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PICG Minutes for September 14, 2011

Tue, 09/20/2011 - 14:48 — Lavinia Demos

Fall Garden Meeting, September 14, 2011

Attendees:

Barb Strout
Gail Kelly
Holly Hurd-Forsyth
Jan Thomas
Diane Clark
Jubal Kessler
Karen Friedman
Sam Saltonstall
Susan Hanley
Vinnie Demos

Vinnie presented the results of the garden survey and her comments on them:

There were 12 responses out of 23 gardeners.

  1. Nearly everyone had been confronted with an empty water tank at least once.
  2. Not everyone was aware of the various soil amendments available and/or how to use them.
  3. Hardly anyone worked consistently to help on the 2 community beds.
  4. People referred to the garden books infrequently.
  5. Not everyone helped take care of the compost bins, but all except one person claimed to understand how they worked and to have helped themselves to compost at least once.

These answers suggest that we should:

  1. Pursue getting a summer water line from the city as soon as possible
  2. Explain better how to enrich the soil with various amendments and then list what we have on hand and how to use it
  3. Get rid of one or both communal beds and let in more people off the waiting list
  4. Keep a small collection of gardening reference books, but turn down the large collection of books that was offered to Justin
  5. Find a way to encourage more people to do their share of work in making compost

The broader challenges, judging from individual comments as well as the low response rate, are as follows:

  1. There needs to be better communication between the gardeners about meetings, supplies, and commitments.
  2. The guidelines, to which we have all subscribed, need to do a better job of describing the cooperative nature of a community garden. We need to find a way to emphasize that this is NOT an amenity provided by the city. Newer gardeners will be unaware, unless we tell them, of the tremendous number of hours we devoted to making it a reality.

To this end, those present agreed that we should add the following introduction to the garden guidelines and also include it in the annual registration form that every gardener signs:

The community garden is a cooperative effort. Our goal is to provide a felicitous space for islanders who lack adequate sunlight or open space to grow food for their families. To that end, we expect that all gardeners will use this space as intensively as possible. We ask each plot holder for an annual fee, but this is not to be construed as rental of an individual space. It is money to cover our collective purchases of insurance, tools, soil amendments and other miscellaneous necessities. If the fee is a real hardship, we will find a way to work around it for you. More importantly, membership in the garden assumes a willingness to contribute a token amount of money and a more than token number of hours of work on projects beyond cultivation of your own crops. Membership in the garden is a contract that assumes your willingness to be actively involved in keeping its infrastructure (fencing, paths, tools, compost bins, etc) in good working condition, and your commitment to staying in touch with other gardeners via telephone, mail, or our google email group.

The group went on to discuss whether it was appropriate to grow flowers when the garden has a stated policy of using the space as intensively as possible for food. Answer: yes. Many flowers are edible and they are all food for the soul. They are also useful in attracting pollinators.

As to the compost bins, many people said they were unsure of when and what to turn. Sam offered to send out emails periodically to say what needed turning and what was ready to use.

We discussed what we could do to make expectations clearer but avoid having to police people in an officious manner. Karen had compared notes with another community garden and learned that the Gilson Farm garden expects people to do at least six hours in the garden and to do volunteer hours at Audubon as well. Therefore, we concluded that it was not unreasonable to require our gardeners to do six hours of work annually as well as attending at least one of the two annual garden meetings in order to be eligible to retain a plot for the following season.

Starting next June, there will be a logbook in the shed for people to make note of their volunteer hours in the garden.

We discussed the cleanup requirement and decided that each plot should be fully prepared and at least partially planted by June first. By the date of the fall workday each plot should be cleared of everything not actively growing. If for some reason a gardener is unable to comply with those deadlines, he or she is responsible for contacting the garden community to make other arrangements. If a plot goes unplanted with no explanation, we will call the gardener after one week and then reassign the plot if after two weeks it is still neglected.

We discussed ways to make the email group more effective:

  • Don’t email to the entire group when it’s sufficient to contact one or just a few people.
  • Don’t reply to the entire group when it’s sufficient to reply to just one or a few people.
  • Make good use of the subject line so people can tell what's up and judge its urgency.
  • Answer garden group emails so we can have feedback and so that we know we reached you.
  • If you are not confident that you can respond to email in a timely fashion, speak with Vinnie or Karen and specify how you wish to be contacted.

We discussed the pros and cons of the community plots and our relationship with the food pantry:

  • Many of the crops planted this year were not suitable for their clients, who tend to be fairly conservative in their tastes. There was no good scheme for harvesting and distributing the vegetables.
  • The plants suffered from being harvested sporadically. The original idea of growing lots of herbs and selling them seems unrealistic since people didn’t even have time to care for what was there – much less figure out ways to sell it.
  • The group voted to keep one plot for the food pantry and give the other to someone on the waiting list.
  • The food pantry plot will have a single gardener, who plants and harvests it for her own use during the week, but reserves produce to harvest on Fridays for the food pantry. There will be no fee for that plot. In return, the gardener will provide all the seeds and plants necessary for the food pantry clients. The gardener will choose suitable crops in consultation with the food pantry.
  • Jan Thomas will be the gardener for the food pantry plot. Sue Hanley will be the coordinator. Sue will also be the contact person for any other gardeners who want to donate vegetables.
  • We will buy a cooler to live in the shed. Jan and any other volunteers will put food in it on Friday afternoons. Sue will pick it up when she does the bread pickup from Standard Bakery and then distribute everything.

We will buy a metal trash can for knotweed pulled out in and around the garden, but also for any incidental trash that can’t go in the compost. It will be stored inside the shed lest it become a receptacle for passing dog walkers.

There’s been a mouse problem at the garden. The Friedmans, especially, would welcome organic and humane solutions!

The fall work day will be November 5 from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

The deadline to apply for next year’s garden will be December 1.

Vinnie will mail out the new forms well in advance of that date so that you can get them back to her on time. She will also send everyone a hard copy of the revised guidelines.

The plot fee remains $35.

The garden committee remains the same as last year with the exception of the food pantry plot.

Additional notes from Jubal:

Treasurer's report: We have a little more than $1500 in the bank. The shed costs will come to another $300, so the final amount going into the 2012 year may be about $1200. A copy of the 2011 year's report is at:

PICG Budget 2011

Location for next garden meeting: Per Sandy's suggestion, the Senior Center's kitchen seems like a good place to hold meetings, as it has big tables and a kitchen. (No alcoholic drinks may be served, however.) The general consensus at this meeting was that we should hold the next meeting there.

Much thanks to Lisa for hosting the previous three meetings at her cafe.