Epworth Veggie Garden - More Soil

Tonight I brought over a couple of loads of topsoil from Kurtz Borthers. The plan is to add the topsoil into some of the container gardens like the cement block gardens and the wading pools. Unloading soil by hand is hard work. Check out Jim in the back of the truck helping to unload the soil.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Shaping Up

We continue to make improvements at the Epworth Veggie Garden. We've put many of the rocks back in the garden to line the path. We also added the stepping stones back to the paths. This year we hope to add more art and color in the garden. We'd like a colorful garden that would invite folks to come take a tour.

Buckeye Lake - New Fence

We continued working on the new fence out at Buckeye Lake tonight. Some of the kids raked the area where the fence will go while other kids picked up limbs or trimmed vines. This project will take a number of weeks to complete. It was nice to see all the various ages of kids and youth working on different projects.

Maple Grove - Harvest

Tonight we began to harvest a few things in the garden at Maple Grove. We harvested spinach, lettuce, swiss chard and chives. We had some great help harvesting the spinach! The harvest tonight at Maple  Grove represents the first harvest of all of our garden. I'm sure the harvest list will continue to grow over the next few weeks and months.

Epworth Veggie Garden

The Epworth Veggie Garden is slowly getting back into shape after having the entire winter off. We've got some pansies on one of the hanging posts. Wood chips continue to be added along the walking paths and borders around the garden. Grant spent some time as well to layout the cement blocks. Soon we will prime and paint the outside of the blocks.

Buckeye Lake - Fence

Work began tonight on the back fence over at the Tom Sawyer House. The first step was to remove the old fence that is falling down. We've started a couple of different piles of materials. One is just yard waste like limbs and eventually leaves. The other pile is old wood, plastic and other items that will need to be taken to the dump or disposed of in some way. We've got alot of work to do this summer, but tonight was a good start.

Maple Grove Garden

We continued planting some cooler weather veggies out at the Maple Grove Garden. The row of peas was extended a bit. We watered all of the plants really well. Right now we have peas, lettuce (several varieties), onions, chives, swiss chard, spinach and brocolli.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Moving the Herbs

Tonight we worked at the Epworth Veggie Garden from 5 to 8 PM. We tilled some of the compost from  Kurtz Brothers into the garden. Then decided to move some of the herbs out into the wading pools on the parking lot. The chives have been growing like crazy. We finally decided it was time to contain then. I'm sure they will continue to grow and fill up their new home in the wading pools. We also moved the lavendar, mint, sage and oregano.

Northwold Garden - Picking Up Rocks

This morning, we worked at the Northwold Garden just off Cleveland Avenue. Turning a city lot into a community garden is hard work. We can't wait until we have veggies growing on this lot. There was a small strip of the lot that was tilled with a bobcat so I thought I'd take the tiller over and make a few passes  through the soil. Needless to say we ran into lots of rocks. Some of the rocks were a little on the large size. I bet the rock below weighs about 25 pounds. I'm sure we'll be pulling rocks out of this lot for years to come.

Kurtz Brothers - Compost Donation

Kurtz Brothers has generously offered to provide free compost or topsoil to community gardens this weekend as part of an Earth Day celebration - http://b1d51dbb416b93969a1123ef302494d18225524a.gripelements.com/press_release_-_kurtz_bros_offering_free_soil__mulch.pdf  We picked up some leaf compost this evening for the Northwold Garden. What good looking compost! I hope everyone buys all their compost and mulch from Kurtz Brothers.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Much Work to Be Done

We worked out at the Epworth Veggie Garden this evening. Grant watered some of the plants and then took some pictures. His quote for tonight in response to some of the pictures he took says it all - "much work to be done". I wanted to get a bit of a start on the thistles before they went to seed. Thistles are one mean weed! We'll continue to prep the garden for a big day of planting on May 1st (we're going to put in some of our warm weather plants a couple of weeks early. The frost free date for our area is May 15th).

Buckeye Lake - Moving the Garden

Tonight at the Takin' it to the Edge Garden out at Water's Edge - Buckeye Lake, we took down the fence and removed as much as we could from last year's gardening spot. This will be the 3rd year we've moved the garden, but that's great because Water's Edge is growing! The new garden spot will be located in the backyard of the Tom Sawyer house and we've been planning so many little projects over there. We've got fruit tress planted, will put up a new fence and of course plant flowers and veggies.

