[michael bradley]

Hello Gardeners, 

On Friday I met with two awesome ladies from KU Student Farm about the possibility of using large portions of the community garden as KU student plots. When we met the manager from Cork and Barrel came over and informed me that Joe the landowner is up-in-arms because the city is calling him about the state of the property. Joe is threatening a duplex and no more garden. 

The reps from KU student farm said their organization would love to be responsible for setting up work days and maintaining and beautifying the entire space with the help of existing garden members. This would basically mean that all the space that we currently use as communal would be either individual plots for students and faculty or communal but organized by KU student farm. If you currently have a spot that you individually tend that spot would still be yours. 

I no longer have the time to give to organizing the community aspect or maintaining the physical space of our lovely garden. The issues with Joe seem to stem from our lack of year round organization and sometimes very low numbers of gardeners. It is my hope that the student farm can help us in making the garden a space that is obviously brimming with life and community investment. 

KU student farm is going to organize a clean up work day for next month. They seem like an awesome group that wants to work together on growing food and developing a lively and active community garden. 

Please let me know what you think. 

Peace, 

Michael 

[Nicholas Kotlinski]

Michael,

Thank you for organizing this. I'm really glad that an organization like KU student farm can be involved and really bring some new gardeners to the space. Let me know how I can help.

On a more selfish note, since I've usually used only the communal space, I would like to be able to carve out a small personal area for Kelly and myself before all is taken over. I gave up my larger space at John Taylor park (which kept me away from 9th and Miss this past season, sorry) and would be bummed if there was no more "community" space to grow food in.

Thanks again!

Nic

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Nicholas Kotlinski

Graduate Student

University of Kansas
Department of Geography

kotl...@ku.edu | (785) 221-0068

[michael bradley]

Thanks, Nick. How about the spot as you walk in the garden gate to the right? 

[Dave Loewenstein]

Hi Michael,

It would be a tragedy to lose the garden. I support the KU Student Farm idea if it means preserving this space for gardening.

best,
Dave

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Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 15:18:49 -0800
From: michael_...@yahoo.com
To: lawrenc...@googlegroups.com
Subject: LCGP

[KU Student Farm]

Hey all,

My name is Becky Crook, I am one of the officers of the KU student farm, and am the one who is going to take over coordination responsibilities for Michael.  Michael and I got connected through a mutual friend, Matt Schwabauer, who knew of my enthusiasm for community gardening and Michael’s want to find someone to coordinate this space. It has all basically lined up perfectly, as I just graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies from KU last December, I am very interested in farming and community gardens, and I need a place to grow some food in town this season.  

I have been thinking a lot about how to structure this partnership and structure space for gardeners.  I have been leaning towards just massively extending the community garden space, but I would really value all of your input!  As far as we have discussed on our end, the role the Student Farm will play in the organization of this will be mainly one of management, support, and as a way to network students to a place to grow food with the educational and institutional support of the KU Student Farm.

I would really like to set up a meeting sometime soon with all existing community garden members to talk about the coordination of all of this and start a dialogue about everyone’s wants and needs. I am really excited to join this community space and hopefully build a bridge for students to grow their own food and plug into the Lawrence community.

Best,

Becky 

[Dave Loewenstein]

Hi Becky,

This is great news. I started this garden back in 1992 and would love to see it continue in good hands. Let me know if I can help in any way.

best,
Dave Loewenstein

Here are a few articles about the garden's early days
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2000/sep/10/a_shared_experience/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1996/sep/15/peppereating_contest_adds_spice/

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19950920&id=4moyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HOcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5949,1700989

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Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 17:41:09 -0800
From: kufa...@gmail.com
To: lawrenc...@googlegroups.com
CC: michael_...@yahoo.com; michael_...@yahoo.com
Subject: LCGP Re:

[KU Student Farm]

Wow, thank you for sending me these articles, Dave!  I would love any documentation, articles or otherwise, that exist for this space.  When we get all of the details hashed out, it would be cool to have a small “history” page or something on the Student Farm website to share the story of this garden.  We are all really excited about the gardening at this space this year, as there is so much potential!  It is so much better to join an existing community rather than starting from square one.  

As the good weather seems to finally be on the rise, cross my fingers, I would really love to coordinate an upcoming weekend or weekday that we could meet at the site. I would love to set up a meeting to talk to all of members of this community garden and share with you all my ideas and vision for this upcoming year.  I want to start drafting a plan very soon to clean up some of the spaces that need it and a plan for extending the community gardening spaces, and I would love to run it by everyone and get some feedback.  When we met with Michael, he did a great and thorough job of showing us where existing garden spaces are and the spaces that need some stewardship, but I want to be very sure to respect the spaces that are in use.

If any of you are interested in meeting and talking with me about all of this, could you post some dates that work particularly well for you, or particularly not well, say, sometime in March? 

My schedule is very flexible for the next month, so I can likely work my schedule around any date and time that works for everyone.

Thanks!

Best,

Becky Crook 

-- 

Becky Crook

Community Garden Sponsorship Program Director

KUfa...@gmail.com

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[Rachael Perry]

Hey Becky,

We are so happy to have you join us!  I'm looking forward to a work day; let's do it sometime soon! 

Thanks so much,

Rachael