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YouTubeA long time ago I had a temp job on 3rd in GV, I would walk on my lunch breaks and steal garden ideas. People make good use of limited space there.
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
How Does Your Garden Grow?
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chrisgillespie
Short North/Victorian Village
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Those pictures are great, alison. Don't ya just love how those folks in the first 2 pictures use every possible inch of space to grow? They have handing plants, potted plants, and use the little bit of space between the sidewalk and street. Amazing! Thanks for sharing :)
Posted 3 years ago # -
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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Cool shots!
My biggest task these days (well, years) is to crack the whip and make productive use of existing garden beds that have been allowed to overgrow into useless weeds.
My breast swells with song:
I am the very model of a modern major gardener,
with every pest my enemy and every bloom my partn-er.
I scrutinize the listings in the newest nursery manuals
and thoroughly have trained myself in handling of perennials.I'm practiced in the use and care of half a hundred garden tools;
I know the mixing ratios for all the two-stroke motor fuels;
I highly value safety and I follow the most stringent rules -And I never fill my mower until well after the engine cools!
He never fills his mower until well after the engine cools
he never fills his mower until well after the engine cools
he never fills his mower until well after the engine, engine cools!
I know my taxonomy from Abutilon to Zinnia;
I know a sickly yucca from a juvenile dracinia;
With every pest my enemy and every bloom my partn-er,
I am the very model of a modern major gardener!I sieze all opportunities for hunting beetles Japanese,
and if I please, on bended knees, I greet the eager honeybees.
Should aphids dare to venture there, I'll spare no care toward their dispair,
but share my garden fair with any mantis gallavanting there!
Of grafting, double-digging and deadheading I know quite a bit.
Whatever you would care to name I'll wager I have planted it.
To purchase fertilizer, I don't buy just any brand of ... manure...
and I'm always careful with my speech and you can count on that for sure!He is always careful with his speech
and you can count on that for sure,
he's always careful with his speech
and you can count on that for sure,
always careful with his speech
and you can count on that for, that for sure!
Then I can re-create the hanging gardens of old Babylon,
or grade a level lawn for you to put a picnic table on.
With every pest my enemy and every bloom my partn-er
I am the very model of a modern major gardener!In fact when I know what is meant by "chloroplast" and "cambium;"
When I can tell at sight mite infestation on geranium;
When black spot, mildews, smuts, rust,
scorch and dodder I'm more wary at,
and when I know precisely what is in Lasso and Lariat,
then I can drape a table with the harvest's flavor subtleties,
Or spread a bed of flowers making color for your eye to see.
In short, when I can please the various senses with such things as these -
You'll say a better Major Garden-er has never stained his knees!For I've applied my genius to the wond'rous field of Botany
where I find fascination where most others find monotony;
with every pest my enemy and every bloom my partn-er,
I am the very model of a modern major gardener!Posted 3 years ago # -
alison
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Hope it's kosher to link to another forum -- not that it's any rival to CU....
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/gather/msg011523516451.html
I've been swapping plants with these folks for 10 years -- most of my garden came from these folks. It's a real cross-section of people, from helpful Master Gardeners to hopeful brown thumbs, a lot of common plants, some real oddities, a lot of food and bonhomie. Big fun!
Posted 3 years ago # -
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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Cool link!
I've been wondering for a while about some kind of network to distribute perennial plants. For example, how about being able to salvage plants from a home demolition site, and move those plants to some new home site like something built by habitat for humanity?
I have already recovered such plants from such sites, I hate to see gardens bulldozed into waste.
Posted 3 years ago # -
alison
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Not that I know of -- but it would be great if there were.
I've picked up some plants (including some really sweet dwarf iris) from bulldozed sites. I know folks who've rescued plants from the bulldozer, from scrapped municipal plantings, from apartment complexes and fast food joints that were changing their plantings -- only to post them on freecycle and craigslist.
Which is actually not a bad way to get them out there, I guess.
Posted 3 years ago # -
chrisgillespie
Short North/Victorian Village
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Thanks for the Garden Web link. My Dad loves Garden Web, but he's way out in Missouri. Not sure if I'll go all the way out to Hilliard, but maybe :)
In the city, there was a little activity with the Martha Walker garden club in VV. They had a spring plant trade/potluck, too, and a community garden in the neighborhood, but it seemed a little less active this past year. I'll check in with those folks, and see if we can get things heated up with that group this year. I'll post anything here that I find out...
Depending on the perennials you have to give, we might take some at Goodale Park -- especially if you'd help to weed them wherever they were planted...maybe adopt a bed, and plant them there. Let me know, and I can hook you up on that :) For folks looking for places to grow flowers, Goodale Park has lots of opportunities where you can be a bed captain. Get to meet lots of interesting folks, and I'd likely feature you on the website (we just started featuring volunteers). Feel free to PM me if you're interested...
Posted 3 years ago # -
chrisgillespie
Short North/Victorian Village
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alexs wrote >>
Chris, was the rain garden project at the Goodale shelterhouse ever officially killed, or is there still a chance it may happen?You're gonna hate to hear this, but you are talking to one of the board members opposed to the rain garden. AND I'm a big rain garden supporter (where they make sense), and have served as a docent for garden tours at the ODNR for the raingarden and wildlife gardens there. The ODNR has an excellent example of a raingarden for demonstration purposes.
