February 2024

 

 Eagle Heights Garden Committee Minutes

February 14, 2024  7 PM

Remote Meeting

Lily, Alex, Jolene, Ann, Jessica, Barb A and Karen.

Alex started the meeting.

Minutes  With a motion by Lily and seconded byBarb A, the January 2924 minutes were approved. 

Registrar Update

There was a discussion about what constitutes a quorum, since all the gardeners are able to be members of the committee.  After discussion, we will have the quorum be 50% of the attendance of the last 10 meetings.  If we have a low attendance meeting, then we can solicit input through email, understanding that this is time consuming for the Registrar.

Lily reports there are now 65 new gardener applications and 432 renewals from returning gardeners.  We have around 568 plots.  Lily will send a reminder out about tomorrow's deadline for renewing plots.  Last year here were about 2 dozen late renewing applications.  Some of those people lost their plots and made the plot assignment process difficult.

Lily asked if there were volunteers to lead orientations

Opening day will be March 30th. 

Seed Fair April 6

The UW Preserve produces a report about pesticide use.  A small part of University Houses is non organic.  The Committee agreed that the goal is to phase out the non Organic section over time.  All existing gardeners will be allowed to continue in the non organic section.  This year there are a few non-organic applications which will be honored.  

Hiring More Garden Workers

Jolene said we technically have three vacant garden workers positions.  Jolene reports that Nichole is no longer a garden worker.  Ian has not responded to Jolene’s calls and messages.  It is possible that we will have no garden workers at the beginning of the season.  Volunteers should prepare to run workdays if there are no garden workers at the beginning of the season.

The recruitment of Garden Workers has been approved by HR. Jolene will run the requirement as fast as possible.  The position will pay $17.00 an hour with a shift premium for nights and weekends.  It is helpful if the person is available some weeknights and a weekend day a week. Most people work 5-10 hours a week, but the position allows up to 20 hours a week. Tanya could mow, but it would be expensive.  As soon as the job is posted, Jessica  will post it on gardening sites and Sandra will put it on our website.  Jolene is happy to answer questions about the position.

Alex reported that there was one potential candidate but they have not responded to her email.

There will be a salary increase for longevity.  

Jolene needs to travel for family business and will be available via email or there will be a substitute contact person for the Gardens.  She will keep us informed.

Motion by Lily and seconded Barb A to adjourn

Adjourned 7:35

Submitted by Karen, subject to correction by the Garden Committee

January 2024

 

Eagle Heights Garden Committee Minutes

January 10, 2024  7 PM

Remote Meeting

Lily, Alex, Jolene, Barb A and Karen.

Minutes  With a motion by Barb A and seconded by Lily, the November 2023 minutes were approved. 

Registrar Update

Since there were so few people at the meeting, this meeting is advisory to the larger group.

Lily reports there are now 30 new gardener applications and many renewals from returning gardeners.

Kristen from Blue Moon Community Farms would like to do the Plant Sales again this spring.  The committee agreed that was a good idea.

Lily has received two applications that require review of student status. The first from a student gardener with a UW Whitewater course schedule attached.  The committee agreed to accept this as fitting in the student status.  The second is from a graduating senior with not quite enough credits and the committee also accepted this for student status.

There is a pending request for a gardening with a children group to have a plot in the gardens.  This group will require permission from UW Madison/UW Housing and the Lakeshore Nature Preserve and will include background checks of the adults.  The committee approves this request pending the approval of both UW Madison/UW Housing and the Preserve.

Seeds

Seed Donations are down because Agway is no longer donating seeds and they were the largest provider.  Lily has sent requests for donations to seven new companies and received three more donations.

Lily proposes that we buy some seeds in large quantities and repackage for the seed fair.  For this to be fair to all gardeners, we would only buy seed that could be directly sown in the ground.  Not all gardeners have the room or supplies to sow seed indoors.  Seeds that would be good for purchase would be spinach, bok choy and other seeds we normally run out of at the Seed Fair. The committee members present recommend this.

This purchase program could be augmented with a seed saving and sharing program of our gardeners.  We need to avoid saving seeds like squash that can be cross pollinated with gourds that produce inedible fruits. We can provide a list of accepted saved-seed contributions from gardeners.

Weed Juries

There have been some further questions about the weed juries and the difficulties last year.  Here is the plan that was approved at the September 2023 meeting.

“The weed juries did not go well this year. Some groups did not report, or were quite late. Of the reports, some groups always list many plots in their section, including some that look very nice, and others don’t list plots that are obviously abandoned. Lily did a walkthrough anyway, but the whole system creates extra work and makes it more difficult to hold people accountable for weedy or abandoned plots. It only takes about an hour to walk all of EH and check the plots, so Lily proposes just one group for each site that meets with the registrar once a month and we walk through together. This would be fairer, more consistent and would be much easier too. The committee agreed to the change.”

There was some discussion about how many people should be on the jury.  The committee recommends 4. That way if one person can not be there three gardeners would still be present. 

Common Areas 

There was discussion about how difficult it was last year because it was so dry.  Watering the common areas took a lot of time.  The discussion about having watering the common areas be a workday.  We agreed that this would be a good idea.  

Hiring More Garden Workers

Jolene said we technically have two vacant garden workers positions.  Jolene has had no reply from Nichole.  She needs to complete some required UW training sessions to keep her position.

The student that Jolene was creating a position for has decided she is no longer interested.  

The committee and Jolene agree that hiring more Garden Workers is a priority as there is way too much work for one person.  Lily will send an email to the list of gardeners from last year about the positions. Garden Committee members are also encouraged to suggest candidates if they know of anyone that may be interested. If we do not get any candidates Jolene will start the recruitment in February.

Motion by Lily and seconded Barb A to adjourn

Adjourned 7:45

Submitted by Karen, subject to correction by the Garden Committee