Happy Earth Day Grow Appalachia Friends!
April has been a busy month filled with educational classes and spring bed dressing! After our seed exchange last month Garden Coordinator Allison taught an amazing class on how to grow food in containers. Since we are an urban site and our garden space is full we were excited Allison was able to share her knowledge with our community so even more people can grow food in the city. Thank you Allison!
This month was also filled with wood chips and compost… All of our beds have been layered with weed cloth and dressed with local compost. Gardeners also put down cardboard between our raised beds and topped the pathways with wood chips in hopes of keeping those pesky weeds at bay. Don’t our beds look great?!
Unlike last April, it was so wet, this month is mostly sunshine allowing many gardeners to come out and prepare their beds.
This month was also EARTH DAY! Garden Coordinator Christina came up with an idea that was inspired by Paul Mitchell Schools, Pinterest and Grow Appalachia. We recycled doll heads on Earth Day and transformed them into unique planters. Planters were filled with edibles like strawberries, fresh flowers and oxygen cleaning indoor plants. These planters were sold to staff, students and guests for $20 a piece. This money was then donated to the Paul Mitchell Schools annual FUNraising campaign. We’ve raised $250 so far and now taking custom orders through Mother’s Day. Do you like? Thanks for the inspiration Grow Appalachia!
If May turns out to be anything like April then we are headed into a successful growing year. We feel blessed and very thankful. Next month we hope to plant a large bed with potato slips, lot and lots of seeds and possibly start to reconstruct our compost bins!! Stay tuned and get outside and grow something. Thank you for reading!
Peace,
OTR People’s Garden
In 1980, members of the Over-the-Rhine community in Cincinnati, Ohio joined forces with the Civic Garden Center and purchased four vacant lots on East McMicken Avenue which they ultimately transformed into a productive vegetable garden known as the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden. This historic Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden was the first community garden in Cincinnati and is an excellent example of people coming together to improve a neighborhood.
Beginning in 2014, the Civic Garden Center’s Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden began collaborating with Grow Appalachia and Paul Mitchell the School Cincinnati after the then Admissions Leader and Green Team Leader, Christina Matthews, along with a neighborhood art teacher, Ali Burns, decided to apply for a grant from Grow Appalachia to support the garden. Christina Matthews, personally met with John Paul Dejoria, the CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems and founder of Grow Appalachia, in Toledo, OH where he agreed to donate $10,000 toward their efforts.
The Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is Grow Appalachia’s only urban partner site. And although it is located in a neighborhood that continues to see high crime rates, it is viewed by many of the residents as a respite from some of the pressures that exist outside its fences. It is also purported to be the longest continuously active community garden in the country!
Paul Mitchell the School Cincinnati eagerly became involved with the garden as a direct result of the culture established in its schools. The culture of Paul Mitchell’s schools encourages individuals to do more for their community by giving back. The Green Team focus on civic responsibility, recycling etc. Christina Matthews’ vision was to meld the goals of Grow Appalachia, Paul Mitchell Schools and the OTR People’s Garden in an effort to improve the Over-the-Rhine community.
Six years later, the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden has accomplished more than anyone could have ever imagined—growing approximately 500 to 1,000 pounds of fresh food and flowers per year! More importantly, it provides a space for the community to heal, teach, empower, and feed each other. Just last year the garden offered 17 free garden classes with topics that included cooking, generating income from a small garden plot and building affordable season extensions. Events like these brought 250 new friends and volunteers to the garden in 2019!
Christina Matthews, was so inspired by her years of involvement with Grow Appalachia and the People’s Garden that she resigned from Paul Mitchell Schools in 2016 and launched her own flower-farmer-florist business—The Flower Lady OTR. Now Christina devotes all her time and energy to what she loves—growing a business in conjunction with volunteering her time with Grow Appalachia, The Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden, and in the OTR community. Life is flourishing!
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