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2017 Meeting Minutes

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July 29th, 2017

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board Meeting
Saturday, July 29, 2017 @ 10a.m. - Beatley Library Small Conference Room
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Attendees
Suzanne Bouchard, City of Alexandria
Barb Goodman
Jennifer Holland
Tara Houlden
Dick Meyer
Pamella Newton

Agenda
Review of Partnership Agreement
New Business

Notes

  • Holmes Run Community Garden Potluck Barbecue (9/16/17)

    • Pamella is going to spearhead a potluck barbecue in the park adjacent to the garden on Saturday, September 16. She will reach out to gardeners soon to start planning and coordinating the event.

    • The advisory board will also hold a meeting on 9/16 at/after the barbecue.

  • Rodent abatement   

    • City received quote for rodent abatement from contractor. City to proceed with placement of boxes and rodent abatement for first quarter to see if there are rats or something else in the garden. The traps will look like landscaping rocks instead of black boxes.

    • Gardeners are asked to NOT move the boxes or put them in individual gardens.  The traps cannot be monitored or refilled if moved.

    • Chris Watson, park manager, will be notified about the traps to ensure that the mowing crews and others are aware of them.

  • Abandoned Plots

    • Plot 9 officially gave up their garden. Suzanne is working the waiting list to find another renter for the plot.

    • Plot 20 gave up their plot recently. They are the second gardener to give up plot 20 this season.

    • Everyone gets a week to respond to the city’s outreach about renting a plot before moving to the next person on the waiting list.

  • Partnership Agreement

    • Suzanne will mark the 4 corners of the garden where the gardeners will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep under the partnership agreement on Monday. The weather caused a delay in marking.

    • Section 3.I.i - the language will be modified to better describe the boundaries. A color map will be sent out to show the borders of the area of responsibility. Gardeners will be responsible for approximately from the spigots on the south side, the trail on the north side, the asphalt patch on the west side, and approximately 3 feet out from the east side of the garden (~3 feet out from the old telephone pole marking the edge of the plots by garden 24). The benches will not be included, nor will we be responsible for any trees.

    • Suzanne made other minor updates to fix inconsistencies in the bullet numbering.

  • Name of Garden

    • We agreed the garden will be called “Holmes Run Community Garden.”

  • Tracking Volunteer Hours

    • Gardeners will be responsible for tracking volunteer hours (time spent at board meetings, upkeep for the shared areas surrounding the garden, etc.). Suzanne will provide logs that will need to be submitted once a month. There will be two types of logs - group activities (e.g. board meetings, garden work days) which will be updated by the sponsor of the activity and personal activities (e.g. common area maintenance on your own) which will be updated by individuals. All gardeners will have access to an electronic version of the log to update regularly. These hours will be reported to the city to demonstrate that we are putting in work to the garden to help keep the fees lower.  

    • One goal is to build the gardens as a community. Volunteering at the garden is one way to help build that community and to help keep all of our fees lower.

  • Garden Plot Renewals

    • Plot renewals will be due again this year by November 30. Watch for additional information from Suzanne this fall.

    • Suzanne is working on the 2018 garden regulations. The advisory board is considering asking that the regulations include approximately 5 hours of volunteer work from each plot to help maintain the common areas and participate in other activities (e.g. Board meetings - see note on tracking volunteer hours above for other examples)

    • Plot renewals are based on outcomes on the monitoring sessions. If you are in good standing, you will be invited to renew your plot.

  • Care of Trees

    • We can get free wood chips nearly year round from the city’s tree contractor Care of Trees. There is not a delivery fee. The quality depends on the type of tree work that Care of Trees has done, but they are generally doing tree work all the time in the city. When contacting them for wood chips, we need to let them know we are affiliated with the city as part of the Community Garden program.

  • Annual Reporting

    • As part of the partnership agreement the city will provide the advisory board with an annual report and the advisory board will provide an annual report to the city. This is where the city will outline the expenses for Holmes Run Community Garden and where the advisory board will report out the volunteer hours, work we have done, and outline any costs we expended on materials (receipts required).

  • Garden Monitoring

    • Next garden monitoring session is scheduled for August 12 at 9am.

    • List of invasive species is available in the city’s landscaping requirements. Most are not an issue in our garden.

