May Meeting Notes

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board
Saturday, May 19, 2108
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Attendees
Suzanne Bouchard, City Horticulturist
Jennifer Holland, Chairperson
Paul Rothman
​Romain Warnault
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Notes

• Rodent traps were baited in early May. They will remain baited throughout the season. The cost is $45/month. There are 8 traps around the perimeter of the garden (they look like fake rocks). Please keep them on the perimeter and do not move them. Let Suzanne know if you see any dead rodents in the garden.
• The city agreed to put in 4 new plots in the fall on the east side of the garden (plot 6 and plot 24 side). This will likely result in a renumbering of the plots at the end of the season. We did put some plants in on that side of the common area which we will need to move in the fall. We will have a similar border beyond the new plots (3 feet).
• Mary in plot 24 asked the city about the potential of starting a farmer’s market in the area. Suzanne said it would likely need to be at the end of the street in Veteran’s Park. If the majority of the gardeners are interested in learning more about a community garden we can arrange a meeting with the farmer’s market coordinator for the city
  • ACTION: Reach out to Jennifer Holland if you are interested in learning more about the possibility of a farmer’s market. If there is enough interest I will work with the city to schedule an information session.
  • There would need to be a modification to the agreement we have with the city because the current regulations do not allow for the sale of items grown in the garden.
  • There is a West End Farmer’s Market at Ben Brenman park on Sunday mornings (May to October I believe).
  • There is a Kingstowne Farmer’s Market at the Giant parking lot near Van Dorn Street and Kingstowne Blvd on Friday evenings (May to October I believe).
  • The Old Town Farmer’s Market is Saturday mornings year round.
• Moving to self governance. One of the goals of the advisory board is to move the garden to self governance. This means we need to identify an organization will to take over the fiscal management of the garden. The gardeners would be responsible for items such as maintaining waiting lists and coordinating registrations, but the organization would handle the financial transactions and financial reporting requirements. Some examples of organizations are homeowner’s associations or business development agencies.
  • Paul Rothman (Plot 2), Barb Goodman (Plot 17), and Jen Lee (Plot 22) have offered to work on researching self governance. The board proposes a new committee be established to work on this task. All are welcome to join or to offer suggestions to the group.
  • The new community garden in the city (Dale St) is starting under self governance. Their by-laws should be available later this summer and may be useful as a starting point.
  • We are likely better to pursue this on our own instead of joining with Chinquapin. Chinquapin is much larger and will likely take longer to take any action on self governance.
  • Under self governance the city leases the lands to the gardens. The city intervenes as needed as the property owners.
• Jo Kang (plot 1) pulls together the monthly volunteer report. Please make sure you are recording your volunteer hours through the form on the website.
• Requested more wood chips.  
• When weeding make sure you get as much of the soil off your weeds as possible before putting them in the trash can. One, we don’t want to get rid of good soil and two, if the trash cans get too heavy they won’t be emptied.
• The second monitoring session is Sunday, June 17 at 10am. Monitoring occurs several times throughout the season and looks for compliance to the rules and regulations you agreed to when renting the plot. Some of the key issues monitors look for are adherence to the height limit (72 inches), clear paths, and signs of activity in the plot.
• There is a summer solstice BBQ planned for Friday June 22 at 6pm. Look for additional information from Neil as the date gets closer. It will be an informal social event.