News

7/17/2024

Save the date: July 25th, 2024 Planning Meeting!

It's time to start thinking about what plants could work well at the site, and define our vision.

Neighbors and gardeners, please save the date for our next planning meeting on Thursday, July 25th, 2024 at the propsed planting site on Goodwin Avenue from 6:00pm-7:00pm.

You can find the proposed planting site by going to the empty lot next to the white fence at 20 Goodwin Avenue.

At this meeting, we'll brainstorm which plants could work well, take measurements of the site, and start to identify any low-care bulbs or perrenials which are best planted in the fall. This will help give us enough time to organize volunteers as well as source plants. Bring your favorite plant ideas and inspiration!

Spread the word! You can use the flyer below to help share this on social media:

06/19/2024

A successful summer cleanup!

Last Wednesday, several of our volunteers came out and cleaned up the site. We mowed, weed whacked the edges, pulled some invasives, and moved some hidden rocks that could easily damage mowers if they were hit. We also found some lower maintenance groundcover plants under the grass that, with the right encouragement, may not need to be mowed long term. What a difference!

Thank you to Jessica for organizing, Ashley and John for providing fresh ice water and tools, and to everyone who stopped by to say hi and encourage us! It was so rewarding to make new connections and work on cleaning up the space together.

Before:

After:

Until this point, a kind neighbor had been paying to take care of this area on their own. The cleanup was a great reminder how important it is to foster community so that the responsibility for caring for this area is shared by more than one person, and how rewarding it is to care for our neighborhood together. We also received three lovely native plants as a donation which we're caring for as planning continues.

We're currently looking at the week of July 8th for our next planning meeting. Stay tuned! If you would like to participate in a future cleanup event, be sure to sign up on our volunteer page.

05/29/2024

May 29th community meeting notes

With many people returning from our first meeting, and some new voices, we were able to get some new feedback and direction on what general ideas the larger community is interested in for the garden area. A few new things we learned:

There's been a gap in maintenance that local residents have had to fill, especially with regards to mowing. Ari plans to follow up with the city to help find resources and assistance from the city to maintain this in the short term.
Maintenance continues to be a concern. Currently, the area has a lot of grass, so it might be beneficial to consider low- or no-mow grass alternatives in this area, such as clover, or reducing the amount of plain grass that needs mowing to something smaller by adding flowers or other plants which need less hands-on maintenance.
Ashley presented some initial ideas to react to, including garden beds, and we learned that the community prefers a more natural look, such as stone, that will last a long time without the need to replace or repair bed materials.
Ari addressed concerns about what happens if maintenance falls behind - we'll simply take it down and allow the area to revert to its current state. Luckily, we've seen an increase in volunteer signups and expect this number to grow as the words gets out and plans become more finalized. While not all neighbors are avid gardeners, we saw some new faces this meeting who are passionate about plants too.

We also met our local tree warden, Chris Rosa, who has done amazing work with the Forestdale Cemetery, and offered some low-maintenance ideas which would bring beauty to the area, including forsythia, red-twig dogwood, and perrenials that could bloom throughout the season.

We agreed that Wednesdays from 6:30pm-8:30pm in the Forestdale Elementary School cafeteria work well, and we expect our next meeting to be in a few weeks, probably towards the end of June. Next time, we'll be getting more active with planning and design ideas. Bring your plant suggestions and brainstorming ideas!

Thank you to everyone who participated constructively at our last meeting! Your ideas and collaborative participation - especially when it comes to potential issues you forsee - are deeply appreciated. As always, please review our FAQ page for questions we have addressed at past meetings such as maintenance, ensuring we have volunteers, and pest management. If you would like to bring these topics up again, help us by letting us know what about the solution in the FAQ you feel isn't addressing the concern. This helps us find better solutions together. Hope to see you at the next meeting!

5/20/2024

Plants for pest management

By Ashley Kolodziej, Volunteer Garden Manager

One of our big takeaways from the first neighborhood garden planning meeting was: how will we keep pests managed?

One of the great things about nature and gardening is that nature often gives us a helping hand with pest management, if we take a minute to research and look in the right places. With that in mind, let's look at five of my favorite plants you can include in your garden to manage pests naturally.

Daffodils

Did you know daffodils are a natural rodent repellent? These beautiful yellow flowers are one of the first to crop up in the spring and remind us all that better weather is just around the corner. Because daffodils are bulbs, they only need to be planted once, making them super easy to maintain from year to year.

Mint

While the mint plant itself won't repel rodents, as part of a mixture, mint oil can be made into a spray that smells great and deters rodents. Growing mint as part of a neighborhood herb garden can help us provide fresh mint for cooking to the neighborhood anytime we want, and when we have too much, we can let folks know that it's a good time to do a big harvest for repellent purposes. Mint is highly invasive, so if you choose to grow mint at home, make sure to do so in a container - not directly in the ground.

Sage

Who doesn't love sage at Thanksgiving? Besides being a fall staple, this amazing herb is a year-round hero in pastas, bright summery lemonades, and of course - rodent repellent. You might be noticing a trend here - herbs are amazing pest repellents because of their highly aromatic nature. Can you guess the next plant on our list?

Rosemary

Like sage, rosemary has a strong scent that deters critters from the garden. Rosemary isn't typically a perennial in our planting zone, 6b, but some hardy varieties like Hill Hardy have been proven to survive in zones up to zone 6, making rosemary a potentially good choice for a low-maintenance plant we can use for cooking and pest maintenance. Besides being tasty in lemonade and soups, rosemary even repels mosquitoes!

Calendula

Calendula rounds out my list of favorite pest-repellent plants for its sunny, beautiful blooms that last all summer long. Unlike marigolds, a similar looking cousin, some parts of calendula are edible, such as the petals. Like marigolds, though, they are a super easy annual to grow from seed in our zone. I've grown these both outdoors and hydroponically and you just can't beat them for beauty and utility in the garden.

What are your favorite pest-repellent plants?

Tell us at our next meeting on May 29th, 2024 from 6:30pm-8:30pm! We're looking for volunteers and plant planning ideas for the space. I'd love to hear your input!

3/20/2024

Our first meeting!

Our first meeting on 3/20/2024 at Forestdale Elementary School was a success! The goal of our first meeting was to meet with homeowners abutting the vacant lot and introduce the idea of the garden, and get their feedback. This important first step helps us understand what the requirements of the garden will be, and we were lucky to have awesome participation. Some of our neighbors even helped spread the word when we had a hiccup with our mailings - thank you!

We learned that maintaining the garden was the number one concern, especially with regards to pest management, the local coyote population, and ensuring the burden of upkeep is shared by more than one person. We also learned that it is important to keep costs low so as not to impact the neighborhood financially. We're already planning to ensure that these things are addressed - check out our FAQ page for complete, up to date details on how we're ensuring we address these points.

Our next meeting will open the discussion up to more community members, and our goal will be to get more volunteers and support to make this idea sustainable!