Maple Grove UMC Garden

Worked out at the Maple Grove UMC garden tonight. We are going to be meeting out at the garden every Tuesday night at 7PM from now until the end of the gardening season. On today's list was: raking up some of the straw left from last year and pulling up the weeds in the 2 small raised beds. Didn't take too long to get our list "mostly" completed. We did hope that we could till this evening, but the weather has been threatening all day and the ground conditions weren't favorable for tilling. Hopefully in another week or two we will begin planting.

Fence at Epworth Veggie Garden - Part #2

Work continues on the fence at the Epworth Veggie Garden. Looks like its going to be a 3 week project. This morning we put in the rest of the cedar 4 x 4 posts. Last Saturday we put in the 4 corner posts so we had 12 additional posts that went in today. Bill and Phadia rented a gas power post hole digger which was a tremendous help in getting the holes dug. It took a little to find a good system to get the holes dug, but once we got the tall folks with some muscle in the mix we were able to knock out all 12 holes in no time. We did not put any cement in with the posts, just made sure we tapped in the soil really well.

Another item we worked on in the garden was to add additional colors by repainting some of the raised beds and the posts for the hanging plants. Last year we painted everything blue and it seemed to some folks to be too much blue. I tried to pick out some colors that might be found in a garden, but the color you end up with doesn't always match what you had in mind to begin with. We thought about planting some veggie in the garden too, but it looked like it could start raining at any time and the weather report calls for possible snow showers tomorrow.

Buckeye Lake - Garden Design

On Wednesday nights head out to Water's Edge Ministries at Buckeye Lake to garden. We've had rain almost all day today, so we spent some time inside and discussed designs for a sign and the garden. The kids looked at the list of seeds available and penciled in some selections for the garden. I'm sure the kids would have rathered been outside, but it was just too wet. Here are some of the suggestions of vegetables and herbs to grow: radishes, spinach, carrots, lettuce, onions, broccoli, beans, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, pumpkins, rosemary, garlic and basil.

Maple Grove UMC Garden

Tonight we had a meeting over at Maple Grove United Methodist Church to discuss their veggie garden. This will be the second year that Maple Grove will be growing vegetables. Maple Grove will be sending their harvest over to the Clintonville Community Resource Center (CRC). The gardening space at Maple Grove is approximately 500 sq feet. We're looking to grow lettuce, spinach, radishes, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, onions, peas, zucchini and green beans. We decided that we will continue gardening at Maple Grove on Tuesday nights.

Fence at Epworth Veggie Garden - Part #1

Today we started on the new fence at the Epworth Veggie Garden. The main change in the fence is that we are using 4 x 4 wood posts instead of the metal stakes. The 4 x 4 post should provide more stability for the fence. We decided on using cedar posts instead of treated posts. The cost on the cedar wood is a little more expensive, but some of us felt like we should stay away from treated wood since we are growing vegetables in the garden.
The main job in "part #1" was to put the 4 corner posts in place. Herb made all the calculations for the fence material and helped get us all headed in the right direction. We were only able to get the cedar 4 x 4 posts in an 8 foot length, so we cut the 4 posts down to 6 feet. Herb showed our group how to make sure we had all the corner posts lined up correctly by using the Pythagorean Theorem.

New Garden?

We're looking at partnering with Grace's Place to start a garden down in the 'hood. Checked out this city property available for a garden lease and seems like it has potential. The land is not completely level, but having a corner lot would be nice. Looks like the property gets lots of sun and its close to a local elemetary school. Of course we'll need to get the soil tested and have the utilities marked before we dig. This neighborhood is very unique and often over looked. There's not many places on the east side of Columbus to purchase fresh vegetables and not many grocery stores in the area either.

Buckeye Lake

Tonight was our first time back with the gardening group at Water's Edge since last October. We were so glad to see everyone! The kids are excited and just as energetic as ever. We had dinner (hot dogs, sloppy joes and even ice cream!) and then headed outside for the evening gardening activities. We make pots out of newspaper and planted seeds in both the newspaper pots and peat pellet pots. The kids decided to start orange marigolds and oakleaf lettuce. They will be expanding the building soon so we will relocate the garden to a slightly different spot within the next few weeks.