My reasons for being opposed to the raingarden at the Goodale Shelter House:
1) The shelter house does not currently empty rainwater to the sewers. It's already disconnected, and the water gently seeps into ground already (so, it's not a normal spot you'd want a rain garden). Although, rain barrels make sense in this spot (but we have other issues getting approval for that).
2) We didn't have a good spot for the garden. The suggested spot is used for the main Comfest stage.
3) We already have more beds than we can easily maintain, and are always seeking volunteers to help. Although there are "promises" that volunteers will be provided to maintain it, since you otherwise aren't turning out to help the park, how do I know you'll have the volunteers here to do this? The first year of a rain garden is especially intensive , as in addition to regular weeding, it will actually require regular watering to establish, and watering is problematic at the park. If you volunteer at the park, you'll get a better understanding of what we're already up against (especially if you do some of the watering). We (the Friends, not the city) paid for watering beds that weren't near the pond, at a cost of $1000 last year.
4) Raingardens aren't always super attractive, and this would be something visitors to the park would likely complain about in later years. - Although this isn't my biggest reason, but with other damage to the park last year, I think beautification is a priority over demonstration.Anyway, those were my reasons that I didn't support it. Maybe if you start volunteering at the park, and really understand what we do, you can be in a better position to sell us on this idea...
Posted 3 years ago # -
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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OK, that answers my questions. FOSR is working with COSI and the Friends of Westgate Park to install rain gardens. Elayna Grody (formerly of CRPD) suggested Goodale as a very visible location for such a projet.
However I did take some "before" pics on a rainy day, when the roof runoff was going down the stairs on the southwest corner.
Posted 3 years ago # -
lazyfish
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alexs wrote >>
OK, that answers my questions. FOSR is working with COSI and the Friends of Westgate Park to install rain gardens. Elayna Grody (formerly of CRPD) suggested Goodale as a very visible location for such a projet.
However I did take some "before" pics on a rainy day, when the roof runoff was going down the stairs on the southwest corner.yep there is a run-off problem at the house...I think a french drain is the way to solve the issue...also at the gazebo is another massive drainage issue if you witnessed the 08 ComFest and the devastation of the grass after the rain....
so back to the gardens questions...I keep thinking with the economic crisis and all, that maybe 09 is the year of the edible ornamentals. Usually I'm mainly about the flowers and less interested in the food stuff, being a feral regressive bachelor, but I keep thinking that maybe food will become an important part of my flower garden this year.
Am thinking about red sorghum and amaranthus...salivia, artichokes (is there an Ohio variety that will fruit) love the nasturiums and ornamental kales and chard...I like the various colored tomotoes and peppers....I'm guess that 09 will be another drought year as it seems that every year or at least part of every year has a serious drought....so any thoughts about drought tolerant ornamental food sources?
Posted 3 years ago # -
chrisgillespie
Short North/Victorian Village
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lazyfish wrote >>
I keep thinking that maybe food will become an important part of my flower garden this year.
....so any thoughts about drought tolerant ornamental food sources?Decided to post the reply here for anyone else interested in edibles like this. This is another of my passions -- edibles (including off the beaten path).
Many herbs are drought tolerant, including: garlic, fennel, lavendar, oregano, and once established, sage (you mentioned salvia) and thyme.
Veggies: lettuce (it will eventually bolt, but is pretty drought tolerant in spring and fall, and makes a pretty edging), snap beans, and if well mulched: onions, varieties of pepper and tomatoes. There are drought tolerant varieties of other crops being developed by Monsanto, but despite being born and raised in St. Louis, I have issues with Monsanto and their crops and small farmers (that's a whole other discussion), so I wouldn't suggest any of those.
Non-traditional: Yucca, Daylilies (not Lilies), spiderwort, ground cherry, prickly pear (this cactus may be an issue for children and dogs - it's not the spines you see, it's the tiny ones all over you don't), New Jersey Tea.
Unfortunately, some of the best drought tolerant edibles are weeds (such as purslane, dandelion, violets, LOTS of others), and so I won't suggest them.
I'll have to find the Raintree Nursery catalog and see if they have other ideas.
My neighbor, John (the one with the beautiful paw-paw in the front yard, and who is retired from I think the Ohio EPA...or was it the ODNR) grows unusual edibles and is into permaculture (well, we went to a permaculture lecture together). He may have a lot of ideas. Maybe I should have you over for a snack sometime to meet him and toss around ideas.Posted 3 years ago # -
Anne
King Lincoln
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Yes, click on your name to go into your profile and you will see the other thread you started about this same topic. :)
Lots of good responses and ideas there.
http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/community-garden-spacePosted 3 years ago # -
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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I really want to do some container gardening this year, but not sure where to start. I don't have any greenspace, but I have a nice sized patio that (I think?) gets pretty good light.
Any advice for a total novice? I'd be on board if some of the experts on CU wanted to give a little gardening 101 class :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
LauraA
LaLaland
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I can show you what I do Somer. I have no greenspace but last year I did cherry tomatoes, green peppers and herbs. This year I'm going to expand it a little. I got a window planter from my mom that is 6' long and since the neighbors didn't complain, I think more pots are going to be a-ok.
Posted 2 years ago #
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