Official Post about the 2014 Season

Hello Main Street Community Gardeners!

We hope everyone had a great winter and is now eagerly looking forward to spring and all the growing opportunities! We set some important dates for the start of the 2014 garden season. There are signups to be completed, direct seeding to take place, signs to be painted, compost to be spread and tilled, and fun events to be planned. Dates and details are below.

We really want everyone to ENJOY their time being part of the garden and feel like the garden is their own backyard.  Like last year we will try to limit emails and rely more on our website and Facebook to relay more detailed info on plants, to do lists, and other fun tidbits. Start checking the garden website on a weekly basis to keep up with the latest!  (Check it out here, bookmark it if you haven't already http://www.gjmainstreetcommunitygarden.blogspot.com/). Also, "like" us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/GJ-Main-Street-Community-Garden/150874234966542)

Sign ups & Expectations:
We will hold a sign-up and work day onTUESDAY, APRIL 8th, 5:00-7:00pm.  Please plan on attending as this year we will once again be limiting the garden to 40 participants. Cost will be $50 per household for the season. We are again partnering with the Cameron Place CSA. Please bring $50 cash or a check made out to "Cameron Place CSA".

Our weekly work sessions will be held on Tuesdays from 5-7pm and Saturdays from 9-11am.  Throughout the season all members will be required to participate in a beginning of the year event and an end of season event as well as 10 hours throughout the season. In order to allow everyone to keep better track of their participation, there will be a sign up sheet located on the side of the toolshed. Every week there will be a garden leader who will be responsible for helping direct the activities, weeding, planting and harvesting for the evening.  Please let us know if you want to be a garden leader this summer, these are critical to keeping the garden going! 

Keep in mind our garden is all natural and herbicide and pesticide free!  (This means more manual weeding and sometimes creative ways to address bugs!)  For those of you that are new, we plant the garden together, meet on Tuesdays/Saturdays to care for the garden and harvest once a week.  Everyone present on Tuesdays/Saturdays is encouraged to take home a share of veggies. For people that can't make Tuesday evening work sessions you should plan on working and harvesting at a time that works for you, and remember to log your time on the sign up sheets.

We will be creating garden committees this year to tackle some individual projects so let us know if you are interested in a specific project or becoming more involved

• Compost: creating/installing a better system and turning compost weekly
• Irrigation: maintaining the system and improving as necessary
• Art/Information: create more informative bulletin board/kiosk, signs around the garden
• Other ideas?

If you cannot make it on Tuesday, we will be accepting members until we reach 40. We will also develop a wait list-if necessary-after the sign-up day.  We will do an assessment of participation in mid-June, and if some spaces open up then we'll invite people from the wait list to join.  

Plants & Plantings:
We already started all of our transplants in the greenhouse in Palisade (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, kale, chard, herbs). We also encourage all members to start their own seeds and bring the starts to the garden to plant, especially if there's something different that you'd like to see in the garden, a certain variety that you'd like to try growing or just want to start your own seeds but have no garden of your own to plant them in! 

Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, April 8 -  Sign Up Day/work day - remove rocks and weeds, spread compost, organize shed
  
• Tuesday, April 15 - Work day - finish spreading compost, set up new compost bins
  
• Tuesday, April 22 - Work day - build beds, lay drip tape/weed mat, direct seed greens
  
• Tuesday, April 29 - Work day - continue to build beds, lay drip tape/weed mat, prep for planting
  
• Tuesday, May 6 - Planting Day 1!
  
• Tuesday, May 13 - Planting Day 2!
  

Tuesdays/Saturdays- from then on everyTuesday from 5-7 and Saturday 9-11 we'll have garden sessions!

Fun Things:
Since we want this to be a fun year, we are thinking of having more potlucks, perhaps a couple talks on various ag related subjects and show a movie or two. Let us know if you have any ideas! These would probably be on Tuesdays after the garden session. We know there are quite a few kiddos that come to the garden, and if there's someone out there who wants to organize a small kids' plot, or even a coordinated dirt pile for kids to play in during work sessions, let us know! If you have other ideas on how to make the garden more fun, interactive and community oriented, feel free to share your ideas in the comments section of the website!

Please email us with any questions or let us know if you would like to be a garden leader and this summer.  We're looking forward to a great season together!

-Nina & the garden committee