Sundays In November at the Franklin Park Conservatory Community Garden Campus

Come on out to the new Community Garden Campus for cooking demonstrations and tastings from the Live Fire Cooking Theater on Sundays in November! Jim Budros, Grillmaster and Owner of City Barbeque is passionate about wood fired cooking, will be heading up the demos from Noon to 2pm each Sunday in November. These demos are FREE for members or with admission to the Conservatory. There is a small charge $3 for the 'make your own' pizza on the 8th.

Sunday, Nov. 1: Wood-oven Pizza Nepolatana Vera ( the real pizza of Naples) and camp-fire Jambalaya
Sunday, Nov. 8: Make your own wood-oven pizza, String roast (at the Rumford fireplace - a la ficelle) leg of lamb and wood-oven roasted fall root vegetables
Sunday, Nov. 22: Texas Chile and Dutch oven corn bread
Sunday, Nov. 29: Argentine beef and vegetable stew in a wood-oven roasted pumpkin (Carbonada).

On the 15th, Bill Dawson will be holding a Loofah Gourd workshop from 11am-12:30 in the Education Pavilion on the Campus. see further info below.

‘Let’s Talk Loofahs’

Growing loofah sponges can be a fun and rewarding project if you have bit of unused space in your garden or on a fence. A loofah sponge as it is commonly known is actually a plant seed pod. The loofah has many names, both common and scientific. It is known as smooth luffa, loofah sponge, loofa, loufa, luffa, sponge gourd, Chinese okra, elephant okra, dishrag gourd, and many other common names.

Bill Dawson, Growing to Green Coordinator, will share his hobby of growing and processing loofah gourds or ‘gifts from the garden’.
You will learn how to start these plants early indoors, proper transplanting techniques, trellising, harvesting and drying methods.
For $3.00 participants will receive a finished sponge and some seeds to take home to try on their own!

When: Sunday, November 15th, 11:00am-12:30pm
Where: Franklin Park Conservatory Community Garden Campus in
the Education Pavilion
Free with admission to the Conservatory

I hope to see you all there!!

Bill

2009 Growing to Green Awards winners and event photos

Hello All,
You must take a few minutes to look at these photos of the Growing to Green Awards ceremony held at Franklin Park on 9/10/09.
It is my favorite event of the year, a time when we can truly recognize the efforts of the groups and individuals for all they do in our communities.

Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!!

http://www.photobygillilan.com/2009/GTG-2009/welcome.htm

Bill

Urban Homesteading Lecture at FPC

The Franklin Park Conservatory Presents

Urban Homesteading
Presentations and panel discussion.

OCTOBER 3,
2 - 3 P.M.
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
Community Garden Campus
AEP Foundation Education Pavilion
FREE WITH ADMISSION

Learn from a panel of local residents how they transformed
their homes into areas of urban agriculture.


1777 East Broad Street Columbus, Ohio 43203
www.fpconservatory.com
further info: 645.5863

Community garden grant due soon!

THE SCOTTS MIRACLE-GRO COMPANY AND THE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE GRANT OPPORTUNITIES FOR COMMUNITY GARDEN

ScottsMiracle-Gro program enters its eighth year of funding support for community gardens
COLUMBUS, Ohio (September 21, 2009)—The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and The Columbus Foundation today announce grant opportunities available through The Scotts Miracle-Gro Community Garden Academy for neighborhoods developing and maintaining community gardens in Franklin County. Grants of up to $4,000 are available for qualified projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Contributions will be made in part by in-kind gifts from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company.The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company established The Scotts Miracle-Gro Community Garden Academy in 2002 through The Columbus Foundation to support a variety of community garden projects in central Ohio. The Academy promotes a “brown to green” concept that creates an oasis and communal gathering place for neighborhoods. “The community gardening movement continues to grow across the United States, enhancing our environment, and uniting communities,” said Rich Shank, chief environmental officer, ScottsMiracle-Gro. “ScottsMiracle-Gro is proud to support the creation of community gardens throughout central Ohio.” Applicants may request support for community gardens or nontraditional gardens, including farmers’ markets, school gardens, artistic gardens, and beautification efforts in the form of a garden. Funding is available to new and existing gardens; grants awarded may include in-kind support. Successful garden projects should involve neighborhood residents, demonstrate positive measurable outcomes, and meet stated objectives. Applicants are required to be a 501(c)(3) organization or have a fiscal agent to receive funds. Click to download the garden application or please visit www.columbusfoundation.org, search keyword—Specialized Grants. Garden applications must be submitted electronically to submit@columbusfoundation.org by Friday, October 16, 2009, 11:59 p.m.
For additional grant information, visit our Grants Opportunities section at www.columbusfoundation.org. Questions, please contact Lisa Courtice at lcourtice@columbusfoundation.org or 614/251-4000.

