We had a garden meeting on Saturday morning to discuss our plans for the garden and the park in the future. Unfortunately there was lower turnout than we would have liked but we did manage to discuss quite a few issues and ideas. Here are some updates:
• The water is still not on as the city has discovered a problem with the plumbing. We’re working with them on getting it fixed and you’ll hear about it as soon as we know we have water.
• We’re establishing Saturday mornings from 9 to 12 as drop-in visit and garden and get-stuff-done times. We’d love for everyone to try and come by during that time so we can get to know each other, share gardening tips, sample each other’s produce and, yes, get a bit of communal work done if it has to be.
• We’re researching getting some signage for the garden so everyone knows who we are and how to get in touch. Please let us know if you have any experience in this area.
• We’re also looking for fundraising sources to apply for grants for next year and the long term. If you know of any organizations that would be good to apply to, or if you’ve got fundraising experience and would like to help out with applications, please get in touch.
• We’ve concluded that the planters along the outside of the fence need to be fixed up – the grass is coming through them so quickly that the perennials are going to have a tough time surviving. What we want to do is move them out of the way one by one so that we can cover the area with newspaper before replacing the planter – the newspaper will kill the grass. Please let us know if you can help with this project, or if you are a subscriber to a daily newspaper, please start saving them as we’ll need a good collection.
• Finally, some great news! We’ve applied for and received a $1000 grant from Carrot Cache to cover soil amendment, tool and maintenance costs for this growing season. So far we’re looking into a new hose dolly and possibly a rainwater collection system. Get in touch if you have experience and/or can help with this, or if you have other ideas.
Happy gardening!
Kat, on behalf of the executive
