The Gates ARE locked

Contact Mr. Willey @: dirttherapy@gmail.com if you need the combination. Here are some very recent pictures of some "Common Grounders." What a terrific job they have done.

Gates Will Be Locked

Combination locks will be installed because some of the fruit, namely strawberries, has been disappearing. Please contact Mr. Willey@dwilley@alpinedistrict.org if you need access. There will be Common Grounders there on Saturday if you wish meet with them and get the combination.

More details are forthcoming.

WATER IS ON

Great news: NO MORE HAULING WATER. We have been told that the sprinklers that are in and around the garden will be turned off.

The grass is growing and we may need a push lawnmower to keep it down. We will check with the custodians to see if the school has one we can use.

Also, we are in the process of acquiring combination-type locks, however, at this point they haven't been necessary.

Leave comments for concerns or questions.

Pictures

Here are some pictures I took during Spring Break of the garden. Sorry for the long upload!

And to think some people have already started planting! These pictures don't show it, but the FLC plot has started planting Tomatoes and Watermelons!

Our Journey

We put together a short video or everything we've done for the garden so far, and this is it!


Common Ground Video


Feel Free to share the link!

Topsoil Is Here And Some Are Ready To Plant

So much has happened during the past week. We had a Square-Foot Gardening class, a seed exchange and topsoil arrived and is being spread throughout the garden. We want to have meetings every Wednesday night, gardening classes or coordinating meetings.

Preparation for Saturday's Classes

Mr. Silva made some suggestions and observations on what we could do to get the most out of his classes, particularly if some of us are committed to the concept of square-foot gardening.

1. Begin building our own boxes.
2. Go to some of the local lumber yards or find a construction sites and see if there's some free wood that they are throwing away.
3. The boxes don’t have to be pretty, they just have to be useful. The usual dimension for a box are 4’ x 4’ x 6” high, but if they find 2x2 or 2x3, it works fine too.
4. Go to local depot type stores or nurseries and see if we can get some wood, weed mat or seeds donated. Stores love to look good for the community.

We all will be better prepared to learn and apply if we take a look at "square-foot gardening" online.

Does anyone read these things? There are hardly any comments.

Boy Scout Help

Hello Everyone!

Would it be of any help to Common Grounders if a Boy Scout troop came by this weekend and helped with the topsoil? If this is something that you'd like, what day would you want them to come? Got any questions or suggestions, post them below: add your comment.

Here are some recent photos of the garden. Some of you already have begun to prepare the soil.

Gardening Class April 9

We held the Wednesday evening meeting and those present were able to choose their plots. Four people volunteered to be on the coordinating committee. the agenda for the meeting was as follows:

I. Coordinating Committee (Volunteers?)

A. Responsibilities:

1. Plan and coordinate activities

2. Contact others through phone tree, etc.

3. Other, still to be determined

Volunteers:

1. Karen Barksdale
2. Charlotte Maassen
3. July Murphy
4. Julio Martinez
5. Abby Maassen?

II. Contact Information List (Phone Tree)(Heidi)

III. Tentative or Initial Plot Assignments (Jeremiah)

IV. Weekly Classes? (Emily)

A. April 9-Square-Foot Gardening (8AM and 10 AM)

V. Top Soil (Emily)

VI. Collaborative Plot (Heidi)

VII. Children’s Plot (Heidi)

VIII. Next Meeting (Scheduled or As Needed?) (Mr. Willey)

A. Soil Preparation

B. Topsoil Date

C. Planning?

D. Other

IX. Class meeting on April 9th. We will discuss more items/concerns/ideas at the class.

~ 8 am (Spanish)

~ 10am (English)

Some Tentatively Scheduled Events or Activities include:

April 1-9 (Friday - Saturday) : Common Grounders begin preparing their plots for topsoil that will be delivered later in the week.

April 4 (Monday) : Those wanting to help finish dividing up the new plots are invited to come between 3-7 PM.

April 8-11 (Friday - Monday) : The topsoil will be delivered and must be moved into the garden before Monday, the 11th, night.

April 9 (Saturday) : There will be two gardening classes taught at the school in Mr. Willey's room. The first will be at 8 AM and will be in Spanish. The second, in English, will be at 10 AM. Everyone, Common Grounders or not, is welcome so invite friends and family.

Time Change for Weds, March 30 Meeting: Now @ 7 PM

The meeting has been moved back an hour because of Student-led Conferences that will be going until 7 pm that evening. Make sure you tell the school staff that you are coming for the community garden meeting when you come to the school that evening. Hopefully, we will have all the garden plots staked and mapped out so they can be assigned that night.

We will also start a board to coordinate activities, mostly made up of people using the garden. We will also set up a phone tree that the members of the board can use to contact members of the community for upcoming events.

A very generous donor has offered to bring us as much topsoil as we need. More details will be forthcoming.

Finally, we are thinking of beginning classes about basic gardening practices. In fact, we have scheduled two classes, one in Spanish and one in English, for Saturday, April 9 @ 8AM (Spanish) and 10 AM (English). This class will be on Square-Foot Gardening and will be open to the public, so bring your friends and others who may not even be part of Common Ground. What are YOUR thoughts?

More Views and Dimensions

The above photo shows the parking area to the east of the garden spot. Common Grounders (gardeners) will not have to walk very far when hauling tools and supplies from their automobiles.
There is good access to the garden spot. We must be carefull of the trees. We cannot plant next to the trees but, as you can see in the above shot, there is a lot of open spaces between trees.
The overall dimensions of the garden spot are 106 feet long (North-to-South) and 56 feet wide. Shown in the google map below are various plot sizes. The lines that form the inner border are approximately 2-3 feet from the very strong chain-link fence which will support a variety of vegetable and fruit-bearing vines. The other lines indicate small plots of 20"x 4" , 16"x 4" and 12"x 4" in size.

Images of Our Community Garden (Common Ground)

Stakeholders Meeting March 24 @ 6 PM

There will be a Meeting for all those wishing to participate in our Community Garden Thursday, March 24. It will be at Lakeridge Junior High School @ 6 PM in room 251 (Mr. Willey's). The purpose of the meeting will be to see what resources we have available as a community and to determine how many plots we will need and what size they will need to be to accommodate as many participants as possible.
So far we have 4 families who have committed:
1. Blosils
2. Butlers
3. Cecils
4. Julkunens

Potential Common Grounders

Please leave a comment here if you are interested in participating, as a gardener, in Lakeridge's first ever community garden. This is a place for comments and questions regarding the garden. We will be posting the rules and other information concerning the garden as soon as they are available. You may also email Mr. Willey at his school email address if you need more information.

Seedfolks

There's a short read out there called "Seedfolks" by Paul Fleischman. Everyone involved in the Garden and the VDP ought to read it. How about 10 Points extra test points to those of you who read it? It is about a 1 hour read, or less.

Welcome to Common Ground!

Hello Everyone!
This is the official blog of the community garden located at Lakeridge JHS (next to the tennis courts) better known as Common Ground! We hope to make this experience a good one, and we look forward to working with everyone. :)