Urban gardening program for kids loses mulch after miscommunication with health department
Tysha Ahmad started cleaning up her empty lot on West 33rd Street soon after receiving a citation in February from the Marion County Public Health Department.She and some relatives hauled away a variety of rubbish and even some old kitchen appliances. But they left the piles of mulch Ahmad uses for her non-profit urban gardening program, Mother Love’s Garden, and shares with neighbors to use on their own gardens.
The mulch piles were noted in the health code citation. But when she called to inform the department she had cleaned up the other debris on the lot, Ahmad said she explained the mulch was for her gardening project. She told IndyStar the person she talked to said it could stay.
“I spoke to the inspector and let them know we are an educational garden,” Ahmad said. “We will be using the wood chips; they will be utilized so that mound won’t be there. He said, ‘No problem.’”
'No problem' becomes a big problem
Believing everything was taken care of, Ahmad didn't think to ask for written approval. She just went back to planning the new gardens that would be spread out over a handful of empty lots in the northwest Indianapolis neighborhood.
Then one day last month, while at an agriculture meeting in Danville, Ahmad got a phone call.
The health department was back at the empty lot, hauling away the mulch she planned to soon use.
“They’re wood chips that will break down and turn into soil,” Ahmad explained. “It was not something that was going to sit there forever. It’s all biodegradable, that’s why we use it.”
Now, she’s uncertain if she’ll be able to find — or afford — enough new mulch before the Mother Love’s Garden summer camp.
Curt Brantingham, spokesperson for the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, said he could not find any record documenting a conversation between Ahmad and the department about the mulch being allowed to stay.
“When we do anything with housing, when have communication with a property owner, we do what we can based on the situation to allow extra time or to make accommodations when trying to achieve compliance,” Brantingham said. “In this case, there is no mention in our notes of that.”
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The department conducted an inspection in February, then followed it up and referred the lot for clean up to its crews, he said. That’s the usual process for how these situations work.
He said any large piles of things just sitting on a lot, along with any junk or debris, are listed in the department’s code as potential public health concerns. The housing code the department operates under does not allow mulch to be kept on a property, Brantingham said.
“There is not a way to maintain a long-term mulch pile at a residence or on a residential property,” he said.
County takes mulch, ignores trash in alleys
Ahmad said the department's vigorous enforcement action on her mulch pile seems odd considering the condition of alleyways in the neighborhood. They have been a site of illegal dumping for years, she said, with construction and household waste piling up among weeds and brush. Old shingles and siding have obviously been sitting in piles for quite a while, and one neighbor even lined up stumps along his property to thwart the illegal dumpers.
“It’s a beautiful neighborhood," Ahmad said, "and this would not be tolerated in other areas.”
Brantingham acknowledged there is a lot of illegal dumping in the county. But there’s only so much the department can do, he said. Brantingham also noted residents are responsible for the half of the alleyway that borders their property, and the department could cite a resident for trash in an alley if it’s on their half of the easement.
There are several options for residents who want to argue against a citation, he said. They include asking for an administrative hearing to work out the issue through an official channel, or speaking with the inspector if the resident does not want to go through the process of a hearing.
That's what Ahmad says she tried to do, but the department still took her mulch.
“I did call and talked even before the due date,” Ahmad said. “We had gone thought this before and I didn’t want any misunderstandings. I don’t know what the breakdown was.”
Like 'lasagna' for the land
The mulch is a critical component of the educational camp Ahmad runs in the summer.
The free, five-week program teaches neighborhood kids from 9 to 12 about growing a garden and nutrition. The camp, which begins in June, runs from 7 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday. Campers are given a $50 stipend each week and that amount increases if they return the next year.
“It’s important we keep kids busy, and we typically have 15 kids,” Ahmad said. “One downside to them removing the woodchips is: When are we going to get more? This is farm season, everybody wants woodchips.”
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The mulch is used to keep weeds at bay and for a technique Ahmad likens to making lasagna. Layering the mulch between stacks of cardboard, Ahmad can build up a depth of soil more suitable for growing vegetables and herbs on otherwise vacant city lots.
But now, she's left with no mulch and looking for last-minute alternatives before the next crew of campers arrive next month.
Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk
IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Urban gardener loses mulch after health department miscommunication
