Sunshine Weekly Weeder Newsletter
8 September 2016
www.sunshinecommunitygardens.org
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All Gardeners Meeting 9/17 - Mark your calendar!
The next All Gardener Meeting will be Saturday, September 17, 10:00 am. Coffee, juice, and pastries will be provided. The All Gardener meetings are a good time to meet and visit with your fellow gardeners, in addition to being more involved in the management of the garden. So mark your calendar to join your fellow gardeners on 9/17.
We are putting together the agenda for the All-Gardeners meeting now. The agenda will include site rule changes related to plot compliance and information on the fall plant sale. If you have something you would like to bring before the garden, please contact Jeff Monks to get it added to the agenda.
Site Rule Amendments
The Sunshine board has adopted five site rule amendments which will be presented to the membership for ratification at the All Gardeners meeting on September 17. The amendments address garden operations and minimum standards for how plots are gardened to maximize the gardening experience for all Sunshine gardeners. Read additional details.
The following is a brief summary of the five amendments:
- Encroachment on Shared Borders
The layout at Sunshine Gardens means most plots have at least one shared border with another gardener. Gardeners need to be considerate of their neighbors and not encroach on these shared borders. This amendment adds a new site rule identifying the type of practices which constitute prohibited encroachment. - Maintaining One-Foot Weed Free Strip Along
Shared Borders
When a gardener fails to maintain a plot's borders shared with adjoining plots weed free, the weeds quickly become a problem for the adjoining gardener. This amendment adds failure to maintain a one-foot weed free strip along shared borders with adjoining plots to list of what constitutes non-compliance. It also makes some minor changes to process for addressing non-compliance. - Active Gardening of Plot
Sunshine Gardens fulfills its purpose of providing "opportunities for the public to engage in organic gardening" only when its members actively garden their assigned plot(s) to produce vegetable and/or ornamental crops. Currently, it is possible to maintain a plot in compliance with site rules without actively gardening the plot, but doing so is not consistent with the purpose of Sunshine Gardens. To evaluate the effectiveness of amending the site rules to require active gardening of plots, this amendment directs the board shall pilot test requiring members to actively garden their plot(s) and a process for enforcing requirement. It also defines "active gardening" for purposes of the pilot. - Secondary Gardener Becoming Primary
Gardener
This amendment incorporates into the site rules the current process used by the board for a secondary gardener to become the primary gardener. Since the process affects rights of members, the board believes it should be set out in the site rules so gardeners know what the process is. - Service Hours for Maintaining Pathways
Other than Common Paths
The site rules currently permit earning service hours for "maintenance of pathways and common areas." A question has come up if term "pathways" includes pathways between adjacent plots even though not designated as a common path. This amendment clarifies that it does.
Fall Bulk Compost Buy
We had lots of positive comments on the bulk compost buy we did in the spring, and a number of gardeners have asked us to do the same for the fall/winter season. We listened, and a truckload of organic compost from Whittlesey will be delivered this Friday, September 9th. We'll be using the same honor-system payment method as before: $1 for a five-gallon bucket. Please leave cash or checks (payable to Sunshine Community Gardens) in the cash box in the hoop house. We didn't order quite as much this time, so we ask that for the first week, everyone limit themselves to 15 buckets maximum so that everyone who wants to has a chance to get some. After the first week, if there's any left, anyone who wants more than 15 buckets' worth can go back for more.
The Forums are coming back!
Before they do, we need to have in place administrators and moderators and a basic content policy. If you are interested, please send us an email and let us know which position you are interested in.
Administrators
- Responsible for the look and feel of the forums.
- Act as moderators if necessary.
- May have to edit the forum code. PHP, CSS and HTML is a plus.
Moderators
- Oversee the communication activity of the forums.
- Monitor the interchange of contributors and makes decisions regarding content and the direction of threads.
- Move discussions from one section to another to keep topics organized.
- More information
10 Big Secrets of Growing More Organic Vegetables in Containers or Your Back Yard
Countryside Nursery will host speaker Bob Easter September 10, 2016 at 10 A.M. Countryside Nursery is located at 13292 Pond Springs Road Telephone number is 512-249-0100 for reservations. http://www.countrysideaustin.com/
Texas Best Garden Season is the fall and winter. No green thumb? Great, this is your chance to learn the secrets of successful growing tips and tricks to produce big results.
Bob Easter is the lead gardener in charge of production at the Gateway "Grow Together" Garden at Gateway Church on McNeil Road. In June and July the garden produced 691 pounds of tomatoes, 266 lbs of eggplant and 100 lbs of cucumbers in a space less than 50 x 50 feet. Come hear the amazing story and learn the secrets of growing organic vegetables in small containers or your back yard. Once you bite into homegrown delicious lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, green onions and wintergreens you will be surprised at the unbelievable delicious taste.
Bob will teach the health benefits of organic vegetables and provide a checklist of soils, amendments, successful organic practices and the right transplants to grow. Choose from seeds or transplants.
Fall Plant Sale
The seedling are doing well in the TSBVI green house. We have about 3.200 plants. Thanks everyone who helped with seed planting, transplanting and watering!
Descriptions and pictures of all the interesting plants we will be selling. Don't forget to tell all your gardening friends.
Featured Gardener Articles
If you are interested in being a featured gardener in the Weekly Weeder please fill out the survey.
Weeder Content
Should you have any content to add to the Weeder email your articles or suggestions to pporter_scg@austin.rr.com.
Officer and Zone Coordinator Contacts - Sunshine Garden
Officers
- President - Jeff Monks garden@jeffmonks.com
- Vice President - Jim Willmann jhwillmann@gmail.com
- Secretary - Shannon Posern shannonposern@gmail.com
- Treasurer - Caroline Limaye scgtreasurer1@gmail.com
- Director - Bill Cason wccason@gmail.com
- Director - Lori Dobbin loridobbin@gmail.com
- Director - Randy Thompson jartdaht@gmail.com
Zone Coordinators
- Zone 1, Martin Morales marmoral512@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, vacant
- Zone 8, Irina Kadukova irina@austinshrooms.com
- Zone 9, Kerry Howell casonhowell@gmail.com
- Zone 10, Christopher Schroder christopher.s.schroder@gmail.com
Other Coordinators
- Weekly Weeder Newsletter - Polly Porter pporter_scg@austin.rr.com
- Plant Sale - Michael Hall fibercable@austin.rr.com
- TSBVI Liason & Volunteer Coordinator - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmail.com
- Plot Rental - Kay McMurry scg.plots@gmail.com
- Compost Coordinator - Janet Adams jartdaht@gmail.com
- Compost Tea - Jennifer Woertz jennifer.woertz@urs.com
- Education Committee - Shannon Posern shannonposern@gmail.com
- Carpentry & Repairs - Robert Jarry r.jarry@sbcglobal.net
- Water Leak Repairs - Steve Schulz sschulz784@aol.com
- Tools & Wheelbarrows - Bob Easter beaster1@austin.rr.com
- Micah 6 Coordinator - Dana Kuykendall kuykendall@austin.rr.com
- Micah 6 Coordinator - Mary Gifford mgifford@austin.rr.com
- Website Coordinator - Sharon Rempert scgardenweb@gmail.com