Tag - workday
Hi all,
REMINDER: Our next workday is Saturday at 10am.
Here is our agenda:
- We are hosting a compost giveaway for the community on Saturday. Please sign up here and share with your networks: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/compost-distribution-at-w104th-street-community-garden-tickets-377902806467
- Please feel free to use the new pile of dirt for your beds. We will seek volunteers to help members in need of assistance moving the dirt.
- Bethany will give a rat update and provide some lessons learned after four years of rat abatement efforts.
- Donna will provide a flea market update.
Here are tasks we have scheduled for the workday:
- clean out the cistern on the east side
- work on refurbishing the wooden structure that holds up the water pails on the west side
- clean out the temporary cat houses
- clean the sidewalk and pick up litter
- fill the water barrels
- get rid of rat habitats
Thank you!
🌹🌶🌻🐝🌱🍅🌼🌸☀🍆🐞🐀
Workdate on the 12th was cancelled, we plan on gathering on the 18th instead:
Due to pending rain, today’s meeting/workday has been cancelled. Our pre scheduled rain date is next Saturday, June 18. A reminder notice will go out later in the week.
If you still care to be in the garden today and want to do some work, weeding around the OUTSIDE of all raised beds is always needed. Remember to NEVER pull weeds from the inside of someone’s bed or communal bed. You never know what unique or desired plant is growing there. We have lost several special plants this way recently and the disappointment is deeply felt.
Thank you and have a beautiful day!
The West 104 Garden Steering Committee
Agenda for the Meeting
1. Dirt Delivery-Volunteers needed for June 17 between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.
2. Flea Market-New format this year
3. Updates to Monitoring Sign-up and Website
- Sign up for On Call shifts
4. Make Music NY
- volunteers needed?
- Should the garden sell refreshments to raise some money?
5. Compost Distribution Event
- Suggested Dates
- Explanation of Event
6, Umbrella-new location?
7. Announcements:
- Weeding in communal beds or other people’s beds
- Member announcements
8. Tasks:
- Weed around the beds
- Rubble removal
- Painting shed roof (postponed because we need two days of no rain after painting)
- TBA
Misc/Announcements
One of the Garden members Jean also pointed out that NY Philharmonic in the Park has returned this year! (thanks, Jean!) So we will be posting external events to the calendar.
See you on Saturday!
We have a workday on Saturday, May 21 at 10am.
Here is the list of tasks that we’ll work on
1. cleanup behind the fence on the east side
2. spread gravel including around the new beds and along the perimeter of the west garden where the new fencing was installed
3. paint the shed roofs
4. committees should meet
Reminders / announcements /info
1. There are some free plants on a table near the port-o-potty. Please feel free to take one.
2. The water barrels in the east garden should not be shoved against the wall. That is a known rat route and we want to avoid giving them cover. The barrels should be 18 inches away from the wall.
3. Two bags of compost per bed. Please make sure to take your allotment this weekend.
4. Please do not plant additional plants in the areas that were cleared due to the new fencing. This is important perimeter space that we need to keep clear in line with our rat prevention strategy.
5. We will circulate the roster and committee lists as well as bed assignments in time for the workday!
Good afternoon Gardeners,
Our final meeting and workday of the season is this Saturday, December 4th. We use this final day to prepare the garden for winter and many hands make light work! THERE WILL BE REFRESHMENTS (in case you need another good reason to be there).
In addition to the garden work, this will also be the final meeting of the membership until March 2022, and we’ll be discussing some important topics, including new opportunities for members to get involved in the coming months. This will also be an opportunity for questions regarding upcoming votes and nominations for the steering committee (a separate detailed email will be circulated on these topics), so please join us!
Saturday’s Agenda:
1. Toy Drive
2. Steering Committee Nominations
3. Questions about upcoming votes
4. New committees for 2022, and committees that need additional help
5. Volunteers to help with grant writing
6. Garden tasks-water barrels, cisterns, umbrellas, furniture
Hope to see you there,
West 104 Garden Steering Committee
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)
- New members-introductions, posted membership list
- Steering Committee introductions
- Safe gardening in the time of Covid
- Exterminator/rat update5. Garden security/locking up, etc.
- Planting in the east garden
- List of first beds to be rebuilt
- PayPal
Work day tasks
- Finishing rock bed in the east garden
- Twig/branch clean-up in west garden
- Weeding-East/West garden, around beds, herb garden
- Hydrant training
- Picnic table sanding and staining
- 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
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
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
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