Meetings 2011

Notes from Management Committee meetings 2011

Dates set for management committee meetings for 2011

• February: Monday 14th, 7.30 pm
• March: Tuesday 8th, 7.30pm
• May: Tuesday 10th, 7.30pm 
• July: Tuesday 12th, 7.30pm
  
• August: Tuesday 23rd, 7.30pm (additional meeting to work on grant and Spring workshop)
  
• September: 27th, 7.30pm(rescheduled to avoid school holidays)
  
• November:Tuesday 8th, 7.30pm

Notes from meetings of the management committee of the Taroona Neighbourhood garden

 

Notes from the committee and member meeting held on Tuesday Nov 8, 2011 in the cottage.

Present: Deirdre, Tina, Nel, Andrew, Gwen

Progress of grant spending

Tina has ordered two red demountable shade structures which should be delivered soon. We still have not been able to find a source of stackable plastic stools. Does anyone know of a supplier?

Woodchips dumped between plots

It was decided to ask members to stop dumping woodchips between plots. People who have been mowing and whipper-snippering are finding that they are an obstruction and pose the danger of flying chips. Please do not dump any more chips between plots.

Compost

Gwen is currently managing compost production and deliveries. Please help her by chopping up all vegetable waste. Make sure you separate twitch and put it in the designated place (see signs) (If you don't know what twitch looks like - see image). Please do not load up your plot with too much compost - 10 cm depth should be ample for top dressing. We may have to resume charging members for compost if we run out of funds, and that will be unfair to those who have not yet done their summer plantings. Additionally, plot sides collapse if they are overfilled.

Lower gate sign

A new sign designed and donated by Possums Playcentre will be installed on the lower gate soon.

Plot construction rectification

We have $600 in our grant to purchase materials to rectify some of the problems with plot construction. As a condition of the grant we must provide the labour. Tina has done a thorough plot survey, and a priority list has been drawn up. We would welcome ideas from members. If you would like to see Tina's survey drawings, request by return email and they will be sent to you. We plan to hold a major working bee in late January once materials and ideas for the plot reconstruction have been assembled.

Community plots

These are to be re-configured as individual/family plots. It is no longer feasible to operate these as community plots. Members are welcome to harvest any vegetables which are ready in these plots now. Please leave the small plants (lettuce, zucchini, spring onions, beets) as these may as well continue to mature until we are ready to re-configure these plots. 

 

Notes from a meeting of the Management Committee, open to all TNG members, held at the Taroona Hall Annex, 7.30pm Tuesday September 27th, 2011

Present: Tina, Jon, Tim, Jill, Lesley, Ros Nixon, Melanie, Peter and Maxine

Apologies: Deirdre, Marian, Ken and Sheila

Shed Door

Tina found a good-looking solid door at Upton's, but Tim was concerned about being able to successfully install such a solid door. It was also discussed that the shed would be very dark inside with a solid door. It was agreed that perhaps we just push on with the door that we have, and use a combination lock to secure the shed, with the number emailed to members. Then if the door was damaged in the event of someone maliciously trying to gain access, we could look at replacing it later. Discussion on how a lock would be best added to the door: Jon will consult his neighbour Lance Richardson, handyman for advice and a quote.

Action: Jon

Compost

Gwen has worked hard to prepare compost in the corner bay, which still needs some time to brew before use. Gwen is doing a wonderful job with the compost, in conjunction with David.
Current "ready-to -use" supplies are very low - Jon will see if David has some more available; otherwise will order some from the HCC. Also possibly will trial the chicken manure from "Wayne".
Action: Jon
Suggested that the new padlock for the compost gates could be a combination lock; number can be given to the compost supplier (rather than the lock having to be left unlocked when compost delivery was expected). Lesley to purchase lock, and small length of chain.
Action: Lesley

Fruit tree adoption and workshop

There was a very good turn-up at the working bee, with good exchange of ideas. The raspberries are being mulched heavily.
Ros had concerns over her crabapple tree, requiring removal of the pallet nearby - needs a crowbar with a strong person to lever it out. Jon offered to help.
Ros mentioned that she is trialling a biodynamic preparation for twitch control....... All present were keen to have this shared if successful!
Action: Jon

