Sunshine Community Gardens

10 February, 2022

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

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In this Issue:

Plant Sale Countdown: Three Weeks Out
Service Hours Requirement Returns to Normal
Garden Tasks for Service Hours

Plant Sale Countdown: Three Weeks Out

By Janet Adams

Three Weeks to Go.

Our annual plant sale is only 3 weeks away!!

There is a Workday this Saturday, February 12 at 9:00 am. If you can't make it this Saturday, work days are also scheduled for the 19th and 26th.

If you have questions contact me at jartdaht@gmail.com or 512-808-7994 or find me at the garden.

This year's plant sale is different from our previous ones. If you are new to the garden you will not notice but there are fewer varieties. Also at the sale there will be no vendors, no music and no food available for volunteers. We are taking these steps to help limit our exposure to each other as well as the rest of the public. We will be encouraging the use of masks. We ask that volunteers do all they can to protect themselves and others from exposure to the virus.

Plant descriptions for herbs, tomato, pepper, eggplant and tomatillo varieties are on the website. Plan your purchase!

Check out how great our herbs look. You can see them through the doors but please do not enter the greenhouse unless you are on the herb team. We are trying to limit pest introduction as well as regulate temperatures.

SignUp Genius is up and running. Please read the descriptions carefully before you volunteer. But do volunteer. This is Sunshine's only fundraiser and it has kept our membership fees steady for many years. All members are expected to volunteer to make the sale a success.

Ways to help now:

Clean in and around your plots. We want to look our best when we invite the public to Sunshine.
Bring your empty flat trays to the garden. (Flat trays are those things small pots fit into, usually black.)
Continue to collect boxes. These are used by our customers to take their treasures home. Please try to get the most desirable types. No packing materials and no extra cardboard pieces. Put the collected boxes into the green and white greenhouse, the Gardenport.

These are the best types
of boxes for the Plant Sale

These are the less
desirable types of boxes

Service Hours Requirements Return To Normal

by Jim Willman

The requirements for completing and recording service hours will return to normal this Spring season. Unlike 2021 and 2022 when the spring and fall seasons were combined as a way to address Covid issues, the 2022 spring and fall seasons will be treated individually and the hours gardeners work, record and are billed will be calculated separately for each season. This means for the spring season, for each of their plots, gardeners must work 1 TSBVI Hour and 4-8 Regular Hours (Full Plot: 8; Half/Qtr Plot: 4).

These hours must be completed by June 30 and recorded by July 7. Bills for unworked hours will be sent out in July. Volunteers are needed for the plant sale and that is a great way to complete spring service hours.

Garden Tasks for Service Hours

by Steve Camp

Greetings Gardeners!

The next workday will be Saturday February 12 from 9:00-12:00.

We've accomplished quite a bit but there is always more. I believe our next priority task will be beginning to clean up for The Plant Sale. This will be the first of 3 Saturdays in a row the we will be working in preparation For the Plant Sale in March. Contact Janet Adams (jardaht@gmail.com) for details.

We are running into a problem with hose connections. Please do not connect hoses with aluminum fixtures to our brass faucets. These two metal alloys will chemically bond, effectively welding them to each other. If you have them connected now, be aware that if there are problems with the faucet, your hose may have to be cut in order to get it off. Aluminum hose hardware is generally silver in color. If unsure, ask your vendor or read any literature that comes with the hose.

Priority (Tasks specifically needed):

Maintaining common paths and common areas. If you have plants extending into common paths, trim them. The common paths are designed to allow the biggest wheelbarrows that we own to traverse them unimpeded.
Mowing and maintaining perimeter fence line inside and out.
Sunshine Community Garden was fined a few weeks ago for the dumpster being over filled. Please help us to avoid this by following a few simple guidelines.
1. Fill the dumpster from the back (under the hinges) to the front. If you put stuff in the front, it tends to stay there.
2. If you think the dumpster is full, contact me (Steve Camp, I'm there a lot) or Randy Thompson. We can usually compact stuff to make more space.
3. Follow the rules regarding what goes into the dumpster and what does not, there's signage close by.
4. If the dumpster actually does get full before pick up day, I'm working on finding a spot where we can store a reasonable overage, to be loaded after the dumpster is emptied.
5. If you're done with your project, please close the lids.

TSVBI:

Weeding paths in TSBVI garden and wood chip areas on west side. (This is normally needed. Try to get out roots. Be sure to smooth out paths after weeding to facilitate TSBVI students moving around garden).
Picking up trash in compost area and along fence lines.
Cleaning street curb gutters of dirt and debris build up. (At places in the curb gutter along Sunshine Dr. and 49th St., soil and debris has built up and grass beginning to grow. Scrape off with shovel and put in wheelbarrow. If debris is gravel can be put in low places in parking lot. Otherwise, put in dumpster.)

Regular:

Mowing (Please check area around trailer and greenhouses.
Maintaining common paths. (Gardeners are required to maintain a 2' strip of common paths adjacent to their plot.)
Mowing and cleaning up overgrown/messy places in common areas.

Note: TSBVI hour tasks can also count as regular hours.

Your Zone Coordinator may have more tasks than are listed here. Contact them if you feel that you have run out of things to do.

Slow Down..You're on Garden Time! Enjoy!

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