Meeting Minutes 1-13-2010
Avanti/Madison Garden Communication
January 13, 2010
Members in Attendance
Nathan Allan
Angie Grant
Joellen Wilhelm
Beth Wilson
Kristen Brown
Danielle Middleton
Scott Newton
Heather McLeod
David Curts
Susan Stillwell
Gayle Mar-Chun
Katie Stoll
We reviewed the designs created for the garden by Landscape Architect,
Kurtis Roberts. Kurtis provided us with several designs and ideas
including features such as raised edible beds, environmental education
ecosystem beds, amphitheater style seating, a central sun dial
teaching area, arbors, fencing, fruit trees and more. The design
labeled “concept A” appealed to everyone at the meeting for the
outdoor classroom feel, standard-size beds and eco-education garden
beds.
Kurtis Roberts had indicated his willingness to participate in a
meeting next week to help us finalize our design plans, review the
resources we need and help us develop a realistic time line. We
discussed possibly merging this meeting with the sustainability
meeting planned for Wednesday January 20, 2010 at 6:30pm.
The question of how the community would be involved in the garden came
up but was tabled for now. We will pick this question up again when
the sustainability team next meets.
Joellen briefed us on her efforts to obtain seed donations for the
garden. She has written letters to Ed Hume, Territorial and the Seed
Savers Exchange seed companies in request of donated seeds. These
letters were signed by Gayle and will be mailed by Joellen this week.
Heather mentioned that her parents own a seed company and may also be
a resource. She will look into this and contact Joellen with
additional information.
Beth reported to us on some research she has been doing regarding
grants for the garden. United Way and Lowes both have grants that
could provide up to $5,00 for a school garden project. She also has
been looking into a grant through the Fruit Tree Preservation
Foundation, which could provide 20-25 fruit trees, irrigation and
education. We discussed possible locations for the fruit trees and
all agreed that a desirable location would be on the hillside
bordering Boundary Street. Before proceeding with this grant
application Gayle recommended that we check in with Julie DeRuwe
(Facilities Manager for the OSD) and look into city/neighborhood
covenants that may limit our ability to plant trees in this area.
Heather asked if we have contacted Sustainable South Sound. One of
our committee members, Kirk Hanson (not present at this meeting) is a
part of Sustainable South Sound but we have not discussed how these
two projects might work together. Heather suggested looking into the
possibility of Sustainable South Sound as a resource for funds for the
garden project. Heather told us that they helped fund a fence for
another community garden in the area. Beth asked for some necessary
details for the grant applications. Gayle provided her with some of
the demographic information about Madison. She will also need details
such as how many feet of fencing we will need; how many square feet of
garden beds we will have, etc. Katie agreed to try to get some of
these numbers to her this week. Beth also suggested that, in
conjunction with a discussion about the United Way grants, we
designate a “salad coordinator” within Madison to help get garden
produce from the ground to the table. We have previously discussed
using the garden bounty in Madison’s Welcome Room, which helps to feed
low income and homeless children at Madison. We also discussed the
possibility of having each class have a salad day in which they would
get to prepare and enjoy a salad from the garden. The “salad
coordinator” could ensure that the garden bounty is utilized
appropriately. Gayle and Susan suggested that a good person (or
people) to fill this role would be the AmeriCorps volunteer. Madison
has two AmeriCorps volunteers every year and one of their primary
roles is assisting with the Welcome Room. Also Gayle mentioned that
all of Madison’s homeless families are invited to have dinner at
Madison two Wednesdays per month. This may also be an important use
of our garden produce.
We discussed the quickly approaching date of February 9th as the day
we break ground. Mike Velasquez set this date previously as it is a
day of service for the Avanti students and they will be able to help
install the garden on this date. We need to check in with Mike to be
sure this date is still a go and that we have Avanti volunteers
available.
We discussed the option of having a work party in the Saturday prior
to this day of service, on February 6, 2010. It was suggested that we
have parent and community volunteers remove the sod and build the beds
on 2/6/2010 and then have the Avanti and Madison students work to fill
the beds with soil and spread the wood chips on 2/9/2010. It may also
be a good idea to have a second work party the following weekend to
clean up any loose ends. We also discussed that a fence will need to
go up right away (at the same time or shortly after the beds are
installed). This brought up the question of resources and the fact
that we may not have enough to do all the things we want to do up
front.
We need a sod cutter. Karen Ray told us that Lew Rents has let them
borrow equipment for free on slow days and during the off-season for
the Lincoln garden. This may be a possibility. Katie agreed to check
with Lew Rents and A1 to see about the possibility of donated time
with a sod cutter.
We also need fencing. The group indicated preference for a fence with
wood posts as opposed to a more traditional chain link fence. We need
to price this fence out and look into the possibility of donated
supplies.
We need landscape cloth. We need to figure out how big the rolls are
and how much they cost. Many agreed that this cloth was most
economical at Costco in the past.
GRuB has agreed to provide six 4x8-raised beds for our veggie
gardens. This includes the lumber and the soil. The question was
raised if we should try to acquire more lumber and soil to build the
four additional raised beds that are part of the garden design. We
will need to price these supplies out.
We would like to get the irrigation system set from the beginning. We
need to price this out.
Katie agreed to speak with Kurtis about getting more specific details
about the garden plans so that we can better estimate the materials we
will need.
The neighboring Methodist church has agreed to donate $200 towards the
garden. Mike has mentioned previously that Avanti budgeted some money
for the garden but we don’t know how much. Gayle will check with Mike
to get more details. We also need to look further in to the
possibility of donated or discounted supplies from area retailers.
Katie plans to tour the Komachin garden next week and invited others
to join also. The date and time will be announced when they are
set.
The next meeting will be the sustainability meeting which will be held
on January 20, 2010 to set our time line.