Sunshine Community Gardens

22 November 2019

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

Gardener's Picture page

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2020 Spring Plant Sale

Janet Adams Reports the following:

Plant Sale News:

Only 15 weeks until the plant sale.Our annual fund raiser is March 7, 2020 from 9 AM to 2 PM. We've ordered the seeds and reserved the tents. What else is there to do? Lots.

We have several members who have agreed to take responsibility for major parts of the sale but there is always a need for more help. My first appeal is for help with publicity. That is free publicity. Neighborhood list serves, community newsletters, posters to your favorite shop or café, whatever you can suggest.

Please contact me, Janet Adams, jartdaht@gmail.com, if you can help. It will take time but most of it is online, inside, no weeding or out in the weather. Counts as service hours!!

Watch this space for Plant Sale news. And start spreading the word about our great event.

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Report from New Committee Creating a Positive Climate for New Sunshine Gardeners

By: Bill Carson (Chair)

Do You Know that Sunshine Lost 26 New Gardeners Last Year? In fact, the garden has lost 96 new gardeners in the last three years. In addition, 60% of the people who leave the garden are new gardeners. Those are eye opening and disappointing metrics. I think we can and must do better than that.

How do I know these facts?

This summer the board asked me to chair a committee whose charter was "Maximizing success for new quarter plot gardeners."

I asked Kay McMurry, Pam Kirby, and Susan Waller to join me on the committee. We asked the board to allow us to extend the charter to "Maximizing success for new gardeners". We met a number of times over the summer and fall.

We delivered our final report to the board last week. Based on our findings, we recommended that the board commit to a long-term program to reduce new gardener attrition and that program should focus on the process of bringing new gardeners "on board". You can see an abridged version of that report here.

The board decided to appoint a longer-term committee to develop a strategic plan to reduce new garden attrition. The board asked me to chair that committee and to put together a pool of potential gardeners to serve on the committee. I need to report back to the board in December.

I have two "asks" for each of you.

1. If you have a passion for solving this problem, please consider volunteering to join our team. Caution: I expect this will be a long journey with a fair amount of work before we can see measurable results.
2. If you have ideas on how we can increase gardener success, please get them to me. You can reach me at wccason@gmail.com or you can often find me over around the laurel tree near the coop --- I'm the old tall guy with a beard.

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2019 Sunshine Holiday Potluck

The Holiday Potluck is on 12/8/18 Sunday at 5-7 pm. The gathering will include live music, potluck supper, and the company of all of your gardening friends... with a bonus of holiday gifts. If you would like to help with this event, please contact Ila Falvey ila.falvey@gmail.com.

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Typhus in Texas?

Gail Reese reports on an interesting and scary article which Charlotte Jernigan alerted her to in the Texas Standard on Typhus in Texas. To read the article, check out this link.

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Art Stone Class Success!

Charlotte Jernigan of the SCG Education Committee reported that the Art Stone Class held last Sunday was a great success and should be repeated next spring. Please check member photos on the SCG website to see some of the creative Art Stones from the class on Sunday. Watch for details about future classes sponsored by the Education Committee.

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Tasks at Sunshine

Sunshine is looking for members interested in adopting specific tasks at Sunshine to be performed all year. Examples are:

1. Cleaning and sweeping the tool sheds
2. Emptying trash in and around the trailer
3. Cleaning trailer kitchen, cleaning trailer bathrooms

Just a few things that always need to be done. Then the time is recorded in the green binder and before you know it, you've done your service hours and didn't wait until the last day. No need to wonder what to do, your job is always there.

The above examples listed above are just that, there is plenty to do. Have any suggestions for other jobs? Do you want any of the above jobs? Let Janet Adams know at jartdaht@gmail.com.

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Weeder Content

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