So much going on!

Windsor Essex County 

Community Garden Collective

MEETING

TUESDAY JUNE 11th, 2013

YFRN Community Garden

Kingsville

530 PM

It was good to see a number of families out at the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority open house. They have officially started their community garden and have been invited to attend the collective. 

You can see how they have started. They have the tires and mulch on pallets. The old railroad ties are loose right now but will be put in with steel posts. I showed Lina from Together We Flourish how you need to pack the sides of the tires firmly with dirt. If not, the water displaces the VERY DRY compost (which you must pre-soak before planting) and the roots lay bare for the plants. Plus, its not advisable to simply use pure compost. Everyone is on a learning curve, though, and Heather will meet with me later to talk about improving the success factor of the garden.

There could be some softening of the City of Windsor position on Hens in the City limits. Fulvio spoke with Philippa about trialing our Chicken Cluck-tive at the Ford City Community Garden. We're developing our strategy and putting the plan together to present to him so he can take it to the next stage.

On Friday I attended a City sponsored Walk-able Communities workshop with lots of city planners and community architects. Community gardening, agriculture, horticulture was at the front of every great community. Of course, we knew that!!! The conference was about improving your city and keeping the Pedestrian at the heart of every City policy and bylaw decision. Autos should be last.

Many of us have been sharing our plants and seedlings. Hope everyone survived the late frost with some of our more sensitive plants. I lost a couple tomato plants, but that was all.

I can't pick my lettuce fast enough at Ford City Community Garden. Its great to have fresh grown leaf lettuce. I really really love it.

Chef Dave from The Willistead did the first Live Chef demo at the #DowntownWindsorFarmersMarket June 1 2013. It was great to see him go around and get all the fresh produce from our local farmers and cook it up fresh for the patrons!

Hope to see everyone soon!