Sept. 18, 2019

Happy Fall 2019 Fellow Gardeners! It’s been a warm and wet summer, and it seems like it flew by. The gardens couldn’t look any more beautiful at this time of the year. I thank all of you for persevering the hot and humid days to keep your gardens in tip-top shape. We welcome several new gardeners and co-gardeners to the community, and we offer our years of expertise to help them along.

I recently registered our garden as a Climate Victory Garden through Green America. It is a national organization with a mandate to promote healthy gardening throughout America and the world. We may receive a couple of signs designating our garden as a Climate Victory Garden. I will also share the garden history, stories and images with Green America in the near future.

As we prepare for our Fall Clean Up and Picnic on October 12, please make sure that you collect all of the junk that you have accumulated and be ready to take it to the designated trash areas once we open them up. Please refer to the fall clean up schedule in this newsletter. If you don’t use it, toss it. The gardens always look and function so much better without all of the clutter.

We will start replacing the perimeter fence beginning this Fall. We purchased our first roll of fencing and will need volunteers to help straighten up the fence posts (mainly along the west side) and to remove old fencing and install the new fence. There is a lot of fencing, so we will install it 150 feet at a time. While we are looking at the near future of prepping our gardens for the winter, there is still much time remaining for planting fall and winter crops which means maintaining our plots as required. Our inspection teams will continue their inspections through November, so please don’t forget to keep your plots and paths clean and weed free.
  • Compost Bins: We recently freed up another bin for dumping weeds. These bins fill up fast at this time of the year. Please keep the areas in front of the bins clear, use the pitch fork to throw your weeds to the rear of the bin and when you see weeds laying outside of the bins, please pitch in and clean up the area. Remember to not put woody stems, thorny plants and sticks in the compost bins. Instead put them in the stick pile to the far left of the compost bins.
  • Structures in the garden: I have noticed some gardeners have constructed significant wooden structures in their gardens. These structures are forbidden by the National Park Services and the GPCGA. I urge all of us to refrain from constructing structures and to leave your plot free to grow vegetables.
  • Herbicides and Pesticides: Any non-organic form of insecticides are strictly forbidden in the garden. The only effective and acceptable form of herbicide is by pulling the weeds. If you have any questions about what you can use in the garden to control bugs, please ask the Association at gloverparkcommunitygarden@gmail.com.
  • Organic: This is an organic garden. I think we all know what that means. So please abide by the rules of the garden and keep it organic.

Our Vice Chair Julie Andringa continues to lead the Maintenance Committee. A huge thank you to all the gardeners who assisted with maintenance projects this year, including those who attended our first Pizza in the Garden volunteer day back in June. In the cooler weeks ahead, another Pizza in the Garden will be scheduled for the fence replacement effort.

Our Communications Committee leaders Hannah Miller and Erica Oakley have done a great job in informing us through the Google Groups mail service and our website. Our Executive Committee, Julie Andringa, Susan Boyd, Gerry Frost, Pat Kraniotis, Hannah Miller-Kim, Erica Oakley and myself all wish you a very Happy Fall and we look forward to seeing you in the garden. 

Our sincere thanks,
GPCGA Executive Committee​​​​
Glover Park Community Garden Association l  Copyright © 2018