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.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Saturday, February 27, 2010
What the hell?
Received this email today. Flo has been sending out coordinating emails to garden members, and she started a forum for gardeners on Google Groups only recently. This is the limit of my knowledge re: Flo and her "Leadership Team". Here is the email I received:
To the Shepherd's Field Gardeners: Most of you are probably unaware that there have been problems for some time with the governance of the gardens. Last year this group elected 5 of us from the garden to represent your interests as part of the Shepherd's Field Leadership Team. We volunteered to serve because we wanted to put more effort into the "community" of our community garden. Unfortunately, all our efforts to represent the interests of the community gardeners through a professional and collaborative process have been unsuccessful. We feel that our energy would be better used somewhere we can make a difference. Therefore, we hereby resign our positions, effective immediately.
Flo
Patty
Joyce
I don't know what Flo, Patty and Joyce were working on, but I get the impression they were unsuccessful..
To the Shepherd's Field Gardeners: Most of you are probably unaware that there have been problems for some time with the governance of the gardens. Last year this group elected 5 of us from the garden to represent your interests as part of the Shepherd's Field Leadership Team. We volunteered to serve because we wanted to put more effort into the "community" of our community garden. Unfortunately, all our efforts to represent the interests of the community gardeners through a professional and collaborative process have been unsuccessful. We feel that our energy would be better used somewhere we can make a difference. Therefore, we hereby resign our positions, effective immediately.
Flo
Patty
Joyce
I don't know what Flo, Patty and Joyce were working on, but I get the impression they were unsuccessful..
Feb. 27, 2010
Funny thing about the community garden in February. No one around but me and some mud. I stopped by and picked up some composted manure today to spread on plot #68. Four 1.5 cu. ft bags to be exact. I was looking at my bible, "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades" this morning (its a wonderful guide for those of you in the area) and according to the author, and much to my surprise, no more than 1/4 inch of compost is needed in a Western Washington garden every year. This has something to do with potassium levels and the needs of the human body, most of which I don't understand, but Steve Solomon hasn't let me down yet so I'm going with what he says until everything dies. At that point I may change things up a bit. Well, anyway, I read the note on the bag that said one bag would provide 1/8" of compost for 144 sq. ft of garden space and being the mathematical genius that I am I realized that was perfect for a 12' x12' garden. Relying on said mathematical geniusity I came immediately to the conclusion that for a 24' x 24' garden I would require 4 bags in order to apply manure 1/4 inch deep. I, of course, used the wrong formula for the equation at hand and came up with half of what I needed.
Figures.
So as I headed into the garden shed to dig out the community wheelbarrow, and as I hefted composted manure from the back of the car into that wheelbarrow and wheeled it out through the wet grass and the mud I thought to myself, "This is way too early in the year to be doing this crap." As I hoed out the overly large clumps of grass and weeds that had taken residence in the garden I thought to myself, "What the hell was I thinking?", and as I began chopping up all the old tomato vines from last summer and loaded them into the wheelbarrow for transportation to the compost bin I thought, "Hell, I still have 34 pints of pickled beets, 4 qts of canned tomatoes, 3 qts of canned spaghetti sauce and a buttload of frozen beans. I don't need to do all this crap this year. I should just skip this damned garden and watch TV or some silly shit."
Soon though, my attitude began to change. As I dumped the compost into 4 even piles, one in each of 4 sections of the plot, I began to feel less frustrated. Life seemed to level out a bit. I leaned on my rake for a few minutes, watching juncos and sparrows flitting from the rotting sunflower stalks still standing in the gardens of my neighbors and I realized I was content. I really didn't want to be done for the day. Unfortunately I knew that was ineveitable so I started raking the piles, slowly, more carefully than I probably did last year, as I worked the compost from the center of each garden sector to it edges.
Now I realize this is in some ways a wasted effort. The weeds are coming back, I'm sure, even as I type this silly nonsense, and in a week or two, or maybe even a day it will be impossible to tell I was even at the garden today. But as the rains come, soaking the soil into an even less workable state, I know the organic nutrients of that compost will leech into that soil, bringing it back to something resembling the plantable condition of last season. And as I stood there raking into the earth the nutrients I had so selfishly removed last summer and looking around at the decay of spent, brown crops, and the new, healthy growth of my neighbors onions and garlic something just felt right. I guess life resembles life on all levels. Growth and decay. One never cancelling out the other.
Figures.
So as I headed into the garden shed to dig out the community wheelbarrow, and as I hefted composted manure from the back of the car into that wheelbarrow and wheeled it out through the wet grass and the mud I thought to myself, "This is way too early in the year to be doing this crap." As I hoed out the overly large clumps of grass and weeds that had taken residence in the garden I thought to myself, "What the hell was I thinking?", and as I began chopping up all the old tomato vines from last summer and loaded them into the wheelbarrow for transportation to the compost bin I thought, "Hell, I still have 34 pints of pickled beets, 4 qts of canned tomatoes, 3 qts of canned spaghetti sauce and a buttload of frozen beans. I don't need to do all this crap this year. I should just skip this damned garden and watch TV or some silly shit."
Soon though, my attitude began to change. As I dumped the compost into 4 even piles, one in each of 4 sections of the plot, I began to feel less frustrated. Life seemed to level out a bit. I leaned on my rake for a few minutes, watching juncos and sparrows flitting from the rotting sunflower stalks still standing in the gardens of my neighbors and I realized I was content. I really didn't want to be done for the day. Unfortunately I knew that was ineveitable so I started raking the piles, slowly, more carefully than I probably did last year, as I worked the compost from the center of each garden sector to it edges.
Now I realize this is in some ways a wasted effort. The weeds are coming back, I'm sure, even as I type this silly nonsense, and in a week or two, or maybe even a day it will be impossible to tell I was even at the garden today. But as the rains come, soaking the soil into an even less workable state, I know the organic nutrients of that compost will leech into that soil, bringing it back to something resembling the plantable condition of last season. And as I stood there raking into the earth the nutrients I had so selfishly removed last summer and looking around at the decay of spent, brown crops, and the new, healthy growth of my neighbors onions and garlic something just felt right. I guess life resembles life on all levels. Growth and decay. One never cancelling out the other.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Aw crap...
Seems I missed the garden plot renewal deadline. I will need to check with answer man to see if anything can be done other that me getting on the waiting list when they start letting the public sign up. Fingers crossed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
