Edible Wall link

This is the story on the Edible Wall product from the New York Times.

Minutes of First Meeting

Cambridgeport Garden Committee Meeting Notes - 2/2/10

Physical Garden Update:

- Question of where a garden would go has been asked for some time

- Decision to start with Woodland Habitat Garden under locust trees in stretch behind school building, and build from there

- Initial budget of $5,000 to build garden, $1,000 of which has been spent on purchasing and installing garden shed ($4,000 remaining)

- DPW removed layer of blacktop from around the trees in December; we will request another layer (if possible 12”) of crushed stone be removed

Overview of CitySprouts Program

- CitySprouts functions in partnership with CPSD, school administration, and school community

- What CitySprouts provides: part-time seasonal staff person (Garden Coordinator), Professional Development for Teachers (led by CS Education Consultants Joe Petner and Frank Meehan), Volunteer matching to help installation and future projects

- What CPSD provides: funding (line item in the budget), relationship with Science Department (writing garden lessons into existing curriculum & doing teacher training around these units – this is a new initiative and will be piloted this spring at Peabody and Amigos schools)

- What school administration provides: funding (contracts with principals), dedicated time for professional development with teachers

- What parent community provides: help building garden, form school garden committee (which has its own set of responsibilities – fundraising, communication, event planning – see School Garden Committee document)

Questions and Discussion Points:

- What happens in summertime? Is the there possibility of connecting the CAPI summer camp to the garden?

CitySprouts sponsors and runs an Internship program for five – eight middle school students from each school, focusing on growing food, nutrition and health, leadership development and community service. The internship is 4 weeks long. We encourage forming connections between other youth-serving programs during the summer – the more young people with access to the school garden, the better.

- Where can a vegetable garden grow? Space and sunlight are challenges at Cambridgeport.

Answering this question will be a creative and collaborative process. Ideas ranged from moveable containers that can be rolled into sunny locations to relocating bike rack to new location to make room for a vegetable bed in the teacher parking area. Moving bikes out of parking lot makes safety sense, thought replacing with a vegetable garden where teachers and families bring children does not follow the same logic. Other ideas: Vertical gardening, living walls, hydroponics.

Thinking beyond $4,000 budget – fundraising for a more technologically advanced features

- Is there another CitySprouts garden that has similar sunlight challenges? Is there a template for Woodland Habitat Gardens?

A few CitySprouts gardens have shady woodland areas (Haggerty, King/Amigos), but Cambridgeport will be the first garden that is majority shaded. Ideas about designing garden to embrace the low light condition – create an enchanted-feeling garden with enclosed feeling, i.e. under the canopy of plants.

- What about native species?

Garden in the Woods (New England Wildflower Society, N Framingham) is a great example of beautiful and lush shade gardening with native plants. Planting natives under Locust trees may prove difficult, as they are shallow rooted (Note: I spoke with a horticulturist at NE Wildflower Society and she did not see any problems with locusts specifically, but will do some research and get back to us).

- Has Vandalism been a problem in other gardens? The garden site is known to be a place people go at night to drink, smoke, etc…

CitySprouts gardens have had limited problems with vandalism.

Concern at Cambridgeport over lack of lights (Alex suggested some kind of strung lights in trees, could add to “enchanted garden” feel), garden as high traffic area (might get trampled by people passing through), and general misuse of garden area; most people felt confident that neighbors would be respectful of garden, and that misuse could be discouraged via good design.

- Tile Unveiling and Potluck dinner on May 20th – deadline to have at least some part of garden completed

- People Making a Difference volunteer group has a workday scheduled for Saturday 4/10 – they can help remove crushed stone, wheelbarrow soil, plant or whatever needs to be done at that point.

Steps Forward

- Alex will create a sketch possible design to bring to next meeting for people to work with. From there we will create a timeline for projects, and determine what kind of fundraising will be needed.

- Before our next meeting (Tuesday, March 2nd 8:30am) people should start looking for design ideas, specifically images that can be shared with group (print or email). Check out Boston Schoolyard Initiative Photos: http://gallery.mac.com/schoolyards