Kingborough Community Grant

SLT has received our fee for administration of the grant, but as yet has not received the grant from the Kingborough Council.
Tina informed us that on a second quote the shelters are cheaper. To be purchased once the funds become available.
Garden bed rectification.
Tina has mapped out the current beds, with metal/wooden sides delineated, and stake support positions noted. Discussed that the plans for change need to address two issues: that of safety- particularly with sharp metal ends; and also to enable ease of mowing. Ros pointed out that part of her bed structure has given way due to rotting supports. This was added to the list of beds requiring most urgent attention. No resolution to the best method was made - need to follow up on-site at a future date.
The mowing issue was discussed at length, and whether the use of woodchips between beds would solve this issue. Noted that the woodchips would need to be regularly topped up, but while there is an ongoing supply of free woodchips - over the road, courtesy of Kingborough Council, this could be an option. It might also help control slugs and snails, and the infiltration of the beds with twitch. (And also decrease the amount of mowing required.)
Plan: For bed-users to discuss with their neighbours whether they want to use woodchips between their garden beds.

Garden Ramble October 16 -2pm

Jon, Nel and Jill have offered their gardens as destinations. Marian has also generously offered to share her garden with some new ideas/experiments .Plan is to start at Jon's place, walk down Hinsby Rd and on to Niree Parade, and back up to TNG for afternoon tea. General community to be invited, through the Taroona Community Newsletter.
Action: Lesley

Membership and finance

Lesley reported that there is one vacant plot.
Action: Lesley

Seaside Festival

It was noted that the TNG are involved in the Seaside Festival on November 12th. Further discussion on plans for the Festival will be made at the next meeting.

Next meeting

Tuesday 8th November.
Meeting closed 8.50 pm.

 

Meeting held at 7.30 pm, Tuesday 12th July 2011 at Tina's place

Present: Jon, Deirdre, Lesley, Gwen, Nel, Tina and Jill (attended for second half).

 Apologies: Tim

Business arising from the last meeting

Compost bays

Jon reported that he has purchased sleepers and will start construction of an additional bay next to the large corner bay soon. When new bay is ready, the first bay will be processed by mixing stable waste into veg waste and leaving to cure. New bay will then be used to accumulate chopped waste for production of next batch of compost.

It was noted that "Wayne" can supply chicken manure.  Jon to investigate and order if he is satisfied. Padlock to compost bay gates has been lost. Jon will buy new one.

Action: Jon

Compost supplies

David S. has advised god quality compost may also be available from Barwicks.

Action: Gwen to investigate.

Adopt a fruit tree plan

So far only committee members have taken up the request for members to ‘adopt a fruit tree'. During discussion it was noted that we have only ever appealed to members to help in the garden, but that in future we may need to keep a register of contributions as not everyone is contributing the 6 hours per year. It was noted that no members attended the working bee in May.  It was resolved that an appeal should be made in an email letting members know which fruit trees still require adoption.

Action: Deirdre

Business

Spring Workshop

 Workshop is planned for August 28. It was decided that the theme would be plant propagation. Seeds could be planted for garden use and also possibly for sale at Seaside Festival at Primary School on Nov. 12. Nel  to research a speaker/demonstrator. Jon will get compost topped up. Deirdre to buy big bag of seed raising mix.

Action: Nel, Jon, Deirdre

Garden Ramble October 16 -2pm

 Jon and Nel have offered their gardens as destinations. Deirdre to ask other gardeners in Jenkins St area. Plan is to start at Jon's place, walk towards Hinsby Beach and on to Niree Parade, and back up to TNG for afternoon tea. Note change of date from last meeting notes.

Action: All management committee

Tools

Tools are being lost. Need to purchase a new light mattock, machete, ordinary spade.

Action: Deirdre

Kingborough Community Grant success

TNG has been successful in a submission for a KCGrant. Tina and Deirdre attended the presentation ceremony last week. (See attached for details of funding). Discussion as follows surrounded how we would achieve the aims of the grant.

a)      Tables: Tina will ask a person she knows who has the skills to draw up a design and specifications for consideration

b)      Seats: We all need to keep our eyes out for suitable stacking or folding seats coming on sale, and if located act quickly by emailing rest of committee and making a decision. Deirdre also to ask KC if bench seats as used by Councils may be available.

c)      Shelters: Tina to go ahead and buy shelters. Once purchased, we will need to consider the siting of shelters in consultation with members and associated works to come later.

d)      Garden bed rectification:  Do an inspection as part of the Spring workshop (Aug 28), call for input from members before deciding what materials and labour are required. Tina to make markers to flag the urgent problems.

Action: All management committee

Grant Administration

Sustainable Living Tasmania is owed an amount equal to 10% of grant for administration.

Motion: That we make a payment of $240.60 from TNG funds to SLT for administering the grant. Moved: Deirdre, seconded: Jon. Carried unanimously.

