Garden Meeting Notes: May 17, 2025
St Davids Foundation Community Garden Admin Account
Garden Meeting Notes: May 17, 2025
Attendees
Corey, Caroline, Grant, Chelsea, Scott, Ariana, Brad, Joelle, Jeremy, Kiri, Danielle, Simon
Agenda Topics
Vandalism at the Garden: We discussed the recent reports of gardeners having plants pulled up. It seems to be somewhat random.
Remember to report to 311 since this is property damage.
The more people we have in the garden, the less likely things will happen.
Talk to guests when you see them in the garden. Be friendly. Ask them to keep an eye out for people damaging plots.
Remind people of the garden rules and policies.
If you are offering vegetables to non-gardeners, make sure they know that it doesn’t mean they can take anything they want.
Considerations:
Look into fake cameras (or affordable real ones)
Make sure that we’re keeping trash picked up and the garden looking tidy. (Broken Window Theory)
Finance Updates:
Corey reported on finances
Led to a discussion about water conservation since this is our largest expense.
May Garden Plot Inspections
Recap of the inspection process and the standards and norms that are used.
Reminder to everyone about weeding
Updates from the Park Summit: Corey shared highlights and key themes from the Austin Parks Summit
Austin’s park system faces significant funding and accessibility challenges, ranking 44th among major U.S. cities; only ~10% of the city’s general fund goes to parks, making the 2026 bond critical for future improvements.
The city is exploring alternative funding sources like park districts, TIFs, public-private partnerships, and user fees to bolster park investment.
Community involvement and sustainable volunteer leadership are essential, with strategies focused on clear roles, youth engagement, shared communication, and annual goal-setting.
Advocacy opportunities include attending Parks Board meetings, joining newsletters, and contacting council members, with key motivations for volunteers being community, nature connection, and mental health benefits.
Waiting List:
We currently have 47 people on the waiting list
Chicken Coop:
Jeremy and Joelle shared that there are some openings with the chicken coop
New Covered Run will be installed during the next workday: June 7. This is a “garage in a box” that will be installed. Will need people to help!
Committee Updates
Compost, Trash, and Recycling (Lead: Billy, outgoing / Agata, incoming)
Action items are:
Compost will need a major churning at the next workday
Additional signs still need to be ordered
Trash is starting to pile up again - need gardeners to help out with getting things out of the garden
Can we check with the apartment complexes to see if we can use their dumpsters?
The MLK Food Store has also been open to let some trash get moved to their dumpsters.
Outreach & Communication & Events (Lead: Ariana)
Discord - pinning messages - would be helpful if we could have some resources pinned there
We’ve been a bit slow on organizing social events due to other commitments on the outreach committee.
Discussed getting in touch with other gardens coming out of the Parks Summit
Shed & Inventory
Our gas weed wacker got stolen when it was left in the shed for 2 days for someone to use. We can’t keep power tools in the shed.
Corey asked Gardeners to start considering a new process for requesting tools and keeping track of stuff:
Check in/out process for tools
Manage a more complete inventory
Integrate a tool purchase request process
Will continue to discuss at future meetings and elect a new committee head
Equipment Request:
Pick Ax
Request for a 2nd hose - check
Come and get it
Pollinator Gardens
North Pollinator Garden:
Weeding is always an ongoing need in the north pollinator garden
South Pollinator Garden:
Izzy is taking over the south pollinator garden
Jeremy has started sharing this info with Izzy
She’s been added to WhatsApp (how this group communicates)
Do the pollinator gardens all have assigned people for weeding plots and watering? It seems some days are not watered and some plots are looking very unkempt.
Garden Maintenance Updates
Caroline offered to do a map to help with instructions for zones with weed wacking and other tasks
Getting new plot signs - We could really use more standard and consistent plot signs!
Compost sign was requested - Corey has this on his backlog.
Chicken Coop project
Announcements and Discussions
Discord:
Talked about missing notifications - need to @ mention everyone for people to be alerted
Pinning messages to keep important info from being lost
Making sure people are added when they join.
Important Upcoming Dates
Work Day:
June 7, 2025 9am - 11am - Invite Link to add to your calendar
Next Garden Meeting:
June 21, 2025 @ 10am - Invite Link to add to your calendar
Resources
Garden Website Calendar - remember we have a resources and calendar page here!