Spring Registration and Meeting

The required forms can be downloaded below.
FCGA Application and Contract
FCGA Waiver

Weekend Highlights

Despite the rainy weather, many garden members were quite busy this past Saturday. The Waste-Not Expo took place from 9:30am to about 2 pm. It was a great opportunity to share our story and to reach out to the community. We especially enjoyed doing the veggie stamps and basil plantings with the kids. Special thanks to Mary Lou, Andrea, Ed, Marti, Beth, and Eli who helped prepare, set up, and run the table. Here are some pictures from the event.

That same afternoon Eli, Mary Jo, and Ed helped repair and extend the fence. I went to the garden after the Expo and boy was it muddy! We need to get some more mulch to put in the aisles. If anyone knows of a lead on good mulch, we can really use it.

Friday afternoon, I finished cultivating one of the beds and put some peas, kale and radishes in the ground. Just in time for the fence improvements! There's still lots to do. I updated the To-Do list in the shed. Don't hesitate to contact me if you need further instruction. We will set up a watering schedule at our next meeting, which is April 5th at 3pm (details to follow) We haven't needed to water much these days because of all the rain, but it will be wise to get a good system up and running before it gets hot out. Thanks to everyone who helped make this weekend a success. Don't forget to get your forms filled out and your dues in by April 5th AT THE LATEST! We have a lot of interest, and limited space, so if you don't want to miss out, get your forms to us ASAP! Email frederickgardeners@gmail.com for more details.

Announcements

Good Afternoon Gardeners. We have a few announcements to share.

* The Waste Not Expo is this Saturday March 28th from 9:30 am- 2:30 pm. We still need volunteers to help with tabling the event. Email Frederickgardeners@gmail.com to sign up. You are not required sign up for the entire day.

*If you aren't working at the Expo, your help is really needed to extend and repair the fence. We will probably have work days on both Saturday and Sunday. Our groundhog friends recently helped themselves to our freshly planted Kale, so we need to get the fence finished before we plant again. Check back for work day details.

* Don't forget to get your applications and dues in before April 5th.
You must have both turned in to get a plot this season. Check your email for the application and waiver, which were sent by Eli.

In like a Lion

We celebrated the begininng of spring this weekend, by opening up some new beds and planting some cold weather crops and flowers. We had quite a few people pitch in, which made the work get done a lot faster.

There's a lot to report these days. Sunday we had our board elections. The results of the elections are as follows:

President: Karen Buchsbaum

Secretary: Mary Lou Reidy

Treasurer: Eli Roth

Planning Chair: Brad Palmer

Location Chair: Beth Ramacciotti

Legal/Logistics Chair: Debra McKenzie

Education Chair: Marti Grib-Kachman

Congrats to everyone!

We had a brief board meeting following the election. There was a lot to cover! One of the issues we discussed was rain water collection.

The good news is... all of our rainbarrels are full! This is great, because we have enough water to get started with our cold weather crops. However, we are going to need to upgrade our system soon to make sure we're being as efficient as possible with our water collection. We are trying to get some help funding for a 1500 gallon tank. If you know of a potential donor please email frederickgardeners@gmail.com

Happy Spring!

Karen

Work Day!

Lots of Progress!

As I'm sure many of you noticed, there have been crocus flowers popping up all over Frederick. Crocus is one of the earliest flowers to bloom, and indicates that spring is just around the corner! This is exciting news. We had two great work days this past weekend March 14th and 15th. We accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. We got 3 rain barrels up, dug most of the trench for additional fencing, and laid out beds. As soon as the soil is dry enough to work, we can plant some cold weather crops like kale. Big thanks to everyone who came out to help. Special thanks to Mark Boggs of Boggs Environmental, who is donating soil testing services. If you couldn't make it out, don't worry, theres still lots of work to be done! I left a bulletin board up in the shed where we can post a To-Do List. If you haven't already, don't forget to sign a waiver and bring it to the next meeting, which is Sunday, March 22 at 3pm in the Trust Conference Room at the Library. We'll be officially electing board members.

Below are some highlights from the weekend

Cheers,
Karen

Thursday Night at the Garden

Hello fellow gardeners!

I wanted to let everyone know that thanks to the generosity of Old Towne Historic Landscaping (Brad, Jared, & Matt), our garden site is now cleared, graded, and ready for tilling!

Last night Old Towne was nice enough to bring in a skid loader to carry away the piles of dirt and rocks, scrape and dig out weeds and roots, and level out the entire site. Those who attend the work days this weekend will be amazed! Hopefully we will be posting some pictures today or tomorrow on the blog for all to see.

Hillary also brought out a huge pile of mulch. Thanks Hillary!

Thanks again to Old Towne Historic Landscaping and our garden members Hillary, Brad, & Matt (and Jared, who is not a member but operated the machine for three hours straight in the cold last night).

A few extra notes:

• BOARD ELECTIONS AT THE NEXT MEETING! (Be expecting a detailed email from me today or tomorrow)
• We will need more mulch, and we need to start with rain barrels SOON so if you have barrels or equipment to donate, we now have a lock on the shed and we can store everything you bring.
• Tasks for Saturday and Sunday include: Digging trenches around the fenceline, continuing construction of the dry-stack wall for our compost bin, laying out plant beds, moving some leftover dirt and rocks, and tilling the soil (if you have a tiller, bring it with you this weekend).

Hope to see you all tomorrow or Sunday!

-Eli-

More Work Days!

Note: Please be sure to bring water as well as your waiver form if you haven't submitted it to Karen already. From what I hear, last week's work day gathered about five people who set to work removing the many rocks from the property. Oh, I also heard about a rock wall in progress! Very exciting. Things are moving along!

First Work Day!

Next Steps

Last week's meeting was very productive. Although I was unable to make it, Karen passed along the highlights of the meeting and it sounds like we are definitely making some good progress. Meeting highlights and action items are listed below:

- The Cannon Hill property has been selected as the garden site

- Current membership suggestion is $30/person with a sponsorship option as an alternative

- Planning for plots: please fill out the following survey in order to assist with the planning of plot assignments. Link to survey >>>>CLICK HERE.

- Garden Rules: This is our homework ....research garden rules and come to the next meeting prepared to give input on how best to govern our garden

- Committe leaders: Let know if you are interested in assuming the role of a committee leader. List of available committees will be provided to the listserv.

- Legalities: Non-profit status, property lease, and bylaws are all in the works. Many thanks to Deb Mckenzie for her work on these issues!

Many thanks to:
Boggs Environmental for volunteering to conduct a site check
Dan Lawton for his work in clearing the property of current construction debris

FIRST WORK DAY TO TAKE PLACE SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7 AROUND NOON. PLEASE BE SURE TO SIGN THE WAIVER AND BRING IT WITH YOU ON SATURDAY!!!!

WORK DAY ACTIVITIES WILL INCLUDE:
-constructing rain barrels
- weeding
- removing rocks
- building a compost bin

Please bring any tools you have!!!! See you there!!!!!

Meeting Today!