Hollenback Community Garden

Wed, Aug 18, 2010

Meeting Minutes

(compiled by John Ryan, with a little help from Cara)

Icebreaker: 

     Who was your favorite teacher and why?

     Share a story from your or someone in your family’s birth.

It’s Business Time!

☼ Open Hours- sign up on-line or in the green binder in the shed

☼ Dues- At this point, 37 out of 39 members and 9 out of 19 apprentices have paid dues for a total of $886.

Updates

☼ Neighbor Tree Removal- Liz Thorpe, who recently began renovating a house at the back of the garden (that used to have a bath tub hanging out of the second floor), sent us an e-mail saying that she be will cutting down their choke cherry, letting more light in for the fig tree. Everyone cheered!

☼ Ruth out of town until Aug 30th- volunteer needed to empty roof washers- Michael will empty the roof washers in her place.

☼ Cold frames with Rachel- Rachel attended a Greenbridge workshop on building cold frames, and will lead a workshop on building these season extenders sometime near the end of Sept, beginning of October. Many gardeners were interested.

☼ EarthMatter: Catching up with Charlie and Marisa-

• The Fort Greene Compost Project continues; they're now collecting close to 1700 pounds of kitchen waste every Saturday at the Fort Greene Farmers Market. They are trying to develop Hancock  T and T Community Garden as a compost site (Hollenback no longer accepts kitchen waste from the farmer's market).  Food waste mostly goes to Red Hook Community Farm.  Also goes to the Secret Garden, and Prospect Heights Community Farm. 
•  The Compost Learning Center opened on Governor's Island in the spring, spearheaded by Charlie and Marissa. So far they are mostly collecting local food waste. Charlie and Marissa are there every Fri/Sat/Sun from 12-4 until October 10, so go visit them and learn about everything they're doing!  In the fall they will be partnering with the Harbor School on the island to teach about composting. 
• Marissa (representing EarthMatter) and Charlie (representing Hollenback) are also acting as advisors on "Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities" with Cornell Cooperative Extension to study the health of urban soils.
  
   

New Business

☼ Events:

     Full Moon Soiree- Thurs, Sept 23^rd- Suzanne will follow up with garden via email about what to bring.  She throws a great party.  This is a relaxing time to be in the garden when you can meet other gardeners (and not be chopping compost!)

     Triple Threat- Sat, Sept 11th, Rain date Sun, Sept 12^th from 12-6pm. There will be a sidewalk sale organized by Deema and Roma, a bake sale organized by Liza and Carmen, and a BBQ organized by Cody and Margaret. John Ryan and Frank will be in charge of the grill. The garden approved a budget of $75 for the event.

☼ Composting at Hollenback-

     -The new bins are built! Many thanks to Peter Brown and his friend Juan for finishing these beautiful compost bins!

     -The garden decided to start with a "cumulative" method of composting, which allows gardeners to deposit their kitchen waste as long as they cover them with browns to deter flys and reduce odor.  Once the bin is full with a mix of greens, kitchen waste,  and browns,  it can be turned.

     -Marisa and Charlie will lead the first compost tutorial on Tuesday, Aug 24th from 5:30-6:00 in the garden. 

☼ Upcoming Workshops: GreenThumb Program Guide- Cara will be sending an email to the garden about upcoming Greenthumb workshops.   In order to get free supplies, a garden member needs to attend one of the workshops.  We are especially looking for someone to attend workshops where we can order compost and mulch. Attendance at a workshop gives garden members credit for one meeting, as long as they come back to the garden and share what they learned.  Check out the program guide here: http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/newspdf/2010FallProgramGuide.pdf

☼ Common Area Design with Deema!-  The conversation about what to do with the common area in front of the composting toilet was re-started, thanks to Deema. A couple ideas were thrown around, including leveling the space, adding pavers, and/or putting down the existing slate. Charlie said he could bring in more slate if the garden wants it, and there's also a possibility a Brooklyn-based kitchen counter company will donate some of its recycled glass countertop rejects if the garden would like to include those in the project.

Upcoming

☼ Workday: Sat, Aug 21st10:00-5:00 @ the garden- Maggie will lead the workday from 10 - 1 and Michael and Frank will lead it from 1 - 4. Maggie has been briefed on the composting process, so if you have any questions on Saturday, please ask her.

 

Next Meeting:

Sat, Sept 25^th 11:00-1:00 @ the garden