Soil Testing By OSU Student Extraordinaire

http://digitalunion.osu.edu/r2/summer09/mason/

Check out this beautiful and informative website by OSU chemistry student, Tori Mason. She tested soil in the University Area community gardens for lead. She lists the results as well as important information regarding heavy metals and community gardens that everyone should read.

This work is a fantastic example of partnerships between community gardens and universities. Connections like this are waiting to be made!

Growing to Green Awards

Deadline Extended until Friday August 28th @ 5pm. Please nominate your garden project this week!! Hello Community Gardeners, I hope that you are enjoying the fruits of your labor from your gardening projects this season. Now it’s time to be recognized for all of your efforts.

Franklin Park Conservatory is proud to present the 2009 Growing to Green Awards, honoring community gardeners for improving neighborhoods across the region. An awards ceremony will be held at Franklin Park Conservatory on September 10, 2009 from 6 – 9 p.m. to recognize the dedication and hard work of many central Ohio communities and individuals while furthering Growing to Green’s objective of promoting participation in city beautification and community gardening. Cash awards go to the winning entries! Applications will be accepted from all citizens of the greater Columbus area who wish to receive recognition or who want to nominate a group or individual for their participation in exceptional community gardening or neighborhood beautification projects. Judges from the community will be chosen by the Conservatory and will review all submissions. All entries must be received at the address below no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, August 28, 2009: Franklin Park Conservatory 2009 Growing to Green Awards c/o Bill Dawson, Program Coordinator 1777 East Broad Street Columbus, OH 43203-2040 CLICK HERE to download an entry form. (Print and complete this entry form, include disk of images and bring in or mail in. You may email digital images to Bill Dawson marked Growing to Green Awards photos to bdawson@fpconservatory.org ) Review all of the categories to see where your nominated project fits best. In addition to community recognition for outstanding efforts, cash prizes are awarded to the winners to help sustain their gardens. I look forward to receiving your application and seeing you at the awards ceremony on September 10 at Franklin Park Conservatory, Bill

Community Garden Basil Festival

Come and enjoy the Basil Festival at the St. Agnes Gardens, behind St. Agnes Church. The date is Saturday, August 22 and it starts at 10 and runs until 6.
There are no parking or entrance fees.

The address is 2364 W. Mound St. There will be basil products offered for sale, along with several craft tables. Almost on a half hour basis there will be free garden events or programs to choose from. These include herbal healing, entomology, butterflies, composting, worm composting, grafting, bees, basil tastings, pesto making demos., and garden scavenger hunts.

We have three garden sections to visit, the Head Start Garden, the Neighborhood Kid's Garden, and the main garden area.

The Fire Safety House, garden craft tables, face painting, bounce house, and snow cones, popcorn, and cotton candy will be provided free of charge to all children who attend.

Thanks so much,
Marilyn Wilson
St. Agnes Gardens

City Farm Fresh! Local Cut Flowers

Uplift your spirit! Love your Neighbor! Support Urban Beautification!

Greetings Columbus Gardeners! Four Seasons City Farm is excited to offer beautiful, colorful, locally grown cut flowers. Bouquets range in price from a $7-20 donation. Flowers can be ordered by calling 614.252.2237.


City Farm gets FRESH!


Christopher's new art form


We have a wide variety and amazing color selection


Our flowers are grown at Sunflower Alley, a Garden of Four Seasons City Farm located in the Near East Side on the corner of Bryden and Ohio.


We have over 20 different varieties of flowers

Four Season's City Farm is a non-profit organization dedicated to revolutionary food production and community-building projects in and around the near eastside of Columbus.

