Notes from Meeting 1/28

On the farm. It's cold out there. There's still some kale and spinach left alive and the garlic is still growing. I think there was also one lettuce plant left alive. We took down the row cover because it's not really doing anything anymore. Overall, everything is looking good and all of our supplies are still there.

• Do we need to get any more supplies? Like mushroom soil or hay or straw? I know we have money in our budget for some tools like the swivel hoe, also. 
• Should we buy a rototiller? The feeling I'm getting is no. Should we rent one? That might also be a problem. Kate has been reading about using rototillers and I think has more information about whether this might still be a bad idea.

Whats been done so far this semester. We are in the process of turning in the lease so that we can have a full acre! Thank you for doing that Kate! We got a grant application turned in to apply for up to $1000 for us to use to pay workers over the summer. Hopefully we'll hear from that sooner rather than later. We've also done some planning to talk to the SGA about getting funding for over the summer (more on the SGA proposal below). 

Plans for the future. We think we would like to keep the layout of the farm pretty much the same with some minor variations to width and length of beds. We are meeting this Friday to finalize what seeds we want to grow as well as come up with growing schedule for the semester and summer. So far, here are our ideas for what we want to grow:

• Cherry tomatoes
• Eggplant
  
• Okra
• Sunflowers
• a few hot peppers
• bell peppers
• melons
• pumpkins
• garlic
• onions
• summer squash
• zucchini
• patty pans
• spaghetti squash
• basil
• beets
• marigolds

•  How should we go about buying seeds? Chancellor's Point wants to collaborate and I am all for that. Are there plants we should definitely not get (i.e. non-natives, etc)?

As you can see it is quite a list. Who knows if we'll be able to grow it all, but this was just an initial planning for things we are interested in.

There are some supplies we'd like to invest in this semester, such as looking at an irrigation system as well as revamping the farm's fence. For the fence, it needs to 1) work and 2) keep out animals. It didn't do the best job of either last season, so we need to change it around.

• Since we do/will have more land, we need to move the fence around I think. Most of what I heard at this meeting and in talking with Kate was that the fence should be grouped at the bottom to keep out rabbits and groundhogs and tall to keep out the deer. I'm pretty sure we can do this and I think we have a lot of wire left. 
• Also, when going out to visit the farm Terry, Sam, Tess and I talked about 1) finished the compost bins and 2) building a "cold frame bed." This bed would have the frame in the ground with plastic or windows on top. This would allow us to move it if we needed to, save us from a lot of construction and cutting labor, allow us to reuse the lumber, and save us from relying on lumber that was all the same size. 
  

In order to propose to the SGA that we deserve to get special money to pay for workers (currently the money we get from the SGA cannot go towards wages) we need to come up with reasons/ a solid argument for how our club is different from other clubs and reasons why the SGA should fund us being able to continue. Any suggestions?

• Okay, here's the money section. Tess and I (and anyone else that wants to join are meeting Ken Benjes today at 4 at the Grind to talk about this proposal.
• Also, we need to look for more grants, just as a back up plan. I think we should have a "Grant Finding Day" so one person does not have to spend hours and hours alone on the computer, but rather a group works together to search for money we can apply for. 
• Reasons for support from the SGA. Read and add them to this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13XyUycZAq8vtSi3C4qHjXRJU2-hjobfq-GpzhXqu5pU/edit?hl=en&authkey=CI305ssN

One last item I forgot to mention in the email was the Community Garden. What are our plans for that? Small plots for students were suggested as well as collaboration with Keep St. Mary's Beautiful or SEAC or maybe another group. But we need to do something with it. Maybe at the very least get some bushes or flowers planted.


woof. Busy busy busy