Pictures from our backyard garden 8-19

Our compost bin, also donated to us, and now up and running!

Wine barrels donated by Jack Howell - we will use them to plant blackberries!

Hot peppers

Purslane Weed - super nutritious!

Tomatoes

Close up of purple basil

All sorts of basil!

Planting at our backyard garden 7-20

Ron standing next to the garden beds before they got planted.

Cesar and Mike planting

Soil super rich in nutrients from our added compost and horse manure

Some of the basil seedlings we got donated from Sunnyside Organics

Emanuel and Lorena planting

Gerringher Harvest Festival

Gehringer Community Garden, a 2 1/2 acre community garden in the Dana Estates area of Concord had its 2nd Annual Harvest Festival/Fundraiser Saturday August 21st. Gerringher has several plots rented by community members, and 2 plots dedicated to growing food for the food bank. The Harvest Festival was a great event - music, food, drinks and fun for everyone! Great work to Katia has a plot at Gehringer and invited us to the festival.

Community Garden Action Team Minutes 8-11-10

Monument Community Partnership

Community Gardens Neighborhood Action Team

Wednesday August 11

Minutes

Present: Mike Kerr, Dave Pitman, Katia Ginesta, Harold Blair, Cesar Ortiz, Catalina Ramos-Wright, Mary Lou Laubscher, Stan Hansen, Lorena Sanchez, Jenna Carlsson, Luz Sierra, Kathy Greene

Announcements:

• Teens Needed: (Luz): If you know any teenagers from 13 to 18 MALES who would like to participate in the pilot project Friday, from 12 to 1:30, M W F next week. Free Lunch! Call MCP at 808-7392

• Famous member!: Catalina is featured in the ‘Concord Activity Guide”, p.21 check it out!

• Grand Opening: (Mike): Los Medanos Community Health District community garden is opening Saturday Aug 14! Come check it out 10-12:30. Featuring a workshop on winter gardening by Janet Miller.

• Monument Health Fair (Jenna): Oct 2 at Meadow Homes Park: Bone density check up, other health check ups. We'll have a community gardens booth - let Jenna know if you can participate 246-5461

• Gehringer Garden Fundraiser: Gehringer (2 1/2 acre community garden that also grows for food bank) is having a Harvest Day Festival. August 21^st, 1 -4pm. Food, drinks, prizes, and crafts for kids! $10 for tickets, under 21 free. Contact Katia for more info. or to buy tickets: number

Community Reports/Speakers:

• Brookview Garden: Stan's garden at Brookview has 38 garden beds and has been donating 40 pounds of tomatoes a day to the Monument Crisis Center!

• Ellis Lake Clean-Up: 26 people came, it was very successful!

Program Reports

Backyard Gardens Project Update:

• Compost: Pablo and Lorena went to Allied Waste to collect 100 donated bags of beautiful dark compost! Many thanks go to Allied Waste for their generous donation and to Pablo for helping out.

• Seedlings: Mike and Lorena went to Sunnyside Organic in Richmond to volunteer at Pilar Vernay’s greenhouse. Her generous donations and knowledgeable persona have helped the Backyard Gardens project go forward beyond the pilot garden. Many of the seedlings have gone on to find a home at the pilot garden and at the Sun Ridge Apartments in the Monument, where children and their families are learning to tend and care for them.

• Vermicomposting: Mike, Lorena, and Cesar went to volunteer at Mama’s Worm Composting in West Oakland. There, the three learned about vermicomposting (worm composting) and the laborious work that goes into this fantastic composting method!

• Dave showed pictures available on our blog

Iron Horse Advisory Committee (Mayette drive buldge area): Mary Lou, Jenna, Dave, and Bruce attended Iron Horse Trail Advisory Committee meeting last week with Stan Hansen and rest of the committee. They would like a presentation from us about our proposal to have a community garden at the Mayette drive buldge of the trail and are skeptical about sustainability due to past projects. Also want to know about liability insurance.

Sun Ridge Apartment Complex – Lorena has been working with them. They are interested in starting a community garden but a lot of their area is shaded. We will try to arrange a meeting between the manager and a master gardener to find out more. Kathy volunteered to help out with this.

Container Gardens – Lorena has done 3 container garden workshops showing kids how to make contain gardens out of milk cartons. She will do another one with First 5 parents.

Next Steps and Assignments

• Outreach: We need to recruit more gardeners. Katia and Ron can work on this, perhaps Luz and Kathy. *Idea: presentation at Michael Chavez Center

• Set up meeting with property manager at Sun Ridge (Jenna)

• Attend Winter Gardening sessions on Aug 13 and 14

• Buy tickets for and attend Gehringer Fundraiser Aug 21. Contact Katia

• Set up our own Iron Horse Trail committee. (Kathy, Mike, Cesar, and Stan interested.) We have to report back to them on Nov 3.

• Anyone who is interested in getting free seedlings can volunteer at Sunnyside Organic Aug 30. Contact Pilar Vernay at sunnyside@organic.biz for future volunteering and gorgeous organic seedlings!

Next Meeting Date: Wed Sept 8 7pm KH (always 2nd Wednesday)

Next Meeting Agenda: Plan for health fair, Lorena presents resource manual information

Meeting Eval

+	Δ
Got a lot done! Mike and Cesar's fabulous help Dave's pictures Stan's help with the Iron Horse Trail Committee

Backyard Gardens in the News

Contra Costa Times:
Bumper crop of backyard gardens in East Bay
By Hannah Dreier

... a growing number of locals who, driven by steep grocery prices and a still stumbling economy, are taking advantage of the East Bay's good soil and Mediterranean climate.

Sunnyside Organic

Our team volunteered 2 days at Sunnyside Organic in exchange for free seedlings for our backyard garden project. Check out pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baypointcommunity/sets/72157624232999091/

Grow Your Own Vegetables

Flyers for Community Gardens near you.


Lorena speaking at National Night Out block party August 3.


Neighbor getting a seedling from Lorena with Elva and Jenna.