Meeting Minutes

Meeting: March 26, 2017 at Manitou Park Presbyterian Church
Present: Sherry, Trish and Ken

The three of us met to reaffirm the desire to run the garden in 2017.  For this to happen we addressed the following questions.

What is the best way to mow the garden?
Decided to look into buying a lawnmower and storing it at JT's garage.  We agreed this needed further discussion and Trish and Ken will alternate mowing until that time.

Do we need a yard waste bin?
Discussed and realized commercial properties don't get yard waste bins.  We will need to continue to handle our own yardwaste.  Also agreed it is easiest to let grass clippings fall back into ground.

Treasurer Report
We currently have $1323.10 in the bank (e-mailed information next day by Sherry)

How do we get old gardeners back?
It appears e-mail is not the best means of communication for several gardeners.  As such, Sherry will contact Ella, Nina, John and Penny. Trish will talk with Diana

How do we get new gardeners?
- Include invite in South Tacoma Neighborhood Council Minutes (Trish)
- Host a picnic (more on that below)
- Make flyers and distribute (Ken will make flyers, all of us will distribute within 3 block radius)
- Distribute flyers at Farmer's Market (?)

Host a Seed Swap and Lemonade Swill 
On Sunday, April 9 at 4:00 we will host a simple gathering to swap seeds, drink lemonade and tea and invite folks to join the garden.  

Who will be the bee person?
We won Mason Bees (non-stinging, non-honey producing good pollinating) .  Sherry will be the point person for the acquiring and caring for them

Contact JT with questions
- What is the status of the garden for this season?
- When is the appeal?
- Is it possible to stow a mower at the garage?
- Ken will e-mail

Meeting adjourned at 12: 30


Meeting: April 17, 2016 at the Garden
Present: Sherry, Trish, Nina and Ken (Micaela arrived at 5:15)

Ken offered a zoning update.  The decision has been delayed until June.  JT verbally assured Ken that no matter what happens with the zoning, the garden will be able to continue for this season.  The team elected to garden this season.

Boxes.  We made a list of returning gardeners.  It appears we have 7 boxes spoken for (one already paid, Penny) and 8 potential gardeners.   Boxes will cost $25/season.  Gardeners can begin planting once they have paid.  Fees are due May 1, after that any upaid boxes will be open to those who pay.  You can pay with cash or check (write to Sherry Marsden).  You can drop check off at Sherry's house 6803 S. Clement)

Sherrie moved that we change the by-laws to read, "Those who rent beds will keep them for a whole year." The motion was seconded and carried. 

Treasurer's Report.  Sherrie reported we currently have $1287.12 in the garden account. 

We set a goal of building 3 more boxes.  We will do so at our next meeting.  Sherry is going to check on borrowing a truck to pick up the wood. 

Mowing.  Trish and Ken will alternate mowing the garden.  Ken will mow on the 1st and 3rd weeks, while Trish takes the 2nd and 4th.  \

Water.  Ken will check with JT to ask how we can best use the water.  He will also ask JT to set the sprinklers for 2x a day for 10 minutes each time. 

Tagro.  Sherry will call and order 2 yards of Tagro

More gardeners?  Sherry created a flyer.  Ken will make copies so members can pass out to neighbors and invite them to join the garden.

Next Meeting.  Thursday, May 26 from 4:00-7:00.  


Meeting: October 1, 2015 at the Garden
Present: Charrie, Steve, Tricia, Sherry, Peter and Ken


Hi all, we had a great 30 minute meeting last night as it became really dark and the mosquitos were buzzing around. 

Season end clean-up and winter gardening:  I put these two topics together because as we are learning as we go we realized that some plants are just not moveable for the winter months and some have planted items that come back the following year.  So, cleaning out your beds by Oct. 31st will not be a requirement as stated in the Rules and Regulations. 

For this year only, there will be no charge for winter time and you can plant new winter plants or just let it go dormant.  However, you will be required to clean up your beds of all plants that will not be producing or have died. 

Next year there will be a nominal charge of $15.00 for winter gardening or if you pre-pay for winter when paying for Spring this fee will only be $10.00.

Bazaars:  We will be selling items at 2 bazaars in November.  If anyone has a craft and would like to donate items to sell on the tables we will be glad to take them.  All proceeds will go to the garden fund for fence, table and the remaining beds.  I'd love to say we will make lots of money, but who knows.  Here are the locations of the two bazaars:

Nov 7th & 8th:  AMVETS, 5717 S Tyler St. Tacoma, WA  9am-4pm both days
Nov 21st:  Collins Grange, 3404 E 120th St. Tacoma, WA 10am-4pm

Hope to see you there!

Budget report (Sherry), Total: $898.12.  ($569.80 designated for the fence).  
Building goals:  
     Fence.  May.  We'll start when we've raised $1300 (currently $569)
     Table. May.  We'll start when we've raised $500 

MEETINGS:  There will be no meetings in Nov & Dec.  Next Meeting will be January 21st.

