February 2023

 Eagle Heights Garden Committee Minutes

February 8, 2023  7 PM

Remote Meeting

7:00 Present: Lily, Ric, Ann, Ninja, Megan, Jolene, Barb L, Barb A and Karen.

Minutes  Motion by Lily and seconded by Ann to approve the January 2023 minutes. The minutes were approved. 

Registrar Update

Opening day will be March 25th.  Ric, Ninja , Lily and Barb A said they would help with Orientations.  Orientation is now mandatory for new gardeners due to too many problems with new gardeners gardening in the wrong plot.  If the weather is really terrible, opening day will be pushed to April 1st.

The Irrigation Subcommittee will be Megan, Lily and Ric.

Lily says we have 308 renewals and 53 new gardeners.  This rate is about the same as last year.

Seed Fair

The Seed Fair will be April 8th in person at the Community Center.  Nou, from the Gardens Network will come to the Seed Fair to discuss their mission. 

We have had a request from Let’s Grow Stuff at PBS for filming in their own plot.  They will need a media permit and a research permit from UW.  They have applied for a plot pending these approvals.  The Committee agreed that their plot neighbors need to have their privacy.

Food Pantry Donations

There was discussion about reviving the food pantry donations.  Possibilities include Open Seat, which Jolene says comes to the Gardens every Wednesday in season.  Another possibility is MOMS, which Barb A will check on.  It would be good to have a donation box where donations can not be removed.

Lily contacted Scott from Gardens to Be about the plant sales and he said he would not be able to do it this year.  So Blue Moon will be doing both Plant Sales.

Monthly Calendar

The mowers will be serviced in March.  The irrigation sub-committee was formed in February.

Garden Worker Report

Megan said the garden tool order has been completed.   Many short garden forks were missing.  We had 26 and she could only find 11.  Many forks are left at the leaf piles and disappear under a new load of leaves.  A T-post with a hook to store the fork at each leaf pile could help with this problem.

Another problem is University Houses residents taking tools to work on the plots at their houses.  Much discussion about tool labeling ensued.  Jolen suggested that we label the tools with the garden name, so UW Housing staff can help with returning the tools to the University Houses shed.  A UW property tag would probably not work, it would have to be garden property. Wood burning would be a permanent labeling solution.  We could also number our tools.

Garden Worker Hiring

Jolene reports that hiring Garden Workers is proceeding as planned. The target is for the new Garden Workers to start early to mid-March.

Adjourned about 7:25 pm

Submitted by Karen, subject to correction by the Garden Committee