UPDATE: We do not have any open plots left for the 2013 Growing Season! Please do not submit any new applications!
We will post more information about our waiting list shortly after we finalize our new memberships.

• PDF Member Application – English
• PDF Member Application – Español

Members Only: Online Application & Payment Page

One note: the PayPal automatic email receipt still says “receipt for donation to Emily Barney (fundraising@merchantparkcommunitygarden.org).” This is something we hope to resolve this year, but to set up online payments the account had to be verified with personal information so I used mine originally. The money is in a separate account that is managed by Ann Kauth and Gudrun Petterson, and does not benefit any individual members.

- Emily Barney

We want all members to have time to read and think about this document, so they will be posted here for 30 days.

You can find links below to the full text of our current rules here in English and Spanish, as well as the proposed text for the Conflict Resolution rules, which now incorporates the text suggested by members at our last all-garden meeting.

Garden Rules in English

Las Normas y Procedimientos

Conflict Resolution Procedures

Please take the time to read through these and leave comments here or send them via e-mail to Ann (our President) or Jessica (our Vice President)

We’ve also shared their information on our facebook page, so you can find a link back to their facebook page and their email there – it’s aacommunitygarden@gmail.com if you’d like more information. They have special pricing until January, so if this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of now is the time to check it out!

Updates from our Meeting Agenda:

1. Financial report

At our last meeting, our savings were about $1,700. This month we are are just under $1,400 after paying for several months worth of mowing and weeding and the food and entertainment at our fall Harvest event.

2. Neighborspace update

• City Council Housing & Zoning passed, we are officially a Neighborspace Garden, the land to be held for this purpose in  perpetuity
• We’re hoping this will include money for fencing, asking Bruce for a plan we can use.
• Neighborspace suggests wood posts for the fence because they’re less likely to be stolen for scrap metal

3. Vote on new conflict resolution by-laws

• Suggested addition: Any executive committee members involved in the dispute must recuse themselves from final votes.
• We will post the full text with the proposed changes to website / send via e-mail, give everyone time to review (including Jessica)

4. Committee updates:

a. WIC

• 200 lbs. total, lettuce at our last drop-off
• recipes were helpful in using veggies they hadn’t used before
• do more next year with separate plots

b. Compost

• new Tumblers for food composting (with the right mix, it can go in 21 days in the summer)
• around the rail with the “lasagna gardening” with piled plants

c. Water

• system is shut down, but there is about 6″ of water in the bottom
• something for thermal expansion of the frozen water?

d. Maintenance

• several people trying for extended seasons
• could we plan incentives to get people to clean out their own plots?
• it would help to have some clear instructions for what to do
• people who want to leave their things, that’s fine,
• perhaps a charge for people who don’t contact and leave work for others

e. Planning & Construction

• Our plan was to cap at 50 plots, eventually (currently at 38)
• Hopefully in April we’ll finish the last 12 new plots to have final footprint
• Fence: around triangle or just plots? How do we keep it welcoming & accessible?
• Get some examples to look at from Bruce – open area separate from garden, open area with garden in it, combination, etc.?
• Take into account various concerns about community, access, boundary needs

Don’t miss our Friday Cocktails in the Garden! Stop by after work (6:30 to 8:30) and enjoy some wine and conversation with your fellow gardeners this Friday!

Feel free to bring along some cheese, or a snack to share. These are low-key events, that have provided a wonderful opportunity to just relax after a work week.

October 27:

Save the date for our Fall Fest! We’ll have more details coming soon about entertainment and food, but it will also be our “cleanup day” so plan on it starting at 10am with lots of fun to follow.

Most of our incumbents from 2011 will be continuing in their positions, but we’re looking for new leaders for two positions, our Maintenance Committee Chair and our Fundraising Chair. 

Maintenance & Monitory Committee Chair

This committee will be in charge of securing and maintaining the garden and any garden assets (tools, etc.) This committee will look into fencing options to secure the gardens area and will maintain fencing. This committee will also be in charge of monitoring the garden plots to make sure they are being kept up according to garden rules. If there is a violation of rules or other dispute about plot use, committee members will contact the gardener(s) to work out a resolution to the issue. If unable to resolve the problem ‘one-on-one’, the chairperson of this committee will take the problem to the Executive Committee for resolution. This committee will need to prepare a budget each year and submit it for funding of its initiatives.

