July 14, 2020
Good Morning Organic Gardeners, Remember the cold blowing winter mornings, when you wore a coat to go out? Me too. They will be back but for now... check out the veggies you are getting from the heat of the long sunny days! The garden looks amazing with bounty for all. July Monthly Garden Notes
Food Donations!! Feeding Community with Blue/The Giving Table/Hope House/Veggie Van- Still Need Volunteers! At our last meeting we had a chance to hash through how we will manage food donations that come in through the season, especially once our harvests get to be too much for our own families. Any excess food you don't have or aren't giving to your friends and family in need, please place in the fridge near the delivery days below. Harvest is light as of now, but we will see that harvests grow heavier. Please be sure to PICK YOUR ZUCCHINI before they are arm size! SERIOUSLY they grow that fast!! Here are the details:
Wednesday or Thursday Delivery @ noon by Officer Sterling (Our priority)
Feeding Community with Blue has been super successful, helping the 4 qualified families. Some testimonials: Bee family - We really enjoyed grilling the summer squash and zucchini. Gnome family child - my favorite things are radishes and snap peas because they are cute. Please know your donations are going to real families. Once our Volunteers prep the donated veggies, Officer Sterling (one of our gardeners) from the Arvada Police delivers to these families each week. The schedule for delivery is posted on the West Barn fridge, but usually Wednesdays. Please sign up to help wash and sort into bags if necessary. Email membership to organize through Geremi.
Sunday before 10am Delivery
Hope Connection and Community (aka Giving Table) This is a place located at a local church, that each week, families are able to pick up food and veggies. We deliver our excess cleaned veggies for families in need. Please sign up to clean and deliver to the location. Email membership to organize through Geremi.
Monday evening Delivery (every other week in the early season, update each month)
Hope House A place and resource for teen mother's to become self sufficient. An amazing program with a full kitchen while teens are learning new skills regularly. They also have a new full garden this year and could use mentors, if you're interested. Currently, we will deliver to them every other week. Please sign up to clean. Email membership to organize through Theresa. Deliveries need approved individual.
Thursday by 3pm
Arvada Veggie Van Such a cute way of distributing veggies to our community. Brought to a location that is not near fresh veggies for at least a 1/2 mile. People can purchase out of a golf cart a variety of fresh produce. www.arvadaveggievan.com Delivered to the CSA next door, please sign up to bag and take next door. Email membership to organize through Theresa.
Thank you to ALL the volunteers who are helping make these programs a success! This would be such a struggle for a few people to pull off. We appreciate you!
Even with some volunteers, having at least 4-5 more volunteers to help prep and deliver would spread the load. Prep means collecting for each family, cleaning, and dispersing into groups of food for each family or group.
Please email membership@roserootsgarden.org if you are interested in volunteering. Theresa and Geremi are coordinating these efforts and will get your response.
These programs do not replace the Arvada Food Bank-Community Table, but is an enhancement until they are able to take produce donations. There are donation baskets for hard goods at each barn for the interim of them not taking produce donations. Please give what you can during these hard times. Unemployment is at a all time high!
Recipes will be greatly appreciated as well, bi-lingual if possible. Email your recipe to membership@roserootsgarden.org and we'll print for each family/group/our recipe book.
If you have other giving ideas, please bring them to the Monthly Garden Meeting on the first Monday of each month. It's going to be a great giving season!
Crusher Fines Project Importance!
This has been a 2 year process to bring what was a very weeded open space garden to an easy to maintain space, a LOT LESS WEEDING. To help everyone, PLEASE keep your weeds and dirt in your plot/compost staging or home trash bin. Even if you love pulling weeds, many others don't. There is a double barrier to help prevent weeds from coming back for a few years at least. PLEASE HELP! Also, all remaining crusher fines outside the fence will be placed in the north inlet and any low spots around the garden. Projects often done on Thursday evenings. Dare you to be there!
MINIMUM Covid19 Guidelines Remember folks, the CDC still has guidelines. Please, no exceptions. Have your mask! Keep a social distance! If not for you, but to help others feel comfortable at the garden.
REMEMBER - Minimum 6' social distance
REMEMBER - Please wear your masks while interacting. Help reduce the spread of a bad virus!
East/West Children's areas We have been busy building ways to keep the smaller gardeners busy while adult gardeners are busy attending their veggies. The east area is all cleaned up and even has a house. The west area has bug/frog tic-tac-toe and a tee pee soon. Play hop scotch with the kiddos! More things to come. If you have a moment, please help keep the weeds away and pick any you see on your visit near the play areas. The children's toys will last longer if put away after play. A little goes a long way! Composting 101 - COMING SOON! So much to know about composting at a community garden. Next week an email will come to help you understand what seems to be a confusing process to some.
Simple thing... Read the signs posted! They give you the basics.
Please be mindful of what you put in the staging area. The mower spits back rocks that make bruises when they hit the person mowing. We also don't want to break the mower!
It can be amazing when left to cook.
Only take from the last bin!
If everyone mowed the staging area once it would be so much easier for the Master Composter!
If you'd like to be mentored as a compostee, please email membership to be connected to one of the Masters. Enjoy!
North Inlet - Under Construction! The north inlet where some of the wheel barrows are stored and there are a lot of weeds we are working on a plan. Please do not throw your compostables back there any longer. More information to come once we have planned it out. If you have experience in planning space, please come to our Thursday golden hours to help us figure it out OR email membership with your thoughts.
Remember your Service Hours and Options
After looking at the Service Hours Notebook by the West Barn, about a third of gardeners have either not recorded or not given back. Last month we gave a couple options of either giving time or giving towards a larger material item. 12 hours at $7.00 per hour, if you'd like to give monetarily. If you would like to give cash instead of service hours, please contact membership@roserootsgarden.org. Last month we got a new mower for composting in exchange for hours! Thank you!! Some of the current top requests:
purchased compost for our gardens
additional wood borders & repairs
Upcoming Projects
Projects to work on this season- Children's NE and SW playgrounds with just small things and the North Utility area, under construction. If you are inclined to pull weeds and put down the last of the crusher fines in that area we could really use the help. We will also need help with moving some heavy objects around as well. Weeding around the perimeter inside and out or anywhere you find a weed. Thursday's Golden Hours are a time to help and fulfill your service hours! Remember to keep the weeds pulled around your plot as it's always ongoing and your responsibility!
Summer is full on, with the heat working us hard. Early mornings and later evenings are the most beautiful times at the garden. It is also one of the best times to water your plants as well. Come watch the sunset and give a glow to your garden. Enjoy the peace and solitude it offers each of us.
What is a weed? A plant who's virtues have never been discovered. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
For the love of gardening, Kendra and Garden Leadership