Saturday, March 20, 2010

Garden Meeting.

The first Sumner Community Garden meeting of the year was held recently and I was unlucky (or lucky depending on outlook) enough to be out of town so I was unable to attend. These meeting are usually such festive affairs, complete with red carpets, evening gowns and in your face interviews by the TMZ staff, that it truly is a shame to miss one. But never fear dear garden enthusiasts, for I have in my possesion the valuable and incredibly informative minutes of said meeting and I intend to post them for you................................now. (email addresses have been intentionally mucked to avoid whatever crap comes with not mucking)

Tues March 2nd Shepherd’s Field Community Garden Meeting.Bruce Hotvedt- site coordinator at Shepherd’s Field
Jennifer LeMay – communications assistant
Ed Smith- site coordinator at The Farm
Don Proctor- community crop steward
Randy Hynek -Sumner City Council & community garden founder


Last year, Sumner Community Gardens produced 38,000 pounds of food todonate to local food banks (more than Tacoma, Auburn, Kent and Tukwilagardens combined!) Are you interested in helping with food bank crops? New program thisyear: You will be provided with a plot of roto-tilled land at TheFarm, and seed will be provided. You maintain the plot and keep 70%of harvest, with 30% of harvest going to food bank as your “rent” ofland use.


Don Proctor is planting community crops of green beans, peas andcorn. Don says, “These crops are yours to have when you need it, helpyourself!” A big thank you to Don and his good work. Watch for emailupdates/announcements from time to time when some helping hands may beneeded for various tasks of weeding, maintenance and harvesting.


Bruce asked who wants manure for fertilizer? Randy has access to aone-ton dump truck for delivery to garden sites. Manure will beavailable soon in the community garden plots so you can help yourselfto this rich soil amendment.


Jennifer asked those present what the preferred means of communicationmight be. It was decided email and an online bulletin board(listserv) would be better than facebook page. Also messages will beposted on the physical bulletin board at the garden site for thosewithout email/internet access. The general email for the Shepherd’sField garden is: SumnerComGarden@biteme.com


** UPDATE** New listserv on Yahoo Groups, please sign up!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SumnerComGarden/ We will look into a website in the future which would be sharedbetween all Sumner Garden sites.


Bruce gave out owner manuals for the roto-tiller, you must sign awavier to use. Within the next couple weeks, as land becomes ready towork, roto-tiller will be available to use. It will be stored in the shed, locked up with combination number and hour meter to recordusage.


Don Proctor is willing to help folks roto-till their plots, he’ll doit for you! Please email Don at: dproct@biteme.net


Sumner High School has a greenhouse program and will be growingtomatoes starts for a new “adopt a plant” program. More detailscoming soon.


As garden plot assignments are finalized, a map of the plots will beposted on the bulletin board at the garden. New gardener applicationsare still coming in.


Joyce Barron is planning to beautify the garden with flowers aroundthe bulletin board area. She says, “Feel free to jump in and weed orplant more flowers!”


Bruce mentioned we’ll be looking for volunteers to help withcomposting. Please contact Bruce if this is a task you are willing tohelp with.


Question was asked: will the Master Gardeners be coming back this yearto answer questions, troubleshoot? Ed Smith said last year it waschallenging to coordinate scheduling, but hopes to offer at least 2workshops/visits from them.


Some folks are interested in an informal seed exchange. It wasmentioned the food bank tubs could be used, placed near shed. Placeyour seeds in sealed zip-lock bags to weather proof and help yourselfto what’s available.


Pastor Lori from the church recommended times to avoid the gardenmight be Mon, Weds, Fri from 9:30am-12:30pm, and Monday afternoons4:30pm-6:30pm due to the preschool hours. At least please park yourcar closer to the front street during those times as the school usesthe parking lot near the playground equipment.


meeting or garden event to be announced. Meanwhile PLEASE signup for the yahoo listserv to keep updated. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SumnerComGarden/The Google Groups listserv will be closed as of April 1st and TheYahoo Group listserv will be our primary means of communicating atthat date.


More information coming soon as the season gets underway. Let’s getthis garden growing!

So there you have it folks. Time to don the overalls and straw hats.