Welcome to this week's GANG News post!
Details of the past week's efforts, how to volunteer, and the current wishlist follow. Enjoy!
GANG Group Volunteer Hour 7.30.09
Volunteers were rained out this week. However, it was discovered that something (later decided to be a deer based on some pretty solid evidence) broke part of the fence at the northwest corner of the garden. Fortunately, the zip ties that hold the fence parts together were broken and not the fence itself. We quickly mended the fence with new zip ties and added a few extra for good measure.
Outside the Hour
GANG Workshop, "Planning, Prepping, and Planting for the Fall Garden," happened Saturday, 7/25/09. Check out the GANA blog post about the day, which contains a link to Ann's informative and inspiring blog post.
Why & How to Volunteer
We invite all neighbors to join us at the GANG. By volunteering you can earn shares of the gardens bounty; shares earned are based on volunteer hours. There is a weekly group volunteer hour Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, but you are welcome to volunteer anytime. There is volunteer log we use to track volunteer hours and what work was done during your time. The volunteer log (white binder) is located on Ann's porch, 134 N. Overhill.
GANG Wishlist
* help with weeding the beds; be careful not to distrub the small areas where the hay has been pulled back, these are the areas with new plants; put pulled weeds in the pile against the fence
* plastic blind slats (we will cut them up and use them to label plants in the beds)
* picnic table - materials for, and/or labor to create
* water plants for the pond
* ornamental plants for the areas around the pond and the front area of the garden
* compost and other mulch materials
* buckets
Thursday, July 30, 2009
GANG News 7.30.09
Saturday, July 25, 2009
GANG - Workshop #5
Planning, Prepping, and Planting for the Fall Garden
As you can see from the photo, we will have some yumminess to pick from the garden this fall! We made our own seedling mix, prepared seedling beds, direct sowed other seeds, and we even found time to work on staining the ferrocement fence. Check out Ann's blog for great details on the workshop including Keith's recipe for the seedling soil mix.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
GANG News 7.23.09
Welcome to this week's GANG News post!
Details of the past week's efforts, how to volunteer, and the current wishlist follow. Enjoy!
GANG Group Volunteer Hour 7.23.09
Volunteers weeded the beds, used leftover fencing to create a cage for a very large tomato plant, watered the thirsty plants, fed the undernourished plants, and harvested some tomatoes, lambs quarter, and chard.
Outside the Hour
GANG Workshop, "Planning, Prepping, and Planting for the Fall Garden," is this Saturday, 7/25/09. Additional info at this link.
Why & How to Volunteer
We invite all neighbors to join us at the GANG. By volunteering you can earn shares of the gardens bounty; shares earned are based on volunteer hours. There is a weekly group volunteer hour Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, but you are welcome to volunteer anytime. There is volunteer log we use to track volunteer hours and what work was done during your time. The volunteer log (white binder) is located on Ann's porch, 134 N. Overhill.
GANG Wishlist
* help with weeding the beds; be careful not to distrub the small areas where the hay has been pulled back, these are the areas with new plants; put pulled weeds in the pile against the fence
* plastic blind slats (we will cut them up and use them to label plants in the beds)
* picnic table - materials for, and/or labor to create
* water plants for the pond
* ornamental plants for the areas around the pond and the front area of the garden
* vegetables and herb plants for the beds
* compost and other mulch materials
* buckets
Thursday, July 16, 2009
GANG News 7.16.09
Welcome to this week's GANG News post!
Details of the past week's efforts, how to volunteer, and the current wishlist follow. Enjoy!
GANG Group Volunteer Hour 7.16.09
There were two special visitors to the garden for this week's volunteer hour - Christie and Marino. Marino, a brother of a Green Acres neighbor, is visiting from Spain where he is an organic farmer. Christie is a college roommate of Ann's and is a Agricultural Economics professor who has done work in Africa. What a wonderful pair to have in the garden!