Maple Grove Garden

Today it was dry enough to till the main garden area at Maple Grove. The soil looks fairly good. You can tell that a bit of compost has been added and the soil is not heavy clay like we typically find at new gardens. Other tasks that were done tonight included planting more lettuce (seedlings and seeds), peas, broccoli and onions. After we planted more veggie we got the water hose out to water the plants and also add some water to the rain barrel for storage. Having a full rain barrel will make it much easier when someone comes to water the garden.

Wood Chips

Tonight, we added more wood chips around the garden and along the paths. There were so many earthworms working through the wood chips. Over time the paths begin to break down and that leads to weeds growing in the paths. We have weed fabric underneath the wood chips, but a couple of times a year we add additional wood chips to keep the garden path looking nice.

Epworth Veggie Garden - Lettuce

Tonight, I planted some more lettuce at the Epworth Veggie Garden. The weather has been a little cool and the temperature dropped below freezing last night. The lettuce should be fine and soon we will probably directly sow lettuce in the ground instead of starting seeds inside and then transplanting them in the garden. In the past, I've grow a number of different varieties of lettuce including some red leaf lettuce and lettuce with odd shaped leaves. The plan this year is to try and keep things a bit simple and grow more common veggies and varieties.

Checking on the Seeds

Just checking in on the seeds today and figured I'd post some pictures. The entire proces continues to amaze me every time I seed a seed germinate. I feel like a little kid that is watching the process for the first time with big eyes and so excited each day to see what is growing and how tall the plants are getting. Starting seeds for the most part is really simple - some light, moisture - you'd be surprised where seeds will grow. Check out the number of seeds left in the cucumber  package that germinated.

 

Chocolate Tomatoes!

Peppers

Zinnias

The zinnias and some other plants were getting a bit tall for the grow racks and I thought it would be good for them to do some time outside on the front porch. I'd been watching the weather and knew it would get too cold at night to leave the plants outside all week. From the looks of some of the plants it looks like the got too cold and should have been back inside a little earlier. They should be ok, but yet another lesson learned. Of course I am still wondering what I was thinking starting the zinnias so early and waiting so late to start the pepper plants.

Buckeye Lake

Tonight was our first night back gardening at Buckeye Lake. We'll be gardening every Wed. evening until the end of October. Tonight's activity was seed starting. We brought the pot maker, newpaper, potting soil and seeds. Some of the seeds we started included sunflowers, lettuce and squash. We'll see if any of the kids bring back some pots with little seedlings. Not to worry because we've got plenty of seeds we've started in Columbus and will be planting some things directly from seeds. Another item on the agenda was to check out how the fruit trees were doing that we planted last fall. Spring is in the air!

Maple Grove Garden

Tonight we worked over at the Maple Grove Garden. We were joined by Bonnie, Nikki and Julie. The main garden area was too wet to till, so we concentrated on the 2 raised beds by the garage. We pulled some weeds, turned the soil and planted spinach and lettuce.

Moving Seeds

As the seeds continue to grow there is a constant shuffle that goes on. The zinnias are almost as tall as the shelves themselves so I've move all the zinnias outside to the porch. I also moved a number of other plants out to the porch so they can get use to the outside temperature and some wind. Back inside in the "green room" I shuffled seeds as well to get plants of the same size on the same shelf. I tried to put all the tomaotes on the same shelf, all the cucumbers together, peppers together, etc. Another technique I'm trying as I have time and can remember is to adjust the time the lights are turn on for certain shelves. We'll see in a few weeks if this work pays off and I'm sure there will be adjustments for new year.

Epworth Veggie Garden

I'm always surprised at what I find in the garden. At times folks will leave pots for us to use as we start/give away seedings. Occasionally someone will bring seedlings or plants for the garden. We've got a baskeball goal up at Epworth that is fairly close  to the garden. When the kids come up to shoot some hoops they will often put things in our harvest basket like keys, drinks, jackets, etc. I found this shirt in the basket today and though it had a neat message.

Christian Assembly Garden

Another new community garden start this year will be at Christian Assembly. This church has a number of great ministries and outreach programs. Christian Assembly has a fair amount of land that can be used. The initial thought as far as the size of the garden is approximately 40 ft. by 80 ft. with the majority of the garden being a communial garden and some individual plots. The produce from this garden will go to Christian Assembly's Food Pantry - Helping Hands. Stay tuned to see how this garden develops.