Worth the hard work

NORTHWEST OHIO — Tracy Cotterman stood, surrounded by raised garden beds filled with tomatoes, peppers and beans. Even though the afternoon sky was gloomy that day, Cotterman was smiling. The first year for the North Baltimore Community Garden has been a good one, she said. "It is hard work, but its good work, and things that are worth it probably do have some hard work," according to Cotterman, who has guiding the project. First-time gardens in Arcadia and Ada have also been popular with their residents. "It's been wonderful to watch things grow and see the community come together," said Ruthie Tong, community coordinator of Arcadia's Heart and Soul team. "Everyone takes turns watering and weeding, and it's truly a shared effort." The gardens have produced a varity of vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, onions, squash, strawberries and herbs. An oasis in North Baltimore The garden in North Baltimore is a collaborative effort with involvement from Briar Hill Health Campus, the North Baltimore Garden Club, North Baltimore Public Library, Ohio State University Extension Office–Wood County and the Wood County Health Department. The project got its start when the Wood County Health Department applied for and received a grant through the Ohio Department of Health's Creating Healthy Communities (CHC). Safa Ibrahim, program coordinator for the grant, said the initiative aims to support community-led strategies that improve healthy eating and active living through policy, systems and environmental changes. A key focus is establishing a community garden to improve access to fresh produce and promote healthier lifestyles. The garden will also foster community connections, support sustainability through composting and serve as an educational space for all ages. A 30-foot by 30-foot garden space located in the village park near shelter house #2 was designed by Ibrahim and contains eight raised large metal containers. "Some of our volunteers, they've got some physical limitations that they can't bend over, can't do things, so these bring it up," Cotterman said. There is also a group of "ninja weeders." "They come in and get a lot of the weeding done," she said. "And there's a group that also shares the watering as Mother Nature hasn't blessed us this year." Different types of tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, onions, green beans, muskmelon, squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash and strawberries along with green peppers, tabasco peppers and chili peppers fill the containers. Since one goal of the grant is to educate, perspective gardeners were given free kits to learn how to to grow herbs and tomatoes, said Cotterman. "The hope is you come here and learn and then take it home and maybe build your own and teach that," she said. "A lot of people are intimidated by that thought process so we're trying to teach them that it can be one tomato in a bucket and you're a gardener." Even Cotterman said she has learned some new gardening tips this summer. "I've been gardening for quite a while, and I've never grown eggplant and I've never grown muskmelon. So I'm learning how to do that. It's kind of fun," she said. Ibrahim agreed. "I barely knew how to plant when I started this, and look, I designed a whole garden," she laughed. They hope to make more community members aware of the program. "So we're working on some thoughts about how to educate over the winter months and build excitement for next year so that people can understand that, yes, we'd love sweat equity. But if you can't and you need a side dish and beans are growing and ready, come get your beans," said Cotterman. "It's kind of what we're doing is just showing people that you can grow a whole salsa garden in one spot. You can grow a whole salad garden in one spot. There's really no rules," she said. Any time there's an overabundance of vegetables, Cotterman harvests it and shares it by placing it at the Blessing Box next to the Marathon Gas Station on North Baltimore's Main Street. Ibrahim said she's surprised how well the project has done. "Also the participation of the community and the garden club has been phenomenal. Sometimes it makes me so happy I want to cry," she said. Cotterman would like to expand the garden next year and bring in some some other itemss that people have asked for like potatoes, berries, corn and more perineals. She has also talked with the Boy Scouts, and they want to start a farmers market. "We've got some Boy Scouts that are ready for their Eagle Scout so they will take that over. They will fund that," she said. An Arcadia community-oriented program In Arcadia, the community garden follows a long line of projects that Heart and Soul has already organized. "The village was awarded a $25,000 community grant from the Findlay/Hancock County Community Foundation, which has allowed us to begin work on a new community garden. We kicked things off with a planning meeting that included 15–20 community members to discuss what we wanted the garden to look like and how we would move forward," said Tong. Her mom, Deb Suman is leading the garden project with help from Nan Boone. "We were trying to think of things for the whole community. I said, well, a garden because I know there's a lot of lower income families," Suman said. They decided to start with raised planter boxes by the village water tower, a space with plenty of room for future expansion, said Tong. In addition to growing produce, they also saw this as an opportunity to beautify the village and plant flowers to brighten up our local businesses. Boone mentioned that her son works at Kreate, a local plastic tote company. Thanks to their generosity, they donated 20 large garden planters for both the vegetable garden and flower boxes. "So far, we've planted 10 flower boxes and delivered them to several local businesses including Honey Joe's Café, the post office, Burn's Financial, RPM, Unique Stations Salon, Superette and some of our churches," said Tong. All of the flowers and vegetable plants were purchased at Conine's Country Market. Ten of the large garden boxes are now filled with tomatoes, peppers, pickles, onions, squash, strawberries, herbs and more which were all planted and cared for by community members. Suman said it took quite a while for people to learn there was a community garden in town where they could help water and weed or just help themselves to fresh produce. Once Tong added fliers to resident's electric bill, people started to respond, Suman said. The group is now planning a salsa and tomato sauce canning class for anyone who wants to learn and take part in preserving the harvest. Members are also hoping that the Arcadia Local School's shop class can help them build a small farm stand so produce can be distributed next season. "So hopefully next year, because they want to do it in stages, we want to put some fruit trees out and plant a flower garden," said Suman. They hope to add corn and maybe potatoes as well. "This is just the beginning of what we hope will be many years of healthy growth, community connection and shared purpose," Tong said. Gardens times 3 in Ada The Bee Attitudes Garden Club of Ada planted three different gardens this summer. Deb Curlis, executive director of Beatitudes Community Center, said flowers found a home beside Middlefield Banking Co. of Ada, including cannas for height, hostas due to the shade and baby begonias for color. Volunteers experimented with raised beds in back of Bee Home, which is an offshoot of Beatitudes. There volunteers planted lettuce, onions, green and red peppers, basil, parsley, eggplants, zucchini, tomatoes and radishes — all shared with the community. Marigolds were added around the edges as an insect deterrent. "One of our volunteers also made zucchini bread to share with our customers at Beatitudes," said Curlis. A side garden by an apartment building was adopted and planted with a variety of herbs and perennials to use in dried arrangements and potpourri.