Meeting Notes for 5/12/12

[Dina Rodrigues]

Meeting Notes 5/12/12

Facilitator: Tobias
Minutes: Dina
Stack: Not used
Present: Mary G.

Mary (new)

Tobias

Beth

Dina

Jordan

Molly (new)

Maya

Meeting:

We went over the logistics of the garden.

Tobias: A man from the area offered to  help fix the lot’s gate (entrance). He offered a price to set up the sliding gate, which was $1,500. We will be looking into other alternatives for the gate, such as having a gate door rather than a sliding one, in order to bring down the price.

Thanks to Carol Harris from City Hall, the garden has been cleaned out. We went to the garden later on in the meeting to discuss the lot further. People in the area have shown great interest in the garden.

Next Saturday (May 19th) is our community outreach day, which is being headed by Monica and Yarrow. It will be from 1pm - 3pm. They have fliers prepared.

La Casa de Don Pedro, a local community organization in the area, is very interested in the garden and wants to invite us to see their community garden.

We talked about other community gardens, such as Rutherford Community Garden (Beth), Ironbound Community Garden located at Courtland Street near Hawkins Street School and at 317 Elms Street (Molly), and NJ Communities United.

Due to the number of people who showed up to the meeting, we decided to go through the formalities such as individual introductions and explaining hand signals used during meetings.

In Beth’s introduction, she mentioned taking a course in permaculture, which teaches people to create structures that work with nature rather than against it. She was also the person responsible for updating the layout design of the garden.

As far as what the Greater Newark Conservancy (GNC) can provide for the garden, they can provide rain barrels, soil, and raised beds.

Tobias: Carol Harris has been very enthusiastic about the garden’s development. Overall, GNC and Carol have been impressed with how organized we have been in approaching this project. [reminder to ask her if she wants to be part of the google group to receive email updates.]

Beth suggested that we take it a step further and create a list of priorities. That way, everyone would know what there is to be done and we can move along with our plans more smoothly.

Dina will be creating a “priority list” Google doc describing the various aspects of the garden we want to get to, but will be allowing people to suggest what order things should be done. The purpose of the document is for others to express informed decisions on what actions should be taken next.

Announcements:

Tobias: OWS TV, a local access channel created by member of OWS, would like us to be featured as guests on their live weekly broadcast. They would want to know how many people will come and what the general topics would be. Any footage or props that are appropriate and relevant to Science and Sustainability can be used during the broadcast.

He will be attending a Zeitgeist Movement (NJ Chapter) Town Hall Meeting in Trenton at 4 pm. The Zeitgeist Movement, which is the outreach branch of the Venus Project, advocated for a resource-based economy where money would no longer be needed for survival.

Maya: 4-H Youth Center works with GNC. They outreach into schools to work in youth gardening club. Maya has an application to create a youth branch for Science and Sustainability. The organization offered to do outreach on our behalf or to help us with outreach. [She spoke to a woman called Rebecca] Everyone agreed by reaching a consensus that a youth branch was a great idea and Maya agreed to facilitate this.

Maya will be going on a trip from 99% Solidarity that will be traveling from New York City to Chicago.

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At the lot:

Yarrow was not able to make it but said that we should look out for an email with the flier that will be used for outreach.

Water sources: For now, the only water source we have access to is the water drain pipe that runs alongside the house and into the lot. The water would be rain water, which may not be enough to water the plants. The suggestion was made to ask residents for water and to set up rain barrels in other places. Also, there is another house on the end opposite the entrance that also has a water pipe along the house. Therefore, we can maybe use that as well.

One suggestion was to order water like offices and places of work often do. The problem with that is that we are trying to create a self-sustaining garden. To bring in plastic water gallons into the lot defeats the purpose of creating such a garden. Therefore, the idea was created but quickly revoked.

Molly suggested that we start off with only 4 raised beds (rather than 10) and then gradually build from there.

Mother’s day is growing day so we are behind schedule in terms of growing plants. Therefore, it was decided that we set up at least one raised bed by next Saturday. In the document of priorities, we will need to discuss what steps will be necessary in order to make that happen.

It was suggested that a poster of the garden layout should be made and posted on the lot’s gate. Beth said she would be willing to look into this. Also, she said she will be contacting local garden centers to see what suggestions they have and what materials they may be willing to donate. Furthermore, she suggested that the rubble and rocks in the lot should be collected and used to decorate the garden.

The meeting concluded with everyone talking about different places where courses on gardening are offered, namely Rutgers’ master gardeners program (not free; volunteer hours mandatory), and the Bronx Botanical Garden (not free, very technical); GNC offers workshops that range from $10 to $100 (some workshops are free for Newark residents). Also, we discussed where we can plant trees and which trees should be planted (permission is necessary as per the terms of the lease - not an issue).

~End of Meeting Notes~

 

~Dina Rodrigues