Attendees: Joe Huntley, Arianna McNally, Joshua Barrs Donham, Ellen Coady, Deirdre Evans, Jen Berry

Attendees: Joe Huntley, Arianna McNally, Joshua Barrs Donham, Ellen Coady, Deirdre Evans, Jen Berry

Deirdre would like to step down as Co-chair – we will recruit for a new Co-chair – Deirdre will help with the transition over the next year.

We want to create “jobs” for volunteers so the management of the garden can be split up between more people. Jobs will include:

1. 
   Gardening expert Co-chair
   
2. 
   Organization and grant writing Co-chair
   
3. 
   Finance manager
   
4. 
   Indoor planting co-ordinator
   
5. 
   Outdoor planting& summer schedule co-ordinator
   
6. 
   Spring Garden clean-up day co-ordinator
   
7. 
   Compost co-ordinator
   
8. 
   Harvest lunch co-ordinator
   
9. 
   Fall clean-up co-ordinator
   

1. 
   Jen put in a request to Jennifer Watts for funding to purchase new grow lights and create an outdoor learning space in the garden. We do not know when we will hear about this funding but expect to hear before March 31^st
   
2. 
   Deirdre will put in request to Jill White at HRSB – their funding is usually $500.
   
3. 
   Ariana will ask the Atlantic Superstore for watering cans and gloves (Young Street and Joe Howe)
   
4. 
   Ariana will ask Vesseys if they will donate last year’s seeds
   
5. 
   Fix water collection system – attach drain spout
   
6. 
   We currently have $1557.73 in our garden bank account
   
7. 
   We could use funds from PTA if needed, have never needed it
   

• 
  Bags of soil
  
• 
  Seeds
  
• 
  Possible manure
  
• 
  Potting trays – 30 x 19
  
• 
  Tomato cages
  
• 
  Landscape fabric – Costco – thick and does not break down
  
• 
  Elm trees – find 20 or 30
  
• 
  Garden twine
  
• 
  Testing the soil – Kevin Zwicker’s class could do this as a project
  

If we get money for “capital” items maybe we could buy a weather station kit

Review of plants from last year:

• 
  Cucumbers worked well – move them to a different area this year
  
  • 
    Re-plant 2 or 3 times to get enough cucumbers
    
  • 
    Sultans cucumbers – Vesseys – are the ones we used last year
    
• 
  Tomatoes have been to close together – little ones are too dense
  
  • 
    so wider space between rows-
    
• 
  Squash – ask about easy growing variety
  
• 
  Quick grow pumpkin – ask for advice
  
• 
  Watermelon – ask Ted Hutten about yellow watermelon
  
• 
  Cantaloupe – mush melon is the best melon to plant
  
• 
  Beans and peas were fine and need to be replanted
  
• 
  Cauliflower - plant beginning of July for September harvest
  
• 
  Broccoli – plant beginning of July for September harvest
  
• 
  One problem was the weather last year - with all the snow planting and plant growth was late
  
• 
  Peppers –
  
• 
  Flowers – Deirdre has many flower seeds saved from last year
  
• 
  Square foot garden in the raised bed
  
  • 
    Maybe we could plant the entire raised bed with carrots – Ellen will take on this project
    
• 
  Potatoes – same place should work well
  
• 
  Nasturtiums would be nice – we should add them to our flower planting
  
• 
  Onions
  
• 
  Zucchini – only 4 or five required
  
• 
  Herb – perennials:
  
  • 
    oregano, lemon balm, chives, thyme
    
• 
  Try basil, - make sure we cut back – have to cut back to have good growth
  
• 
  Others to plant: Coriander, Parsley, Stevia
  
• 
  Cabbage was well received we could plant again
  
• 
  Should we try golden beets? They do not stain
  

tomatoes, peppers, herbs, flowers - plant inside in late March

Melons – plant inside in late April

Broccoli and cauliflower – plant inside in June

Plant cabbage -plant inside in June

May 15^th, 2016 from 12 to 2pm will be Garden clean-up day

Weeding Wednesday will be 6 to 8pm all summer – we will follow last year’s plan to have a family manage 1 Wednesday so that all Wednesdays have a “host”

Hardening off is a problem–can we make it a class project – maybe leave the cart out – ask classes to take them out during gym class?

Should we plant the trays in the fall with green lettuce – micro greens? We would need someone to manage this and work with Linda to use the greens in the school hot lunch program.

Deirdre has the seed inventory will send out to Jen and Arianna

Donation list for the garden to be shared with the school community – start with watering cans, tomato cages and will fill in more after we do the tool inventory

Protocol for managing garden gloves – we could wash them in school washer at the end of every planting day

Inventory tools – count the tools – make an excel spreadsheet showing all tools – project for Garden clean-up day

We now have 1 bus bin for every classroom – Jen will label them with room numbers

Teachers –how do we support them to prepare students for the garden?Would a volunteer take on creating of finding a pre garden lesson for each vegetable?Another job is to create a checklist for taking a class to the garden to plant and to harvest

Also how can/should be train volunteers?

We cannot plant sunflowers due to allergies

Joshua will make a poster of flowers and native pollinators – make poster to show the life cycle