The Gardening Committee met on 9-23-09. Present were: Ann Spiker, Bobbie Rohn, Alaria Sun, Carol Reece and Elise Woods.

Elise contacted Samantha Redston about another seed exchange in the spring. She indicated that she will make arrangements with Extension Service and do it again.

The 2009 Garden Buddies program was evaluated and we made the decision not to offer it again in 2010. Instead, we will do a half-day workshop/fair in March for people who want to start gardening.  We will invite the Master Gardeners to take part in the workshop. The fair will have scheduled talks/demonstrations as well as booths where participants can get information about specific aspects of growing food. Ideas for topics are:

• Simple techniques for starting a garden (lasagne/layered garden beds, etc.)
• Container gardens
• Starting seeds
• Seed sources
• Pests and how to get ahead of them
• Soil amendments and where to get them.
• Composting
• Sources of compost
• Rain barrels
• Growing small grains

We will flesh this out at subsequent committee meetings.

It was noted that during Farmer's Market season people can get help with their gardening questions at the Master Gardeners booth at the market.

We will put a page of Gardening Frequently Asked Questions on the website.

A partcipatory workshop "How to Prepare Layered Garden Beds" will be held on October 24 at Alaria's home. Attendees will be able to actually build garden beds. Carol will contact Alaria to get the details and write a press release about it. We will post it on the website and send it to the Morgan Messenger, as well as printing fliers and placing them around town.

The Harvest Festival was fun and we had great local food and a tour of the O'Brien's beautiful property.

Gardening Committee Meeting Notes 7-29.2009

Present were: Alaria Sun, Carol Reece, Bobbie Rohn, and Elise Woods

Goals from general planning meeting were addressed:

1.       Seed Exchange/Seed Saving: It was decided that we will ask Samantha Redston (who initiated and sponsored the 2009 seed exchange at the Extension Service office) if she is planning to do another one next spring. Elise will contact her by the end of August. If she is not planning to do another one, we will set one up for sometime in March/April and ask to use space at Extension Service for it. We asked several people who stopped at our booth at the MC Fair about the level of interest in seed saving. Only one person signed up. This program will probably not need any funding.

2.       Evaluation of the 2009 Garden Buddies program - Elise will contact (by phone) all the people who were mentored and have not yet been heard from to find out their experience with the program by August 31. She will also contact all of the mentors by email to get their feedback. No funding needed.

3.       Garden Buddies 2010 - the committee will meet again in September to evaluate the issues with the program and make any changes necessary so we are ready to launch the program in March 2010. Funding needed - $50 for fliers.

4.       Community Garden – Carol is writing an article for the Morgan Messenger asking for people who are interested/in need of garden space to contact us. At this point we don’t know if there is a perceived need for community garden space. We will determine if there is a need from any positive responses that are gathered by October 1. If there is a need, we will form a taskforce by November 1 to get one going, hopefully involving the people who want garden space. We will not know funding needs until/if this is studied in more detail.

5.       Fall Garden preparation workshop (for new garden beds). Elise has contacted Master Gardeners (Judy Franz) about doing a workshop. However, their regular MG class is scheduled for sometime this fall, so they may not have the time to do a special workshop. The Gardening Committee doesn’t have the time or teaching ability to do one on our own.

Harvest Festival – September 19, 2009 at Kris and Dave O’Brien’s

We will be inviting all of the people who signed up for the Garden Buddies program, regardless of whether they actually started a garden or mentored someone. The entire LEN mailing list will also be invited. The event will be from 1 pm to 5 pm. It will include:

§         Bringing food to share using produce from gardens, if possible, and the recipe printed for people who want to have a copy.

§         Bring your own plate, silverware, cup, etc.

§         Sharing garden stories from this season (a strange one weather-wise).

§         A walk around the property to identify food sources that can be foraged.

§         Swimming in the pond if it’s a warm day.

Food preservation workshop August or September, 2009. Jennie Cejka will do a workshop if we can gather 5 or more people. TBD