Lasagna Mulching/Sheet Mulch Project Group

Description:

No-till gardening method of layering brown and green materials in order to increase organic matter in soil.  A sectioned area is layered with alternating brown materials (newspaper, cardboard, straw, leaves), green materials (kitchen scraps, grass clippings, and sometimes manure), finished compost and sometimes mineral amendments.   The pile is watered in layers as you go.   Beds built in spring are finished with a thin layer of garden soil to which new plants are added.  The benefits are that the need for watering is decreased as mulch retains moisture to roots and fewer weeds germinate.

Volunteers built two lasagna beds last November.  They look good, still a little high, but can be planted.  We can start building new beds as soon as we gather up all kinds of green matter, that’s why we have the compost collection action group.  We need all manner of green materials:  food scraps, coffee grinds and florist cuttings to make the beds.  Lasagna beds require a lot of saved up green and brown materials to build.  Because we are building these in spring, they won’t have much time to break down, so we will build lower beds,     ~1foot high, add some garden soil and plant directly into them. 

Optionally, gardeners may cover their bed with black plastic for six weeks to cook ingredients if they want to hasten decomposition, then add garden soil and plant into.  Lasagna beds can be made with fewer materials then ideally recommended.  The soil has been tested, is free of lead and has decent tilth, so some gardeners may want to plant directly into soil, and dispense with the lasagna mulching.

Basic Materials needed:

•      Food scraps
•          Florist cuttings
•          Leaves
•          Straw
•          Newspaper (non-color)
•          Cardboard
•          Finished compost (we have vermicompost)
•          Bonemeal and peat moss (optional)

We will supply the leaves, straw and cardboard.  Please bring newspaper and food scraps on lasagna mulching days.  As soon as we amass a good amount of green materials, we can start mulching.  I will make my first pick-up of Starbucks coffee grinds this Sat, March 26, and member, Ernest Skinner is working on getting green cuttings from Shannon’s Nursery. Campus cafeteria pickups continue on Mondays and Wednesdays.

 Tasks:

• Contact Vegetable markets on Flatbush Avenue and coordinate having them save scraps for us.  We have garbage bags and acceptable materials list
• Pick-up coffee grinds from Starbucks.  They store spend grinds in coffee bean bulk bags called bullets.
• Take a turn at picking up from the Campus Cafeteria. I’ve already notified the chef that new people will start picking up.

Let me know if you can take on any of these and we can speak in more detail.

Communications Project Group

Hi, I just set up this blog today and will be linking all posts to Facebook.  We will need someone to ensure all events and activities are posted and a student who would like to found a student club for the garden
.

Any student gardeners now and in the future would greatly benefit from some indoor space where they could gather in summer for an air-conditioning respite and in winter for planning.  Being that the  WEB building is right next to the garden, why not get some space there?  members could keep gardening books and resources there, small tools, except for the big tools :) It would also be the perfect space to recruit volunteers for all kinds of projects, maybe there's some other clubs hanging around on any given day that have an hour to give, or grandparents who want to sign up for a plot. 

This past week, I got to speaking with a club member in that WEB corridor who said that some of the rooms there are vacant, belonging to inactive clubs.

He recommended speaking to Students Government, 3rd floor SUBO bldg. and get a list of active/inactive clubs on campus. 

 Hind Kasem, UG student and member of the health Awareness Club is starting to look into this.  Does anyone want to join her?    

What are your thoughts?

Laying out the Plots Project Group

Soon it will be time to set about making plots from our nearly 4,000 square feet space.  We need a few people to set about delineating where to set the plots, as well as measuring and staking them.  After that we will be organizing them by lottery.

Building Storage Project Group

We would like a hand built shed.

There's all kind of plans out there, here's two links which Gardeners in NYC use:

Instructables

http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-Shed/#step1

Greenthumb, NYC Parks and Rec.  Go to tutorials section for a Pdf on structures

http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/resources.html

Composting Project Group

Compost Collection:

We have started composting food scraps from Metropolitan Food services based in the campus cafeteria.  We are layering raw vegetable and fruit peelings with leaves in holding bins in preparation for building lasagna beds.  We will be able to start new lasagna beds with this partially decomposed matter which is degrading slowly.

There seems to be lots of potential to increase the food residuals we are composting.  Not only do we need them for building lasagna beds for this season but we also need them for future lasagna mulching and a three bin composting setup.

We have informal offers to either start/extend green materials pickup with:

•      Metropolitan Food Services has said they have coffee grinds if we want.
•            Previous gardeners have stated they wish to bring compost from their homes
•            The owner at the new House Pizza on Ave H has expressed interest in saving scraps for us
•            Shannon’s Nursery on Ft. Hamilton Parkway has agreed to save all green cuttings for us (the amount varies) with a days notice.
•            Starbucks on  Hillel Place has several small bags daily and is willing to have us pick it up
•            I’m sure we could get the markets on Flatbush Avenue to save scraps for us; a relationship just needs to be set up.

Here’s what we need:

•          People! Who can pick up food residuals nearby drop-off at the garden, make calls to establishments to schedule pickup, inspect waste and commit  to a pickup schedule
•          Basic training (10 min) for inspecting green waste for contamination and for adding to holding bins

Material List:

•       You may need a car if your picking up from Starbucks. 
•       garbage bags, canvas bags if you are schlepping to garden
•             Garden fork and rake for adding materials to holding bin- We now have these in our storage closet!
•       Water material if you are adding it to the holding bin

Gardening events--this weekend!

