Wednesday, April 29, 2009

my name is jenny and i would like to recruit you...

when last i posted about the community garden, i was talking about laying down the dream, at least as it stood in my mind. i also had linked to a property that was basically an unused plot of land between two buildings that was available for lease for $1 a year. ONE WHOLE DOLLAR! you could also buy it for $500 if you really wanted to own it. there is a whole website with these kinds of properties listed. i cross posted that to my public blog (which is just like this one just without the more intimate stuff). a few hours later my phone rang and it was jared, who is my partner in justice gardens. he wanted me to make a list of properties that were do-able and check them out for real. so i took the family on an outting and one in particular jumped out to us. it is a whopping 4800 sq/ft, flat, full sun, and has the same deal as the one i had linked earlier - $1 lease for a year or purchased for $500. it is not in a great neighborhood but um isn't that (part of) the point? i told jared about it and we are going for it! i put in two calls today, one to the city of columbus about sorting out the details of our lease and another to the franklin park conservatory to speak with their growing to green coordinator. growing to green is a program that facilitates community gardens/beautification projects though in what capacity (funds? training? promotion?) i am unclear. hence the call. so it looks as if the dream is not only happening but it is happening N O W. we might buy just the first one and guerrilla the other two we were looking at, at least by way of prep work. so, year one begins soon and we are going to just lay the frame work for an agrarian approach by tending to the soil first. laying down green manure and planting probably soil healing ground cover (clover or alfalfa?) will be the first order of business as well as starting what will be a small orchard. i think that is all we are planning to do for now because it takes at least a year to prep the soil. we want this garden to be less garden and more of a model for a sustainable urban farm. im currently researching the legality of housing chickens in the city! things are looking up on that front!

GUYS! THIS IS HAPPENING!

18 comments:

Gerbicks said...

just wanted you to know that i am excited for you & jared & justice gardens! also...your ability to take on something like this with two young ones is INSPIRING.

Olive said...

heidi im so blessed that you guys want to help us out! really! starting something from scratch is HARD

Kristin said...

Awesome! How exciting :) We're starting a similar project behind our church... i think it's so cool that God is putting these sorts of things on the hearts of his people.

I bet you can get away with chickens. We've kept chickens for a long time now and technically it's *illegal* but many of the laws which outlaw chickens are "nuisance laws" which just mean that if someone complains then they have legal grounds to make you get rid of them. If no one complains, then there are no problems! Good luck. We've got chicken experience if you have questions :)

mg said...

this is really exciting!!!!! I can't wait to see all that happens. Please let us know how we can help. This would be something that would be great to possibly get our homegroup involved with. Let's talk!
sg

Radiantsun said...

gosh reading your blog reminds me of my dear friend Magnolia. Whenever she talks about doing things she just does them and it's so inspiring!

Olive said...

kristin i might need some help when the time comes!

sara - i called you

radiant sun - why thank you!

Matt said...

Let me know what we can do to help!

ryan. said...

jenny that is awesome! i look forward to more updates. props to the city of columbus for doing this... here in san diego, the city just recently put a moratorium on any and all garden projects on public land because of "water rationing issues" by the state of california. yet watering all of the tropical landscaping and mansion lawns is acceptable... in a desert... go figure! i digress...

good for you! :)

Olive said...

i thought you'd like this ryan :) regarding water, what if you supply your own water by using rain barrels? granted california is probably more arid than ohio, but i'd love to not have to worry about using city water at all and just build a small structure to house our gear and hook up multiple rain barrels from the gutters. that is what we do at our garden we share with friends and we rarely if ever have to use the hose.

Olive said...

oh and matt - thank you for your interest! ill be in touch as this develops. do i have your email address?

Anonymous said...

That sounds awesome, Jenny!!! I'm really happy for you. Let me know if I can help in any way. :)

Doom For Darlings said...

I sent my friend a link to this entry, so she might get in touch with you - hope that's okay.

Olive said...

yeah! you guys are being so helpful! spread around the word! it will be on E 16th off of 4th!

ryan. said...

true, that is an excellent idea. however, right now the city just won't even look at permitting any gardens which is sad. certain parts of california are not as progressive as everyone thinks haha. and even if we wanted to... our rainy season is over and it likely won't rain again until november or december. this is why we were looking into a privately owned lot. still waiting for a response... :)

Olive said...

because of columbus' land leasing program in conjunction with this very very awesome program through the franklin park conservatory i talked about above (growing to green) community gardens have sprung up EVERYWHERE in columbus. ive never been prouder of this city!

Misty Murphy said...

That is awesome Jenny! We'd be all in to help with anything that you need! Let us know!

Anonymous said...

God will certainly bless all of you for this is certainly of Him-Jane A

Olive said...

if anyone would like to volunteer please give me your email so i can create a master list for further emails. thanks!!