Sunshine Community Gardens

18 February, 2022

www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org

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In this Issue:

Plant Sale Volunteers: Bring Your Own Food and Drink
Plant Sale Countdown: Two Weeks Out
Garden Tasks for Service Hours

Plant Sale Volunteers: Bring Your Own Food and Drink

No food/coffee will be available for Plant Sale volunteers this year.

Because of the current COVID stage in Austin, Sunshine will not be hosting breakfast and lunch for those volunteering and working at the Plant Sale. Please be sure to bring your own water and food.

Plant Sale Countdown: Two Weeks Out

By Janet Adams

2 Weeks to go!!!

Our annual plant sale is only 2 weeks away!!
March 5, 2022
9 am - 2 pm
Tell your friends and neighbors.

We will be encouraging the use of masks and social distancing. The event will not be as social or family friendly as it has in the past and as it will be in the future. But we will get our tomatoes and peppers that are hard to find anywhere else.

There is a workday this Saturday, 9 AM. If you can't make it this Saturday, there is another one on the 26th. During the week before the plant sale, there is also a lot of work to do. If you're only available during the week, come by and will find a job for you.

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

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!

SignUp Genius is filling up. Please 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:

I'm looking for someone or a few people who will make some signs for the plant sale. It will involve some painting and lettering on wooden signs we already have. Let me know if you can help. You can do it at home or the garden.
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

Garden Tasks for Service Hours

by Steve Camp

Greetings Gardeners!

The next workday will be Saturday February 19 from 9:00-12:00.

Even with the bad weather we had a pretty good crowd last Saturday! 2 more to go before the plant sale thanks to all for braving the elements! Priority task is cleaning up for The Plant Sale in March. Contact Janet Adams (jardaht@gmail.com) for details.

One of our gardeners believes that they came into contact with some poison ivy while gathering leaves at the south end of the leaf pile! Please observe common sense and caution when collecting leaves or chips. We have no way of vetting what landscapers dump except by asking them not to dump certain items. If you are worried about poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, wear long sleeves, gloves, mask etc. and decontaminate post activity. As far as I know this is the first gardener that this has happened to.

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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