Central Ohio

Facts and Stories About Ohio

This is a whole new section of State of Ohio facts I’m starting on the site (it is about time, since I write mainly from the perspective of someone who gardens in Ohio). Always believing that one should bloom where they are planted, there are many topics that relate to the State, although still truly relevant to generally all Midwestern gardens. New articles coming to this part of the of Ilona’s Garden!

Many gardens in Ohio are in cities and suburbs with their own challenges, especially older parts of the cities with small yards, and polluted air. It is vitally important to learn “green” methods with the larger numbers of yards in close proximity to one another- the more people actively aware of caring for their space of earth the better for all of us. Urban gardening is coming into its own.

Fall Days

Gardening in Zone 5b

My rural ruminations
*Lessons from my garden experiences here in Central Ohio.

*About My Gardens In Ohio

[map]Check out the geological map of the state.

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Ohioans are called “Buckeyes”, which makes most people think of Ohio State Football, instead of the State tree, the Buckeye, Aesculus glabra. [Some buckeye tree facts]. But both the football reference and the state nickname comes from the tree’s brown shiny nuts.

Facts about the State of Ohio

Ohio has rich soils and a history of farming and agricultural resources. The western lands were flattened by glaciers, while the eastern and southern areas are Appalachian foothills. the Northwestern parts held the Black swamplands, bounded on the North by Lake Erie, and south by the Ohio River… with Central Ohio in the middle. The Scioto, the Miami, and the Olentangy Rivers flow through it into the mighty Ohio River, which in turn makes its way to the Mississippi.  Prairie lands dotted with Burr oak savannah were found mainly in the  west, with deciduous woodlands covering the majority of the State when the pioneers arrived.

The State bird is the Cardinal, and you can see plenty of them in both the urban and rural areas. Birds of Ohio

Geological Facts

Have you ever wondered whether Ohio has earthquakes? It does have small ones, historically, and if you look at a mapping of “deep structures” you will find the Grenville Front tectonic plate runs north/south across western Ohio. The Anna, or Fort Wayne, rift in western Ohio is the site of numerous historic earthquakes.

Best Ohio Gardens To See

Ohio Limestone Stories

In my garden are two types of limestone, both of which I imported from other places in Ohio. Limestone renders some interesting history.

The stone path winding to the front door is quarried limestone, it holds ancient sea fossils and has a yellowed cast. We had traveled to a quarry in Delaware County, walked our way down into it and hauled stones that looked serviceable for the sort of path we were wanting to make. Weighed and paid for the stone on the way out, and after a few repeated trips we were ready to construct the walkway.

Ohio is underlaid in limestone in many places. The Ohio Caverns are formed within the Columbus Limestone Formation; limestone dissolved by acids in the water seems to create them.[1] Limestone underlays my own land. It is “consolidated limy mud or calcareous sand, sometimes with fossilized seashells” and covered with a layer of glacial till. Western Ohio was ground flat by the glaciers. So it is native rock in the area, but none is above ground here where I live. With some of the extra slabs of limestone I also constructed small retaining walls for my driveway planting beds. They weather down and trucks entering the drive have further crushed some of them, but they still hold back the soil from the graveled drive.

One famous quarry hereabouts was the Marble Cliff Quarry Co. It was responsible for much of the limestone used to build the Ohio Statehouse and the LeVeque Tower, once the only skyscaper on the Columbus skyline. I remember looking towards downtown and seeing it from the Summit Street bridge as a little girl. Later land belonging to that quarry became the little hamlets of Marble Cliff and Grandview Heights, both urban neighborhoods which are hubs for arts, great eating places, and just good people watching.

Also quarried from Marble Cliff is the stone which constructed the home of the [3] grandfather and great-grandfather of U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, U.S. Senator Samuel Prescott Bush.

The other source of my limestone rocks was the Catawba Island of Lake Erie. We used to go there for summer vacations and there were the most interesting rocks along the shore and sometimes sitting on the ground around the area. It is a white stone with areas of smoothed surface and knobs. They were exposed on outcroppings all over the area, too- white and fissured with the best holes and crannies for plants. Over time I transported some to my garden, and use them to line some of my naturalistic plantings.

In that area was an old lime kiln from long ago[2]. Limestone had been an industry, slaked lime used for making plaster and mortar, and for reducing soil acidity. All long gone now, with only old ruins of the lime kilns left in picturesque decay.

There are Indian caves in the area, and close to the old kiln is a rock outcropping with a romantic legend of Nabagon. He is the “watcher” whose profile is carved from the rock, vigilant caretaker of the Island.

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Fun Facts:
The holiday that started in Ohio, ‘Sweetest Day‘.
Interesting postcard scenes of Old Columbus, Ohio landmarks.

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