Meeting Minutes 3/24/09

Attendees
Doris Cahill – Parent of student Natalie Zelman
Zach Mascetta – student member of CLEANARHS
Will Chang – student member of CLEANARHS
Kathryn Kendall – student member CLEANARHS
Connor Gillis – student
Charles Gobron – Superintendent of Schools
Alan Steinman – Owner Alan Steinman Landscaping
John Shunder – Retired Head of Northborough DPW
Andy Mariotti – Network Manager
Bud Richardson – Facilities Dept.
Eileen Palmer – Teacher
Susan Halpin - Teacher

Community Help:

• There has been great interest in this garden project from not only within Algonquin but from the Northborough Community as well.
• Alan Steinman has provided copies of the landscaping architectural plan and has provided consulting services at our meetings.
• Northborough DPW has offered to deliver compost to fill the raised beds.
• Northborough Garden Club has our project on their agenda for their 3/26 meeting to discuss how they can help.
• Northborough Boy Scout Troop 101 has informed interested scouts looking for Eagle projects that there may be several possible projects connected with our courtyard garden project.
• John Shunder, retired Head of Northborough DPW has volunteered his help.
• Several parents of students have volunteered their time, plants and gardening expertise.
  

Irrigation:

• There will need to be some kind of irrigation at least for the vegetable garden portion. In the short term we will depend on hoses and timers. If by chance we have funds or services volunteered we can revisit the idea of an irrigation system at a later date.

Money:

• Charles Gobron and Cheryl Levesque will draw up a budget we can work from. There is money available for the project, they will let us know how much.

Brick Walkway

• We would like the walkway to be part of phase 1. We atleast need to map this out and finalize placement before too long. Bud estimates that we will need at least 250 feet of brick or pavers. Cost is about $12-15 per foot.

Work Days:
These dates must be approved by administration. But at this point they look like are a good possibility

• Thursday afternoon April 2 from 2:30-5 we will meet in the courtyard. Goal is to dig holes for raised bed frames and assemble the frames. Susan Halpin, Bud Richardson and Andy Mariotti (more adult help would be very welcome) will be working with student volunteers and any community volunteers to assemble the raised beds to get them ready for the next work day which will be.
• Saturday morning, April 4 from 8am – Noon we will be filling the raised beds with soil and preparing the courtyard grounds for planting. We may need a rototiller…
• We will need lots of wheel barrels since we do not have a door directly from the outside to get into the courtyard. Soil and compost will need to be wheeled a short distance inside through the school to get to the courtyard.
  

Raised Beds for Vegetable and Perennials

• We will need to determine what kind of soil to order. Ideally a mix of sand, compost and soil from a landscape company would be our best choice. We will need about 20 yards of soil.
• There will be 10 beds total. 2 beds will be 3ft. x 10ft. 8 beds will be 5ft. x 10 ft. There will be a large round bed in the center for herbs. Measurement not finalized for this. We figured 10ft. x 10ft. for soil estimation amounts.
• Raised beds ideally should be about 3-4 feet from the building so students can work from each side of the beds and so a mower can mow around them.
• We will need to determine in the next couple of weeks exactly what plants will be planted in each raised bed. There may be perennials planted with the vegetables. Maybe local landscapers can help with those decisions.
• Alan suggested since there is plenty of room that we possibly plant some patches of pumpkins, blueberries and strawberries as well.
• Pressure test for the outdoor spicket needs to be done, so we know how much water we can get out to the area. Andy & Bud will take care of this and report results back to us next week.
• Environmental Science students have not tested the soil yet, but will be doing it in the next couple of days.
  

Next Meeting
Tuesday, March 31, 2pm in room E107. We will be going outside to mark where the beds will be located. Alan offered to bring the spray paint. We will need to finalize building supplies to be purchased, amount of soil to order and have delivered and equipment needed for volunteers to use on the workdays.