Sunday, August 9 Workday Agenda

August 8, 2020
by garden
1 min read

Good evening gardeners:

As a reminder, the workday starts at 10 a.m. in the East garden.

Please remember to wear your mask, and stay home if you’re feeling ill. For those that are uncomfortable with in person attendance, a recap of the meeting will be circulated.
Please remember to sign in when you arrive

Agenda:

Meeting topics (15-20 minutes)

  1. New members-introductions, posted membership list
  2. Steering Committee introductions
  3. Safe gardening in the time of Covid
  4. Exterminator/rat update5. Garden security/locking up, etc.
  5. Planting in the east garden
  6. List of first beds to be rebuilt
  7. PayPal

Work day tasks

  1. Finishing rock bed in the east garden
  2. Twig/branch clean-up in west garden
  3. Weeding-East/West garden, around beds, herb garden
  4. Hydrant training
  5. Picnic table sanding and staining
  6. Touch-up newly painted shed

If possible, please e-mail and let us know if you are unable or unwilling to attend the work day.

Sincerely,
West 104th Street Garden

GreenThumb Deliveries For The 2020 Season

April 24, 2020
by garden
2 min read

Good evening gardeners,

In advance of our Zoom garden meeting tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., I wanted to bring everyone up to date on how the city shut down is/will likely affect the garden this season. 

Wood delivery for bed rebuilding-As of April 23, 2020, GT is still planning to provide enough lumber to rebuild and raise approximately 22 beds. The delivery was supposed to take place the last week in March, but has been postponed due to the shut down. This was to be the first of three deliveries, the last of which was to arrive towards the end of October 2020. To date, GT has not cancelled any of the planned deliveries. 

Supplies and Plants-Between Jan. and March, GT has offered various supplies (garden equipment, flats of flowers, herbs and vegetables) to gardens in good standing.  GT has not committed to a delivery date or to what will actually be received, but hoped that deliveries would begin in May.  Although, it’s unlikely anything will arrive before the City starts to reopen.

Rainwater Harvesting System and Repairs to the Cistern-GrowNYC has applied for a grant to provide a water harvesting system for the east garden.  The original proposal was for installation on the gazebo.  However, due to the unresolved rat problem, if the grant is approved, the system will be installed on the new shed.  Additionally, GrowNYC will upgrade the overflow on the cistern in the west garden.

Plant Sale-This is on hold until we have a better sense of when the city is going to reopen.

There will be ample opportunity for further discussion at the meeting tomorrow.  The SC hopes  to see (or hear) everyone then.

-Simone Nicholson

COVID-19 changes

March 29, 2020
by garden
2 min read

Dear Garden Members,

Our garden is a peaceful and beautiful refuge, especially in springtime!

But in consideration of the public health emergency, we want to update you on the current garden plans in response to COVID-19.

1. The garden will be open to members only until further notice. All public open hours are canceled.

2. If you visit or work in the garden, it is imperative that you respect social distancing guidelines (See here: https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-signs-new-york-state-pause-executive-order). 

3. The water barrels will be filled by the weekend of 4/4 for anybody needing to tend to their personal bed. 

4. The April workday is cancelled, but we will have a short open garden meeting online (virtual group conversation on ZOOM via computer or phone; instructions will be circulated) at the same time (10am on April 25). The meeting will be moderated and an agenda will be distributed beforehand.  

5. UPDATES: Our compost delivery has been postponed until further notice. DSNY suspended our food scraps program until further notice. We are *not* accepting food scraps at this time. Please do not use the brown food scraps receptacles. 

6. REMINDERS: When you enter the garden, please hang the lock behind a sign on the inside of the fence. When you leave, check to see if anybody else is there and if nobody is there, LOCK UP.

7. Due to the extremely high risk of contagion, please clean your hands thoroughly before you enter and leave the garden.Please understand that these new practices may change pending new or different official guidelines and instructions.

We will keep you posted, and, most importantly, stay safe and well. 

Greenly,

Your springtime garden buds

Welcome New Steering Committee Members

March 28, 2020
by garden
1 min read

Dear garden members,

We had a vote on two new Steering Committee members at the garden potluck (Donna and Hamid) and we are writing to report the results. There was a quorum present and both Donna and Hamid received a majority of “yea” votes. Congratulations Donna and Hamid! And thank you so much in advance for your service!