Here are a few upcoming events happening around the city that you may want to attend.  I will be attending the first two, and may attend the morning sessions of the Greenthumb conference.

1. Lasagna Mulching  workshop, Sat April 2, 1-3:30, Secret garden, Bushwick, $5, registration required  

 http://www.bbg.org/learn/class/lasagna_gardening/

2. Organizing for Community Greening,  Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, April 6, 6-8 p.m., free, registration required http://www.bbg.org/learn/class/organizing_for_community_greening/

3. Greenthumb 27th Annual Grow Together Conference

http://www.greenthumbnyc.org/gardenevents.html?qs=2011/04/02/27th-annual-greenthumb-growtogether1

The soil testing lab run by Prof. Cheng (ESAC), will be hosting a table at the Greenthumb conference. His team is looking for more people to staff it and will reimburse the registration fee ($3), to those who do. 

Fundraising and Scrounging for Materials Project Group

We would like to build a 3-bin composting system and we have several plans, lots of suggestions for building, materials to use, ways to rodent proof, etc.  But we need money to build it.  Some of you may be interested in experimenting with projects on Kickstarter or IOBY, Which I've seen can be really successful. A friend of mine in Pittsburgh was fully funded for a dress startup within a few days after posting on kickstarter. I think it would work.

You would need to cost out all the materials, write a purpose for the project, etc.

Anyone interested?

We also have to contact Greenthumb who gives away materials and tools and Build it Green.  And there's lots to be had poking around on craisglist and freecycle.  We were offered a donation of bricks after I posted under the "wanted" link under "for sale."

Building Paths Project Group

We have a donation of bricks!

On the weekend of April 9-10, Dean Hainline and I will be driving up to Harrison, NY(just north of New Rochelle) to pick them up.  The owners have been very patient and cooperative, the brick are red-brick, ~ 20 years old and in excellent condition.  they will be combined with other bricks from the old garden to create our new pathways.

There are over 1,100 bricks to move from the pile to the pick-up, then off the pick-up into wooden pallets inside the garden.  here's what we need:

• 1 person who is very strong to come with us
• someone to get 3 wooden pallets from a construction/ commercial area.  I've heard from other Brooklyn gardeners that the commercial strip on Coney island Avenue will give you as much as you want.
• 2-3 people to be at the garden when we return and help us pile up the bricks

So far, one member will be meeting us when we return to unload. We need 2 more people to help her and another one to make the drive upstate with us. Anyone available?

Streetscaping Project Group

List of resources:

• In order to work on Street trees of tree pits, you must obtain a permit from NYC Parks Dept.  Milliontrees NYC offers a tree care workshop. After attending, you receive a membership card.  I have one as I attended a workshop 2 years ago, I will find out if it is expired.  I do have printed material I received but have to find it, I think the Treelc handbook has the same info.  I can be around and work with you in the beginning, until you get your own stewardship permit card.  Read up here:

http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/programs/stewardship_corps.shtml

What to do:

• Take before and after pictures of each tree pit
• Read the info from BBG Greenbridge:
• http://www.bbg.org/greenbridge/street_trees/

Caring for Tree beds and TreeLC handbook from MilliontreesNYC

• Count the number of tree pits with no paving stones and start with them
• We have compost from LESEC but are planning to use it for lasagna mulching, we may be able to get other compost from NYC Wasteless

• There are 7 trees On Campus Road from Ave H to East 21^st Street on the college side of the block. They end with a European Hornbean planted in Fall 2007.  The Parks Dept tags need to be cut off of this tree or it will become embedded into the branches.
• Adopt trees online, planted after 2007 under milliontree stewards Adopt-A-Tree interactive map
• follow the care instruction sin the Tree LC handbook and from BBG Greenbridge street tree stewardship resources  
• We can start caring for trees in pits that have no Belgian blocks. For the ones with belgian blocks, we need a permit.
• Very Important!! The rule for planting: no planting done within 18” of the trunk of the tree to avoid disturbing the established root system.  Plants/ flowers should have a shallow root system to prevent high levels of competition with the street trees.

• Follow the TreeLC care guide which has tasks to do month by month.  We can get going with March and April.
• The third tree from the security post needs pruning.  We have to find a citizen tree pruner to do that.
• List of tools: refer to handbook
• We have Christmas tree mulch in garbage bags inside the garden for trees.
• Create tree bed guard.  Pablo Garcia is interested in drawing plans for guards and maybe for which plants to include
• Create signage.  Milliontrees has ideas and I think we should include something about becoming a member of the BC Garden
• Plants:  we can move crocuses from the garden to pits. After plants die back, we can dry the bulbs and store in mesh bags till fall planting.  Find out where to get free annuals from Greenthumb

For Future:

•   For the pits with Belgian blocks, I just found out what to do.  We have to call 311 for information on getting a no-fee permit to remove the blocks from the street tree pit. We have to outline the entire situation to the Parks Department when requesting permit, including the approximate distance between trees and the approximate distance from the blocks you will be removing and the parking meters. We won’t be removing any blocks between tree pits. 
• Sources for tree mulch:

o       Refer to handbook

o       Free wood chips from Greenwood cemetery in the fall

o       Cunningham Park, Queens.  I don’t know what their supply looks like right now, but there were mounds in January.  You can go any time to pick it up, but bring bags/ container and shovels

·              Become citizen tree pruners through Trees NY

·              Arrange with facilities for future planning: in winter, please spread sand along sidewalks, instead of de-icing agents