Meeting Minutes

Next Meeting

March 1, 2010

6:30 PM

Bexley City Hall

All Gardeners

Spring Planning

Bexley Community Garden

Meeting February 1, 2010

Executive Committee Meeting

Attendees: Alysha Clous, Bruce Langner, Jay Brand, Rebecca Harvey, Jessica Evans

Minutes:

Grants

Bexley Community Garden received a $3000 grant from Whitehall/Bexley Rotary. Alysha asked for contact information in order to write a thank you note, Bruce will provide her this information. Jay asked if the money is earmarked. The answer is yes and no-the grant proposal was written broadly to include purchases for fencing, gates, a shed and compost amongst other things.

We also applied to Scotts Company for a similar size grant (3-5000). The Scotts proposal was submitted in October and a decision has not been announced yet, but should be soon.

Budget-by Bruce

Our garden funds amount to $4854.47 so far for the year. This includes a $165 donation from Anthony Murdoch, our favorite boy scout who built the fantastic benches in 2009. $1000 was donated from the Bexley Tree and Public Gardens Commission. And, the remainder of the funds will come from member plot sales for 2010 and the Rotary grant.

Membership/Plots

30 plots have been reserved so far in 2010. An up-to-date roster was provided to Jessica and Rebecca. Jessica will send a “welcome” email to 2010 gardeners with a link to the blog. Our goal last fall was to rent 60 plots and reserve the remainder for scholarships. To increase recruitment, Alysha suggested we create fliers and post them around town. She gave a draft to Rebecca who will spruce it up with some nifty art and pass it back to Alysha for printing (200 copies). When the fliers are ready, all committee members will be contacted to help distribute them in and around our neighborhood, groceries, library, coffee shops, schools, and so on.

Scholarship Plots

The scholarship plot concept is still fairly nebulous. The committee agrees free plots are a good idea, and it is a goal of the garden to make available some plots for students, community groups (such as girl scouts) and members of the community who may not be able to afford the rental fee. Alysha volunteered to draft a garden plot scholarship application form which will include application guidelines and contact information. The scholarship plot approval criteria are unknown at this time.

Garden Design

We still don’t have one! The executive committee will leave the design decision to the operations committee. Jay, as operation committee chair is taking the lead on this project. We discussed that water spigot placement is crucial to the design and right now, spigot locations are only estimated because they have not been installed. Installation should be completed by city engineering after the ground thaws. We also discussed the possibility of laying landscape fabric and mulch around the outskirts of the fence to keep grass from creeping into the garden. This idea will be submitted to the operations committee.

Compost

Executive committee members are not happy with the idea that com-til would be left in a pile near the garden as per last meetings discussion. One person’s experience was that it was very smelly and attracted flies. It was generally agreed that we will get compost this spring, and it will be directly plowed in. Bruce will contact Barb N again about some of the alternative types of compost that she investigated back in the fall. Com-til costs made it a more attractive option.

Timeline

A number of activities need to happen this spring before we can start gardening! This is going to be a challenging year because of all the construction going on. Water lines were started in the fall, and the fence was taken down to accommodate the heavy equipment. Fence and spigots may not be in place before we have gardens, but we hope so. Here is ageneral timeline:

March 1, 2010-General Garden meeting, 6:30 PM City Hall (All Gardeners)

· Compost purchase and delivery (operations committee)

· Spread compost Work day (date TBD) (All Gardeners)

Ground thaws

· Spigots installed (city)

· Final plow (hopefully still in March) (city)

· Fence re-installed (city)

April- plots laid out as early as possible (operations committee)

· Spread mulch Work day April 10/11 or 17/18 (All Gardeners)

· Plots chosen/assigned (All Gardeners)

Other Business

Jay-liked the meeting notes. J Bruse said his name was spelled wrong.

Barb Neubig is working with another master gardener on teaching a garden class this spring at Jeffrey Mansion.

Bruce-mentioned getting donated seeds again this year. Alysha suggested we keep a water—tight plastic container for seed trading and gardener donation of extra and partial seed packets. We will keep the container at the garden.

Fisher’s greenhouse was mentioned as a favorite place to buy heirloom plants.

Fisher’s Greenhouse

4290 Parsons Ave Columbus, OH 43207

Jonfishergreenhouse.com

614-492-1413

Bruce- Brought up tools and a shed. Alysha tabled this discussion until the spigot and fence is finalized.

Executive Committee agreed to have 2 “All Gardener” information meetings a year: spring information and fall wrap-up. Workdays will be scheduled at the garden as needed. Generally, we will probably have a spring mulch workday and a fall clean up day.

Next Meeting date was scheduled for Monday, March 1 at 6:30 PM Bexley City Hall, “All Gardeners”