Action Items

  1. Pamella will start coordination for potluck barbecue.

  2. Suzanne will mark the corners of the garden.

  3. Suzanne will update the partnership agreement and distribute for review.

Next Meeting Agenda ItemsSign Partnership Agreement
Set standard date/time for board meeting
Next Meeting: August 12, 2017, Time TBD (either 10am at garden or 2pm at library)
 

 

July 15th, 2017

Saturday, 07.15.2017 @ 2:00 p.m. Beatley Library Small Conference Room
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Attendees
Suzanne Bouchard, Horticulturist, city of Alexandria
Pamella Newton
Jennifer Holland
Tara Houlden
Joan Branch
Dick Meyer
Barb Goodman

Agenda
New Business

  1. Introductions

  2. Q&A with city

    1. Forming an advisory board

    2. Discussing a partnership between the city and gardeners

Notes

  • The city council voted to raise the garden fees as part of the budget process.

  • Suzanne explained that Chinquapin garden is entering into  partnership agreement with the city to take over 50% of the maintenance to reduce fees. The city will be keeping administration because Chinquapin is a volunteer advisory board. Chinquapin wants to remain a advisory board and keep their rental fees at $90 next year.

  • Suzanne distributed a draft agreement for Holmes Run community garden for review and discussion. Draft agreement can be seen at: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5n0gaLHzJD-N2JhcVlyRWs1a2c

    • Gardeners would be responsible for maintenance of the gardens. The gardeners would be responsible for mowing, mulch piles, pathways, abandoned plots, path repairs (not a current issue at Holmes Run garden), garden monitoring (under guidance from the city), and weeds around spigots/benches. The agreement can require “garden service” hours by gardeners as part of the rental agreement.

    • City would be responsible for administration, water, line maintenance, trash (currently 2 trash bins), and anything that requires a contractor to come in.

    • A map is included in the draft agreement. Essentially, the gardeners would be responsible for the water spigots to the front of the garden, approximately 3 feet out on the N. Paxton Street side of the garden, to the path in the back of the garden, and to the makeshift pavement/stone area on the North Ripley side of the garden. The gardeners are not required to keep these areas as grass and can mulch, plant flower beds, pollinator gardens, etc. The gardeners are required to meet the landscape requirements that are listed in attachment B of the draft agreement.

    • Suzanne and the park manager will work to stake out the perimeter later this summer to give the gardeners a better area of their responsibility.

    • The agreement would start September 1, 2017 and be in effect for 2 years, with either side being able to cancel the agreement prior to its completion.

    • Initial comment is to remove the reference to half plots since they don’t apply to Holmes Run garden.

    • Draft language has been vetted by city management since it’s based on the Chinquapin agreement.

  • Ultimately the city would like for the gardens to become a self maintained garden by becoming or partnering with a 501c3 non-profit. This would allow for administration of the gardens to be turned over to the gardens. The garden would have a manager who works with the city. Part of the goal is to work to make the community gardens more of a community.

    • Suzanne gave some examples of nonprofit and volunteer organization partnerships - DelRay Artists Association partners with the DelRay Business Group.

    • There is a West End Alexandria Business Association.

    • There is a nonprofit resource at the Central Library in Arlington.

    • Each jurisdiction operates their community gardens differently. An example of a self-governing entity is at Jones Point community garden friends group partnering with the National Park Service.

  • Suzanne is working to keep track of spending by garden which hasn’t been done in the past.  This will help isolate the expenses at Chinquapin and Holmes Run separately.

    • Water and trash are not separated for the garden specifically (all park trash pickup is in a single bill for example). The water should be able to be isolated since there is no other water in Holmes Run park. These are not expensive items.

    • The mowing costs ~ $3,000 per year and is charged to the garden, even though as Tara and others pointed out, the city would still need to mow if the gardens weren’t there. This fee will be eliminated if the gardeners enter into an agreement with the city and take on responsibility for the area outlined in attachment A of the draft agreement.

  • Holmes Run community garden formed an advisory board so the gardeners can enter into an agreement with the city to reduce rental fees.

    • Chairperson - Jennifer Holland

    • Vice Chairperson - Tara Houlden

    • This is a volunteer advisory board with regular meetings. Plan to hold a monthly meeting with the city at Beatley Library or in Holmes Run Park. This meeting will be used to bring up and address any issues with a city representative and propose new regulations, etc.

    • Meetings with be on weekends with a specific schedule TBD.

    • The attendees of this meeting are the de facto board. Any gardener is welcome to join the board.

