What does our Garden Grow?

Lunchtime got a lot more interesting once we had a common mission for the garden. Once we established that money doesn’t grow in gardens, we got down to tacks and discussed strategies and goals. What would most home gardeners be interested in growing? Since we are getting a really late start, cold weather crops are out until next year, but you can expect greens, peas and radishes on next year’s list. For this year, we are focusing on basics:

·         Tomatoes of a number of varieties

·         Cucumbers

·         Eggplant (the staff really likes eggplant!)

·         Zucchini

·         Jalapeño peppers (thanks, Hank J)

·         Basil

·         Cilantro

·         Beans

We will be tracking our successes with various strains and invite your comments and suggestions

The Plan

With our mission in place, we started brainstorming our next steps. As eager, amateur gardeners ourselves, what would we want to learn from the tool library? It was easy from there. We would install a variety of simple home gardening ideas that should appeal to new and more experienced folks like us- who want to enjoy a home grown tomato and maybe have a few to put back for winter. Oh, and since it isn’t in the garden, we need to reclaim, barter or beg as many materials as possible!

Our garden will include:

·         Raised beds

·         Square bed gardening

·         A hanging garden feature

·         Rain barrels

·         Composting

So, with a plan in hand, we started working on gathering our stuff! Barrels, and pallets and tires, ohm my!! Our friend, Hank, brought over the tomato, pepper and basil plants. We have allof the garden staked out and the OUPs report came back giving us the OK to dig.

In the meantime, we wrote and received a grant from Scott’s through the Columbus Foundation and we are eager to hear what that will mean. With the help of Brian and Jesse, our intrepid Thursday team, we have accumulated the things gardens of built of. The guys are bringing a group of enthusiastic volunteers with them this Thursday to break ground and get us started.

Now- if only the weather will cooperate!

A garden?

So, it started like this. It was another cold and claustrophobic day in the warehouse. The staff had been working their tails off getting ready for our National Rebuild Day, scheduled for April 30. This always gives us cabin fever because we know the end of winter is within grasp. But this year, it didn’t seem to be in reach. Enter the rain--cold, grey, wet, cranky days on endless days of rain, following a cold, grey, seemingly endless winter.

What else would a group of eternal optimists dream about over lunch? Tomatoes. Perfect, sun warmed, juicy, red tomatoes, grown in our home gardens.  “Man, I cannot wait for a REAL tomato- this one tastes like sawdust.” “Well, I am going to have to have some more eggplants in mine this year. It’s my favorite.” “Hey, I’ll grow the zucchini this year, so no one else needs to- I’ll be more than glad to share!”  And on and on…

Pretty soon, David and Alec came into my office, grinning and obviously teaming up on something.  Could we have a garden at the warehouse? I felt like the mom being asked for a kitten—“please?? We’ll feed it and weed it and take good care of it-you won’t have to do anything!” Yeah, right. My daughter used that line for the last cat we adopted while she was at home, and ten years after she’s moved out, I am still feeding the cat.

My initial response was tentative. We do support and promote community gardening, so why not? Well- it wasn’t in the budget and it isn’t exactly our mission, so if they could present a strong enough case, AND figure out how to fund it, we would consider it. They would also need to get permission from our property manager and come up with a plan to sustain the garden for the future.

And so we begin…The RTCO Demonstration Garden has a mission to share economical, safe and healthy ideas for home gardeners. We will be sharing our efforts with our Tool Library friends and asking for their suggestions and support. We are all amateur home gardeners who love to get our hands dirty and we hope we will have some ideas of our own to share with you.

Keep an eye out here for our progress. Now we just need for the sun to stay shining!