2020 Steering Commitee

Hamid Alaoui
Beverly Bates
Donna Checkan
Mark De Rocco
Joyce Griffen
Raleigh Mayer
Simone Nicholson
Bethany Davis Noll
Katy Pederson
Ariel Behr, Treasurer

You can reach the Steering Committee by emailing w.104.garden@gmail.com.

FYI: We will be sending separate updates related to COVID-19 changes later this weekend.

Thank you,

Your friendly garden gnomes

Reminder: Help Us Call the City About Garden Maintenance

March 17, 2020
by garden
1 min read

Dear all,

As discussed at the brunch, there are a few 311 calls you could all help us put in.  You can say you are calling about a Parks department maintenance problem and make the following three complaints.

  • 8 West 104th st, at the back of the garden lot (south side, western portion): there is no retaining wall. The area is unstable and unsafe and rats have burrowed there. We need a retaining wall.
  • 8 West 104th st, south side: the fence is falling down and needs to be replaced.
  • 8 West 104th st, along the western edge: the retaining wall is falling onto the neighboring lot and is making it difficult/impossible for the neighbor to maintain the strip. This area needs to be maintained to keep the rats out and we don’t have access to it. Our retaining wall needs to be fixed.

Thank you!
Your friends the garden worms

Easy Tasks – 311 Calls to Help the Garden

January 25, 2020
by garden
1 min read

Dear all,

Can you all help us with putting 311 requests in? The east garden needs lots of help and the DOB and Greenthumb people I’ve talked to say that putting in 311 requests could help a lot. Here is what we need: 

  • west side of east garden: the retaining wall is falling down (and rats hide in there)
  • south side (west) of east garden: we need a new retaining wall where the garden is flowing out under the fence (safety issue)
  • south side (east) of the east garden: we need the  holes in front of the retaining wall filled in with cement (rats hide in there)
  • south side of east garden: we need a new fence as our fence is falling down (safety issue)

Feel free to call 311 or put it in on the app.  Here is the address: 8 west 104. The more people who put in requests the better! 

Thank you!

Bethany

Jan 11-12: Manhattan Orchid Sale and Show @ The Plant Shed Cafe

January 6, 2020
by garden
2 min read

In case garden members are interested:
Next weekend there will be an orchid show by the Manhattan Orchid Society on the Upper West Side at The Plant Shed Café, 555 Columbus (87th St.).  I think it might be the first orchid society show in Manhattan since the large GYNOS shows in the old Winter Garden and Rockefeller Center over a decade ago, though on a much smaller scale.  While this event will be pretty modest, it may evolve to something much grander in the future.

There will be two vendors — J&L orchids, which sells very cool miniatures, and Orchidphile, which sells fancy phalaenopsis (the latest breedings of the moth orchids you see at Home Depot and TJ’s). 

This is a rare opportunity — you can find them at NJ or LI shows a couple of times a year, but those shows are a bit of a hike for Manhattan dwellers especially without a car.

https://jlorchids.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Orchidphile

There will also be two workshops each day (1 and 2 pm).  I’m not sure of the topics.  The show and workshops will be free to attend.  Flyer is attached.

Sherman 

December 7: Let’s Put Our Garden to Bed

November 29, 2019
by garden
2 min read

Dear fellow garden-member:

The “putting the garden to bed” day is a week from tomorrow 10 AM, Sat Dec 7th.  I would love to be wrong, but current trends suggest to me we could be in store for a long cold, bitter winter.

As many of you know, we got lots of wood mulch, which, if laid down now to a depth of 4-6,” will provide great protection for any plants you may have as well as nourishment as the mulch spends the winter degrading.  Come Spring, just turn your mulched bed, and voila, you will have vastly improved soil by an all-natural, organic process.

Please come on the 7th so that you can mulch your private bed and any communal bed you are responsible for.  We have had great contributions of labor and now have at least three full-size working wheel-barrows (as well as one “half-size”).  If you cannot make the 7th, but would like your private bed mulched for the winter, please feel free to “reply to all,” to let us know that you would like to delegate this job to other garden members. 