Water leak

The water line appears to be broken in two places near the top of the garden, and the water has been turned off at the main. However it will need to be fixed before spring. Jon will ask a member to help him to do an initial investigative dig, and then we will need to ask for member assistance and purchase new materials to fix it.

Action: Jon, initially, then others

Terracotta workshop

This has been proposed by a member, but until we have more information we are unable to make any further decision about this.

Vermin management

It was resolved to continue rat baiting.

Action: Deirdre

Membership and finance

Lesley reported that there is at least one vacant plot. She will draw up a new plot map with names.

Action: Lesley

Eat well grow well DVD

Nel advises that a DVD with support materials for community gardens is now available free. Information about how to obtain a copy will be placed on the TNG website.

 Action: Nel, Deirdre

Next meeting

 Date changed to Tuesday 23 August.

Meeting closed 9.30 pm.

 

Meeting held at 7.30 pm, Monday 9th May 2011 at Jon's place

Present: Jon, Deirdre, Lesley, Tim

 Apologies: Jill, Tina, Nel, Gwen

Business Arising from last meeting

• a. Dealing with twitch (couch grass): Meeting confirmed that we should follow the plan to hot compost in donated plastic bins.
• b. Compost supplies: Jon will order more. Jon will also order some new sleepers for the construction of an additional bay to manage successional compost production.
• c. Rat baiting: has been initiated and will continue while the problem is evident.
• d. Garden maintenance: Some committee members had met on April 15 at the garden and discussed development of a plan. See below.

Business

Garden maintenance- Fruit trees

Tina has prepared detailed and labelled drawings of the locations of fruit trees.

Fruit tree plan l Beds around Fruit Trees

Members are to be asked if they would like to "Adopt a fruit tree" or group of trees. The adopters would then be doley responsible for researching care of that type of tree and for carrying out pruning, pest control and other general maintenance of the tree(s). Initially, an appeal is made to members to come forward, either individually or in groups, with offers to adopt. Please email Deirdre with your offers. The drawings are available on the tng website.

Working Bee Sponsorship

Any member who sees a task which requires substantial work and who would like to organise a working bee is welcome to come forward. Please contact Deirdre by email.

Member events: Two events for Spring are planned

Spring Workshop: proposed for Sunday August 28^th. Members will be invited to share their knowledge of one particular topic (eg cultivating globe artichokes) in a 5-10 minute demonstration/ talk. We need 6-8 members to volunteer  themselves and a topic.

A Local Food  Garden Ramble, inspired by a similar Garden Forum event held each year, is proposed for Sunday October 2nd. The committee is calling for members to suggest their own or other gardens in Taroona to be part of the ramble. Five to six gardens in walking distance of each other are required. The ramble would probably end with a picnic at the Neighbourhood Garden.

Solstice Function

After extensive discussion the committee agreed that the  Neighbourhood Garden will not be involved in the organisation of a Winter Solstice Function this year due to Public Liability insurance issues.

Meeting closed 9.30pm.

 

Meeting held Wednesday 13 April 2011 at 7.30pm at Deirdre's place

Present: Tina, Deirdre, Gwen, Nel

Apologies: Tim, Jill, Lesley, Jon

Topics of discussion

1. Dealing with twitch (couch grass)

Deirdre had circulated a discussion paper. The options were reviewed and Gwen suggested that hot composting could be done in a series of green domestic compost bins. It was decided to begin this method initially with two donated bins (Gwen and Deirdre each have one that they will donate), and making an appeal to members for 2-3 more. Twitch will be hot composted over a long term in the bins with horse manure.

Action: Gwen and Deirdre to set up the first two bins, put up notices and start the process.

2. Compost supplies

It was decided that it would be beneficial to source compost from at least 2 sources. David had supplied a sample of Barwick's compost which looked good.

Action: Gwen to liaise with Jon on compost matters.

3. Vacant beds on Chiton Chase and open areas within garden

Lesley has confirmed that the three beds are vacant currently. It was decided that the top one of these should be demolished to make room for other developments (Site for demountable shelter or spiral garden). Other two can be leased if required. This raises question of which area should be developed for activities.

Action: Nel and Tina to get together to draw up a plan

4. Outer perimeter strips

It was noted that we are unable to maintain the inner common areas adequately so it seems impractical also to try to plant the outer perimeter. It was decided that as labour becomes available we will cover these strips with thick layers of newspaper and woodchips. This will meet the original aim of these strips to reduce weed competition with the fruit tree roots.

