Notes From 2/15/11 Meeting

We had a great meeting at Q'Doba last night! Several gardeners came out to learn more, to discuss crops, and to coordinate our ground-breaking efforts, with time slot sign-ups and volunteering for the tasks needed to be done. I'm excited to see that we all share the same values of self-sufficiency and gardening sustainably.
Here are the main things we covered:

I showed everyone the planned map of the garden. Tom and I will soon be walking the property with markers to establish beds vs. paths. We're going to pick up natural materials (leaves that we can shred with our mower, pine needles, large piles of tree branches we can turn into mulch with a rented wood chipper). Anyone know of any good, concentrated free sources of such supplies? I already posted on Craigslist, and to a local woman who sends announcements out to a West Fork email list. But we're happy to travel farther afield for any big piles of branches or bags of leaves, pine needles, etc.

Before the two ground-breaking weekends, Tom and I will email and post here a list of what we will need to get everything done. For the newspaper/compost lay-down on Feb. 25 (weather permitting), we will need only shovels, dirt rakes, a couple of wheelbarrows and gloves.

We talked about the time slots and eased a few minds by explaining that all we need are 1.5-hour slots, once per week or every other week, and it's up to individual gardeners to decide. Those who come every other week will receive the same amount every two weeks as those who come every week get on a weekly basis, to make it fair to the weekly gardeners. For example, if the weekly gardeners are harvesting a bag's worth of fruits and vegetables when they come tend the garden every week, the bi-weekly gardeners take home a bag of fruits and vegetables, total, every other week.

Steve, Austin and Sarah offered to help with compost pick-ups in Fayetteville. I hope one of you can pick up newspapers instead or in addition. Pick-ups will be coordinated to take place the day before or the day of the newspaper/compost lay-down.

We also talked about moving our plans up due to the Mexico freeze. We won't be able to produce heat-loving crops in time to avoid higher prices at the markets, of course, but having an abundance of cold-hardy plants that grow fast will help offset the effects on our grocery budgets. We're looking at fast-growing varieties of broccoli and cabbage, as well as extremely easy, tolerant varieties of lettuces and greens. Using season-extending tunnels over some of our growing space in the back to start seeds for heat-loving tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, etc. will help us to get a start on the summer season for these crops.

Finally, we talked a little about what we'll all need to do on our second groundbreaking weekend:

Deliver newspapers from Fayetteville, West Fork, or other recycling center

Weed or weedwhack the herb area

Lay down weed control fabric, mulch, soil, compost

Plant seeds, seedlings

Put up fence

Strip sod (if needed after Feb. 25th's newspaper/compost laydown)

And we talked about the plants we might be using in this spring and summer's garden! I'm going to post that next.

Cheers!
Liev