A Gardener's Retreat

First garden orientation gets started

A Gardener’s Retreat Community Garden hosted its first orientation session for new gardeners this Saturday out at the garden site.  Despite threatening weather, around 20 gardeners, most of them new this year, assembled at the garden circle to learn more about the garden and receive their plot assignments.  They were even patient and good-humored with our “Garden Hose Pantomime, ” cheerfully traipsing through the meadow in silence to observe me acting out getting water from the cottage next door.

Our new gardeners are a diverse group, with more than a few very experienced gardeners, including several with degrees in agriculture.  Everyone seemed ready to go although the cold wind and imminent rain kept all but the hardiest among us from doing much more than surveying our domains.

The second orientation is Tuesday, April 19 at 6pm for those who missed the Saturday session.

And finally, a quick reminder: if you haven’t signed up for your garden job yet, please submit your first, second, and third choices by email to: agrcg1@gmail.com, or, if you don’t have email, you can let Lisa, Sandy, or Carole know your preferences.

Gardeners chat and explore after the orientation

Members met out at the garden on June 24 to kibbitz, compare notes, and talk about garden matters. Among our accomplishments, we narrowed down the list of possible garden names and decided to request votes by July 10. We also set garden workdays for July and a July meeting date. Read on for the straight dope:

Voting On A Garden Name

The group narrowed down the list of names to four possible choices that most people were amenable to. Those names are:

• Horse & Goose Community Garden
• Community Garden At Upper Dummerston Road
• Green Meadows Community Garden
• Green Goose Community Garden

Workdays and Meetings

The group also decided on dates for next work days and garden meeting.

July 8, 2009 – 9-11 AM – Workday

July 12, 2009 - 1-3 PM – Workday

July 22, 2009 – 5:30 PM Meet and Greet, 6:00 PM Meeting

According to Dora, the biggest maintenance issue right now is grass which is growing everywhere with great vigor. There will be need of weeding in the perennial plot. And Carole wants to put in a cutting garden in Plot 1 by the water barrels so she’ll need help clearing that bed. (Carole rec’d a plant donation from Walker Farm on behalf of the garden.)

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Attending the meeting were Dora, Nancy, Lise, Francis, Chris, and Heather.

The following are the minutes for the May garden meeting, which took place May 27, 2009.  Note that the meeting date that was scheduled below was never announced to we still need to set a date and time for the June meeting.  Look for an announcement on that soon.

Topics for Meeting 5/27

A lot of discussion and here are the major topics:

1- Committees: developing committees to aid in the running of the community garden
A. Finance committee to handle:
-budget
-purchasing
-fundraising
**as well as discussion for an appointed “treasurer” to handle taking of money for manure, hay etc…
B. Organization committee
- developing processes for making decisions regarding the community garden

2- Composting discussion
A. Are there different ways we can explore?
- hot composting
- cold composting
B. Necessity of having a decided system so we can all participate and all be responsible

3- Some important decisions that need to be addressed this gardening season
A. Lawn mower
B. Garden shed
- it is in the lease that we can have a 6×6 shed on the garden land
- this led to the discussion of a greenhouse/hoophouse as well
- need to acquire materials to build a shed
- donations?

4- The unused/unclaimed 1/2 garden plot
A. use as a community flower cutting garden

5- The use of the existing community herb garden as a means of fundraising
A. allowing herbalists to cut herbs in exchange for a donation

6- Next meeting date and work date
A. Meeting : June 8th (location?)
note: this meeting is postponed, date tbd

B. Work days : Sunday June 14th 3-6 p.m.
Thursday June 18th 9 a.m. -12 p.m.

About sixteen community gardeners met at the Coop Meeting Room on Main Street to make plans for the coming season.  A lot of progress was made.

Work Days and the Fence

Two work days have been scheduled to put up the deer fence.  This is the same lightweight fencing we used the first two years.  The workdays are:

Sunday, April 26 from 10 AM to 1 PM

Thursday, Aprill 30 from 4 to 7 PM

Gardeners are encouraged to stop by and help out on either day, even if you can’t make the full three hours.

Seed and Seedling Exchange

We’ll be doing the Seed and Seedling Exchange on the workdays scheduled above. If you have seeds or seedlings to trade, bring them along when you come.

Naming The Garden

The final list of names is as follows:

• Upper Dummerston Road Community Garden
• Horse and Goose Community Garden
• B-town Gardens
• Green Winds Gardens
• Retreat Meadows Community Gardens
• Brattleboro Community Garden at Upper Dummerston Road

We’ll be voting on a name at the next meeting.

The Woodchuck

Gardening Coordinator Dora Bouboulis said that we had a woodchuck in the garden last year and that it was a problem.  She said that from her research, the only way to keep a woodchuck out of a garden is by putting in either an electric fence or a special fence that’s deeply dug and doubled.

A discussion ensued.  Most gardeners seemed in favor of tryiing some less onerous and expensive methods before resorting to woodchuck-proof fencing.  Some ideas generated at the meeting include:

• See if the woodchuck is still there — if not, no problem.  Dora said that the woodchuck burrows from last year looked abandoned, which we took as a good sign.
• Try spiritual protection and animal communication to convince the woodchuck not to eat all our green beans.
• Hope that the deer fence provides some deterrence.
• Walk our dogs around the perimeter (on leashes) as dog urine is said to repel rodents.
• Get Havaheart traps to trap and remove the offending woodchuck(s)
• Try woodchuck repellent, available at our local hardware store
• If all else fails, and the woodchuck is still a problem, form a subcommittee to discuss more further anti-woodchuck efforts.

As noted, the woodchuck hasn’t been seen yet this year, so he or she may have moved on.  Dora also said that she had seen animal tracks in the area from some of the woodchuck’s natural predators, which could bode well for the garden (and ill for the woodchuck).

Things We Need And Plans To Get Them

We figured out how to get some of the things we need:

• Hay from Dean Hamilton for $200; available to gardeners at $2/bale
• Manure from Dean Hamilton for $200; available to gardeners at $2/bucket
• A lawn mower to be purchased by the garden

Still needed:

• Someone to refurbish the garden cart or a new garden cart

That’s it for this week’s meeting notes. Stay tuned for more as we start to prep the garden.

The next garden meeting will be held April 8, 2009 at 7 pm at the Coop’s Main Street Office.

Directions to Co-op Main Street Office: Go in the door for the Fireworks Restaurant on Main St, down the hall and to the right. The Office is down a level.

Agenda:

• applications, fees and plot assignments
• the woodchuck, who ate a lot of green beans last year
• the fence, what kind and when to erect it
• scheduling work days, which Dora would like to schedule twice a month
• naming the garden
• hay and manure
• seed exchange
• fundraiser ideas

See you all at the meeting!