In Attendance: Helen, Stephen, Caroline, Pat, Bill, Pam
Visitors: Pat – By Sunday there will be 2 big bins outside the fence near the compost bin at the school and one at the transfer station. Sarah will post a drawing that shows the size of the rocks that need to be collected. These rocks will be used to fill gabions for the new town sign.
- Community Outreach – Letter and Public Service Announcement
The PSA has been sent to the Berkshire Eagle, The Bennington Banner and iBekshire. We could also send the PSA to the Deerfield Valley News. Stephen will take care of this.
The Community letter was mailed on Saturday and was delivered on Monday. Mike Denalt has agreed to pay for half of the letter. The Town gave us envelopes at cost.
P: The town has never had anything like this before. It’s Great.
We have already had an inquiry about a raised bed through the website from someone who saw the letter
2. Food Pantry Donations –
Heidi requested that we give food donations to the Kitchen Pantry in Bennington and fresh foods are not generally available to them. Helen put in a $200 order for vegies at Mighty Foods and will see that they are delivered on Wednesday.
3. Community Garden Space –
Chip Lovett delivered two truckloads of compost to the tennis court on Friday. Dave and Jessica and Stephen and Helen put compost on all of the beds at the garden, Saturday. Caroline will come with her Mantis to till the beds this coming Saturday when it is supposed to warm up. Stephen and Helen will bring plants and seeds. We will get started at 9:00 and try to plant most of the beds. We will cover the beds with wire hoops and make plastic tunnels.We expect it to take about 3 hrs. Depending on the turnout. Individually wrapped donuts
4. Distributed Garden Beds – Update
We have two people who are definitely interested and a couple of maybes. Stephen was contacted by a couple who are interested having a raised bed as well.
5. Community Compost –
We now have a supply of compost on the tennis court from Chip.
Helen spoke to Dave T. about having a space at the Transfer station to offer compost to the community. Dave said that there is an area that they have had for a couple of years to receive brush, but is never used. Helen will talk to the selectboard about giving us permission to use the space for compost. We could offer the compost for $2 / 5 gal. bucket and make a profit. We could also offer plants for sale. It could give us a presence in the community and a place to post information about our activities.
We could be available to offer gardening tips. You never know who you are going to connect with. We should make a written proposal to the selectboard. Helen will send it out for editing to Caroline. The final version will go to Laurie to be included in the agenda.
Pam can only get compost on Saturday. She could possibly make two trips. Seed Savers will not need additional compost for at least a couple of weeks.
Pam still has to decide which spot to use gardening. The space near the barn and the other area that was used previously for a garden make the most sense. Seed Savers will pay for the compost. Pam will try to get a price break as a landscaper . Pam also has a bunch of seeds that need to be started, but she doesn’t have a good space for it. CJ has a little greenhouse and might have some space available. Pam has pots and ProMix available. She needs a good spot to start the seeds. We will work together to make it happen.
Meeting adjourned. Same time next week.
Stamford VT Seed Savers 