GANG and IU SPEA Project - Weekly Blog Update

This spring semester 2010, an Indiana University undergraduate class of 35 students is learning how to design and construct a state-of-the-art compost system for the GANA garden. This class, “E400 Environmental Sustainability,” has been created by Melissa Clark, a lecturer at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Various members of this class have been assigned to write a blog. This week's post(s) follow.
From: Braedon Engle
Date: Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:21 AM


This past Saturday the 17th of April was the garden workshop for the class. We met at the garden in the mid afternoon on a beautiful spring day. The weather was perfect, not to hot with a slight breeze. We were split up into three main work groups. One group constructed the composting systems from the recycled Coca-Cola barrels. We made 3 of the composting systems that will be useful in producing soil for the garden. Another group cleaned areas in yard for new lasagna beds to be constructed. The lasagna beds we made using a combination of layers of wood chips, sawdust, and cardboard. In the coming years the cardboard and other organics will break down and turn into soil. The last group was in charge of weeding the gardens from last year. Overall the day was a great success and we were able to get a lot of work done. I truly am looking forward to eating some produce from the gardens. A special thanks to Coca Cola for the barrels and Bloomingfoods for the cardboard.

Braedon A. Engle

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GANG 2010 - Workshop #1

Less is More: Pruning For Fruit
Sunday, April 18, 2-4 p.m.
This workshop, led by Nathan Harman, will be a strolling explanation and demonstration of techniques for keeping backyard fruit trees healthy and productive. We will work on assorted ages, sizes, and types of fruit trees within a one block walk of the GANG site, including apples, peaches and pears as well as bush and cane fruit. Pruning is by far the most important factor in the health and production of a fruit tree, after soil and climate, and is an essential task every year.

Check out Ann's blog for more pictures and descriptions from the workshop.

The next workshop in the 2010 series is "Get Growing, GANG: Start The Garden."

Workshop space is limited. To pre-register, please contact Ann Kreilkamp 812-334-1987or arkcrone@gmail.com. Suggested donation per class: $5 to $15.

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GANG and IU SPEA Project - Weekly Blog Update

This spring semester 2010, an Indiana University undergraduate class of 35 students is learning how to design and construct a state-of-the-art compost system for the GANA garden. This class, “E400 Environmental Sustainability,” has been created by Melissa Clark, a lecturer at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Various members of this class have been assigned to write a blog. This week's post(s) follow.

From: Marguerite Huber
Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 10:07 PM

"The compost project is underway! The entire class will be out at the GANA Garden this Saturday from 2-5 pm to construct the three compost bins and work in the garden. Otherwise, here are the updates from the groups:

The compost design group has done some research on the specifics of the construction process to make sure everything will be okay for the event this Saturday. They have discussed various construction options, voicing opinions on the relative advantages and disadvantages of each, and gone to local hardware stores to see what materials are available. They have put together a construction diagram outlining the best materials for us to use this Saturday.

The budget group has been working on getting funding for the next financial year from some groups they have contacted. There is a possibility of an offer from Bloomingfoods to purchase some items at cost."

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April GANA Potluck and Meeting

Date: Tuesday, April 13
Time: Potluck begins at 6:30pm, with meeting to follow
Location: Jane's house, 2611 E 5th

Topics: Noise concerns, Project Updates, Upcoming Events, and anything else neighbors want to discuss

Neighbors Present: Jelene Campbell, John and Jessica Gaus, Ann Kreilkamp, Al & Kathy Ruesink, Jane Spearman

Noise concern - Jane reported that a neighbor on 8th street emailed the neighborhood gmail account to voice concerns over noise. She is frustrated that she is not getting the response she expects when she calls police with a noise complaint. Jane invited her to attend a meeting and gave her the HAND contact info and that of Tim Mayer, Council person. Neighbors present shared stories of various noise issues that they have faced over the years.

GANG - Coca Cola is donating three white barrels to the garden for compost bins; Dave Parsons gave the garden some free compost; the SPEA students continue their work on the garden and will install the compost bins on Saturday, April 17; the first GANG workshop of 2010 will be Sunday, April 18; the GANG got free woods chips from a company cutting trees in the neighborhood and they are being used to create better aisles between the beds in the garden; lots of wonderful collaborations happening because of the garden

Quick reminders:
* Vote for Bloomington's Community Orchard Project
* Join the Bypass Email list to get involved in bypass action

Upcoming Events:
* Jelene's band, The David Gohn Band, CD release party - Friday, April 23
* GANA 6th Annual Plant Share and Neighborhood Clean Up - Saturday, May 22nd
* Blooming Neighborhoods Celebration - Saturday, June 5th

The May meeting will be Tuesday, May 11 and will be kindly hosted by Ann, 134 N Overhill. Potluck begins at 6:30 with meeting to follow.

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Green Acres Real Estate Update - 4.11.10

Green Acres is a great place to live; convenient to IU, downtown, and eastside ammenities. Check out the latest listings of homes for sale in our neighborhood.

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GANG Updates - 4.10.10

Lots of exciting things happening in the garden and tons of collaboration and neigbhorhood invovlement. Read on for details!

Current news on the GANG:

• Lots of seedlings growing inside, and more to be planted soon.

Lots of stuff coming to us for free!

• We got three white barrels from Coca Cola, free, thanks to Ria's advocacy (160 barrels are coming in over the next few months for sustainability projects). Coke has committed to do two projects of this kind per year.

