Category: Agenda and Minutes

In attendance: Larry, Jennifer, Priscilla, Betty, Sheila Lawrence, Stephen, Helen

Announcements: Caroline has received 90# of potatoes and will make them available to SVSS members after she has distributed to others.

School Gardening Report: Outcomes of seed planting activities at Stamford Elementary. SG and HF taught 4 classes at Stamford Elementary School with all students. Eleven flats were planted for school, home and town flower and vegetables. NEGEF grant is in progress. We need to continue to build our communications and attendance for upcoming activities.

Seed Library: Progress report. CJ and Caroline are working on the case for seeds. We need to make the seeds available now.

Seed Production: Individual membership goals for 2018. Who is planting what for our Seed Savers plan. Jen wants native species which might be at risk of disappearing. Larry can get seeds from his uncle of large, flat pole beans (his sister has them). He plants them every year and wants to save them this year. “Larry’s Yellow Pole Beans.” Stephen will try personal watermelons. When ripe they turn yellow. It is reported that they are often too seedy, but delicious. Jen has Spanish peppers from Spain and will try to grow them (originally came from Mexico); pimentos du Padron. Sheila reports Valerie Dickerson at The Lane plants a giant flower pot with 5 veggies in one pot on her porch.

Stephen brought 2 flats of tomatoes started at the Firehouse; can you adopt a flat to keep alive since we are running out of space.

WE NEED GROW LIGHTS FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND FOR SEEDSAVERS.

GOT LIGHT????

Green Up Day: Plans for outreach and fundraising. Helen, Betty and Bill Levine will sell plants at the June 2 Church Bazaar.

Jen has school volunteers who want to come and split perennials to sell at their school fundraiser. They will come and clean up your garden (moms and kids) . Larry has daylilies that they can come and dig them. Jen will contact Larry.

Larry says some places are planting milkweed to grow monarch butterfly. Larry has Joe Pieweed. He is not getting enough monarch.

Trees and Shrubs: Recent donation. Helen reports there was an anonymous donation of $300 to plant blueberry bushes on school grounds. We discussed where to plant. Blueberries like wet. Jen reports we need 3 varieties. Sheila says talk to Dottie and David Howes on Clayton or Barlow on The Lane. Larry and Sheila suggest set up the fencing and the poles first. Much with oak or pine chips. Dan also grows good blueberries. Acidy mulch.

Wish List: Lights etc. We need a shed. Compost (Larry’s sister has some when it dries).

New Business: Starting the school/community garden. Jen is willing to work with kids to plant peas, radishes, lettuce soon with Helen. Let’s plan a planting date with school; Jen, Angela and Larry will come help on another Mad Monday. Helen will discuss with the Principal. Can we coordinate with the Library Committee to have garden events this summer.

Next meeting is Tuesday, May 15 at 6pm in the Stamford Library. Bring a plan for workdays in the community garden.

WE NEED LOTS OF POTS FOR REPOTTING SPIDER PLANTS.

Larry, Helen and Timothea will repot spider plants tomorrow after 4.

Jennifer will repot with Helen on Thursday noon to 2. Priscilla will come after 1:30.

This will be at Helen’s house 394 East Road.

Anyone that wants to join us is welcome!

 

 

In attendance: Helen Fields, Stephen Greene, CJ Vadnais, Betty Vadnais, Ruth West, Priscilla Tracy, Angela Brothers.

School Classes and seed germination

Helen is on the school’s agriculture committee and will meet with them to coordinate activities between SVSS and school classes.

The kindergarten reportedly wants to grow herbs in the courtyard.

Several teachers have expressed an interest in growing plants for the town’s flower boxes.  We have discussed helping with them by providing seeds of native flowers that benefit pollinators.

Betty V. expressed interest in planting native trees and shrubs on the school campus.  Ideas for woody plants include, butternuts, hazelnuts, blueberries, and others. She will do follow-up research.

C.J. V. suggests that we ask kids to gather recycled materials for growing plants such as paper cups, boxes, milk boxes, egg cartons …

Helen F. will call school tomorrow to set up a meeting. – Ruth W. will assist in this effort

NEGEF Grow Grant status

Unknown at this time.

It is our understanding that we are not tied to line items in the proposed budget and can make changes in response to arising needs.

The proposed watering system using a 12 volt pump and PV panels was discussed.  CJ says that he has oodles of rain barrels that could be used. He thinks that a ram pump or a rotary pump might be better options for a watering system.

Seed Library

CJ has a salvaged card catalog unit from a library that he is willing to donate.  It has about 20 sliding drawers that could accommodate seed packages and could fit on top of one of the low book shelves.   It would be great for organizing and storing seeds. We will need to make a request to the library committee for approval. Stephen will take the lead on this and work through Caroline.

School fencing and garden access

Chris W. contacted us to raise a concern about a fence that is being proposed for the school playground.  Helen will go to the select board and school principal this week to find out what is being proposed and request that vehicular access for the gardens is incorporated into the plans.

Seed Saving Volunteers

A call for SVSS members to think about growing for seed production led to the following information.

Susan successfully grew blue corn last year and may have seed.

Helen tried to grow green Oaxaca corn which did not have enough time to ripen.

Stephen tried to cross two strains of pumpkins naked seeded and pie pumpkins unsuccessfully because the flowering of the two varieties were out of sync.

CJ grew quinoa which was eaten by something

Joe also tried Quinoa which also got eaten

Stephen asks members to think about picking a crop variety that they would like to grow specifically for the seed library.  We will discuss this again at the next meeting.

Helen will try amaranth this year.

Ruth would like help starting a garden.

Perhaps we could schedule garden slams to create gardens for individuals.

Fund Raising

Plant sales

There is interest in selling plants later in the spring.  There is also concern that we would be competing with commercial growers, specifically Many Forks Farm.

Sharon (MFF) grows to plant starts to order. Orders should have been submitted by April 1,  but she may be selling additional plants. Helen will get in touch with her to find out how we can avoid overlapping interests.

Helen says that 8th grader, Nick Carpenter has agreed to work with us on a pumpkin project.

There is a spring plant sale in North Adams.  Do we want to start plants for that event?

Williamstown garden club hosts a fundraiser on May 26th with perennials.

We could each grow a few trays of something and sell at someone else’s event.

Stamford church bazaar is on the first Saturday of June, We could have a table at this event.

We will bring germination mix and trays to the next meeting to get plants started.

Tree sponsorships

People could donate money to sponsor trees or berry bushes on the school grounds in support of Betty’s native tree plans.

We could create an arboretum on school grounds with trees and shrubs that are sponsored by individuals or families.

Let’s grow American Chestnuts.

Helen will contact Johnny’s Seeds for catalogs to be used in school classes.

Additional Business

We are subscribed to Seed Savers. Org and will receive packets of seeds.

Betty will contact them to find out why we are not on their online map.

Betty will talk to Micah about planting sugar maples in school yard.

CJ suggests a grafted fruit basket tree.

Next meeting will be Wed. April 17 6:00 at the fire station.  We will be filling trays with seeds for propagation.