Second Garden Committee Meeting Minutes

King Open Garden Committee Meeting Notes
3/1/10

Attendance: Mitch Ryerson (parent), Carla Procaskey (community member), Tancredi Botto (parent), Giulia Fulci (parent), Dina Mandell (parent), Jane Hirschi (CitySprouts), Francey Slater (CitySprouts)

** Note from Jessie Wenning about scheduling: try to avoid all Thursdays and 1st Mondays of the month for committee meetings. Thanks**

Rebirth of KO Garden

Goal: create a space that welcomes teachers, children, families, and is USEFUL as a teaching and community resource.
Aesthete and Function should be considered:
- survey teachers (and kids if possible)
- look at body of literature on school gardens
Ideas
- clearly defined beds (border material yet to be determined)
- clear signage of fixtures (i.e. water source, compost, tool shed, etc) & plants (created by children and garden volunteers)
Design
Mitch has been in contact with COG (Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design), which matches designers up with projects, pro bono. Professional designer will assess site, take input from community and create design. No installation.
In order to be listed with COG, we will have to fill out an application (which has to be accepted) and then submit $150 fee.

Do we need a landscape designer?
A professional design would respond to the general community’s feeling that the garden is shabby and unkempt (read, unwelcoming).
An overall plan will also be helpful for our process, as it is likely that the garden will be renovated piece by piece; having a design to break into phases makes this process more manageable and cohesive.
A professional design will be helpful in raising funds to make the implementation possible.

Applying for COG design will likely take some time; there are several things we can initiate now to facilitate the redesign process:
1. Apply to COG
2. Survey teachers (and kids, parents as possible)
3. Start thinking about funding sources, see websites below for ideas:
www.kidsgardening.org/grants.asp
www.captainplanetfdn.org/grants.html
www.csgn.org/page.php?id=30 (many for CA only, but some national)
http://assoc.garden.org/grants/

CitySprouts/KO garden budget can cover $150 application fee, so we can get moving on that piece now.

COG Application requires: photos, base maps, measurements, permit info (will they be required?), review process info (what will it be?), demographics for people using the garden, specific needs of the project (grassy area, raised beds, compost area, tool shed, patio area, tables…)

Action Items
1. Create survey for teachers (Tancredi); questions to include
- How do you use the garden now?
- Are there things you would like to do in the garden but need different infrastructure?
- Are there any changes that would help you use the garden for teaching?
- Rate the following garden features, 1 is most desirable: grassy area, raised beds, compost area, bog, tool shed, patio area, seating area, (what others should we include?)
- Include image of garden on survey

Surveys will be distributed as follows:
K & 1/2 - Giulia
3/4 – Dina
5/6 – Mitch
7/8 – Dina

2. COG application - CitySprouts will do first draft by 3/11

Afterschool Update
As CitySprouts grows to a district-wide program, we are undergoing some reorganization of staff. Our Garden Coordinators will now be serving 3 schools each, and will be focusing on 1)supporting teachers academic use of garden, 2) Garden maintenance 3) Summer Internship for middle school students. Afterschool programming (aka Drop-In) is in a state of transition, as we seek school specific partners (either parent/community based or program based) to help integrate the garden into afterschool culture and programming.

We approached Maureen Spinetti about the Community Schools garden class she has taught in the past; unfortunately she is no longer working with Community Schools, so won’t be teaching in the KO garden this spring.