Cport Garden Committee Notes, April 27th

Cambridgeport Garden Committee Notes

April 27^th

Attendance: Alex Van Praagh (parent and bed-builder extraordinaire), Shirley Harvey (parent liaison), Andy Hrycyna (parent), Alice Gugelmann and Jane Hirschi (CitySprouts)

Agenda:

1. New beds!
2. Changes to Elm Street
3. Filling the beds and woodland area – May 15^th workday for gravel and dirt shoveling
4. Woolly gardens
5. Action list

Next meeting: not set, but workday will be May 15^th

1. New beds and murals by Alex and Whitney!

Everything is in place on Elm Street and looking great. Trellises and last details will be completed by this weekend; soil will come next week. Alex explained that the beds are adaptable, if we’d like to move them in the future.

2. Road changes to Elm Street

The City will be doing road and sidewalk work starting this week (April 26^th) and lasting 1-2 months. An informational meeting will be held in the Cport cafeteria on Weds April 28^th.

Action step: Alice will attend the meeting, to see how this might affect our plans for garden changes: will bike parking be added on the street, giving us more room on the school property for a garden? Will they be laying out water lines that we could use for watering our new planters? We access to the school be impeded in any way (possibly blocking the way for a big dirt delivery?)

3. Filling the beds and woodland area – May 15^th workday

Workday: A workday was set for May 15^th for the removal of gravel in the woodland area, and spreading of soil. Shirley and Alex will organize volunteers (need about 10, over 3 hours, to complete the job). Tools are available at other CitySprouts sites, volunteers just show up. Jane noted that Kelly Ryder from the City will remove the gravel, as long as we rake it up and deposit it by the street.

Soil delivery: Depending on whether we can get school permission, we’ll have a large delivery of soil deposited in the last parking space by the playground this week, to leave there for 2 weeks. Alice will then use it next Tuesday with classes to fill the new planters, and we will save on the cost of delivering it twice. If that isn’t possible, we will have two soil deliveries, or find another solution for filling the beds (bags from Home Depot, for example).

Design of the woodland area: Alex will work on a sketch of possible topographical changes to the space, including a stepping-stone path.

4. Woolly gardens.

Alex brought up a vertical hanging garden concept he saw advertised, turns out the company works with schools to raise money for the garden if they don’t have a budget. Since we cannot build beds by the tire swing (because the play area needs to be obstacle-free), hanging gardens could be an alternative. Here is the link: www.woollyschoolgarden.org

5. Action list

Alice: attend Elm St meeting and report back; organize soil delivery, fill the planters (get permission from Jennifer Ford); coordinate tool needs with Andy.

Andy and Shirley: organize 10 or more volunteers for the May 15^th workday

Alex: finish up trellises and last bed details, sketch out potential design for woodland area

Question: Should we get someone to organize snacks? Or just ask everyone to bring their own?

Next meeting: not set, but workday will be May 15^th

Front planters almost finished

C'port parent Alex Van Praagh made an early morning drive to New Hampshire on Saturday April 24 to retrieve the composite decking material for the flower planters for the front of the school. (He actually made two trips in order to get the best color.) Made from reclaimed or recycled wood and plastic fibers, this durable material will last a long, long time.

Back in Cambridge Alex began work with the help of Justin Cravens (C'port k'garten teacher), Alice Turkel (School Committee member and former C'port parent), Alex's brother in law J.P. (who's also an architect and furniture maker), and J.P.'s son Ben.

The work site was an interior space on Broadway near the 9th grade school. By 5 p.m. all three planters were well on their way to completion. The photos below show Alex, J.P., Ben and the result of the day's labor.

Alex is fairly certain the planters will be completed on schedule for Tuesday.

On Sunday afternoon, Whitney, Alex's wife, began painting the recessed areas in front of C'Port where the planters will go.

Thanks SO MUCH, Alex, Whitney and helpers for all your efforts! And thanks especially for donating so many hours of your time on a beautiful weekend for Cambridgeport school.

