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Welcome to the OMNI Garden Page
Would you like to share your green thumb with OMNI? We now have our own flower and vegetable gardens. Our new center at 3274 Lee Avenue sits on a flat corner lot that has some established flower beds with perennials on the west side of the building and a sunny space on the south side that is being developed into a vegetable garden. Last summer our OMNI youth group helped get the vegetable garden established, and we continue to build up raised beds while combating the invasive Bermuda grass.
If you have any ideas on how our garden area should evolve, or if you’d like to donate some of your labor, contact Steven Skattebo (stevenskattebo@hotmail.com). In addition to physical work such as pulling out Bermuda grass rhizomes and stolons, we need expertise in identifying some of the perennials that pop up in the flower beds and advice on how to further develop the areas.
Also make sure to check back here for updates on how the garden's coming along!
Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 6:14PM The fertile raised beds have been resting under a thick layer of Austrian Winter Pea. Very little soil preparation will be needed this year; just a light tilling of the surface to work the peas (i.e. "green manure") into the top inch or two of soil.
If you are interested in helping out with the garden this year, send me an email. Mid to late March I hope to start by planting some frost-tolerant greens.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 5:34PM We're putting the garden beds to bed by planting Austrian Winter Peas. We harvested a good crop of sweet potatoes, and green beans and tomatoes are surprising us with one last burst of production before they freeze.
Stay tuned and let us know what ideas you may have for the OMNI garden next year!
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:53PM To say it was a challenging summer for gardening is an understatement. Yet despite the record-breaking weather, we can claim some modest victories for the OMNI garden.
Up until mid-July we harvested a few tomatoes, and quite a few cucumbers and squash. All summer long--and up to the present--the sweet potato vines have stayed very green (see photos). So, if hotter summers are here to stay, plant more sweet potatoes! Of course, they haven't been harvested yet, so when we dig them up in a few weeks we may be disappointed, but at least the above-ground part has stayed pretty. They also benefited from partial late-afternoon shade.
One other victory was the battle against Bermuda grass. It looks like we have gained the upper hand. We painfully combed through every square inch of soil in the spring and removed big bunches of rhizomes. We did miss a few, but pulling up the survivors once or twice a month has been effective. So, if we stay vigilant, it looks like we can keep them under control. A secondary strategy was to dig a small trench around the perimeter of the garden, and about twice a month chop off any creeping Bermuda grass stolons/rhizomes creeping into the garden (see photos).
We'll probably put the garden to sleep here in a couple of weeks by planting a cover crop (Austrian Winter Pea) and hope for a better year next year.
Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 12:19PM Check out the new pics in the Garden Photo page
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 6:30PM Despite odd weather extremes this spring, the OMNI garden is progressing nicely. Check out the new photos in the Garden Photo Gallery.
How would you like to adopt your own OMNI flower bed? This would be a chance to help OMNI look nice while you practice using your green thumb. It would be a very minimal committment: light weeding and maybe watering once a week during hot, dry weather. Perennials are already established in the beds, but there is room for more flowers or other plants of your choice.
Go to the photo gallery, pick out the flower bed you'd like to adopt, and send me an email: stevenskattebo@hotmail.com
stevens
Weed Alert! Nutsedge invasion!!
If you have nothing to do, feel free to stop by OMNI and sit down by the flower beds and pull out nutsedge (just pull them up and toss them on the concrete driveway):
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/4000/4010.html
Right now the Bermuda grass seems to be under control in the vegetable garden area. I've also dug up some poison ivy on the northeast corner of the lot. Let's see how much we can control these uninvited guests without resorting to chemical pesticides.