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