• Dave Parsons, who has a compost business, and a member of the Transition team, had a truck load of gorgeous compost in his truck that he dropped off after the last meeting here, five of us shoveling it out. We'll put it at under the roots of every seedling when it goes in the garden.

• Thanks to Nathan and Colin's persistent efforts, we got several loads of wood chips from the company that was chopping down the trees at the corner of 5th and Overhill, and are spreading it over the ugly carpets between the garden beds.

• Jean has agreed to use his sit-down mower to mow the outside of the garden.

Also:

• Due to his other commitments, Nathan is now more consultant and advisor to the GANG, with Colin doing the work Nathan would have been doing. Colin has dug the hold for the picnic table, filled it with gravel, and put the picnic table back in. Still to be done, tiling the top of the table. Colin and Nathan have prepared the bottom underneath three sides of the fence for plants that we will put there to begin our living fence.

* SPEA workshop on for 2 p.m. next Saturday. Design for three-barrel compost system is in hand, materials to be picked up probably Tuesday. 35 undergraduates plus their teacher will be crawling over the garden, and we'll put them to work in a number of ways. Colin will direct the construction process. I'll direct and the rest of their activities (weeding, chopping up branches, etc.)

Also, in other garden-related news, Jami Scholl will be the person who creates a garden for Doug Hanvey's folks, with a permie from the permie guild as her apprentice.

Over and out!

Ann

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GANG and IU SPEA Project - Weekly Blog Update

This spring semester 2010, an Indiana University undergraduate class of 35 students is learning how to design and construct a state-of-the-art compost system for the GANA garden. This class, “E400 Environmental Sustainability,” has been created by Melissa Clark, a lecturer at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Various members of this class have been assigned to write a blog. This week's post(s) follow.

From: Brodie Burgess
Subject: Weekly Blog Entry

Hello and welcome to the Blog Group’s update on the Green Acres Neighborhood Association Garden project for Indiana University’s Environmental Sustainability course. As the report draws near, each group is working hard to complete their chapter of the report.

The Bloomington Neighborhoods and Initiatives group has made some progress in finding city community gardens that are involved in composting. The Renaissance Farm and Permaculture Center uses compost and grows and sells organic products to educate people on the importance of sustainability and encourages them to buy these organic products to reduce waste and save natural resources. SPROUTS (Students Producing Organics Under the Sun) garden, a student organic group at Indiana University is trying to educate people about environmental sustainability through gardening by minimizing and reusing wastes. The Strangers Hill Organic Farm is a farm business specializing in Certified Organic products. They use a lot of compost and donate plant beds to other places- Farmer's market, Bloomingfoods, Hoosier Hills Food Bank etc. The Hoosier Hills Food Bank has a plot which was donated by the Strangers Hill Organic Farm. Hoosier Hills Food Bank gets compost from waste materials that they do not need and also passes crates to farmers at the Farmers Market for farmers to dispose any wastes, unused and unwanted products. In addition, the Bloomington Community Orchard will be planted in Winslow Woods Park. The community is very interested in growing organic fruits and using compost. They haven’t started planting yet and will be having their first meeting on April 12th. It aims at getting people to work together to grow food and the harvest will be available to the whole community.

The budget group is revisiting the groups they have asked support from and are in the process of nailing down the exact amount they need donated. In addition to that, Bloomingfoods has offered some physical donations, such as supplies.

The Compost Design group has received the official pick for the composting bins, the three-barrel system. In addition to this, the group has made some final adjustments for their portion of the final report.

The Newsletter Group is working hard to complete the newsletter, which is nearing completion, they are finishing up sections on GANA, general permaculture, urban gardening techniques, and composting. They will be finishing up the section on the three-barrel system of composting soon.

This concludes the Blog Groups update on the GANA Report progress. You can look forward to another update next week, and pretty soon after we will have the final report edited and done for your reading pleasure.

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GANG and IU SPEA Project - Weekly Blog Update

This spring semester 2010, an Indiana University undergraduate class of 35 students is learning how to design and construct a state-of-the-art compost system for the GANA garden. This class, “E400 Environmental Sustainability,” has been created by Melissa Clark, a lecturer at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Various members of this class have been assigned to write a blog. This week's post(s) follow.

From: Scott Byrne
Date: Fri, Apr 2, 2010 at 12:51 PM
Subject: Weekly Blog Entry

Not to much to report this week. A lot of groups are wrapping up their projects so we should see a lot more happening in the coming weeks. I've copied our blog entry as well as attached it in a word document.

The weathers warming up and a lot of groups are looking forward to seeing the garden in action. With only 5 weeks left in the semester our project and our groups are heating up too. Many of the groups have reported that they are wrapping up their portions of the project and we are looking forward to seeing it come together.

As for some specifics, the budget group has recently been in contact with Bloomingfoods and a lot of environmentally active campus groups to find a source of funding either for this spring or next academic year in the fall. A lot of campus groups have allotted their funding for the year, but would like to help in the future.

In other news, students have been working on contacting other Bloomington neighborhood presidents in order to find out if they have any plans in the works for a community garden. What they’ve found is GANA is a very ambitious and unique project and is something the other groups are now considering if they can find the space and community initiative to pull it off. The closest thing to an additional active garden is McDoel Gardens in the southwest quadrant of Bloomington, which is in the beginning phases of organizing a community garden.

We are also happy to announce that we should have a newsletter soon. It is currently an active rough draft and is being cleaned up before it is released next week. The newsletter will focus on composting methods, benefits and techniques and the GANA garden and the benefits it brings to the community.

-Blog Group

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