THE GLORY OF SPRING 

 Hello garden friends and Grow Appalachia followers! 

The glory of spring is here! Since our last post Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is staying busy planting lots of seeds and plant starts!  Flowers, herbs and veggies, along with a variety of flowering tubers like Dahlias are in the garden growing strong.  On Saturday mornings gardeners catch up while tending to our garden beds. Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden also hosted several successful group volunteer days where we worked together to improve the city garden so we can continue to grow healthy organically grown produce and flowers for many years to come.

 

                  

My new year resolution is to lead a successful added income market garden and so far spring has been good! I lucked into a free grow lab this past winter and was able to get a giant head start on the season by starting many of my own seeds in the comfort of my own home. I’ve planted all of my 4x8FT raised beds with flowers and herbs.  This weekend I will tackle my second plot located on a Kentucky farm a few minutes drive from downtown Cincinnati.  Now that I have flowers and herbs available I have been busy scheduling meetings with local businesses and making many colorful, fragrant arrangements. One of my favorite clients is Taft’s Ale House!  I make weekly arrangements for their hostess stand from flowers and herbs grown in Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden.  

Teddy Bear Sunflowers

Dahlia Tubers I picked up on Earth Day

My helpful an handsome husband, Jeff, planting the natives and wildflower garden bed.

Me, tending to the snapdragons.

                          

Local Flowers on TAP at Taft’s Ale House!

 

Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is located near several popular beer breweries and gardener Chris recently added a trellis to one of the brick walls and planted several varieties of hops. Taft’s Ale House set up a garden tour and work day for later in June. I look forward to showing them Chris’s progress. 

 

Two volunteer days with local organizations are planned for this spring:  May 26th from 10:30PM-12:30PM and again on June 16th from 10:00AM-12:30PM. Organizing groups to tour the garden and lend us a helping hand allows for more people in our community to learn how to grow food and of course getting bigger jobs completed faster. During these volunteer dates we hope to knock out spreading compost, watering, tasting and harvesting. If  you are interested in joining us on these dates or would like to set up a time to tour and volunteer in our city garden please email Garden Coordinator, Christina at theflowerladyotr@gmail.com.  Check out a few photos from the volunteer days this past month! THANK YOU:):):):)

                             

3rd grade students at St. Francis Seraph School, located 2 blocks from Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden, started an array of herbs and vegetable in their classroom. Their teacher and I recently took them over to the garden where they planted their veggie starts in a section of our community beds. We also enjoyed sampling herbs like cilantro, chive, dill, mint, parsley and vegetables like lettuce, radish, kale and chard. Judging by her smile they throughly enjoyed their garden visit.

 

Thanks again for following our urban garden, Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden, and I look forward to sharing this seasons adventures through our monthly blog. Please enjoy a few pictures from recent garden meet ups. 

Peace, Love, Happiness and Gardening, 

Christina 

Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden 

Cincinnati, OH