Sunny Glen Garden

This nightcrawler, Lumbricus terrestris, is almost as thick as my pinky finger, lol. I have it's favorite foods here in the Sunny Glen Garden: oak and maple leaves which I leave on the ground, mixed in with kitchen compost, woodchips, and grass clippings. While we sleep, they grab leaves from the surface and bring them vertically down into their underground burrows that can extend several feet into the ground! They are not native to Ohio but spread during the ice age when glaciers retreated but they can strongly influence soil health fungi, creating micro-habitats called middens, which strongly impact the distribution of plant litter and a whole world of litter-dwelling animals along the soil surface...

Our first recipients of our Balconies for Biodiversity: Native Plant Container Gardens for Porches, Patios, and Pollinators, thanks to Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District's Beyond Community Backyards grant! Ths grant makes it possible for 45% of the apartment-dwellers/renters in Linden and other communities to be included in growing native plants that support our native bees, butterflies, moths, birds, and more! Currently, programs support only property owners since native plants in the ground, with their deep roots, can facilitate rain water percolating in place, filtering of pollutants, thereby improvement of the water quality of our streams and rivers, but now more people can join in!

These native Ohio plant plugs look small now, but once they establish their roots, we will have THRILLERS - colorful blooming flowers with nectar and pollen that grab our attention, FILLERS that will eventually fill in the spaces such as native grasses that provide habitat, or native asters and goldenrods to provide sources of food in the fall when it is needed, and SPILLERS - ground cover type native plants that bloom early in spring and provide insulation and water retention while cascading over the sides with their colorful foliage or blooms. These native plants will come back each year on their own.

They each received a large 30-gallon container, soil, nutrients, 5 native plants, and live wood chips! Link to application form:
https://forms.gle/5yujRL2MaS4fdsea9

Turns out, if you give neighbors native plants, and children a raised vegetable bed and playground, pollinator habitat, bird lists, and a suspicious amount of wood chips… a community starts looking a lot more like an ecosystem. 🌻🐝🌎

Sunny Glen Garden and the CCC for PPP (Connecting Community Corridor for People, Pollinators, and the Planet), along with our incredible collaborators, have now donated:

🌱 50+ mini native plant gardens (6ft x 10ft pocket prairies of glory)
🥕 A raised vegetable garden
🛝 A children’s mini-playground
🌳 5 native trees

Most gardens are on private property in Linden, but now the pollinator party is climbing balconies and patios too! Through the Balconies for Biodiversity grant, we’re adding 30 native plant container gardens for renters and apartment dwellers. Tiny spaces. Big bee and butterfly energy. 🐝 🦋 Apply here: https://forms.gle/qA2EAgDdx6JTCPRu8

Several of these gardens are stewarded through the County, OH Master Gardener program known as the CCC for PPP Bucket Brigade. Most Wednesday mornings from 9:30 am – 11:30 am, we meet at Sunny Glen Garden before venturing out to the nearby CCC for PPP gardens, like an ecological treasure hunt crew.

Activities may include:
🗺️ Mapping native plants
🌿 Identifying edible weeds
🐦 Listening for birds
🐝 Checking bumblebee homes
🪵 And moving approximately one million wood chips on the driveway to the CCC for PPP gardens!

It’s been wonderful meeting the new 2026 Franklin County Master Gardener Volunteers! They’ve been absolutely hauling mulch this month and helping these gardens thrive. Legends in hats and gloves. 🌿💪👒👩‍🌾👨‍🌾 We are appreciative of their support!

Want to join us? You’re welcome anytime!
📧 Email [email protected] for more info...

Yippee!!! I have been quite busy with a new project called Balconies for Biodiversity: Native Plant Container Gardens for Porches, Patios, and Pollinators! Many thanks to Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District Beyond Community Backyards Grant for making it possible to include apartment-dwellers, renters, and businesses, with growing native Ohio plants in container gardens that extends beyond their current program for property owners!

If you know an apartment-dweller, renter, or business, that would like a very large (30-gallon!) outdoor fabric grow pot, the soil to fill it, 5 native Ohio plants, and live wood chips to help retain moisture in summer, insulate the plants in winter, and eventually breakdown to provide plant nutrients, please share this post to let them know. Preference will be for renters in the Linden neighborhood but is not limited to this. They can apply by completing this google form: https://forms.gle/qA2EAgDdx6JTCPRu8

There are 30 of these grow pots from Greenhouse Megastore, Inc that are available and some who are on the Linden Bee Tree Trail will receive oyas from GrowOya - an ancient Indigenous practice of burying a clay pot in the soil and filling it with water which slowly permeates into the soil - it conserves 70% compared to surface watering and promotes a healthier, deeper root system.