Thank you all,
Charrie

Meeting: August 27, 2015 at the Garden
Present: Charrie, Steve, Sherry, Tricia, Nina, Dianna, Peter and Ken

1.  Some vegetables have been taken from folks plot, how shall we respond?
Sherry will make signs for each bed that let folks know the produce is not to be taken.  She will also make a sign for the community bed indicating the produce is free for the community.  

2.  Where are we on the table?
Ken is still waiting to hear from Tom regarding his ability to make the 12x4 concrete top table

3.  Where are we on the fence?
We still need about another $1000.  We then discussed how to get the money. Peter suggested delivering donation letters to the car dealerships.  Charrie agreed to create the form letter, Tricia agreed to get the addresses and Sherry agreed to hand deliver them. 

4.  How do we go about cleaning the beds and grounds?  
Tricia shared some concerns about overflowing plants being moved to mow.  A lively discussion ensued about how we care for the garden and who does what.  Ken offered to share mowing the garden with Steven and we decided to table whether folks are allowed to have plants overflowing the boxes.  The conversation was not easy but necessary and ultimately good.  The gardeners did a nice job persevering.

Next Meeting?  We did not set a date


Planning Meeting: April 23rd, 2015 at 1st Congregational
Present: CHarrie, Steve, Sherry, Tricia and Ken

1.  Do we want to name the beds?  If so with what theme.  No consensus was reached, but the following were some ideas:
 - Tacoma Celebrities  - Herbs  - Tacoma landmarks  - Fairies  -Books
We also discussed selling the naming rights to each bed to local businesses.  For $50-$100 a buisness could have their name on a plaque on each bed.  

2.  The  following people have paid for beds and signed the membership agreement:
- Charrie (2x)
- Tricia (1.5)
- Sherry (1.5)
- Anda (1)
- Ella (1)
- Ken (1)
3.  How will we select beds?  Charrie will make up some nametags, laminate them and place staple them on the corners of each bed.  This will work until we pick theme names. 
4.  Charrie, Tricia and Sherry applied for a Sparks Innovative Grant and had a meeting on Monday evening.
5.  Sherry announced that we have $619.43 in our account. 
6.  The yard sale netted $498.73.  All this will go towards the cost of the fence.   The hope is to make this an annual event.
7.  Sherry asked if we could make the Herb beds 4x4 instead of 8x8.  Everyone agreed to do so.  She has wood that will do the job. 
8.  Next Meeting: May 28th at 7:00 (4th Thursday)
Next Work day: May 16th at 11:00? 

Rummage Sale: April 18th , 2015

Building:  Saturday, April 11th, 2015 at Garden
We met, we built 8 more beds, we had a great time. 

Building:  Saturday, March 28th, 2015 at Garden
We met, we built, we had a great time.  

Planning Meeting: March 26th, 2015 at 1st Congregational
Present: Peter Ezeokeke, CHarrie, Steve, Sherry, Tricia, Micaela and Ken
1. Bylaws were presented by Charrie.  Ken motioned to approve the minutes. MSC
2. Membership agreement.  Charrie presented the aggrement.  It was ammended and then approved.
3.  Tagro.  Charrie brought Tagro potting soil samples and estimated we need 1 1/2 yards per 8x4x1.5 bed.  We discussed having the amounts delivered in patches of 8-10 yards.
4.  Charrie shared the pricing on wood and concluded the Mill Lumber Outlet was the lowest price with each bed costing around $50 (3 2x10x8, 3 2x6x8).  (Note: Actual cost was around $75 and did not include 1 4x4x8)
5.  We decided to meet on Saturday, March 28th at 11:00 to layout the site and build one raised bed.  Steven and Sherry agreed to aquire the lumber while Ken agreed to get the wood stakes. 

Planning Meeting: February 26th, 2015 at 1st Congregational
Present: Wasn't recorded
1. Charrie reported $140 in account with a $300 grant from Garden Club, yeah!
2.  Micaela led us in in a process of designing the garden.  The result is posted on the cover page.  Everyone agreed and was excited about the design.  

Planning Meeting: January 22nd, 2015 at 1st Congregational
Present: Charrie, Steve, JT, Sherry M. Micaela and Ken 
Edited by-laws
Micaela passed out info regarding relationships with private property
Planned for Master Gardener intern meeting on March 10th (note: we didn't get an intern)
Talked about a land agreement, here are some notes
- JT would eventually like a fence for aesthetic reasons.  The team agreed this is a goal.
-  However, he also said it was okay to start planting before the fence is built
- JT inquired about fencing price and plot prices.  Charrie estimates between $1500-$2000 for the fence and $25/year for a garden bed.
- If we have a general release for everyone to sign then we won't need to deal with insurance
- We do need to install a sign that says something to the effect of, "Members Only, No Trespassing"