Volunteers cut and lay carpet for the aisles, weeded the beds, treated the tomatoes with phosphate (too much nitrogen, not enough phosphate for tomatoes to flourish), watered the thirsty plants, and repaired squash borer damage (remove and eliminate borers, bandage plant with tin foil) on the squash plants.
Outside the Hour
On Friday morning (7/10) Tom and Ann met with Nicole Schonemann and Andrew Libby of the IU Office of Service Learning, along with Melissa Clark of SPEA to discuss as possible semester-long sustainabiity project with the GANG and a new 400-level class she will teach next spring.
On Friday (7/10) afternoon, Kevin and Tom met to look at tools to order for the GANG and to decide how to design the toolshed for them.
Why & How to Volunteer
We invite all neighbors to join us at the GANG. By volunteering you can earn shares of the gardens bounty; shares earned are based on volunteer hours. There is a weekly group volunteer hour Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, but you are welcome to volunteer anytime. There is volunteer log we use to track volunteer hours and what work was done during your time. The volunteer log (white binder) is located on Ann's porch, 134 N. Overhill.
GANG Wishlist
* help with weeding the beds; be careful not to distrub the small areas where the hay has been pulled back, these are the areas with new plants; put pulled weeds in the pile against the fence
* plastic blind slats (we will cut them up and use them to label plants in the beds)
* picnic table - materials for, and/or labor to create
* water plants for the pond
* ornamental plants for the areas around the pond and the front area of the garden
* vegetables and herb plants for the beds
* compost and other mulch materials
* buckets
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
July Potluck and Meeting
Date: Tuesday, July 14th
Time: Potluck begins at 6:30pm with meeting to follow
Location: Kindly hosted by Jane S., 2611 E. 5th
Topics: bypass expansion, GANG update, neighborhood fun
Neighbors Present: Jelene Campbell, Tom Capshew, John & Jessica Gaus, Ann Kreilkamp, Marino Lucas-Lledo, Jen Naylor, Yusuf Nur, Kevin Polk, Jessie Rome, Al & Kathy Ruesink, Jane Spearman, Kimberly Wagner, Katie Zukof
New & Announcements
* Katie placed around flier for "Dine Local Week"; each day different restaurants will have a local special, proceeds from which will got to support the Local Growers Guild.
* Ann shared updates from the garden: Tom & Kevin are ordering the tools and working on a system of storage and labeling that will keep the tools safely at the garden (this is a condition of the grant and just a good practice as well); Tom is building a picnic table for the garden; the garden needs compost bins, but it still being determined what type(s) will work best in the space.
* Tom talked about plans for the Dekist house (house that shares the property with the garden). The plans are to use this space as a Center for Healing and Community. Tom would live in one of the bedrooms and the rest of the residence would be used as cooperative space; meaning it will be for both producers and consumers. Rooms could be used for meetings, classes, movie showings, and much more. The Center would require variances and Tom is working on that. The plan goes before Zoning in August and Planning in September. Tom needs folks to write letters of support for this project. If you would like to write a letter of support, let us know.
Bypass Expansion Project
Neighbors spent some time discussing what they have heard about the project. Most of us have heard that the project is going to happen and that it is too late to stop it. We agreed that if this is true, we would do better to focus our efforts on trying to make changes to the plan. Some of things that we might be able to change include buffering and crosswalks, both of which would help protect pedestrians and cyclists. Jane discussed the recent timeline of neighborhood involvement in the project; timeline is at this link. Neighors are concerned about several issues including: environmental impact (impact study doen 20 years ago), drainage/runoff issues (at one time, the plan included routing drainage through the neighborhood), increased traffic (the plan includes right turn only into and out of the Eastgate Lane entrance) and traffic noise (no sounds dampening walls in the plan), pedestrian and cyclist safety (underpass at 7th is still in the plan). The plan is available at the City's Engineering Division; they recommend calling ahead before you visit, contact info at this link. Ann called Tim Mayer (At-Large Representative on the City Council and Green Acres neighbor) during the meeting and shared our concerns. Tim will be back in contact within 2 days.
