Greene Acres Community Garden Meeting Minutes July 14, 2003 AGENDA 1. Introductions. 2. Buckets and watering cans. 3. Plant Parasites - dodder. 4. Open hours. 5. Events. 6. Green Thumb liaison and minutes. 7. Rainwater update. 8. Landscaping meeting. 9. Teacher and new class. 10. Old business/new business. MINUTES 1. Introductions. Laura DeCarava volunteered 15 hours at Greene Acres Community Garden this spring and summer and became eligible for membership. The garden members at the meeting unanimously approved Laura's membership. Laura needs to pay the $10 membership fee to Dariel. 2. Buckets and watering cans. The garden needs more watering cans, so that gardeners do not have to search the water buckets for cans. Amanda will ask Brooke from Green Thumb about getting more watering cans. 3. Plant parasites - dodder. Dodder is a parasitic plant that grows on other plants. It does not have roots but can cover any plant and kill it. Gardeners should be vigilant about removing dodder from in and around their plots. DO NOT COMPOST DODDER; please throw it in the trash. There is more information about dodder on the inside of the garden shed door and in the bulletin board near Greene Avenue. 4. Open hours. Zach presented a new scheme for open hours: Each gardener picks one day of the week and keeps that day as their day to maintain open hours. Since more than one person will be assigned to each day, the gardeners for each day can make arrangements amongst themselves to ensure that the garden is open on their day. All present agreed to the plan and signed up for open hours. Zach agreed to contact garden members and fill out a schedule. New open hours are Sunday through Thursday from 6pm to 8pm. These open hours will be in effect until September 8th, at which time the garden will re-assess this scheme and open hours. 5. Events. Vandra proposed having some sort of event with Greene Acres Community Garden and the Clinton Hill CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Ideas included: asking the farmer from Cooke Hollow Farm, which supplies food to the Clinton Hill CSA, to give a presentation in the garden, asking Steve Brill to speak, holding an education event or a fundraiser. Gardeners agreed that the idea needs further development. 6. Green Thumb liaison and minutes. Pat suggested changing the Green Thumb liaison and minute taker over the winter to better distribute these administrative tasks. All agreed to take up the issue over the winter. 7. Rainwater update. At the last rainwater meeting, Michael (the Water Resources Group's architect) shared his design ideas. He proposed a steel framed gazebo with a water tank on top. Elevating the water tank would create needed water pressure to move the water out of the tank and around the garden. It would also make it possible to create a misting station to spray people. 8. Landscaping meeting. Vandra reported on the last landscape meeting, where they discussed the compost, the berm and super adobe construction. Vandra stated that the compost needs work. Pat volunteered to bring by new signs to indicate which bins are composting and which bins fresh plant material can be added to, Amanda volunteered to do some maintenance on the compost and the bins. Vandra stated that the berm is collapsing and needs to be stabilized. It needs a retaining wall and more fill. Martin attended the landscaping meeting and gave a presentation about super adobe building, which uses nylon sacks filled with dirt to build walls, benches, buildings, etc. He proposed building benches around the mulberry trees and a retaining wall for the berm. Generally, gardeners liked these ideas and sought sources for dirt to fill the sacks. Noah noted that simply digging dirt from the garden could create drainage problems. One suggestion is to use the dirt that will be excavated when the rainwater collection project is built. The dirt could also be used to stabilize the berm. 9. Teacher and new class. Ayana (sp?) is teaching a class for children on Wednesdays. She will be invited to the next garden meeting (August 11) to introduce her class. 10. Old business/new business.