this spring it began in our cellar… here is where we filled trays and the grow room is pictured on the right

In early march, we began our spring planting by covering our raised beds with 6mil plastic and placing water filled buckets inside as a heat conductor… it simulated a warmer growing environment.

Our first harvest was early April.

the boys helped

later that month we went to Stratford Ecological Center to see how Maple Syrup is made

Trey and I even helped chop some of the wood (just sharpening our “man skills”)

in may, we built some new raised beds in our backyard and also at the St. Johns Garden

we also tilled at avondale and spread zoo manure from Price Organics

One of our neighbors to the Avondale Garden plot lovingly spraypainted over some obscene graffiti.

We added another 55 gal to our home system and plan to fix Cletus and Sue’s gutters and add a few at the avondale lot for some drip irrigation lines that our friends at www.rainbrothers.com are working on. (they also lovingly donated some barrels for this lot and others!)

The garlic I bought from Kevin at Just This Farm is looking great… (planted last october). This photo is from mid March with Riley and Trey helping in the background

hardening off the early crops before transplanting outdoors

A few Asparagus patches were dug… this one by Dave Rowe and myself over at the St. Johns Hospitality House Garden (we found an old patio under the grass!… fun:)

First year for Onions from seed here with Franklinton Gardens… We grew this Copra variety at Just this Farm and they are my favorite size/storing onion so far.  They seem to be as happy in the city as they were on the farm… we’ll see about the chickens.

the rest of these photos are from last weekends Spring Planting Day…

in other exciting happenings… a few of us fellas hit the streets of columbus on our bikes for a good friday liturgy with multiple locations or stations.

and the rain barrel business is hoppin!

we did some composting education at the Columbus Zoo… here is a compost bin we designed for the event.

and last but not least… the chickens… Patrick and Karen are eager to get them out of their house, so I’m trying to get  a move on with the coop.  I should have it done within the week and I’ll post some pics of the project’s progress.