Cover Crops | Growing Franklin

Urban Farm Education Field Day on Wednesday September 24th from 2-5pm

September 3 2025

You are invited to an Urban Farm Education Field Day on Wednesday September 24th from 2-5pm on Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory where I will be participating with a number of my colleagues. The event is free and open to the public, but they ask for registration in order to be able to email the participants the parking and travel instructions due to construction on the farm that changes our traffic patterns. The event takes place at the Student Farm section on Waterman. The link to register is below, there is also a QR code on the flyer listed below the agenda.

CLICK HERE to Register

There is a great line up of topics:

[2:00 pm] Welcome to the Student Farm
[2:20 pm] Remote-Controlled System for High Tunnel Ventilation Management
Matt Kleinhenz, Professor & Extension Specialist, Vegetables
[2:40 pm] Low Tunnels for Season Extension & Insect Exclusion
Tim McDermott, Assistant Professor, Agriculture and Natural Resources
[3:00 pm] Integrated Pest Management Scouting in Fruit Tree & Vegetable Crops
Logan Minter, Statewide Field Specialist/Associate Professor, Extension in Specialty Crops
[3:20 pm] Fresh Vegetable Disease Management
Andres Sanabria-Velazquez, Assistant Professor, Vegetable Crop Pathology
[3:40 pm] Management Practices for Urban Soil Health: Cover Crops & Compost
Fernanda Krupek, Assistant Professor, Urban Food Systems, Amy Hurst and Peri Forbes, Graduate Research Associates, Urban Food Innovations Team
[4:00 pm] USDA Funding Support for Urban High Tunnels & Ohio Urban Ag Resource Hub
Yiyun Lin, Assistant Professor and Urban Agriculture Specialist
[4:20 pm] Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Enabled Robotic Weeders for Vegetable Production
Eugene Law, Assistant Professor, Weed Ecology
[4:40 pm] Adjourn
[2-5 pm] Produce U-pick
Annika Anderson, Student Farm Production Coordinator

CLICK HERE to Register

CLICK HERE to print, view, or download the flyer –> Urban Farm Education Field Day Flyer_Final

Cover Crops Class at the Urban Farm Church on Wednesday September 10th @ 6pm

August 27 2025

I will be teaching a free class on cover crops in partnership with The Urban Farm Church. Come to The Urban Farm Church on Wednesday September 10th at 6pm to learn about how you can use cover crops to improve your soil and increase your yield. After a short presentation we will walk outside to the farm for some experiential learning. The class is free but registration is asked for so they know how to plan for snacks!

We will walk out to the farm to check out demonstration plots of multiple cover crop species after the presentation.

CLICK HERE to Register

CLICK HERE for directions to the Urban Farm Church

Soil Health: Cover Crop Workshop on Wednesday April 23rd at 6pm in collaboration with Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District and NRCS

April 8 2025

Attention urban farmers and community gardeners! There will be a Soil health: Cover Crops workshop held at the OSU Extension Franklin County building on Wednesday April 23rd at 6pm. This class is free although space is limited so registration is required. We will discuss soil health and cover crops as well as hear about programs that can benefit your production from the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District and the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). We will also distribute one free soil test kit to each community garden and urban farm to provide guidance on this years fertility.

You can use the QR code on the flyer to register or you can CLICK HERE.

Location: Kunz Brundige Franklin Co. Extension Building, 2548 Carmack Rd. Columbus, OH 43210.

Please park in the gravel lot west of the building if the parking lot is full.

October 2021 FAST Update in the Community Garden

October 18 2021

October is a fine time to be in the garden. Less bugs, less heat, but still some good sunshine, rain, and decent planting windows. Make sure to keep your garden planted either in fresh veggies or by starting your over-wintered cover crop.

March 2021 in the Community Garden Update Recording is now available

March 12 2021

This update provides information on what to do right this minute in March to get the garden ready, what to plant now, how to prep the beds and what we have in store for our weather.

CLICK HERE for the registration link for the April 2021 Update in the Community Garden class which will be held on Thursday April 8th.

February 2021 Garden Update

February 11 2021

I will be creating monthly quick video updates on what is happening right now in the garden and posting them each month to summarize the monthly virtual garden walk classes in 2021.

This will allow backyard growers, community gardeners, urban farmers and teacher educators to get information quickly or on social if you do not have the time to attend or view the monthly virtual class events.

In this 4-and-a-half-minute update we will take a quick look at:

Spring weather predictions
An update on the Over-wintered spinach and kale
What to plant right now under the lights for spring transplanting
Thinking about our cover crop management

Want to watch the whole virtual class with Q and A from February 4 then click this link!

Want to access the whole 2020 Year in Gardening, then click THIS link!

See you next month!

Intro to Zoom plus a Look at 2021 in the Garden with The Greater Columbus Growing Coalition on February 4th at 7pm.

January 19 2021

The kickoff to the 2021 growing season will be a virtual class held in partnership with the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition to talk a little Intro to Zoom plus review the 2020 growing year and take a look at our 2021 growing year. It is time to get ready to grow!

The class is free and open to the public so bring your friends and your questions. Registration to the webinar is required and the link is below.

Hi there,

You are invited to a CarmenZoom webinar.
When: Feb 4, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: GCGC Virtual Class

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Any questions about this webinar should be directed to the webinar organizer.

Growing Over Winter Virtual Class Recording

October 8 2020January 15, 2021

Growing Over Winter is a great way to utilize all four seasons for food production in Ohio. Making the right choice for cold tolerant plantings as well as the use of season extension will allow the backyard grower, community gardener, teacher educator and urban farmer to harvest all 12 months of the year.

Spinach under cover in January, ready to harvest..

Below is a webinar recorded on 10/6 that discusses the various ways to extend your harvest through the cold months. Click the link at the bottom of the post for webinar access.

Do not want to watch a whole webinar? NO PROBLEM! Click here for an informative Growing Franklin post on How to Over Winter Spinach using Low Tunnels that has all the same short videos included.