Seedling Update

Today I noticed the first germinating tomatoes. We planted these seeds last Thursday and this evening I noticed a few of the tomatoes have germinated. Seems like the seeds in the peat pellets germinate faster than the seeds in the potting soil and newspaper pots. I'll have to try a side by side comparision soon with seeds from the same packet. These tomatoes are from a variety called Beef Maestro - a beefsteak tomato. We've discussed growing a number of different varieties of tomatoes this year including Early Girl, Yellow Pear and Porterhouse. Its amazing to think about all the different size, colors and flavors of the different tomatoes.
The other seedlings are doing good too. The mustard seedlings are one of the most interesting to watch. The true leaves are neat looking and make this seedling easy to identify. The lettuce have developed a number of true leaves also. Some of the seedlings are begining to tangle as they grow. It won't be long until we are able to plant a number of the lettuces outside.

Equipment Repair

Penny and I went over to Como to pick up the tiller. Como rebuilt the carborator and did a tune up on the tiller. What a difference all the work has done for the tiller. It runs so much better now. Como has ordered some new tines for the tiller and will put them on the tiller for us when the parts arrive. Typically, other companies in the area have taken weeks to repair equipment, but Como got us taken care of in less than a week. I highly recommend their services if you are in the Columbus area.

Penny spent time adjusting the angles of the discs. We had some trouble using the disc over at the Epworth Veggie Garden using the John Deere lawn tractor. The outside disc seemed to dig down, but the center disc, even at an angle, and with weights did not seem to dig down. We'll have MJ try out the discs with his tractor over at the Northwold prodction garden. The weather was a little bit chilly this morning, but later on in the day it warmed up. Its great to be out in the gardening working again.

Small Space Vegetable Gardening

This evening, Penny, Jim and I headed to Oakland Nursery to check out a seminar by one of our favorite people - Bill Dawson with Growing to Green. Bill talked about growing vegetables in containers and as always there was lots of information. We are definately interested in growing potatoes in some type of container or perhaps trying something with some lettuce. Another neat point that Bill made in his presentation was to highlight one of the best tools to use in checking if a plant needs to be watered - your finger! He called it the Dawson Digit!

True Leaves

I've been watching and waiting for some true leaves to appear on the any of the seedlings. Its like waiting for water to boil. Finally, you can see the true leaves on the salvia seedlings (check out the one at the top left-hand side). The salvia is looking really good but many of the other seedlings are looking weak and spindly. I was hoping that the stems of the plants would thicken with the grow lights. I really should be starting more seedlings such as tomatoes and peppers but I haven't started on that yet.

Seeds, Seeds and More Seeds

We were blessed to receive a bunch of seeds last year from Livingston Seed Company. Over the past 2 or 3 weeks we've shared a number of these seeds with other churches that are starting gardening projects. I'm amazed at the different varieties. We have 22 different varieties of tomatoes and a bunch of different radishes too. Next Monday, we will have a meeting at Epworth to design the layout of the garden.

Epworth Veggie Garden

Finally, we've have some warm weather and the soil has dried out enough to work in the garden! This morning we began to prepare the soil over at the Epworth Veggie Garden. We added some compost to the soil in hopes of breaking down the clay. In places where we added peat moss and compost last fall, the soil is looking really good. The tiller was able to turn this soil easily. I'm hoping that we can add some compost in a couple of the areas that still have too much clay and this will help prevent some of the standing water we've seen in the garden at times. We tried out the discs with the John Deer lawn tractor and that didn't work out so well. We've got to do some thinking about our setup and why (even with cement blocks as weights) that the discs did not dig down very far into the ground. Got some of the garden tilled with the Troy-Bilt tiller but some straw/roots/grass got tangled and ended up pulling the belt off the tiller. We've taken the tiller over to Como for repair. Hopefully, we'll get the tiller back and it will be working like brand new.

Red Salvia Flare

Red Salvia has to be one of my favorite plants. I love pairing Salvia with Dusty Miller in flower beds. A couple of years ago I tried to start Salvia without grow lights and didn't have much luck. This year's Salvia is off to a great start. The seeds were started back on Feb. 20th. Day 10 and the seedlings are looking great! Germination rate turned out great. The germination rate for the salvia is better than 90%. I can't wait until summer. I hope my salvia will look as good as the ones pictured below:

Seed Starting

Today we ended up replanting a number of the seeds were started last Friday, Feb. 20th. The lettuce germinated in no time at all (less than 3 days) and the stems got too spindly before we could get the grow lights on them. Yesterday we went back and replanted all the lettuce, some mustard, spinach and marigolds. I'm always amazed at the whole process of starting seeds. We are starting the seeds in peat pellets. I wasn't sure how I'd like using this method but I have to admit it is fairly straight forward - just add water and seeds. We've been misting some of the seeds lightly with a spray water bottle as needed. I purchased this cool little tool that will allow you take take strips of newspaper and make mini pots.