[Grovenet] Community Garden--Final Sprint

[Walt Wentz]

Hello, all!
The Forest Grove Community Garden is in the final sprint to completion!
Last Saturday's "Ribbon Cutting" day was actually the biggest work
party we've seen, with 60 people involved in building the fence on
the western side, spreading wood chips on the pathways, rototilling
the garden for the second time, mowing the grass, and getting the
southern portion of the fence ready to finish.
Deputy Ken Adams brought an inmate work crew who, under Holly Tsur's
direction, helped assemble and fill four of the donated raised-bed
plots, and took out the old mounds of spoil dirt that used to sit in
the southwest corner of the garden. Tony Matiaco's friends and fellow
Scouts were out in force again.
On Sunday, the Deputy's work crew returned to assemble and fill the
last two raised beds, level some low spots in the garden entrance,
and move a big pile of steer compost off the northern side of the
garden and onto the grass border, where garden users can access it
more easily.
The next day, volunteers cleaned out the old tool shed, building
interior racks for tools and exterior racks for garden hoses. The
shed now offers much more dry inside storage. The accumulated trash
and debris from weeks of work was hauled away in Mike Federman's pickup.
On Tuesday, the Garden was carefully re-measured and maps drawn for
staking and marking the individual plots.
We are in the final sprint, and due to open Monday, May 4!

Only these tasks remain to be completed:
*  Finishing the southern fence separating the parking lot from the
Garden, and installing two gates to let gardeners and necessary
vehicle traffic through.
* Rototilling the garden for a third time, while not strictly
necessary,  would be very good, since this would reduce the number of
weeds gardeners will have to deal with. However, the current rainy
conditions might make this impractical for now. We can, however,
square up the east and west borders of the cultivated area with hand
tools.
* Spreading the last of the wood chips on the garden paths.
* Staking and numbering plots and installing signage in the Garden
would be the final step before opening it for use.
These three final jobs could be easily finished in hours by the
caliber of volunteers who have turned out the last few weeks! But as
usual, we desperately need wheelbarrows! We have two loaned ones and
a rickety little antique that Mike and I actually rescued from the
the trash at the Transfer Station, but we'll need more when many
gardeners are working!

However, despite our success so far, one final obstacle remains:
getting people to USE the Garden! More than 100 plots are still
unclaimed, and we want the benefits of the Garden to be as widespread
as possible.
It isn't enough to offer sunny, fertile garden plots, organic
compost, leaf mulch and irrigation water, all for $30 or less a
season; we also have to let people know they are available!
Paid advertising only goes so far. Word of mouth is the most effective
advertising.
We've got to get our posters out where people can see them, do door-
to-door canvassing with our fliers in the immediate neighborhood,
spread the word among co-workers, friends and acquaintances.
After all, the Community Garden is only the first step toward a great
goal-- giving local people more control over their own food, their
own health and their own lives.

The weekly Planning Meeting, to exchange information, claim tasks for  
this Saturday's work party and
plan future work, will be at the usual time and place: Thursday
evening, 7 p.m., 1817 17th Avenue. All are welcome.
Let's get the job finished!
Walt