One of my favorite Sunday rituals is to find Cindy Decker’s column in the Home and Garden section of The Columbus Dispatch. Today’s column is “Garden’s should be all shades of green.” She means “lush and green” as in “is your garden kind to the environment?” Many of the practices will also save money.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/home_garden/stories/2008/06/29/6a_W

ILD29_ART_06-29-08_H1_8GAIUTJ.html?sid=101

Before sewer work was done in our neighborhood (Adena Brook), we experienced “flash flooding” through our carport whenever there was an intense and quick rain storm (1-2 inches in an hour would typically cause the flash flooding). I had spoken to a city engineer with the sewer department previously this Spring, about what they had done and when the storm sewer work had been completed earlier in the year. (Mark Timbrook, PE was whom I spoke with) He actually remembered our discussion, and his site visit of our home, surrounding sewer and catch drains in 2006. He shared with me the work that they had done, and an intent of this work was to correct our home’s problems. I hate to admit this, but I was frankly shocked by this news…thinking that “our city’s government” would not pay attention to the needs of an individual homeowner / neighborhood. I also did not anticipate that Mr Timbrook would track with me on my home’s issues, recognizing and respecting how very busy someone in his position would be (and probably fielding a lot of issues similar to mine across the city!) We experienced no flash flooding [on Thursday, 5" rainfall event]…we were very very shocked, thinking that if any rain event would have caused it, last week’s intense weather should have!

Heather Dean (FLOW) and Stephanie Suter (FWSCD) share these suggestions:

Backyard conservation reduces storm water problems. 

When rains fall on roadways and rooftops, it can’t soak gently into the ground as it once did. Instead, it flows down gutters and into storm sewers, picking up pollutants as it goes. Besides affecting the quality of water in streams and rivers, this runoff can cause them to flood more quickly.

While you can’t eliminate runoff entirely, you can do your part to protect water quality and minimize the runoff from your home lot. 

*Install rain barrels to catch water from downspouts instead of running it into storm sewers. This water is ideal for watering lawns, gardens, or indoor plants because it isn’t chlorinated. Besides, it’s free!

 *Grow a rain garden in a natural depression or dig a spot for one. Plant water-tolerant plants to filter runoff as it soaks into the soil. Just make sure the spot will drain within three days to interrupt the mosquito life cycle.

 *Terrace steep slopes to slow runoff, allowing more to soak in and reducing erosion.

 *Replace paved sidewalks and driveways with materials that allow water to infiltrate, such as gravel, stones, bricks, mulch, wood chips, and ground cover plantings.

*Wash your car at a commercial car wash that treats and recycles wash water, or wash it at home over a grassy area or gravel using biodegradable, phosphorus-free soap.

*Use a drip pan to catch leaks from your car until you can get them fixed. To clean up fluid leaks or spills, soak them up with sand or cat litter. Choose non-toxic, biodegradable cleaners for your driveway.

*Bury pet waste, flush it or bag it and dispose of it in the garbage. It’s a source of bacterial contamination in runoff.

*Minimize the use of pesticides and fertilizers on your lawn and follow label instructions. Careful lawn management can reduce the need for these products.

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5 inches of rain fell about 1:30 AM on Thursday–that was the mark on the Robinson’s rain gauge. The storm water runoff caused a huge, fast flush of water through our neighborhood. The result is evident. The new Overbrook bridge/culvert near Lenappe is closed because of structural damage. If you walk along Overbrook Drive off High Street, you will see the debris washed onto the riparian areas of the brook. I estimate that the road was covered with 3-4 feet of water. The water raged high and wild on Overbrook off Indianola Avenue.Though this was a significant rain event, the storm water runoff problem in our neighborhood is obvious. There are solutions, but it will take a community effort and response.

Did you read the article titled Sea Trash in the NY Times Magazine, June 22, 2008? The article highlights a clean up group working to rid an Alaskan coast of litter, litter that washes ashore from ocean currents. “The world’s oceans are filling up with bottles, wrapper, and other flotsam” and the article asks, “Is there anything better to be done than picking it up off the beaches where tons of it drift?” Here’s an excerpt: ” Plastic gets into the ocean when people throw it from ships or leave it in the path of an incoming tide, but ALSO WHEN RIVERS CARRY IT THERE (my caps), or when sewage systems and storm drains overflow. Despite the Ocean Dumping Reform Act, the U.S. still releases more than 850 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm runoff every year, according to a 2004 E.P.A. report. 

Read the entire article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22Plastics-t.html?ex=1214798400&en=541d1f4221501f26&ei=5070&emc=eta1

This article got me thinking. First, I am very grateful for the City of Columbus’ stormwater runoff improvement projects.

Then I started thinking about our group and my own behavior. The Adena Brook Community litter clean up program is more than cleaning up the neighborhood. It’s a clean water public awareness lesson. We aim to become more informed about ways each of us can contribute to a clean water solution. To be blunt: I am working to change my behavior. A few months ago I heard OSU glaciologist Lonnie Thompson talk about what he thinks humans can do to help improve our global environment. He said the biggest help would be a change in attitude, a change in our behaviors. Change is challenging, but I’m trying.

