July 2008 Meeting Minutes

Monthly Garden Meeting Minutes July 19, 2008 In attendance: (1) Carmen, (2) Ms. Covington, (3) Rachel, (4) Peter, (5) Hannah, (6) Judy, (7) Mark, (8) Cara, (9), Kirk, (10) Charlie, (11) Michael M., (12) Sarah, (13) Pirate Andy, (14) Roma, (15) Kate, (16) Maggie, (17) Marissa, (18), Mohammed The ice breaker question for the meeting was What fictional character would you most like to meet? The responses were: Mickey Mouse (twice), Obi Wan Kenobi (twice), Mr. Darcy, Gandolf, Jane Eyre, Calvin (as in the friend of Hobbes), Rumplestiltskin, Kermit the Frog, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Jack Webb (“Just the facts,ma’am” guy from Dragnet) Hermione, Superman, Albus Bumbledore, Lara Croft (as portrayed by Angelina Jolie), any Bruce Lee role, James Bond, Liz Lemon As a fun game, how many gardeners can you match with their responses? **Updates** Nicole, who is taking a sabbatical year this year, has returned her plot to the garden this year. Following our by laws, with no interest expressed by gardeners with plots, the plot has gone to Dara and Jacoby, who were at the top of the waitlist as garden members without plots. They will be working the plot for the 2008 season. Keeping the Momentum at P.S. 11 The garden beds over at the school are doing well, and we are going to try to keep them that way through the summer, so that the teachers will have an easier time developing parental involvment in September. The school is going to be showing their gardens at the meet-and-greet for incoming students with parents and kids. There was a need to water the beds in the middle of the week – and Ms. Covington and Carmen volunteered. Checking-In: Passing the Conch – Ms. Covington gets her oft admired okra at Midtown Flowers – Cara is loving the calaloo we tried in our plot this summer – Sarah is excited about her more than welcome, volunteer, tomatoes and sunflowers – A writer from San Francisco named Susan Finlasen was told by Lenny Labrizzi (of Council for the Environment) that she had to see our garden in her researching for her book – A garden activist from Israel, named Oded, who is attempting to create a coalition of the community gardens in Jerusalem, was sent to check out our garden by Edie Stone, the head of GreenThumb – In the ungoing evolution of soil testing in our gardens, Cornell has a new program to assist urban gardens with soil testing (simplier tests and more support in understanding the results), in large part due to the efforts of the BQLT soil committee (lead by our very own Charlie Bayrer) – There is a Community Garden Alliance at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden helping gardens to work together – John Pope at the Prospect Heights Farm is working on expanding the scope of their composting system **New Business** Raccoons: God’s Misunderstood Waste Managers Residents on the block have seen raccoons in their backyards and we were approached by the Washington Avenue Block Association. We discussed it, and no gardeners have seen raccoons in the garden The Path to Enlightenment Planting the seed for a future, longer discussion, we began brainstorming some solutions to the yearly shifting of the center path. Some ideas: (1) pick it up, lay concrete (or not), regrade it, repave it and re-level it, (2) curve the path (which would require massive space reallocation within the garden), (3) off set the path, (4) loose the bricks and put down a path of crushed pea-sized stones. It was pointed out that the square pavers shift more, and if we repave the path, we should consider taking them out. Garden Learning Day We discussed if we wanted an August event. Cara suggested a movie night. Sarah suggested trying to bring in Classie Parker to do a canning workshop. Maggie suggested that perhaps Jacoby would be interested in giving an herb talk. A tentative date was set for August 2nd. (after the meeting, the event lost steam when we got no responses from Just Foods or Classie. The movie night could not happen because we were unable to find speakers.) There was a lot of interest in having some kind of day of learning and hopefully it is an idea we can return to. Community Garden Adult Literacy Curriculum Mark, who is an adult literacy teacher, is planning on applying for some grants to write a curriculum for adult basic education/ GED students around the theme of community gardens. Hannah, Carmen, Rachel (and later Jacoby) expressed an interest in being involved. Miscellaneous – Charlie is going on vacation and we need someone to pick up the coffee grounds from Tillie’s on Wednesday. Sarah volunteered. We also need someone to change out the food waste drop off bin by the front gate (if it needs to be switched). – The Green with Envy Walking/Bike Tour is on Saturday 26th. The tour starts at the Brooklyn Bears Garden (next to Modell’s on Flatbush Ave.) at 10am. Hollenback is a stop on the tour. respectfully submitted by Mark

Advertisement