Glen Echo: 'Pocket neighborhood'

Residents around Glen Echo Ravine love their little urban oasis but worry that they lack the clout to protect it
Monday, July 13, 2009 3:04 AM
By Mark Ferenchik
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Glen Echo Ravine might be among Columbus' underappreciated assets, a green and inviting getaway that winds below a sometimes loud and belligerent city.
While a nearby train horn bellows and a jet angling for a Port Columbus landing roars overhead, a visitor can descend into a little tranquillity, wandering an area that looks more like the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania than tabletop central Ohio.
It's a big reason that people have chosen to live nearby. But its seclusion also has led some to believe that neighborhood leaders and City Hall don't listen to their needs.
"It shows distinctly how isolated we are," said Martha Buckalew, a longtime neighborhood leader who helped lead an unsuccessful effort two years ago to break away from the University Area Commission and join the Clintonville Area Commission.
That idea seems to be dead for now. The University Area Commission would have to dissolve and reconstitute itself for Glen Echo to leave. And Clintonville Area Commissioner Mike McLaughlin said there doesn't seem to be the political will.
In addition, a big issue -- a leaking, smelly sanitary sewer line through the ravine -- seems to have been resolved. The city just spent $2.5 million to reline the 1928-era sewer and replace manholes that erupted during heavy rainstorms.
The homes are from roughly the same era, clustered along the south edge of the ravine in a tree-filled neighborhood where Ohio State University professors and employees live along with other professionals, retirees and some students.
Christopher O'Leary, who lives there, said Glen Echo's character -- its house styles, the high percentage of homeowners versus renters -- reminds him more of Clintonville than the University District.
O'Leary, a freelance illustrator who grew up in Youngstown, called it an old-fashioned neighborhood where people sit on their front porches.
"We love this neighborhood," he said. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 after residents petitioned for it because they wanted to discourage people from demolishing houses, said Therese Nolan, a resident who worked for the designation.
"It's just a dear little enclave," she said. "It was really a 1920 streetcar-commuter neighborhood."
The Columbus Real Estate and Improvement Co. bought 47 acres in 1908 at what was then the city's northern edge. The city annexed the land in 1910, and developers marketed it as a scenic area connected to the city by streetcar. "My husband calls it a pocket neighborhood," said Amy Youngs, a California native who moved to the Glen Echo neighborhood from the Short North five years ago.
The ravine is the big feature that attracts home buyers.
You can't drive into the ravine. Gates and posts block cars from entering.
A creek winds along the path. There's little litter and only a smattering of graffiti under the Arcadia Avenue and Indianola Avenue bridges, where the city demonstrated its anti-graffiti cameras two years ago.
In 1999, the Friends of the Ravine began restoring the north slope.
Julie Boyland remembers the ravine as pristine when she and her husband bought their Glenmawr Avenue house for $11,000 in 1965. About the same time, I-71 was being built nearby, bringing a stream of pollution into the ravine's creek.
Since then, officials and residents have worked to try to keep it clean.
Some homes in the neighborhood now go for more than $200,000.
"Our neighborhood is a stable neighborhood," Buckalew said.
Folks come together to care for neighborhood gardens.
One is a flower garden in the median of N. 4th Street. Another is on a hillside overlooking 4th and Hudson streets. The community garden began this year with 37 folks taking care of individual plots of tomatoes and peppers, radishes and lettuce.
Some of the food is donated to a local pantry for the needy, said Trish Dehnbostel, a manager for Local Matters, a nonprofit group that promotes locally grown food.
Nelson Jeck gave the group permission to put the garden plots on his property. He runs a company that makes plastic bottles in an old interurban car barn.
Barrels around the building that can hold 3,000 gallons collect rain and ground water to irrigate the plants.
"I just come out and steal the tomatoes," Jeck joked.
mferenchik@dispatch.com

Simply Living Garden Bike Ride

Friends of Simply Living will host a leisurely bike ride to two Clintonville residents' permaculture gardens on Thursday, August 13 from 7-9pm. The group will meet for the ride at the Whetstone Park parking lot, in front of large shelter house, from which it will depart southward on the Olentangy Bike Path to the homes at 268 and 274 W. Como. Inspiring conversation will include super energy efficient homes, plant guilds, swales, beekeeping, and more! Call 447-0296 for more information.