Ron and Vicki Sullivan
October is an important changing season month for a dozen or so Quail Creek residents and their fellow Allen J. Ogden community gardeners. First, the bounty of the summer harvest is ebbing. Second, it’s the beginning of the fall vegetable planting season. Ogden Gardener Lorna Mitchell writes in her Ogden Beet column, “Winter crops will go in the ground this month. There’s still time to grow your own transplants. Start seeds of brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts in cups at home.”
Added to the excitement of a changing season, the Ogden Garden will start its first on-site composting in over 30 years of community gardening. Garden manager and Quail Creek resident George Stone writes, “Composting has been around for centuries. We now have a designated composting site. Bin one is for the fresh cut pulled green (nitrogen) plant material. Another bin is for the brown (carbon) plant material. The third bin is where we shred equal parts of green and brown together. There’s even talk of getting Tree Service Smyrna in to take out some trees to expand the area we can grow our vegetables.”
As recently as 2009, the garden was made up of nine men who tended multiple plots. In September 2014, there were 56 gardeners, nine of whom are children. We are novice and graduate level educated horticulturists, former landscapers, Master Gardeners from other states and people who just like to spend time outside with their hands in the soil. We even have seasonal residents who come and just volunteer.
The garden offers eight raised beds, 20 10’x40’ plots, shared tillers and cultivators (such as small Spikes Rotors), composting bins, fencing, a gazebo, sheds, picnic tables, access to a well for irrigation, plenty of parking, a handicap accessible porta-potty, monthly enewsletter The Ogden Beet and a website at www.ogdengarden.com. Visit us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allen-J-Ogden-Community-Garden/770790759608698.