Ann Levine, who was chairing the meeting, announced that the Parks Department had provided the Garden with pavers for the areas devoted to water barrel storage, and thanked Kevin Lee and Victor Calise for their efforts in obtaining these supplies from the City. The installation of the pavers is a work day task.
Members were urged to support the composting event that is scheduled for October 13, from 6-8. The event will feature a guest speaker and free refreshments.
Another round of discussion was devoted to the possibility of relocating the composter to the rear of the east garden. Various suggestions were offered to mitigate the downsides of the present location. To make the composter itself more attractive, it was suggested that it could be decorated as part of a children’s art project. To improve accessibility at the entrance to the east garden, it was suggested that the platform under the composter could be refurbished and its footprint reduced. Further discussion was tabled until Jean Jaworek, chair of the compost committee, could be present.
Members discussed the option of replacing the Halloween Party with a Harvest Festival. The reason for doing this would be to provide an event with greater appeal to adult members who don’t have young children, and because there are so many Halloween events already. A suggestion was made that we aim to emulate the Harvest Festival done by the Bloomingdale Group. Noreen Whysel, a Steering Committee member, does web design for that group, and has contacts with that group who might be helpful in making suggestions for how we could do a similar event in the Garden. The consensus of the meeting was that the garden should present such an event, but that it would require too much planning to be able to do it this year.
Nikki Kowalski announced that the Garden had received an offer from a group called Green Guerillas to supply perennials and cover crops to the Garden. Members with requests should talk to Nikki during the workday, because the September 16 deadline for requests is rapidly approaching.
Members were reminded that they are responsible for weeding the area around their individual planting bed.
The condition of the fire hydrant from which we get our water supply was once again a topic of discussion. Earlier in the summer, some members thought it was broken, but it turned out that it was just difficult to operate. Now it appears to be really and truly broken. Kevin Lee will report the problem to 311 if he can’t get the hydrant working by the end of the weekend.
NK for the SC