Please note that, as per above, this invitation applies to only private beds; communal bed mulching should be coordinated through you committee heads, if you cannot come to the workday to do yourself.

No guarantees, but we will try to accommodate your request if we can.  Deadline for you to request to do so is Monday Dec 2, as we will need to spend some time making sure we match person to plot.  If we don’t hear from you by then, you can still come to the workday, and we hope you do, and then you can get “mulched” then…

Best regards to all,

Mark De Rocco

Open Gardens POSTPONED to July 27

July 19, 2019
by garden
1 min read

Dear all,

We had hoped to hold our open garden event on Saturday.  It seems that it will be too hot this weekend for our space. We have some shade but not enough.

We plan to hold our event the following weekend on July 27 with the same program and cooler temperatures (fingers crossed).  

We are truly sorry for this late cancellation. We are disappointed to feel it is necessary to do this.   

Hope to see you next week!

The Steering Committee

Thank You and Rat Update

July 16, 2019
by garden
4 min read

Dear garden members,

Thank you all so much for an incredibly productive workday yesterday! We made such great progress. Thank you thank you! 

We wanted to give you an update on the rat abatement project. On Friday, we had a visit from a senior case manager at the Department of Health (DOH). We gave her a tour and got lots of advice from her. Here are some things we learned:

1. There are rat holes in the back east and south sides of the east garden. The rats that are running up through the rock bed and behind the port-a-potty are running from there. We got instructions about what the exterminators need to do: Harass one week (collapsing the holes), bait the next (stick bait pellets into the holes) and keep doing that until holes don’t come back. There should also be bait stations every 15 ft along the rat paths. Bethany will be following up and monitoring what the exterminators do to make sure this happens.

2. DOH has pebbles they are going to give us. After we get rid of the burrows (using techniques mentioned above), we can mesh the perimeter and put pebbles in the trouble/perimeter areas.

3. Flies are a sign of a rat burrow.

4. DOH approved of the plan to clear out under the gazebo so that the exterminators can see what is going on there and help get rid of that colony (using the technique described above). That work is underway thanks to several fearless and heroic gardeners.

4. DOH said long term they will try to get us money to help us pick up the gazebo and put a slab down, plus scrape the earth off around the perimeter of the garden and put in protective mesh as well as new fencing. She is going to make sure we are on the list.  Short term she definitely says we need to clean the gazebo out. And we need to clean up the boards to get rid of the rat smell.

5. The back east corner of the west garden (where the weed area) is has holes and evidence of rats. She said that all the sticks and hay on the ground are being used as “harborage.” That needs to be cleared and cleaned as much as possible so that the exterminators can do their thing.

6. DOH doesn’t think rats are living under the cistern, but they are using it to hide and for passage. Meshing around the cistern would be good.

7. When we rebuild beds, DOH agreed we need to put mesh in the ones that are afflicted and agreed it was a good idea to get the boards into the ground pretty far down so it’s not easy for the rats to dig in and out. Craig and Melissa’s is like that and it has helped.

8. DOH is going to host a Rat Academy for us at the garden. Stay tuned!

In addition, the City has a plan to fix sidewalk holes and we are hopefully going to be on the list for our rat-infested sidewalk hole. We will follow up with Greenthumb to make sure that happens.  It will likely happen sometime next year.

The City’s extermination contract is now over as the fiscal year ended at the end of June. We are following up with them and hoping that the contract will be restarted again.

We are continuing to follow up with Mark Levine’s office for help with 12 West 104th st. The building was recently sold, so we  have provided Greenthumb, DOH, and Mark Levine with the new contact information. Please continue to submit 311 complaints as much as you all can.

Here is a helpful post by the city’s “rat czar.” It is nice to read about how other gardens are dealing with similar problems and this article has helpful tips!
https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/managing_rats_in_city_gardens

Would anyone who isn’t on the committee like to join the rat committee? We have non-gross jobs to hand out! Please let Bethany (bdavisnollATgmail.com) know.

Thanks again for all your work everyone.

All best,

Steering Committee