We'll be emphasizing free educational workshops for the public so be on the look out for updates!

1) Best practices for native plants in container gardens
2) Franklin Soil and Water Community Backyards Rebate program
3) Permaculture solutions to Ohio's spring flooding and summer droughts

Apply for the Balconies for Biodiversity Native Plant Container Garden here:

https://forms.gle/qA2EAgDdx6JTCPRu8

I am continually inspired by the work that Jera and Adrienne have been doing with Growing and Growth Collective in their community and have enjoyed participating in several of their events - the thought-provoking films on tough topics but with insightful discussions that link us to folks doing something about it, and their fun events that bring people together. I wasn't able to attend their annual Sow the Seeds for GGC 2026: event as I was working out of town, but I appreciate so much, their Agricultural Education in Cities Impact Pillar Award and look forward to future collaborations!

* Collective Impact Awardees:
The Ohio State University and Central State University
* Comprehensive Health and Wellness Impact Pillar Awardees:
Cody Pham and Olivia Shao
* Food Access and Affordability Impact Pillar Awardee:
Pam Shields (Urban Aging Residents Coalition)
* Agricultural Education in Cities Impact Pillar Awardee:
Dianne Kadonaga (Sunny Glen Garden)
* Equitable Community Development Impact Pillar Awardee:
FACCES
* Collaboration Along the Rural-Urban Interface:
Karima Samadi (Mika Meadows LLC)

We have data from the first year of our “To Dig or Not to Dig” USDA North Central Region SARE research grant that we can share from each of the 3 research sites: Sunny Glen Garden, The Urban Farm Church, and the Johnstown site managed by our new partner, The Garden for All, this Wednesday, May 13, at 6 pm, at 3901 Maize Rd. We have been comparing vegetable growth and production of peppers and potatoes, soil health, watering resources, labor involved, etc., in the trial “No Dig”, regenerative agriculture beds versus the conventional “To Dig” tilled beds. You can also check out our videos showing our process/methods that can provide best practices, costs involved, for farmers and gardeners for using these methods. Free registration here: www.urbanfarmchurch.org/events1

Happy Mama's Day from the Berry Bungalow (Bluebird Box #1 located above the black raspberry patch) at the Sunny Glen Garden!!! How many baby chicks do you see in the pine needle nest? They are likely less than a week old as their eyes are still closed, and they are featherless, all snuggled in together. I've been watching Mama and Papa Bluebird fly in with food in their mouth all day as they perch on the phone line, look around, and then swoop down into the bluebird box to feed them. I will leave them be now so they are not accidentally scared into fledging before they are ready in a week or more.

Not sure who is nesting, with mostly grasses, in The Windy Wind Inn (bluebird box #2 in the South/Southwest corner, named for the prevailing Columbus winds) - Cody suggested a house sparrow or less likely a tree swallow.

And in the Sunset Serenade Suite (bluebox #3 on the west fence), it looks like a House Wren started the interior decor with sticks/small twigs, and then possibly a House Sparrow on top of that? And who's been chewing and pecking at the front entrance?

Can’t wait to get to know our new neighBIRDS, who will be moving into the CCC for PPP community in Linden! Six home tweet homes were built and custom designed by the kids at Franklin County 4-H Council Clover 5k Far East club last year, based on a pattern from NestWatch - Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

With the support of First Unitarian Universalist of Columbus Share the Plate donations this year, we were able to purchase garden equipment for the community, like this post pounder, and hardware (rebar, metal posts) to give these new bird homes a firm foundation.

And we welcomed our new Franklin County, OH Master Gardener Volunteers, like Muscle Michelle, lol, to pound in our posts!

Many thanks to bird extraordinaire, Cody Pham, who just completed his Phd exit seminar (congrats!) on Ecology and Education for Equity Across Cities, Urban Gardens, and Higher Education, who inspired and helped us figure out where best to place the bird homes in their environment to be most welcoming to our new bird friends, and Olivia who supported all of our projects and just graduated from her medical program too!

This was a true collaboration of many birds of a feather, who flocked together, to make this happen!