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Ready to start a gardening revolution in your backyard?
Let us help you One Small Garden at a time!

You can do it, we can do it, or we can do it together!


Milford, OH, 45150
United States

(513) 218-0573

One Small Garden can help you change your world one small garden at a time. Let us help you go from zero to gardener in less than 3 hours. Our product line includes raised garden beds, garden tables, storage sheds and accessories for small-space gardening. Our garden and shed lot is located in Milford, Ohio.

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Blog

One Small Garden is a raised garden bed and storage shed, cabin and tiny house dealer in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Beds & Sheds

Jordan Strohl

One Small Garden moved to our new location, the “Out Lot”, in Milford as of January 2014. There was little need to have regular office hours then, so we posted our phone number, talked to many folks and waited for the thaw.  Finally this last weekend, we staffed and opened our space for regular hours and were met with dozens of folks who were enjoying a hint of spring this past Saturday. The day and time passed happily talking to so many who were warming up for spring and ready to grow something of their own.

It was great fun to entertain those who came to shop the cabins, potting sheds and mini barns and to imagine in what kind of ways these perfect “little get-away" places would be used. For some they envisioned their tools & lawn furniture in orderly storage. Others spoke of their kids and a place for play and practice. One fella was dreaming of his own “Man Cave”, complete with a TV, air conditioner and wood burning stove. Our first sale would become a place for safe storage while the demolition of our dear friends childhood home was to begin in the next few days.

We were inspired by the frequent and dreamy sort of far off look in peoples eyes as they would imagine how an “out building” would meet their needs and wants. I was reminded of Marie Antoinette during her “hay day” when she created a “pastoral place" to escape the glitz of Versailles. This was her “get away” from the stress of her enriched and every day life. She wanted a place in the country and built all things as her imagination believed it would be. The Cozy Cabins, like the one we fondly refer to as our Home Office, seem to be this sort of get away in today's terms.

Are you dreaming of your own log cabin in the woods one day? What is your retreat from the everyday? With questions like these, we are inviting others to submit to us pictures and ideas of: “What would you do with your shed?”

Please direct to :  juliann@onesmallgarden.com and we will post and share with our readers.

By sharing our dreams and the dreams of our buyers, we hope to inspire others and we look forward to the pictures and stories in time to come.   

Teaching the Healers

Jordan Strohl

Earlier this year in the dead of winter a place in Avondale was once again devastated by a “break-in" and theft of things. Gabriel's Place on Reading Road in Avondale lost some lap tops and some momentum. There was a short term shutdown while resources were replaced and a reaffirmed commitment was reached. Gabriel's Place is a part of the Episcopal Church and committed to being in a community that deserves better than it has and is staying on to offer a safe haven and warm meals and place to learn and grow in community.

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Preparing for Spring Seeding

Jordan Strohl

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It seems almost all the seed packets say to "plant when the soil is workable", but what does this mean? One interpretation is simple when the soil is no longer frozen. Another is that perfect soil consistency that can only be obtained once the spring rains have subsided and the earth may be clenched in your fist. The soil should not be so wet or tacky as to clump like clay, compressing the very air out of it. Workable soil is more like a pie crust with the cold butter particulate breaking and clinging evenly to the flour and salt. Soil that is workable is what we all wait for so eagerly after a long and cold winter.

Effective early spring seeding is contingent on the ability to set the seeds in "workable soils" and to have the soil temperature neither too cold nor too warm for the seeds to happily germinate. It sounds intimidating to manage so many variables but much can be overcome by choosing the right seeds for the right time. This is what we call planting into the season ahead. Season appropriate planning and planting will provide food growth through most of the year. (Re: chart in the KY Ag. Document chart for planting)

One of the greatest advantages to using a raised bed is accessibility and great drainage. Proper drainage comes by setting the beds level and by choosing a combination of characteristics in your soil that will support growth and drainage and a "rich soil network".
We are lucky in the Ohio River region for the fact that the glaciers left sand and silts in our top soil. We can also harvest easily compostable diversity from our fall deciduous tree leaves. This treasure can break down over the winter and be used as a amendment to our spring start up when we gather again the compost we have set aside through the winter.

The early " cold soil " seeds prefer cooler soil and are able to adapt while germinating and growing through the unpredictable flux action in temps we enjoy in the Ohio River Basin. The trick to early seeding is protection that allows for light to enter, but effectively prevents wind burn or even over heating in a hot house like covering. With One Small Garden you can achieve this perfect balance.

One Small Garden does so many things to get you up and growing earlier than traditional in ground gardens. The soil is workable sooner by virtue of capturing the growing spring light and holding under the Cold Frame Curtain, thawing winter's hold on the soil. Conditions may be too wet or frozen outside the bed but the soil within is warm enough, readily draining and perfect for cold soil seeding like snap peas, spinach, lettuce radish, carrot, tatsoi etc.

By using the Cold Frame Curtain the "hothouse " effect encourages a rich and diverse soil to be receptive and supportive to great germination. Fresh new seeds are in for the season and a fresh start is well within reach.  Seeding is now possible as we can reach in and "work" our soil and then offer further protection to our young and hopeful crop.

In a few weeks we will watch for our warmer days and roll back the curtains providing a wee bit of air flow as the young crop matures.