  • Other items discussed

    • The city can put up a bulletin board/kiosk so we can share messages with the gardeners.

    • Mr. Powell is no longer with Care of Trees.  Will try to get a new contact to get wood chips delivered to Holmes Run garden.

    • If it’s not organic it’s not supposed to be used in the gardens (e.g. Miracle Grow - original version)

    • Rodent Issues

      • Someone from Pavilion on the Park condos is leaving trash/food scraps out by the trees on the N. Paxton side of the garden. The park manager has been notified. Suzanne has contacted pest management to get bait boxes put out.

    • Plot 9 is the only gardener that has not responded to Suzanne’s messages about issues after the last monitoring session. She will attempt one last contact with the gardeners of plot 9 before considering it abandoned.  Gardeners have cleared out the plot (and put in some vining plants over the past week).

    • If we notice an abandoned garden, please notify the city if any of the other gardeners are cleaning it out. It’s important for the monitors and the city to know if people have abandoned their plots.  It is possible to re-rent plots throughout the season and generate additional income.

    • There are approximately 30 people on the garden wait list.

Action Items

  1. Pamella will set up the next meeting (completed 7/15).

  2. Meeting attendees will review the draft partnership and bring questions to 7/29 meeting.

  3. Set up Facebook page for Holmes Run garden - Tara (completed 7/15) (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1719054978388320/)
     

Next Meeting Agenda ItemsNext meeting 7.29.2017 @ 10a.m.
Beatley Library Small Conference Room
Review and Finalize partnership

 

August 12th, 2017

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board Meeting

Saturday, 08.12.2017

Attendees
Suzanne Bouchard, Horticulturist, City of Alexandria
Jennifer Holland, Chairperson
Tara Houlden, Vice Chairperson
Pamella Newton
Barb Goodman

Agenda
Sign City-Community Garden Partnership Agreement
Other Business
Notes

  1. We reviewed the new partnership agreement and reviewed the map of the area that the gardeners will be responsible for starting September 1. Suzanne marked the corners of the garden and several of us reviewed the boundaries before the paint washed off. An updated aerial image and boundary description is in the partnership attachment.
     

  2. Jennifer and Tara signed the partnership agreement on behalf of the advisory board. The agreement now goes to the city for signature by the director and review by the attorney. Once signed by the city, a copy will be distributed to the board and made available to all gardeners.  

  3. Starting September 1 we will track volunteer hours for work related to the maintenance and oversight of the garden (e.g. attending board meetings, common area maintenance, etc.). Watch for information on how to submit hours for both group events and individual volunteer hours.
     

  4. Holmes Run Community Garden will host a potluck picnic for our gardeners on September 16 starting at 11:30 a.m. in the park next to the garden. Watch for additional information from Pamella Newton about the picnic. In addition to the gardeners, we will be reaching out to community officials (e.g. Del Pepper and the mayor) to invite them. There will be a small program, including an overview of the new partnership agreement at the picnic. We hope you can join us (and keep your fingers crossed for good weather!).

  5. The draft garden regulations for 2018 have been drafted. Suzanne will be sharing them with the board for comments in advance of the garden renewals. A new requirement is 5 volunteer hours from each garden related to maintenance and oversight of the garden. Packets will go out in mid-September. Suzanne is looking at ways to streamline and make the registration process more efficient.

  6. Plot 9 and Plot 20 have not had any takers for the remainder of the season. Suzanne will hold off on attempting to re-rent the plot this season. There are approximately 17 gardeners on the waitlist.

  7. The city is developing another community garden north of Del Ray - Dale Street. It’s a smaller garden on about â…“ acre and it will be self governed (we hope to get to this stage in the next couple of years). We had a brief discussion about places to donate crops around Alexandria and there is a contact helping with the Dale Street garden who may be able to provide us some information on places where we can donate fresh produce in small quantities.

  8. Pamella is planning to split some plants from home to put in a common area in the garden. If she has to take them out shortly, she will temporarily transplant them into plot 9 or 20. We can create pollinator beds around the areas the garden will be responsible for maintaining starting September 1. Suzanne has volunteered to meet us in the garden when we are ready to plant some of these gardens and start work on the areas we will be maintaining to ensure we are within the garden boundaries.
     

  9. The advisory board decided that board meetings will be held February - November on the third Saturday of the month at 10a.m. at Beatley Library. However, the September meeting will be held in conjunction with the picnic on September 16.