Here’s my short list:

Commit to recycle.

Keep your cloth bags in the car so they’re there when you buy groceries.

Purchase concentrated, non-toxic household cleaners.

Choose tap instead of bottled water. Tap water can be additionally filtered with reverse osmosis and distiller.

Reduce storm water runoff from my home. Install rain barrels, rain gardens, unhook gutters.

6/14/08

A HUGE THANK YOU TINA MOHN! (City of Columbus Recreation and Parks, Property Manager)

For the new native trees are planted at the completed culvert improvement project on Overbrook near Lenappe.

2 Red Bud

2- Red Maple

1 – Cottonwood

1- Sycamore

Additional trees planted in this area:

3-Box Elder

4- Sugar Maple

4- Ohio Buckeye

2- Ironwood

2- Bitternut Hickory

6-Hackberry

5-Black Walnut

4 – Hophornbeam

7-Black Cherry

6- American Elm

JUNE CLEAN UP

The clean up was fun! These 17 neighbors weeded the rain garden and pulled garlic mustard:

Georgia Blum-Herminghausen

Ken Cahill

Mark and Carina Carter (I-71 Cooke Road exit area)

Stacey, John, Tanner Durst

Ann Laubach (E. Schreyer area)

Diana Lessner

Kip Patterson

Nan Platt

Judy and Bob Robinson

Molly Ryan-Fisher

Greg Schneider

Pam Turrell

Susan Michael Barrett

Thank you to mentor and botanist Greg Schneider who continues to add wetland prairie species to the Adena Brook Rain Garden. Greg planted a large clump of Culver’s root and three clumps of spike-rush

with arrowhead.

Deb Lanata writes: I thought you might like to know (in case you didn’t already) that there is an owl frequenting the ravine area behind 4041 N High (west side of Glenmont and High).  I often eat dinner down there when I’m working and I’ve seen the owl twice, heard it hooting several times, even after dark.

only because I was leaning back in my chair

doing nothing

I saw the summer’s first yellow butterfly

Diana Jung Stacey has done a huge amount of garlic mustard removal. Her documentation follows. At the end she writes that the leaves are less bitter to eat when they’re young. Has anyone made a garlic mustard salad? Diana writes:

I pulled 3 bags of garlic mustard yesterday.  If I leave them by the side of the street, they will be picked up for incineration??  I can put them in our trash can, but I thought it better for them to be incinerated.  One is located by the bridge just east of our driveway, south side of Overbrook.  Two bags are located on the east side of Overbrook, across from the fire hydrant and John and Stacey Durst’s house.  I worked for about 4 hours.

A couple weeks ago, when you saw me, I bagged two bags, about 6 hours.  That day, I spent a lot of time pulling baby honeysuckle, as well as baby garlic mustard, and making sure all the roots came out with the plants (that’s why it took so long).

A few weeks or so before that, I pulled about 1 bag for 1 hour, I cleaned up the garlic mustard growing along the alley behind our house.  That alley is access for some of the Overbrook addresses without driveway access on Overbrook.  So for your record-keeping….this spring, I pulled 6 bags over 11 hours…..I don’t think I’ve reported that to you before, but you may have already added the 2 bags which I left on Overbrook for pickup a few weeks ago.

I pulled all the plants I could see….but it would be really good if someone else has time to walk thru and look for any strays I missed, as it’s difficult to spot the plants now that the flowers are gone.  Here’s a description of where I covered:

Starting at the area southeast of the bridge at North Canyon & Overbrook, I worked on both sides of the street, passing our house (220 Overbrook), all the way down to Cooke Road.  I covered all of the areas which do not look like they are on someone’s property, and I also pulled garlic mustard within 10 feet of the road on private properties.

The last couple years I worked the area from Cooke and Overbrook (across from our old house, 298 Overbrook) down to in front of the Dursts.  I usually try to cover the entire area all the back to the water, but yesterday, the oppressive heat and mosquito attacks caused me to scan for the larger plants from halfway into the woods, rather than hiking all the way in…..also, there was a patch of large garlic mustard near the road in that area, but it had about a 6’ radius of poison ivy around it…..I did not attempt to tackle that in shorts.  I did pull a lot of garlic mustard clustered inside smaller poison ivy patches by crushing the poison ivy with a branch that I could step on to get closer to the mustard.

Looking up the property at our old house, it actually looked pretty good.  I had been clearing garlic mustard there, on the hillside, for probably 5-6 years.  I kind of want to ask the new owners if they would mind if I looked it over for plants….I hate to think there might be a couple that will burst open, spewing out hundreds of new plants!

Well, we’ll keep up the battle.  Maybe next year, I’ll try getting out earlier and pulling some to try a recipe.  It’s suggested that it’s better to eat before it flowers….after flowering, it’s more bitter, I think.