What We Did Last Summer

Patrick Carmody dropping off donations to Euclid Hunger Center

Gardening sounds like a summer activity, but the Memorial Park Community Garden (MPCG) is busy all year long. Our gardeners, volunteers and leadership team work every month. We start meeting in January, planning for the year ahead. In February, we hold our seed swap and seed starting demonstration. By March, our gardeners register for their garden beds. It is very cold in the MPCG when we hold the onion-planting workshop in March. By mid-April, the water comes on and some gardeners put in spring vegetables. It’s still cold, but who can wait. Everyone pitches in to clean up the grounds, stake new plots, and get the MPCG organized for what is to come.

So, as we plan and plot for this year’s garden season, let’s look back at last year. May was all hands on deck as gardeners prepared their beds and planted their crops (some gardeners even put up deer fencing). We went to the Euclid Hunger Center to present our annual Gardening in Containers class. Each attendee received a vegetable or herb in a container to take home. At the very end of May we set up our tents at the Euclid E. 200 Street Stroll. This was our big fundraiser, with lots of bakery items and plants sold. But, we also talked to people about gardening and why it is so important. June brought us gardening, gardening, and more gardening. So much work to do! In July, we had another big MPCG clean up to show off the garden as a stop on the Euclid Pond & Garden Tour. A new event this year was entering a vegetable exhibit for the Cuyahoga county fair. We won third place, which is not bad for a first try! That team is vowing to win it this year. At the end of August, our master gardener conducted a “garden walkabout” to discuss problems and successes with gardeners and visitors.

Throughout the season, the hunger center team took care of four hunger center beds. They prepared the beds, planted the crops, watered and weeded them. Every Wednesday and Saturday morning, they cleaned ripe produce and took them to the Euclid Hunger Center. That was a hard working crew. However, it was so worth the effort. We sent a record 800 plus pounds of vegetables and herbs to the hunger center!

Well, you can’t just walk away from the garden when the growing season seems over. In October, our How to Put Your Garden to Bed demonstration taught gardeners how to close their garden correctly and save effort in the spring. While it was very cold in October, at least it didn’t rain on our MPCG Harvest Celebration as it did the year before. We put up the tents, cooked some food, played games and had a ball. Gardeners went back to work in November for the official garden close out and final clean up. In December, we held our annual holiday party at Sticks in Briardale Greens. It was a very good party.

We had a great year. We’re gearing up for another one. If you would like to become involved in any of these activities let us know at memorialparkcommunitygarden@yahoo.com. For more information about MPCG and to read our gardening newsletters visit http://www.cityofeuclid.com/residents/EuclidMemorialParkCommunityGarden.

Kelly Butauski

Communications Coordinator for Memorial Park Community Garden, Euclid, Ohio.

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Volume 6, Issue 3, Posted 8:00 PM, 03.06.2015