  10. Garden website: http://holmesrungarden.weebly.com/. All pictures were taken in the garden. Please send Jennifer (JenLHolland@gmail.com) any pictures and/or information to be added to the website. We will be slowly adding more information to the website.

  11. Next meeting on September 16 as part of the garden picnic. Please mark your calendars!

 

September 16th, 2017

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board
Saturday, 09.16.2017
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AttendeesSuzanne Bouchard, City Horticulturist
Jennifer Holland, Chairperson
Tara Houlden, Vice Chairperson
Barb Goodman
Pamella Newton
Notes

  • Effective September 1, 2017 the PARKnership agreement with the city went into effect. This agreement will keep the 2018 garden fees at the same as the 2017 fees (instead of doubling the fees as the city budget originally called for). In return, gardeners will have additional responsibilities in maintaining the areas surrounding the gardens.

  • City will continue to mow the garden until the end of the mowing season (10/31/2017)

  • The rodent traps were replenished. There has been rodent activity in the garden so we will continue to have the traps replenished. Please do not move the traps (the fake rock looking traps around the garden).

  • 2018 rental agreements will be sent out in October. Suzanne is working on a new way to renew that expands the payment options for gardeners.

  • Jennifer, Tara, Barb, and Pamella walked around the perimeter of the garden to develop a course of action for this fall and next spring for the areas the gardeners will be responsible for. We will be looking for volunteers to help with some of the following tasks (and we are open to suggestions to improve the garden!):

    • Removing the grass/weeds in the new areas of responsibility, putting down weed block, and spreading wood chips.

    • Coordinating delivery of wood chips from Care of Trees.

    • Coordinating volunteers to donate time/materials to build “boxes” for wood chips/mulch/etc. (potential boy scout service project?)

    • Donating time with a tiller, lawn mower, weed whacker, etc.

    • Donation of pollinator plants/seeds to create flower beds in our new areas of responsibility

    • We will also be looking for administrative task volunteers over the next year as well. Please consider joining us at a board meeting if you have an interest in helping out.

Post Meeting Items

  1. The PARKnership agreement has been signed by the city and is available for all gardeners on our website under the Advisory Board tab.

 

October 26th, 2017

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board Meeting
October 26, 2017
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Attendees
Suzanne Bouchard, City of Alexandria
Jennifer Holland,  Chairperson
Barb Goodman
Notes

  • Plot Renewal time - The deadline to submit paperwork to renew garden plot for the 2018 gardening season is November 30. There will be NO extensions. On December 1 plots will start being distributed to gardeners on the waiting list. The renewal process is slightly different this year, allowing for multiple payment types instead of just a check mailed to the city. You can submit your completed renewal application by email. After Suzanne has processed the application, you will be offered multiple payment options.

    • At the time of the meeting only 2 plot renewals had been received.

  • Monitoring - The monitoring team reviewed plots in the garden in mid-October. Citations have been sent out to gardeners. Anyone can request a report from the city of the citations that were issued.

    • Monitoring and citations are not meant to be punitive and we hope you don’t feel that way. The community gardens are on city land and there are requirements for the look, safety, and limitation of invasive plants on all city property, including the gardens. Monitoring is also used to look for inactivity in the garden. We want to ensure that all gardeners are actively working the garden during the season and not leaving a plot vacant that can be rented to other interested gardeners.

    • Numerous citations over the season can be punitive and result in the future loss of the plot if you are not actively gardening and do not keep up your plot.

    • The monitors are looking for compliance with the regulations (attached to your application and resent every year as part of the garden registration process). Your garden does not have to be “perfect,” 100% weed free, or look like a showplace garden. Please do your best to keep on top of any invasive plants in your garden and not cultivate them.

    • We are attempting to build a community in the garden and keep all gardeners safe. The monitoring team is always looking for additional volunteers.

    • If you have any questions or concerns about what the monitors are looking for, please reach out to one of the monitors (Barb Goodman and Joan Branch) or Suzanne Bouchard. We do not want to discourage our gardeners!

    • There were 17 citations issued at Holmes Run Garden from the October monitoring session (~106 were issued at Chinquapin).

    • The final monitoring session of the season is December 2.

  • Abandoned Plots - Abandoned plots are turned over to the advisory board if they cannot be re-rented. The advisory board is responsible for all aspects the plot until it can be re-rented, including keeping the plot in compliance with the rules and regulations.

