Re-Imagining Cleveland

Last Wednesday, I went to a meeting in Cleveland at a church, entitled "Re-Imagining Cleveland." The basic subject of this meeting was a land and money grant that is currently available through the City of Cleveland/Cuyahoga County (this is my first foray into dealing with government entities, and it is already feeling a lil bit hazy). The grants are intended to green-up Cleveland in the broadest sense and ways possible.

The grants are up to $10K to develop a piece of land on one of Cleveland's/Cuyahoga's Land Bank lots. The development can be for community gardens, market gardens, rain gardens, parking with pervious materials, trail building, soil building, etc. Being this is a grant, there are stipulations: 1) Budget, 2)The Community Buy-In, 3)Completion Date, 4) Eight Copies of the Grant, 5) A 50% Personal Matching Contribution (so that's like $5K). The good news is that as an Almost Clevelander I may still apply for the grant with a really strong stipulation #2. The better news is that I learned the standard of a really strong stipulation #2, and it completely seems feasible even by non-bureaucratic standards. Furthermore, the $5K can be matched with my personal contribution of volunteer labor.

So that's like fuggin sweet, right? My project intends to be a landscaped/fenced market garden with a pre-garden goal of extreme soil building/remediation. I would love to hook-up rain barrels to the neighbors' downspouts, but that may be asking a little much from the community. I actually have this WCSB old-timer somewhat initially willing to help me out with stipulation #2. He's got a city-owned vacant lot next to him, and I'm supposed to check it out tomorrow. I'll post pictures of the property tomorrow. I hope this space works out. If not, there's about 3,499 other vacant properties in Cleveland. I'll just need to do some more door-knocking is all.

Today's picture is of Friday's yield. I also pulled up another kohlrabi a small zucchini that day from my community garden plot. Later this week, I intend to post about tomato pruning/cuttings, a moss update (no beds of pure green fuzz yet), and updates on the property hunt.