Action: for a future working bee? Good winter task?

5. Fruit tree management

It was noted that the fruit trees are neglected and even if a member wants to do some maintenance most are unsure if it is anyone else's responsibility and so nothing happens. Tina offered to draw up a plan of the fruit trees, labelled where ever possible, and talk to David for more information about what each one is. It was proposed that volunteers be asked to adopt a tree or a patch and to join in a fruit tree care group. This idea to be further refined after more discussion.

Action: Tina to draw up plan of existing fruit trees and bushes.

6. Rat baiting

It was agreed that we need to bait aggressively and often,  in consideration of our neighbours and to keep our vegetables safe and clean. It is realised that having eaten the corn, rats will now move on to root crops. They have recently been seen in the compost heaps. A suggestion is to secure baits inside pipes and place these strategically.

Action: Deirdre to buy more bait - Nel suggests in bulk from Roberts.

7. Top gate

Noted that pole holding new compost bay gate has moved and top pedestrian gate no longer closes.

Action: Deirdre to liaise with Jon to get the man who installed gate back to fix it. We may need to pay for a new pole.

8. Shed door

New door needed.

Action: Deirdre to contact the shed company (Dinkum Sheds) to see if a door that will fit can be purchased off the shelf.

9. Garden maintenance

It was noted that the common tasks which keep the garden looking good and producing are not being done due to lack of labour. The management plan asks that each member family contribute 6 hours or one day per year. However the current situation is that the same small group is doing the bulk of the work and also turning up to working bees. It was decided that if a schedule of tasks was formally drawn up, the committee could firmly appeal to each member to make a commitment to a task.

Action: All available committee members to meet at the garden on Friday (15th April) morning to draw up the list.

 

Meeting held on February 14th, 2011 at 7.30 pm. At Jon's place

Present: Tim O'Loughlin, Jon Hurn, Jill Hickie, Gwen Smit, Tina Curtis, Deirdre Brown, Lesley Hall. 

Apologies: Nel Smit

Welcome

Gwen and Tina were welcomed to the committee.

Topics of discussion

Finance

New Finance officer, Leslie Hall, has now received the books and information about memberships from Ruth Butler. A handover session was done recently.

Motion: The committee thanks Ruth for her work as finance officer in the establishment and first 3 years of TNG, and welcomes Lesley to the position.

Moved Jill Hickie, Seconded Jon Hurn. Carried unanimously.

Lesley will be following up on outstanding subscriptions.

Grants

Kingborough Community Grants are now open, with applications due by March 18th. TNG fits the criteria for application. Tina has volunteered to work on a draft application and circulate it for comment. Items to be requested in grant include seating, picnic table, door for shed, two portable shelters. Lesley has also offered to see if she can get a suitable shed door on Free Cycle.

Membership form/ Induction

The draft membership form was approved with some alterations. This will now be placed on TNG website and all new members will be asked to complete it and return it to Lesley either by email or snail mail. It was noted that the Induction checklist for introducing new members is also on the website and it has been used successfully for two inductions recently. An induction using the checklist takes about 30 minutes.

Fees

Leslie will target non-payers with a personal email. May need to do a phone follow-up. She will also send invoices to the two school groups. Ruth had advised that it would be good to think about moving towards a June to June financial year, as this will avoid the problems of asking for subscription renewals when many are on holidays, and will also place the end of the financial year into the low growing season. The committee may need to consider a six months membership to make the transition. To be considered towards the middle of the year.

Equipment and supplies required

Hoses - longer ones needed. Hose at gate is being removed piece by piece by unknown persons possibly for nefarious purposes. It was resolved that Jill would measure up length required and purchase new hose. We will place a sacrificial hose near the Chiton Chase lower gate.

Mower-Tim will do list of instructions on how to use his mower, which he is willing to loan. Then people will need to borrow it from him when they are going to do the mowing, or bring their own mower.

BBQ: Dal to be asked to inspect the BBQ to see if it can be fixed.

Compost/chicken manure: Gwen will ask David S if he can supply a load of compost to TNG. There is general dissatisfaction with HCC compost. Making our own is problematic because all the hard work devolves on to a small group of people. Decided to keep the existing order from HCC this time (due to be delivered this week) and Gwen will ask David if he is able to supply compost.

Development and spare area near fence

Lesley will email the owners of the overgrown plots in this area and ask if they are going to fix the beds or if they'd like to move.

2011 Calendar

Management committee meeting dates have been fixed and these will be advertised on the TNG website.

Meeting closed at 9.30 pm.