Meeting Minutes 5/17/09

Attendees:
Dan Bradley
Connor Gillis
Carro Halpin
Alan Steinman
Susan Halpin

Fundraising

• Dan Bradley is now on board as our “Courtyard Garden Booster”. Dan was one of the original organizers of this project back in 2007. He spearheaded the effort to create a courtyard garden working with the Murphy Sisters Foundation and the landscape architect to develop the plan for the courtyard that we are following. In the capacity of a “Booster” Dan will be in charge of all of the fundraising to help us implement the courtyard/garden plan.

Feedback on Courtyard/Garden Structure Drawings by Assabet Carpentry Dept.

• We discussed the drawings of proposed structures as drawn by the Assabet Carpentry Department. Drawings look great. We feel very fortunate to have the possibility of this partnership, where we will have to pay for just materials to have structures built. The following are comments given by committee members.

Shed
– Instead of plywood subfloor, could we use pressure treated lumber ?
– Instead of wood clapboard siding, can it be cedar?
– Double wood door, could we use a composite material or vinyl?

Gazebo
- Location of gazebo continues to be discussed. On the plan it is in the middle of the courtyard. Not sure if center has room enough, now that the raised bed vegetable gardens are there.
- Can the gazebo be bigger, perhaps 12-15 instead of 9 feet?
- Instead of screens, can it be “open air” with benches on sides for people to sit on?

Footbridge
- If the footbridge were properly placed, it could serve the dual purpose of band stand or it could look lovely with climbing flowers, etc.

Algonquin Acoustic Club

• Algonquin Acoustic held an Open Mic Jam in the garden on Thursday afternoon. It was a beautiful hot afternoon to listen to some great talent from ARHS and eat ice cream! Thanks to Ms. Hassett and Helene Gu for giving our garden area some good press. It made us all anxious to have this great space developed so we can enjoy more events like this one! Pics from that afternoon will be posted on the website.
  

Watering

• Thank you to the Lifeskills students for taking over the task for watering the vegetables each weekday.
• Unfortunately, the sprinklers we purchased are not working out as we had hoped. They are not oscillating and the timers have stopped working. These were returned to Lowe’s and a different kind of sprinkler was purchased, no timers were included with the new sprinklers. The area to be watered is very big now that the pumpkin patch has been planted. Sprinklers need to be moved and turned on and off. This is becoming a chore to do each day. Watering during weekends is also becoming a chore.
• Next week Ed Whittaker from Underground Concepts will be setting us up with a system of hoses and timers that will not need to be moved and will be automatic each day.
  

Eagle Scout Candidate Projects

• Nick Gionnatti from Northborough Boy Scout Troop 101 will be building compost bins and a green house for the garden as his Eagle project.
• Harry Nicol also from Troop 101 is interested in doing a project for the courtyard.
  

Meetings/Garden Chores

• For those who would like to attend garden meetings and would rather work in the garden than sit a meeting, we could really use some help in the garden during this time. The following chores need to be done in the next week.

- Thin out lettuce
- String peas
- Weed all beds
- plant additional vegetables, fennel, onion, carrots
- finish digging out bed with rhubarb and mint

Electronics Recycling Day at ARHS

• The technology department is going to be holding an electronics recycling day on June 20th. More details will be forth coming.

Classes in the Garden

• I will be starting to bring my Nutrition & Culinary Arts students out to the garden occasionally to become familiar with what we are growing and help with whatever needs to be done.

Next Meeting
Tuesday, May 26 at 2:05 in E107
Agenda Items

1. Webcam/Website/Online summer maintenance schedule – We really need to get this up soon, so we can be sure the garden is properly taken care of during the summer.
2. Next step with Assabet, finalize plans and placement of structures
3. Fundraising