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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019.04.10 Community Garden MinutesMINUTES Colleyville Community Garden Advisory Committee Thursday April 10, 2019 - 8:30am Colleyville City Hall Executive Meeting Room Call to order 8:30am by Chairman, Natalie Genco Attendees Linda Newton, Pam Buie, Natalie Genco, Rich Hendler, Amanda Novak, Uma Lal City Officials: Lisa Escobedo, Adrienne Lothery Resignations Lisa reported that Mary Ramatowski and Amy Putnam have officially resigned from the board. Natalie mentioned that Amy realized she didn’t have the time to make most meetings and didn’t want to cause us to miss quorum. The city will send out a notice looking for 2 new Community Garden committee members. It was discussed that if we have more than 2 applications, we would like to invite anyone else interested in helping with the garden to chair or join committees. New Quorum Our new quorum will be 4 committee members due to the recent resignations. Approval of February 2019 Minutes Amanda moved to approve and Linda seconded. The minutes were approved. Bylaws Bylaws were briefly discussed. Linda made a motion to approve our bylaws as written. Rich seconded. The motion carried. Lisa mentioned that when the city approves our bylaws, we will become official. Update on garden tours Beds - Natalie mention that after visiting other community gardens, we are leaning towards using cedar boards for our beds. Everyone agreed this would be better and cooler than using Windsor stone. Uma asked if some of our beds would be raised. Natalie stated that we discussed this during our tour and we thought a combination would be nice with taller beds in the middle of the garden. Uma suggested we consider all raised beds. We decided we would wait on this decision to see how much money and man power we get. Uma suggested we build a demo bed and we all agreed this is a good idea. This will help us understand what materials work best. It was suggested we build our bed either in McPherson Park or in an inconspicuous area in the city. Overall - It was reported that overall the garden tours were inspiring and we got a lot of good ideas. 6 stones provided us with warnings of things not to do. Their garden is on pause and the land is up for sale. The Coppell Community Garden produces a great deal of food and especially from their fruit trees. Landscaping - Natalie mentioned that the NR Hills community garden had beautiful Lady Banks Roses on trellises in the corners in the garden. They were spectacular even in the winter. This would be nice for our garden. They also had a flowering tree in the middle of the garden. This might be nice to add somewhere in our garden. Composting - The Coppell community garden believed making your own compost was important. They use rainwater to make compost tea. They have a “leaf corral” that area landscapers donate to. They need a place to drop their leaves and chipped tree trimmings so this works out well. Amanda suggested we do a leaf coral like N. Richland Hills has. It is more concealed. Garden Pests - Natalie mentioned that the worst problem with garden pests is rats. It is difficult to keep them out as they can climb fences. The Coppell Community Garden recommends getting traps. Amanda suggested live traps to catch and release. Donations Amanda suggested setting a required food donation amount for those adopting a plot in the Colleyville Community Garden. Natalie mentioned that the prior community garden board before it was a city committee) discussed this and decided it would not be a good idea. This is because making sure people are donating the required amounts is difficult to police. She mentioned that the N. Richland Hills Community garden has voluntary donation and this works quite well and doesn’t require weighing the food. Lynda suggested we first get the garden started and then decide if we want to require a donation amount. Natalie mentioned that our orchard will not belong to any one gardener and that it should produce a great deal of fruit that we can donate. Amanda suggested that perhaps we can have some beds be designated just for donation. Soil Testing Linda suggested we have the soil tested in McPherson Park for contaminants. Natalie suggested if we are getting it tested, we may also want to test it to see what amendments it needs. Natalie will contact Howard Garrett to see what soil testing he recommends. Weed Stop Natalie asked if the city will allow us to put plastic over the garden site in McPherson Park over the summer to naturally kill the grass. Lisa said we will likely be able to but we will need to put a sign out saying something like “Coming Soon, Community Garden”. This will also help build excitement about the garden. We can add a link to our website and ask for people interested in helping or adopting a plot to go here for more info. Lisa mentioned that we will need to measure and stake out the site before putting down plastic. Water Well Linda asked if we found out whether there was a water well in McPherson Park. Lisa said there is one but it is not working and would cost a great deal, around $3,000, to get it inspected. We decided it might be better to get the cistern working to collect rainwater. Adrienne reported that the old cistern has a mosquito problem and rather than repair it, the city would like to get a new one with mosquito protection and install it to collect rainwater from the dairy barn near the community garden. Promotion It was suggested we contact homeowner associations near The Colleyville Community Garden to let them know the garden is in the works. Dividing Tasks Amanda passed out copies of the organizational chart she put together based on our needs as we have discussed. We went over each position in the chart and what it entails. The positions are: 1.Administration (Amanda volunteered to do this) 2.Marketing (Linda volunteered to do this) 3.Fundraising (Natalie volunteered to do this) 4.Education and Event Planning (If we don’t find anyone, Amanda, Natalie and Pam volunteered to help). 5.Volunteer and Garden Engagement (Rich will chair and Uma will help) Volunteers - Natalie suggested Rich might be a good fit for the position of sourcing volunteers as he was interested in doing PR. Rich agreed to take on this position but said he will need help. Rich will also help Amanda with confirming relationships with city and access to the storage shed. Mission Statement - Amanda suggested we all work on finalizing our mission statement. Natalie suggested this be done by email to help speed things up and everyone agreed. We can also work on our adopt a plot agreement via email. Education and Event Planning - Amanda said she can do this as her job of administration ends if we don’t find someone else to do it. Natalie and Pam volunteered to help with this also. Uma and Pam - Natalie asked Uma and Pam what area they are most interested in helping with. Both said they don’t particularly want to be in charge but said they would help anywhere. 3-D Rendering - Natalie mentioned that we had a prior committee member who is still interested in helping but is not a Colleyville resident. She had volunteered to do a 3-D rendering for us. Natalie asked if she could invite her to our meetings. Lisa said that is fine as the public is allowed to attend. 501c3 Discussion We discussed whether we need a 501c3. We decided that we probably would not need a 501c3 as donations could go straight to the city. Natalie mentioned that she started a 501c3 for another purpose but we could use it if someone requires us to have a 501c3. We decided that if we did need a 501c3, it should be one with the sole purpose of supporting the community garden. Tarrant County Master Gardener Project We decided that we would like to get this designation. Natalie reported that she has already been working with the Tarrant County Master Gardeners and they are supportive of our project and waiting to see how they can help us. She will ask what is required for this designation. Special projects We discussed outlining special projects to see if we can get the boy scouts or other groups to sponsor them in advance of the Big Dig date. Natalie suggested the compost bins or arbors could be built in advance. Subcommittees Amanda mentioned that if we form subcommittees, they may want to meet more frequently to get things done and give a report at our monthly meetings. Next Meeting Date Our next meeting will be on Thursday, May 9, at 8:30am Irrigation Lisa mentioned that irrigation will only take 2-3 weeks to install once we are ready for it. She said that the city will do it in house and they have an awesome irrigation person. Implementing projects Adrienne said that she hoped that by early summer, we would be ready to start implementing projects for the community garden. This will require our design plan be 100% finalized. Operating Hours We briefly discussed if we should consider posting operating hours and what they should be. We will determine this later. Adjourned Linda moved to adjourn and Rich seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 10:07 am Minutes submitted by Chairman, Natalie Genco