Fundraising Committee Chair

This committee will compile all the budget needs from the various committees and determine if fundraising is needed beyond income generated from plot fees. If so, this committee will organize fundraisers, research and write grants and look into other possible fundraising opportunities, from partnering with local organizations to getting discounted materials from local suppliers.

Want to learn more about our current leaders? 

You can see our incumbents listed in this list of 2011 Nominees.

Want to volunteer? 

Our first building day, April 14th, was a big success – ground cleared, new beds built, and woodchips added to the paths.

Our next workday will be April 21st and we’ll be adding more woodchips and filling in soil along with other work projects.

We’d love to have you join us at 9:30 out at the garden. We’re looking forward to more homemade treats and a good time working together!

Find the event on Facebook here, if that makes it more convenient to share: Merchant Park Facebook Event

Timeline of Events

• 10:00 am – 12:00 pm: cleanup time in the garden, for members with plots
• 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: setting up for the fest (gather tables, decorations, etc.)
• 1:00 pm: Festival begins, Apple Slinky demonstration, food is hot & ready to eat (small donation for food requested to cover costs)
• 2:00 pm: live jazz music from Justin Collins!
• 4:00 pm: end of the fest, cleanup and put away tables

photo by Steven Depolo

Food:

Ron and Sara will be preparing their famous tuscan tomato soup and pulled-pork sandwiches, and we’ll also have hot mulled cider and Goose Island root beer available for purchase – we’re asking $1-2 for each item to help cover costs.

Garden members, if you’d like to bring food to share you’re welcome to do so but we won’t be doing a bake sale because we don’t have the staff for it for this event.

Activities:

We have lots of great activities planned, and a lot of it will be really fun for families, so kids are definitely welcome at the garden!

Susan Taylor from the Good Food Project will be bringing her “Apple Slinky” presentation to the garden and talking about healthy foods for families. This is normally a program she does in schools so we’re lucky to have the chance to share this with anyone who comes.

photo by Adam Gerard

We’ll have live jazz music playing from 2pm on from Justin Collins.

Costume Contest - come out in a costume and join the fun! We’ll have prizes for adults and kids.

Composting Demonstration – one of our new garden members is helping us set up an experimental composting system at the garden and has tips for home composting as well.

Other activities we have planned – Face Painting for kids,a Mummy Race, and lots more

Raffle Prizes:

We’re raising money for next year’s garden at this event by selling raffle tickets for a number of great prizes – we’re going to be selling tickets for $1 each or $5 for a pack of six tickets. If you know of a local business that would be willing to donate a prize for the raffle, let us know!

Current list of raffle prizes, it may expand!:

• River Kayak “Tour for Two” from Kayak Chicago
• $50 gift card from Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants
• Bike Tune-up from Kozy’s Cyclery
• Full Body Spray Tan at Celebrity Skin Couture Air Tan

(winners need not be present at the raffle drawing)

Our next meeting will be at All Saints Church (4129 West Newport Avenue) at 8pm on Thursday, October 20. Head down to the basement when you get there!

Our elections are over and the growing year is almost done. We’ll have reports on progress with NeighborSpace and the IIT Landscape Architecture students’ visit on Saturday. The elected committee heads will present on upcoming projects as well.

We will also be discussing policies for plot cleanup, our harvest festival on October 29, and plans for next year’s plot applications.

We will post minutes of the meeting online afterwards, but would like everyone who has an opinion on these topics to be there, if possible!

If you haven’t been able to attend an earlier meeting, here’s a map with the church location:

When & Where:

It’s been rescheduled from our last announcement:  Saturday, October 15 at 1:30pm

At the garden!

Who will be there:

We were very lucky this last year to have Bruce Yeager to manage the layout and background construction planning that helped us get off to such an efficient start. Work commitments are taking most of his time now, so he suggested we talk to some local student architects to get more help.

Lauren Polhamu, the student representative for ASLA (The American Society of Landscape Architects) at Illinois Institute of Technology will be bringing a team to do a planning session at the garden this weekend.

We’d love to have you there as we consider what we could do next year and beyond.

What we are hoping for:

Garden members to stop by and get a really great brainstorming session done! Suggestions that others have made: a pergola, children’s area, stage area for small events.

• A plan-out of the entire triangle (based on our input)
• If possible, help with a material list + costing

Send your ideas to Jane here:

blueprint image designed by ArtBees, used with Creative Commons license: