Painting Party

Excitement for this upcoming gardening season grows as our list of plot renters fills. Seventeen of the twenty-two 10'x10' plots are signed for, and outside sewing time is still two and a half months away. Plots are normally $10 this year, but there is another opportunity available:

Students for Service Learning RSO is conducting a raffle for one of our plots. Tickets are 2 for $1, or 5 for $2. Purchase them Monday, February 20, or Wednesday, February 22 between 11am - 2pm on the lower level of the UC. Tickets may, also, be purchased from any Campus Grow or Students for Service Learning member. The drawing will be March 30.

The Students for Service Learning been doing other lovely things including a video they're putting together which portrays how life in various student organizations, and Campus Grow will be featured. We will, also, have an article in their newsletter that you can find around campus.

Last Thursday's meeting consisted of the above mentioned points of interest, and then we got a bit painty. We'll be selling violas at Earth Day, and again at the Plant Sale (in conjunction with the greenhouse) later this year, and we spent time this week making each clay pot a wonderful piece of art.

 

Next week's meeting will be another hands on one where we will meet in the greenhouse to transplant violas, and start a few vegetable seeds indoors to watch as they grow. An interesting experiment will come of starting plants so early, and making them wait to be transplanted outside. Let's see what happens. Until then, happy planning!

Garden Tour

We could not ask for better weather during our February garden tour. It was cold, but clear. We met in our regular meeting area, Brooks 203, and discussed the Superbowl Fundraiser, and how strange the week had been. Hopefully, this atypical winter will lead into a premium growing season! And, away to the Little Garden we went.

The snowstorm held off until the next day, so the plots were unburied. The cover crop must have been planted just after it would have germinated, and the soil was bare. Very likely, the cover crop will begin growing when the ground warms some, and beat the weeds. If so, we will have a much easier time dealing with the difficult clay.

As of right now, we plan on letting the back half stay covered with an intentional  cover crop (very unlike our awful theory of weeds being better than bare soil), while we work on amending the front half. Clay tends to retain water, but becomes rock hard when dry. This combination is incredibly difficult to work with, and tackling the job over two years will give us time and energy to do a thorough job. The finalized plans are still being worked on.

We arrived at the big garden as the sun was nearing the horizon. Tiny cover crops of crimson clover looked unhappy to be above ground, but were still green with hopes of spring. The stone circle in the middle held sleepy looking lilacs, lavender, and sage. The garlic rows brought fond memories of the man who taught us the proper way to plant garlic (making sure all cloves face the same direction because the plants will have optimum space when they grow up), and the fact that he did not speak english. That, right there, is the beauty of gardening: plants transcend the barriers of spoken language.

We finalized the tour with voting on the e-board. All who applied were granted their positions and a hefty round of applause. Well done, garden crew.

Plans

(From 2 February 2012)

Campus Grow e-board positions were open for nominations. Currently no positions need to be campaigned for because the numbers match up, but voting will happen next meeting at the end of the garden tour. The placements are currently:

Co-coordinators: Jackie and Madelyn
Treasurer: Grant
Advertising Leader: Rachel
Historian: Elena
SGA Rep: Jackie

We discussed logistics of the Superbowl Fundraiser that took place Sunday, February 5. Members were asked to relieve Superbowl party-goers of their surplus empty cans, and exchange them for usable funds at a grocery store. Much appreciation for all who contributed!

One of our future co-coordinators and current SGA rep is working on throwing a community dinner for educational, healthful, and social purposes. Nutritional facts for the well-balanced meals are to be discussed, as well as other healthy habits. If you're interested in volunteering for this event, let us know.

Rachel, also, did some research for us and found out that CMLife has a huge stockpile of newspapers to be recycled, and we are able to use them for compost and mulching purposes. Well done!

Happy growing!

Beginning the Season

This eerily mild winter has kept thoughts of spring planting in front of our minds. When the seed catalogs came out, we began drooling over the organic options. The time of planning is here. 10'x10' plots are available with a security deposit of $10. 4'x4' square foot plots are being planned and should be available by outdoor planting time.

We are transitioning into the new growing season, and, as such, have opened up nominations for new e-board members. Nominees must be active members, and CMU students. Positions are:

-Co-coordinators

-Treasurer

-Fundraising Leader

-Advertising Leader

-Historian

-SGA Representative

At our meeting this week, the idea of a Campus Grow cookbook resurfaced. Recipes are very welcome. Please email them to campusgrow@gmail.com. Photos are welcome. This may morph into a cookbook/garden journal with personal tips, tricks, and stories.

Future events include:

Saturday, February 4 from 9am-1pm. The Friends of the Fabiano Botanical Garden is hosting free and interactive workshops on tree pruning and maple tree tapping. It will be in the CMU Park Library Auditorium. The contact person is Gail Moore (moore1ga@cmich.edu or 989-774-3773).

Sunday, February 5. Superbowl Sunday Fundraiser. The idea here is to gather the cans of football fans celebrating this annual event, exchange the cans, and invest that into the garden. Please bring monetary rewards to the next week's meeting (Thursday 5:30pm in Brooks 203)


Monday, February 6 from 7pm-10pm. RSO Spotlight will be held in the atrium of CMU's University Events Center. The facebook event is: https://www.facebook.com/events/284088338322274/?ref=notif&notif_t=event_invite

Meeting Minutes - 11/10/2011

• During this meeting Campus Grow members and new members did arts and crafts which will be sold next Thursday (11/17) at the Down Under Food Court from 8:00 am to noon! The volunteers also enjoyed fresh strawberries, tomatoes from the garden and apple/nut cake!
  
• Emilie conducted a small workshop of making flower from old cloth that would be thrown away! The volunteers produced around ten beautiful flowers that will be sold to raise funds for the garden!
  
• Three new members joined our organization! Welcome Katie, Madelyn and Grace!! We hope you enjoin being part of Campus Grow!
  Thanks John Nemier, our outreach coordinator, for making a wonderful speech at the Student Dietetics Association last week!

• We also will be tabling the following days : 11/28 (Monday), 11/29 (Tuesday) and 11/30 (Wednesday) at the Down Under Food Court!
• Here are the following hours that each person committed to tabling:
  
  Monday, 28th
• 11:00 am -12:00 pm - Grant
• 12:00 - 1:00 pm - Madelyn
  
  Tuesday, 29th
• 1:00 - 2:00 pm - Jeff
• 2:00-3:00pm - Emilie
  
  Wednesday, 30th
• 12:00 - 1:00 - Trisha
• 1:00-3:00- Emilie
  
• Please, remember to commit to what you signed up for!
• We need a volunteer to pick compost from GreenTree and take it to the small garden!! 

Craft Night

Thursday's meeting was well crafted with Emilie teaching how to create fabric flowers for next Thursday's tabling fundraiser. We also had clay to make beads and veggie/mushroom figurines. Join us Thursday November 17th, 8am-noon in the UC!


We will be tabling again in the UC the week after Thanksgiving break:
Monday Nov 28, 11a-1p
Tuesday Nov 29, 1p-3p
Wednesday, Nov 30th, 12p-3p


We're still working on the legalities of potential volunteer accidents in the garden. There are many sharp tools (thinking of hte time I chopped myself with the pruners). Hopefully all we'll need is a sign saying "Garden at your own risk"(:


Above all, great job everyone! Thanks for your ideas and hard work. Thanks to the gardens for another bountiful year. Until next time...

Meeting Minutes - 11/3/2011

During the last meeting we discussed about:

1- Plating clover seeds (cover crop) on both gardens:
   Volunteers planted clover in the big garden on Friday, 11/4!! We need volunteers to plant clover in the small garden as well.

2- Thanksgiving Fundraising
    We wish to table next Tuesday , 11/15 and Thursday next week, 11/17. This are the hours that the volunteers will be tabling in the Down Under Food Court:

Tuesday
Emilie - 9:00 - 11:00 am
Jackie - 11:00 - 12:00 pm
Jeff- 12:00 - 1:00 pm
John - 2:00 - 3:00 pm

Thursday
Emilie- 09:00-11:00 am
Grant - 12:00 - 2:00 pm

3- Our next major fundraiser is going to be on "Super Bowl" weekend, on February! We are going to make a   big "Campus Grow Cleans Your Party" effort! More Info to come!!

4- Our first trial of the event "Campus Grow Cleans Your Party" is going to be either last weekend of November or first weekend of December. More Info to come!!

5-We scheduled a "seeds saving day" for the meeting after Thanksgiving week, the 12/1! More Info to come!!

6- We need to calculate the amount of mulch and wood chips we are going to need to both gardens, so we can ask the Facilities Management for a donation.

7- Active members received an electronic spreadsheet with the hours worked at the garden!
Congratulations John Nemier and Grant Clarkson!! You both successfully completed the hours needed!

Members that still need to make up October hours are:
-Trisha
- Heather
-Justin

Members that still need to e-mail us the spreadsheet:
-Jackie

8- John performed a GREAT job last week and visited the Student Dietetics Association! We are looking forward for future partnerships with this group!!

9- John has also developed a good job looking at legal issues concerning our garden. He is going to develop a volunteer waiver form, and he suggested that we widen the walking paths of the  spiral garden located in the Big Garden to avoid people to get hurt!

10- A new idea also introduced by John is the concept of monthly dues. Campus Grow active-members would be required to pay a monthly due of $5 dollars to keep their membership. Many organizations use this concept and are successful, this would keep the garden going in better conditions so the community and CG volunteers can benefit from it!! A survey about this topic will be sent out, watch your e-mails!!

Next meeting, 11/10/2011, will be Thursday in Brooks 201 at 5:30 pm! We are going to have a "arts and crafts day" to make recycled crafts for our tabling fundraising next week!! Please, bring the following materials

- Scissors
- Glue
- Newspaper
- Cereal boxes (and similar boxes)
- Thread
- Paper that can be reused (that is print/written in one side)
- Any other recycled material that can transformed into a craft!

Hope to see you all there!!