First Planting at Squirrel Brand

April 12th started a week of planting in all the schools, including Cambridgeport. Diane's 1/2 class came out to plant snap peas, loosen up soil, and explore the garden with a scavenger hunt. With the new beds being built next week, we'll look for more planting after April Break.

Garden workshop led by Frank and Joe

On Tuesday, Frank Meehan and Joe Petner led an hour-long garden workshop for Cambridgeport teachers. They demonstrated how many fascinating biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) things can be found around the schoolyard and used in day-to-day curricula. Frank brought in dozens of trees samples, from white pine to weeping willow and American beech, to show differences in plant structure and growth. After a quick and enthusiastic botany lesson, Frank passed around landscaping ideas for the new “woodland garden” space between the two playgrounds.

Cambridgeport meeting notes 4/6/10 8:30am- 9:30am

Attending: Alex Van Praagh, Monica Velgos, Andy Hrycyna, Susan Shelkrot, Shirley Harvey, Alice Gugelmann, Francey Slater

Work Day – Date will most likely be changed from 4/17 to 4/24 or 4/25 (Alex will confirm). The main task for this workday will be to install the 3 planters at the front on the Building (Elm St). Alex will be point person, and would like 1-3 helpers (preferably with carpentry skills). Start time is 10am. Monica will solicit volunteers in newsletter

Planters – material is yet undetermined, Alex is looking for best supplier and cost. If we go with cedar, it will most likely be more like $250 per planter for the wood, coming to $300 with all hardware. The dimensions of the box are (roughly) 22” long x 22” deep x 30” tall.

The question of painting the wall behind the platers was rasied: do we want to paint a solid color or include some artistic elements (flowers, butterflies, etc..)? Alex will ask his wife Whitney (www.witcards.com) if she is interested/available to help. NOTE: the actual color of the trim on the school is forest green, not aqua, as shown in the picture.

Filling planters with soil and planting them will come next. CitySprouts generally uses loam and compost from Cambridge Bark and Loam. Andy has researched a soil-less mix that is good for containers. A well-draining mix is crucial. Selecting plants for the planter boxes will also be considered, as they receive limited sunlight (Alex’s estimate was 4 hrs).

Donations – Alice is looking into paint (Sherwin Williams), lumber & hardware (Home Depot) donations

Water Source – Carl informed me that there are NO water sources on the outside of the building, and suggested that we approach Dana Ham of CPS to install. There is a fire hydrant opening on the front of the building, and a water fountain in the playground, so installing taps may be an option. Alice and I spoke in greater depth with Carl about running a hose from the custodian’s room (inside the gate and down the ramp) up to the beds on Elm st, and we also thought about installing a rain barrel at the front that we could just fill from the hose and use for hand watering. Another option is to see if a classroom teacher or three would like to adopt the task of watering (means a lot of lugging water…)

May 20th – Tile (and other) celebration is scheduled for May 20th, which will also be a time to unveil the front planters to the school community.

Playground beds – Jane met with John Nardone, Kelly Writer, Dana Ham and Dick Woods about the potential installation of garden beds in the North corner of the playground. The fence cutting is off the table, but there is the possibility of building a bed or two flush with the fence. The question of clearance with the tire swing remains, and we hope to hear back in the next week about this.

Action Items:

· Alex will continue to research materials and pricing, including recycled plastic lumber
· Alex will confirm work day date, 4/24 or 4/25
· Monica will recruit skilled volunteers
· Alice is contacting retailers about donations
· Alex will ask Whitney about artistic paintings
· CitySprouts will contact DPW about further excavation under the Locust trees

Next meeting: April 27th, 8:30 am

Cport Raised Bed Designs by Alex

Here is the design for three new raised beds, to be built tentatively on Saturday, April 24th.

Lopez Park pictures

I found this image of the Costa Lopez Park community garden with raised beds/ planter boxes:




You can get a better view at the source,  here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/anarchitect/3778933839/sizes/l/#cc_license

The city page describing the park is here:

http://www.cambridgema.gov/CAC/Public/CostaLopezTaylorPark.cfm

Andy