Garden Meeting Minutes

2023 Minutes

2023 Workdays & Coordinators:

April 15 - Jess

May 20 - Anne

June 17 - Bruce

July 15 - Amy

August 14 - Megan

September 16 - Rehana

October 21 - Steph

November 18 - We need a volunteer!

Everyone needs to go to 4 work days OR do the equivalent - 12 hours - on your own.

Reminder: when you're the workday coordinator, please bring a piece of paper and pen for people to sign in.  After the work day, share the list of attendees and any remaining tasks from Alanna's list so others can work on them on their own time.

Communications -

chester-ave-community-garden@googlegroups.com  is the google group.  Some people get each message as they are sent, others get a weekly digest, and some people may not check these frequently.  Use this liberally - tell people about your extra seedlings, ask questions about different plants, etc.  If you have an issue that would be better suited for an in person discussion, we can call a meeting as needed - either at a workday or during a happy hour.

chester.ave.garden@gmail.com - Megan will send an email to every gardener from this address when we're going to have a meeting or event, so that people who don't check the google group get a notification. If you send an email here, it goes to Megan, not the whole garden.  

www.chesteravegarden.com is our website.  The workday schedule and events are posted here.  There's also a copy of the garden map and prior years' meeting minutes available.  

social media - https://www.instagram.com/chesteravegarden 

Send photos to Steph to get them featured!

Pavers v. Coffee Bags

- Alexis gave an update on the grant application process to get funding to fix our walkways.  NGT applied for a grant on our behalf, and no decisions have been made yet.  If funding comes through (it was a competitive grant), this will be a project for winter 2023-24.  

- Therefore, for this year, we'll stick with cardboard and coffee bags.

Cardboard/Coffee Bags:

- We will put down the cardboard and coffee bags at our first workday on 4/15.

- The week before, please start bringing over your cardboard and leave it in the garden on the driveway side.  There's a tarp in the shed we can use to cover it.

- We didn't have enough cardboard last year.  But with all of the deliveries people get these days, we should be able to get enough.  Please start saving some boxes for this purpose! 

- Alex J volunteered to get the coffee bags from La Colombe.  This is a huge task - we need 1500 bags which requires three car trips! If anyone would like to help, contact Alex J.  

- Rehana volunteered to make an infographic on how we actually assemble the cardboard/bag walkways.  This will include the La Colombe contact info that Alexis has.

Bed Rebuilding

- If anyone would like to rebuild or repair their raised bed, Amy plans to do work on her own bed and you can coordinate with her to do this at the same time.  Amy can also share information about how to get lumber from PHS.  

Teams and Taskforces:

If you're interested in getting involved with a recurring task, please contact the current task force members:

Compost: Adam (sorry Adam, we re-volunteered you, but let me know if you're no longer interested in leading this)

Herb Garden: Rehana and Alex

Lawn Mowing: Julia (Marian - let Juilia know if you also want to do this again!)

Garbage: (taking out the garbage bin Tuesday night / bringing it in Wednesday) Steph

Snow: Kirk and Alanna.  If we ever get a big snowfall, we'll ask many people to come help.  It may never snow again so who knows.

The side bed between the shed and bench: Steph, Rehana, Alex

Beds between the large pawpaw and driveway: Steph, Alanna

Kiwi tree: Amy

Admin/Communications: Megan

Treework Update:

Alexis gave an update on the tree situation.  Guina got a bid from an arborist, Bartlett.  We have another estimate from Tree Ken which came in much lower.  Anne hired him in the past and was very satisfied with his work.

-We will confirm that NGT can cover the $2500 it initially said it could provide.  

- Ken's quote was $4700, so we can't do everything. We will have a tree committee decide what we need most (safety/liability) and what should be prioritized after that (to help with light).  

- The plan is to get Ken in ASAP, likely in April.

Tree Committee: Alexis, Steph, Alanna, Amy

Back Fence (NE corner of the garden)

- This is going to be a longer term project.  Grant funding is limited and water/irrigation are a higher priority.  

Water/Irrigation

- Alexis is dealing with the water department and SEPTA on the curbside leak issue - right now, PWD and SEPTA have to coordinate on logistics.  Thank you for dealing with this time consuming and important issue! 

- The water inside the garden will get turned back on after the risk of freeze ends.  Until then, you can use the water at the front of the garden by the sidewalk/pollinator garden.

Heinz/Community Partnerships update

- Steph has been putting a lot of time and effort into maintaining our community partnerships.  Heinz will be back with some youth to work on another project this year.

- Heinz may use our yard for the kids to practice building raised beds, and we could potentially keep one or two.  

- We could ask if they would build portable planters to hide/obscure where we keep the garbage cans.

- We could ask Heinz to have the kids help with rebuilding the compost bins at some point.

- We will brainstorm other potential projects, like doing something between the sidewalk and curb.

- "Task Force Epsilon" led by Steph will work with groups like Heinz and Girl Scouts.

Path from Driveway to Pollinator Garden

- Kirk discussed ways to make this path more accessible.  This could involve making the wall higher - something we could DIY with stones and soil.

- Kirk, Alanna and Steph are on "Task Force Delta" to work on this.  

Fall Meeting:

We'll have a short meeting to coincide with an end-of-year potluck at the garden.  Some items we tabled until then:

- Funding for back fence repair

- Possibly raising dues (and creating a sliding scale)

- Rebuilding the compost bins

Integrated Pest Management / The Groundhogs

- We have critters and they are THRIVING.

- We would like to do mosquito dunks again this year - Jess, please let us know if you're still handling.

- For harlequin beetles, we may need to take a hard stance.  If you have brassicas that get covered in beetles, it needs to be ripped out and disposed of (not in the compost!!)

- Task Force Beetle: to be led by Alexis

- Groundhogs are territorial and we probably still have some living under the shed.

- You need a license to trap and kill groundhogs, but there is someone in Philadelphia we could hire to do this. Theoretically.  We are not going to do this.  

- Trapping them ourselves and removing them to Mt. Moirah or similar is not a great option; relocating a territorial animal is cruel.

- Kirk suggested avoiding planting things that groundhogs eat if they are a problem at your plot and you aren't able to make any type of netting barrier.  Contact Kirk for more info about plants to avoid.