Agreed upon a tentative time-line which is published in the time-line page


Planning Meeting: December 18th, 2014 at 1st Congregational
Present: Charrie, Steve, Eddie, Karen, Trish and Sherry, Lucas B
The following minutes are from an e-mail recap from Sherry
Also attending was Lucas B. Lucas works w/ the Scouts and is looking to involve the scouts in our garden project. He is going to compile a list of specific tasks that they can do in order to earn merit badges.
Charrie has composed a 1st draft of Bylaws and Rules, Terms and Conditions for Participation. Copies of these were passed out to be studied by the committee to see if any changes need to be made or anything added.
Between Christmas and New Years Charrie will meet w/ JT to find out more about his sponsor connections.
Trish and I plan to go talk to a bank and see about setting up an account.
I also plan to e-mail Ken and ask him to let us know if he gets any soil from the houses he boards up.
I think those are the highlights Ken.
Next meet has not been scheduled yet.

Planning Meeting: November 20th, 2014 at 1st Congregational
Attendees: Charrie, Steve, Karen, Eddie, Ken, Yoshi (and Theo), Tricia, Sherry
1. Letter. Charrie circulated a letter for donations.  Ken will post as template and Tricia and Sherry will track donations.
2. Grants.  
Master Gardener.  Eddie agreed to fill out an application
Tacoma Garden Club.  Sherry and Tricia agreed to fill out application.
3. What type of compost shall we use?  Tagro (free)?  Dirt (we buy)?  Discussion tabled
4. Build time-line.  Ken agreed to create a rough time-line for build day.  Karen suggested May 11th as plant day to which all agreed. 
5.  Yard sign.  Ken created a yard sign which budget banner made for free. Yeah budget banners.
6.  Private page on website.  Ken will create
7.  Next meeting: December 18th. 

Planning Meeting: October 30, 2014 at 1st Congregational
Attendees: Charrie, Steve, Sherry, Karen, Tricia, JT, Eddie, Micaela and Ken 
-Fence.  Steve and Charrie checked on a fence with Lou Foster.  The lot measured 52'x62'.  They will know later how much the supplies will cost. 
-Flyers.  Disappointed no new folks showed up, but we just have to keep at it.
-Budget.  Do we have a rough budget?  Tricia and Shelly "volunteered" to create a rough budget if they can get an example for another garden.  The budget should be in two sections - Startup and Ongoing.
-Support.  Micaela offered to connect us with a garden mentor such as Jim Endicott of Lakewood GArden
-Ideas.  Karen brought a photo album with pictures from other gardens for us to get ideas.  
-Design.  After sharing our designs, much discussion ensued over how detailed a blueprint we need for the garden.  The options ranged from recruiting a volunteer landscape architect to just building boxes and moving them around.  Ultimately, Charrie volunteered to take the ideas from each of our designs and come up with a design that incorporated some of each element.  We can further discuss it at the next meeting which was set for November 20th at 7:00. 


Planning Meeting: October 23, 2014 at 1st Congregational
Attendees: Charrie, Stehen, Sherry, Karen, Tricia, JT, Eddie, Michaela and Ken (late)
The following are notes edited from Charri's recap. 
- Flyers. Sounds like everyone is going to hand out the flyers at different sections of the neighborhoods.  Stephen's friend is coming over on Sunday to measure off the property and make a materials list for the fence and then we can get going on letters and start canvassing for donations. 
 - Insurance. We talked about insurance with JT and he believes that we just need to make sure everyone signs a waiver and we should be ok.  JT talked about the placement of the fence and possible donations from his buddies on some of the materials.  We are going to make a general enquiry about the cost of a permit for the fence, but we are not going to purchase one.  JT says he will pay for the permit if they make him. 
 - Grants and Gardeners. Michaela is going to send Charrie some grant information and internship for a gardener, which we all agree is a great idea. 
 - Photo Book of ideas. Karen went around and took many pictures at different gardens and put them in a book for us to look at and comment on the different items, i.e. if we want to accept different things in our garden or not.  Charrie wanted to put a bee hive in the garden, but was voted down as Karen is highly allergic and probably not a good idea for other folks either. 
- Bed sizes. We talked about the bed sizes and how they should be slender and not very long, probably 4x8 and 4x10s.
Next meeting is set for Thursday, October 30th at 7:00 where we hope to welcome new neighbors to the process. 

Planning Meeting: October 16, 2014 at 1st Congregational
Attendees: Charrie, Steve, Sherry, Karen, Tricia and Ken
1. Discussed the name of the garden and decided on: South Tacoma Community Garden
2. Discussed the target area of the garden and decided to focus on the Arlington area but leave it open to others who may wish to participate
3. Discussed the mission statement and decided upon the following:
South Tacoma Community Garden: Creating a safe and beautiful space where neighbors, old and young, meet to laugh and work, grow and harvest, eat and share.
4. Decided to meet again at 7:00 at First Congregational Church on October 23rd and 30th.
5. Goals for next few meetings:
a. Begin to seek donations
b. Explore grant possibilities with Makahla
c. Each person will sketch their garden design on a sheet of paper to share at the next meeting.

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