  • Volunteer Hours - The 2018 gardening season includes volunteer hours since the gardeners are taking on more maintenance of the garden to keep rental fees low. Please read the renewal notice and the previous meeting notes for additional information. There are a number of ways for gardeners to earn volunteer hours and not all include “heavy work” in the garden. Some types of activities that count towards volunteer hours include, but are not limited to:

    • join the advisory board (meet once a month)

    • become a volunteer coordinator and help coordinate events and monitor volunteer hours

    • join the monitoring team

    • help with the maintenance of the perimeter

    • help with the website

    • assist with events

  • Volunteer Manager - We are looking for someone to take on the volunteer management role. This person will receive reports of garden volunteer hours, verify that nothing looks significantly out of line (e.g. someone saying they volunteered 100 hours covering an abandoned plot), and send a report to the city once a month of volunteer hours. We are working on an electronic form (or you can do this for us!) for gardeners to submit their hours so the commitment should be minimal. Please let us know if you are interested.

  • Sense of Community - The community garden program in the city is meant to help build a sense of community within the city. We are trying to make the gardens more of a community, with the ultimate goal of becoming a self governing community, which will hopefully lower gardening fees.

  • Wood Chips - We were able to get a delivery of wood chips from Care of Trees, thanks to the city arborist. We are planning to use these initial deliveries of wood chips to start preparing the new areas the gardeners are responsible for on the perimeter of the garden. When we need more, we make a request to Suzanne to ask the city arborist to arrange for another delivery.

  • Community Work Days - We will be setting up some community work days, more likely in the spring, to help prepare the shared maintenance area of the garden. Several of us will be out over the month of November starting to prepare the area and we will attempt to notify you at least a week in advance (weather depending of course) of when we will be out there if you want to help or have any questions.

  • Cost Recovery - The community gardens are part of tier 5 of the RCPA cost recovery schedule. According to this schedule the garden should be a 175% cost recovery activity. In 2017, the cost recovery was approximately 50%. With the addition of volunteer hours or payment of the higher fee, the cost recovery is expected to be about 100%. At full cost recovery, a garden plot rental would be over $300 for the season which would essentially shut the community garden program down. The formation of the advisory board and the hope to eventually move to self governance will remove the community garden from the city’s cost recovery schedule. In self governance, the garden would contract for services (e.g. water and trash) and not have direct payments to the city.

Next Meeting Agenda Items
Last Meeting of 2017 is November 18, 2017 at 10am at Misha’s Coffee Shop, 102 S Patrick St, Alexandria, VA 22314.
We will discuss the status of garden renewals, garden close-down for the season, and preparation of the annual report to the city.

 

November 18th, 2017

Holmes Run Community Garden Advisory Board Meeting
November 18, 2017
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AttendeesJennifer Holland,  Chairperson
Tara Houlden, Vice Chairperson
Notes

  • Spring 2018 Meet & Greet - Save the Date - March 3, 2018 2pm-4pm - Beatley Library Small Conference Room Gardeners Meet & Greet

  • Spring 2018 Work Days

    • First Garden Workday April 14 or 21 (weather and schedule dependent)

    • Second Garden Workday May 12 - learning session - good path/perimeter maintenance, garden mentoring & what the garden monitors are looking for throughout the season.

  • Pre-Season Preparations - Tara and Jen to reach out to new gardeners to help them with cleanup of their plots, especially if they were left in rough condition to try and encourage new gardeners to not feel overwhelmed by cleaning up after predecessor

  • Monitoring - The final monitoring session of the season is December 2.

  • Meet with Chinquapin - Jen and Tara to try to arrange informal discussion with Chinquapin in January/early February to discuss thoughts on moving towards self governance.

  • Volunteer Hours - Form updated to allow for partial hours. Will be added to the website over the winter.

Action Items

  • Set Up Meetings for Spring starting with February 17 meeting (first of season).

    • Assigned to Jen

    • Meetings scheduled for April and May (room at library booked for February & March - looking for alternatives)

  • Update Google Groups Mailing List

    • Assigned to Jen

    • Waiting for renewal list from city (received from Suzanne in mid-December)

  • Set Up Room for March Gardener Meet & Greet

    • Assigned to Jen

    • Completed

Next Meeting Agenda ItemsFebruary 17, 2018 - 10am - Location TBD

 

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