Sycamore Hills Community Garden: Welcome from Amy & Kim to the first SHCG meeting!

Tonight's meeting has 4 main targets: (with notes by Kim in BOLD)

build on background knowledge of community gardening – Coordinator A_has the only real background on Community Gardening. Enthusiasm, however, was expressed by all attendees and it was uniformly agreed that the community would come to embrace the garden.
introduce coordinators – Amy _and K_l were introduced as the Coordinators.
share survey information and begin planning discussion: overall, positive responses were returned via the surveys. Negative responses were, in general, received from the homes most closely situation to the garden.
decide on a follow up meeting and garden tour date: Sue and Amy will plan the garden tour for 8/29. Our next meeting date was not set, but will be decided on the tour.

The agenda (7/16/08):

Franklin Park Community Gardening Film – the attendees watched the film and generally agreed this was the vision for the garden. Ideas for the methods for planning the garden were discussed but none were agreed upon. This was set aside for a future date.
Introductions –Survey Results: The surveys show that over 30 people are in support of or interested in the garden.
i. The only no's were from Shadowbrook who are indifferent besides the site.
ii. 5 people are willing to be co-planners. The site choice was in favor of Shadowbrook, but only slightly. No decision has been made because we are still waiting on Parks and Rec.Veggies and flowers are the most popular items to grow in the garden. Most people are willing to work in the garden occasionally, 6 people will work as much as possible, and 5 would like extra food/flowers donated to their homes. Most people would like to see a shady meeting area and a storage shed in the garden, and the kids area and picnic table garden features were also popular. There are many resources in our community, especially gardening experience and tools to share.
Set Future Dates

A couple of things to do while you are here:

Please make sure to sign in so we know who came. Attending the meeting were Sue, Roger, Melody, Stephanie, and the Coordinators.
Look over the map to see who is interested and where the surveys came back from.
Think about anything you would like to cover in the next meeting.

So far, we would like to put these things on the agenda:

garden design ideas and plans: Grow a Row for the Hungry, elder help and care, produce and flowers to donate, Sale of surplus produce and flowers to local restaurants, Teen activities, Toddler Garden, Field trips for local school children, Storage shed idea,
water for the garden: A garden in the Park would pose water problems as there is no source in that area. Rain barrels could be installed if a central building were erected (i.e. a shelter, gazebo or storage shed). Pros and cons were discussed (individuals bringing in water). Shadowbrook has an unlimited supply of water from the creek but pumping it to the garden would also pose difficulties. The discussion was tabled until a site is agreed upon.
garden rules: It was universally felt that the garden should be a true "community" garden – everything in the garden is to be shared by the community, but individuals could have their own raised bed. Everyone agreed that the garden should be organic and kept looking nice. More rules can come with time.
update on city coordination: Amy to provide this at the next meeting as she is waiting to hear back from Bill Dawson who has a meeting on 7/20.
inviting wishing well acres? Perhaps In the future
possible roles around the planning and implementation of the garden (secretary, photographer, treasurer, grant co-writer, PR person, etc) People can just start thinking about what they would like to head up so we can spread out the duties.

Timeline: Some things are off the original goal, but that is okay. This is just a guide.

Sycamore Hills Community Garden