Market Street Community Garden

05/31/2026

What a beautiful day we had for Blessing of the Garden! Thank you to Pastor Emma Helms-Steinmetz from Messiah Lutheran Church for doing our blessing. It was a lovely blessing service. The garden is more than just raised beds, it is a community of friends helping friends and a shared love of gardening. Thank you Pastor Emma and thank you to all who attended!

04/20/2026

Very happy to report that all the beds are rented and paid for at the Community Gardens this year already. We are welcoming three new gardeners to our group this year. Always good to see new faces at the gardens!

We now have a beautiful new Gorilla Cart for our gardeners to use, thanks to a generous donation from the Better Gardens Club. I have one just like this at home and really like it. I'm sure it will get a lot of use at the gardens!

Water is on at the gardens (thanks to Urbana City Water!) and available for all the gardeners to use. Our water gets a lot of use by the boys playing basketball across the street at Barbara Howell Park. They are most welcome to come over and use the water hydrant at the gardens.

Feel free to stop by the gardens and chat with the gardeners there. I am sure they would be happy to show you what they have growing!

03/25/2026

It's a sure sign of spring - time to renew your beds at the Market Street Community Gardens! If you had a bed rented in 2025 please go into the YMCA and renew your bed for 2026 before April 1. Beds not renewed by April 1 will be opened up to new gardeners. I already have several on my waiting list!

The wind last week damaged the roof on the original shed at the gardens. Steve climbed up onto the roof and repaired everything good as new! I do appreciate his help!

Looking forward to a great gardening year in 2026!

11/17/2025

Only a few spots left!

It's that time of year! Come join Champaign County Ohio Master Gardener Volunteers for their annual holiday version of the Make It Take It event, this year on November 20 at 6:30 p.m., at the Champaign County Community Center in the Auditorium. Register by November 18 at go.osu.edu/makeit and be aware that pre-registration and pre-payment are required as spaces are limited, and this event fills up very quickly. We look forward to seeing you there!

10/24/2025

Grand finale in the garden. We always have a "Grilling in the Garden" event to finish our gardening season. This year we had to postpone for a week due to rain (which was very welcome!). Had a beautiful evening for our grilling though. Great attendance - we had 19 this year. We consumed lots of hotdogs, chips and Twinkies. Lots of gardening successes and failures shared and vows to have even more amazing gardens next year. Thank you everyone who attended, and all the gardeners who make gardening at the Community Garden so special. Enjoy your time off!

09/21/2025

Gardening season is drawing to a close. It's been a great year! We had a wonderful group of gardeners at the Community Gardens that really did an amazing job with their beds. Thank you to all who gardened with us.

Our final Garden of the Week Winners were:

Week 9 Marsha Carney's Monarch Butterfly bed
Week 10 Bed #36 Courtney Porter

Looking forward to everyone cleaning out their beds this fall and then taking a much deserved break over the winter.

08/11/2025

Time flies in the summer! We are way into our summer and have celebrated many Garden of the Week Winners!

Week 2 - Bed # 14 Mary Mott
Week 3 - Bed #18 Zara Liskowiak
Week 4 - Bed #9 Nadine Alessi
Week 5 - Bed #16 Mark Mefford
Week 6 - Bed #24 Mark Mefford (yes, he has 2!)
Week 7 - Bed #29 Dan Bartaletto
Week 8 - Bed #33 Teresa Beverly

Gardens are truly beautiful this year, probably the nicest I have ever seen. We really have some talented gardeners at the Community Gardens.

The Champaign County Master Gardeners are starting classes for new Master Gardeners this fall on September 16. All classes are held at the Community Center here in Urbana. Very convenient! We'd love to have all avid gardeners join us. Just go to champaign.osu.edu>Master Gardener Volunteers to sign up, or just go to champaign.osu.edu. The classes are fun and you are surrounded by fellow gardening enthusiasts!