Minutes from January 2012

Hi everyone,
Just thought I'd post up a quick review of the minutes from our planning session on 1/29.

1) Watering: Ashley will email Suzy to square away the watering bill from last year. NHLT funds are available to help with this. In the meantime, we'll plan to do a rainbarrel hookup for the Spring and not use the water on the property. Misha will ask if we can use water from the neighboring property in case we run into a severe dry spell this summer.

2) Meetings/Workdays: We will plan to have monthly workdays for community-building and projects. Harvesting, weeding, and weekly maintenance will take place on Mondays (generally), but we should plan for folks will come as they are able during the day/week. We should leave an ongoing list of tasks to be completed on the whiteboard in order to keep communication flowing during the week.

3) Compost: We will try to get a compost delivery this spring, as soon as possible, to fill out the beds. Misha will ask the neighbors if we can use their property as the delivery site, so that we don't need to have it dumped in the commercial driveway/parking area. Kanani will contact the NHLT and work on coordinating the compost delivery.

4) Budget: We are open to new members for 2012. We will continue to charge a $50 membership fee annually. We will plan to purchase a wheelbarrow, hoses, a rocker hoe, materials for tomato cages, seed potatoes, and peas with 2012 funds. Ashley is collecting the checks this year.

5) What will we grow: Emily is taking charge of the seed starting this year. There were requests for melons, beets, kale, squash, tomatoes, broccoli raab, and beans. We floated the idea of growing sunflowers in the poison ivy patch, since they are alelopathic. Eva is donating blueberries for an area near the herb patch. Janis (who arrived at the meeting late) is interested in growing sweet potatoes.

6) Donations: Emily is going to get in touch with the IRIS food pantry re: donation of extra produce, since they are convenient to her office. She will plan to pick it up on Tuesday nights for delivery to IRIS on Wednesdays.

Did I miss anything? Send me a message, if so, and I will add it to the list.