Northeast Decatur Growing Community

Plan for raised gardening beds

Here's the plan for raised gardening beds in the area directly behind the church building (sorry about the quality -- I'll clean it up when I have a chance -- but it is accurate, per the grid lines (2 ft. behind lines).

This plan provides 34 4ft x 6ft beds.  The freestyle beds (grow what you like) will start at the South (bottom of image).  The structured farming (managed and rented by Jerome) will start at the north. As more beds are rented, the two sections will grow toward each other, until they touch each other.

We plan to rent these beds for $X (TBD) a year. We will stake them all out, but will build them as funds are available. Enough lumber to build at least one row of beds on each end has been donated.

The main walkway through the beds will down the center. All aisles will be wide enough for wheel chairs.  There will only be 2 feet between the beds and the church wall and the neighbors wood fence.

Organizational details to be discussed in tonight's (8/10/2010) meeting

Reposted here from the Yahoo message board, as requested by Deanne

Hi Folks!

Besides nailing down the Park & Garden plans & forming committees at tonight's
meeting, we also need to take the steps to actually create the gardening group!
We're not even "official" yet! :0)

Here's a link to  the newly formed Midway Woods Garden & how they've gone about
it. ( The project was featured on Decatur Metro yesterday.):
http://www.midwaywoodsgarden.org/public-documents-records-forms

Let's all be  thinking on it! :0)

Deanne

East and West signs up

The east and west signs were posted this morning, after checking that the north and south signs were still up.

The east sign is on Winn Way where it dead-ins into Arcadia (where it will be seen by many eyes, if DeKalb Co. doesn't pick it up).

The west sign is on Forkner just west of Glendale:

Decatur Beer Festival grant application is in

Beat the deadline by nearly two hours:

Note: If we get a grant, we're expected to donate five volunteers to work the DBF.

Church sign is up

We now have a church sign (both sides), street signs, and internet postings and notices.

Street signs are posted

Here's the one at Hillcrest:

Here's how it looks to cars traveling north from Ponce (your eyes can read it better than this image implies:

Incidentally, the lady walking her child home from school stopped at the sign and read it carefully. It's hard to not notice the bright colors.

Here's the one at Forkner:

Let's hope the frames don't get stolen before the meeting.

Some larger limbs need chain sawing

These limbs (which number less than a dozen) need cutting into four foot sections and put on the street at the end of Lockwood, for Monday AM pickup.

I've been unable to crank my chainsaw.

If anyone having a chain saw (A hand saw is too much work in this heat.) can find the energy and time to do this today, it would be great.  Otherwise, they'll have to wait for the next Monday.

 

Good start on cleanup

We picked up all the dead limbs and cut most of the tall weeds.

The bags and tied limbs are on the street at the end of Lockwood, ready for Monday morning pickup:

The area under the trees looks much better now:

And, we found interesting wildlife:

Cleanup session 8 a.m. to Noon Saturday

Tomorrow morning we'll focus on clearing the tall weeds and cutting the downed limbs to 4-ft lengths to place on the street for Monday morning pickup.

While it would be more comfortable to start at daybreak, we don't want disturb any neighbors who might like to sleep in on Saturday.

Please bring any tools you have which will help do these jobs.  And, be sure to bring something cool to drink. When you feel the heat getting to you, pack up and go home, and thanks for the effort!

You can show up anytime between 8 am and 8 pm, and work as long as you like. You don't need any supervision. Just make sure whatever you pull or cut ends up in a paper bag on the street.

Sustenance Design

A local consultancy, Sustenance Design, has helped with three Decatur projects: