Sunshine Weekly Weeder Newsletter
26 March 2014
www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org
Ants - Last Sunday's Lecture Q & A by Wizzie Brown
We called it The AnTea for good reason as both the Ant Talk and the Tea refreshments were a top notch reflection of SCG community building. The audience participated by asking many questions about ants and everyone was fully satisfied, not only with the wealth of useful information but with the delicious goodies at the Tea that preceded the talk.
Wizzie Brown, Travis County Extension Entomologist extraordinaire, focused on fire ants. We covered both myths and truths about them, and how to control them. We also covered alerts about the Tawny Crazy Ant and touched upon the many other ant species found in Travis County that pose no particular threats to gardens or gardeners. See next week's Weeder for more detail on identification of fire ants and Tawny Crazy ants.
As a result of Wizzie's visit to SCG, the board will now consider a project to treat the entire garden in a twice a year protocol that is suitable for an organic premises. Wizzie would be involved and anchoring the effort with her guidance while SCG would provide the person-power. A variation of this protocol has been successful in other relatively contained areas.
We did video the talk -- if the quality is acceptable it will be posted on the garden's web site in April.
Charlotte Jernigan
Micah 6 food pantry
The latest copy of "Edible Austin" contains an article about the contributions to the pantry by Sunshine gardeners.
As Joe Bell, director of the Micah 6 pantry says, access to locally grown vegetables is uniquely important, and all-too-often unavailable to the poor. "If [the shoppers] get it from the Sunshine Gardens, it was grown right here-where they live. And it's only a few hours away from having been a live plant in the ground," he says. "There's a sense of: we breathe this air...we live in this sunshine...we drink this water. We should also eat this food that grows here."
Here is the link to the article.
Site Rules and Bylaws
The Site Rules and Bylaws Committee has has been meeting and discussing how to update the rules and bylaws for several months, and now it's time for the rest of us to give our input. The Committee has revised the Site Rules and amended the Bylaws and the Board has approved them. The newly approved Site Rules went into effect immediately per our existing Bylaws and the membership will have the opportunity to affirm them or repeal them at our annual meeting on May 31. Meanwhile, we will be holding a special meeting for the purpose of voting on the amendments to the Bylaws on April 12 at 10 AM. It is very important that we have a quorum at both meetings. Please put them on your calendar to attend. We have scheduled the special meeting in April so that the amendments may be in effect in time for our elections in May. Among other changes, the amended Bylaws change which positions are up for election each year to better facilitate continuity on the Board. The Site Rules and Bylaws committee agreed that this change should go into effect in time for our upcoming elections if approved by the membership.
You may have questions or comments about the revisions to the Site Rules and amendments to the Bylaws. If so, please feel to contact any of the committee members by email or attend one of our Q&A meetings. You can find these documents and supporting information on our website.
We will vote on the amendments to the Bylaws on April 12 at 10 AM. We will vote on the revised Site Rules at our annual meeting on May 31 at 10 AM.
Q&A meetings for the Bylaws are scheduled for 2 PM on Sunday, April 6, and 6:30 PM on Monday, April 7. We will schedule additional meeting times for the Site Rules after April 12.
The Site Rules and Bylaws Committee is composed of:
- Mary Gifford (chair), mgifford@austin.rr.com,
- Janet Adams, jartdaht@gmail.com,
- Cheryl Hazeltine, cph@austin.rr.com,
- Kay McMurry, scg.plots@gmail.com, and
- Philip Wiley, philip9wiley@gmail.com.
Micah 6 Always Needs Donations!
Please remember to donate to Micah 6 any extra produce you may have. Lots of us are cleaning up our plots for spring planting, and those unused vegetables are always greatly appreciated by Micah 6.
Vegetable donations may be placed in the refrigerator in the trailer. We ask that they be cleaned and placed in plastic bags. A roll of plastic bags is always in the Micah 6 storage room, where the air conditioner is located.
Right now, we are making deliveries to Micah 6 on Saturday mornings.
Thanks for your help!
Linda Francescone
lfrances16@hotmail.com
Volunteers Wanted - Calling all weed warriors!
Love flowers? You're invited to play! Starting in April, the 1st and 3rd Saturdays have been set up ongoing as work days for the flower gardens around the office trailer, 9 am to noon. Come and go when you can, for as long as you can. Contact Vickie Flaugher at 512-917-3347 or via email at vickiewithane@gmail.com for more info.
Vegetables to plant in April
- All month: Beans, Cucumber, Eggplant, Muskmelon, Southern Peas, Pepper, Radish, Summer Squash, Winter Squash, Watermelon
- The Texas AgriLife Extension Service suggests putting out tomato transplants between March 15-April 10.
- Pepper and Eggplant transplants between March 15-May 1
- You may still need to cover the transplants or protect young plants from the wind or any hailstorms that might arrive.
Officer and Zone Coordinator Contacts - Sunshine Garden
Officers
- President - Ila Falvey ila.falvey@gmail.com
- Vice-President - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmail.com
- Secretary (acting) - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmail.com
- Treasurer - Jack Reynolds scgtreasurer1@gmail.com
- Director - Michael Hall fibercable@austin.rr.com
- Director - Kay McMurry scg.plots@gmail.com
Zone Coordinators
- Zone 1, Jody Trendler jody.trendler@gmail.com
- Zone 2, Katy Davis katydavis@austin.rr.com
- Zone 3, Ludmila Voskov lvoskov@austin.rr.com
- Zone 4, Ila Falvey ila.falvey@gmail.com
- Zone 5, Mary Gifford mgifford@austin.rr.com
- Zone 6, Charlotte Jernigan charlotte@cybermesa.com
- Zone 7, Jing Li jingli.80@yahoo.com
- Zone 8, Irina Kaducova irina@austinshrooms.com
- Zone 9, Cheryl Hazeltine cph@austin.rr.com
- Zone 10, Christopher Schroder christopher.s.schroder@gmail.com
Other Coordinators
- Weekly Weeder Newsletter - Margaret Powis purslane2013@gmail.com
- Plant Sale - Michael Hall fibercable@austin.rr.com
- TSBVI Liason & Volunteer Coordinator - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmailcom
- Plot Rental - Kay McMurry scg.plots@gmail.com
- Carpentry & Repairs - Robert Jarry r.jarry@sbcglobal.net
- Water Leak Repairs - Stewart Nichols sgwater@math.austin.tx.us
- Tools & Wheelbarrows - Bob Easter beaster1@austin.rr.com
- Website Coordinator - Sharon Rempert scgardenweb@gmail.com
Record Service Hours Online - the Virtual Green Binder
