of cherries on our Montmorency Cherry trees, which ripened a week earlier.   Sadly, I've had to spend so much time watering this June that I haven't had a lot of time to pick berries and many of them have gone to waste.

The City usually gives us one free tank refill (i.e., 550 gallons) each year, but we haven't needed it in a while.   Sadly, its new accounting system is being blamed for the delay in starting this valuable resource this growing season.  I am reliably informed that it should be operational again in July.  That's none too soon for us.    September is  usually the driest month of the year.

I am pretty critical of the coverage of our weather by Fox/ABC WTTE/WSYX because they have been routinely acting as though this dry and hot weather is great.  A few days ago, Bill Kelly even conducted the forecast from a golf course.  They act as though everyone is thrilled to have Arizona weather and almost never mention the rain deficit (or act as though the rain we received in February is relevant to our lawns or gardens).  Accordingly, there are brown lawns all over the East Side because our tv personalities didn’t think it was relevant to mention that we were not getting enough rain.  (My lawn, dear readers, is fine because I measure the rain every morning and use a sprinkler accordingly).  So, this emoji morning approach to weather has lost them a fan here.

June has not been an entire loss.  I have made way too much strawberry jam (and I don’t even usually eat bread).  I found lots of interesting recipes and bought lots of cute jam jars this year.   I made a batch with balsamic vinegar, a batch with thyme, a batch with tequila, lime juice and triple sec, and a batch with lemon peel (i.e., a strawberry-lemon marmalade).  Yumsters.  These will make it into gift baskets in December.

I also visited the Columbus Arts Festival downtown again this year.  I’m too frugal to pay a lot for parking, and so I found a parking meter near the community garden operated by the Franklin County Juvenile Court which is tended by youth offenders. 

In the past two weeks, Straders Garden Centers has recommenced making massive plant donations to the members of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition (GCGC).  We’ve gotten a flat of sweet peppers and several flats of petunias, salvia and begonias to replace the dying daisies and to create a new flower bed (where I added some canna lilies donated by the Kossuth Community Garden).    Many GCGC members showed up to help unload these donations at Grace United Church on Shady Lane and the St. Vincent de Paul pantry garden.  I’ve included some pictures.  It’s almost like having our own garden store.  These flowers go a long way to beautify the community gardens and their neighborhoods throughout Columbus.

I’ve been very busy planting these flowers at the SACG and have been spending more than six hours every Saturday at the SACG (and several hours on a few evenings during the week).  Amy helped to prepare a new flower bed.  Sabrina helped by tending the food pantry plots and, with Zion, picking berries for our weekly Faith Mission donation.   Stan also extended our flower bed edging all the way to the alley and is anxiously waiting for the City's Lowe's voucher program to re-start so that he can finish one of our compost bins.  This was on top of their regular chores. 

Another piece of good news this month has been that the The Woda Group informed the Franklin Park Civic Association that the tax credits needed to proceed with the proposed Fairwood Commons a block east of the Garden have been approved by the state.  We are delighted that it looks like we will have a wonderful new neighbor that will likely to lead to other improvements in the neighborhood and provide necessary housing for our older residents. 

I also finally got around to trimming the garlic scapes off of my garlic crop this year.   I probably waited a wee bit too long.  You are supposed to remove them so that the plant's energy can focus on increasing the size of the bulb below ground instead of on the flower.  Rumor has it that these stems are edible, so I'm planning on a stir fry or something this week.   I've pulled a few recipes and have a lot of scapes to work with.

Well, I’m hoping that both of our tanks are full and am grateful that I won’t have to water anything for the next week.  Of course, all of this rain means that the weeds (which have mostly suffered, too) will be growing with a vengeance.  This weekend, I will hopefully finish planting in the food pantry plots and putting in the rest of our donated flowers.   Then, it will be back to focusing on capital improvement projects.  We received a beautiful trellis through a donation to GCGC and need help installing it.   We may even replace our front gate with it.    Then, we will plant some grapes to grow up its sides.  We also have had a groundhog spotted in the Garden and will need to take steps to deter it from returning. . . . . . . There’s always something.   If only I could communicate with it so that it could dig our four post holes where we need them for the trellis. . .  Where’s Dr. Doolittle when you need him?