Action Plan:
* Al will talk with Mike Satterfield (District III Representative on City Council and Park Ridge East neighbor)
* Jane will contact Matlock Heights neighbors (other neighborhood that borders the bypass)
* Jelene will contact Park Ridge neighbors
* Jessie will lead a letters to the editor project. Al & Tom volunteered to help fact check letters (not a good idea to gain support with bad info). Jessie will solicit letters via the GANA email list.
* Jane will prepare and send a list of contacts, as well as a timeline of recent bypass events, to the GANA email list.
* Neighbors will share information and calls to action via the GANA email list.
We ran out of time talking about the bypass and didn't get to discuss neighborhood fun. In the meantime, think about what type of fun events you would like to see take place in Green Acres and bring those ideas to the August meeting.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, August 11; kindly hosted by Ann K. 134 N. Overhill. Potluck begins at 6:30 with meeting to follow.
Respectfully submitted by me.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Green Acres Real Estate Update - 7.12.09
To see the most recent listing of homes for sale in Green Acres, follow this link.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
GANG News 7.9.09
Welcome to this week's GANG News post!
Details of this week's efforts, how to volunteer, and the current wishlist follow. Enjoy!
GANG Group Volunteer Hour 7.9.09
We planted 70 bush bean plants and continued weeding beds.
Outside the Hour
On Friday 7.3.09 we completed planting willows outside the fence.
Why & How to Volunteer
We invite all neighbors to join us at the GANG. By volunteering you can earn shares of the gardens bounty; shares earned are based on volunteer hours. There is a weekly group volunteer hour Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, but you are welcome to volunteer anytime. There is volunteer log we use to track volunteer hours and what work was done during your time. The volunteer log (white binder) is located on Ann's porch, 134 N. Overhill.
GANG Wishlist
* help with weeding the beds; be careful not to distrub the small areas where the hay has been pulled back, these are the areas with new plants; put pulled weeds in the pile against the fence
* plastic blind slats (we will cut them up and use them to label plants in the beds)
* picnic table - materials for, and/or labor to create
* water plants for the pond
* ornamental plants for the areas around the pond and the front area of the garden
* vegetables and herb plants for the beds
* compost and other mulch materials
* buckets
Thursday, July 2, 2009
GANG News 7.2.09
Welcome to this week's GANG News post!
Details of the past week's efforts, how to volunteer, and the current wishlist follow. Enjoy!
GANG Group Volunteer Hour 7.2.09
We created cages for the tomatoes using bamboo poles and string; this should keep the plants off the ground and allow them to grow better. We planted more willows along the outside of the fence; as they start to grow, they can be woven into the fence. We planted a beet bed at the end of bed one. We watered the new plants.
Outside the Hour
On Wednesday, July 1st several neighbors and friends gathered in the afternoon to complete the ferrocement fence. After the fence, they planted more vegetables in the beds and began planting willows on the outside of the fence.
Why & How to Volunteer
We invite all neighbors to join us at the GANG. By volunteering you can earn shares of the gardens bounty; shares earned are based on volunteer hours. There is a weekly group volunteer hour Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, but you are welcome to volunteer anytime. There is volunteer log we use to track volunteer hours and what work was done during your time. The volunteer log (white binder) is located on Ann's porch, 134 N. Overhill.
GANG Wishlist
* help with weeding the beds; be careful not to distrub the small areas where the hay has been pulled back, these are the areas with new plants; put pulled weeds in the pile against the fence
* plastic blind slats (we will cut them up and use them to label plants in the beds)
* picnic table - materials for, and/or labor to create
* water plants for the pond
* ornamental plants for the areas around the pond and the front area of the garden
* vegetables and herb plants for the beds
* compost and other mulch materials
* buckets
