DeKalb County Community Gardens Weekly Update June 16, 2013 Special Presentation on Beneficial Insects and Pollinators Monday June 17th 6:00 pm followed by DCCG Meeting at 7pm At 6pm Monday night June 17th at the Unitarian Universalist 158 North 4th Street in DeKalb, DCCG will host a special presentation that is free and open to the public. University of Illinois Home Extension Educator, Russ Higgins, will present about beneficial insects and about various pollinators. Russ is employed with the University Illinois Northern Illinois Agronomy Research Center on University Road in DeKalb County. I am sure he will have a lot of valuable information to share. Please spread the word and invite your gardening friends, it is open to the public. DCCG will hold our meeting immediately following at 7pm. Hope to see you for both. Many Work Opportunities This Week Last Tuesday we had a great community garden build at Conexion. We had about 20 volunteers and were able to build two beds and plant six beds in three hours. It is so much fun and so rewarding when we have a lot of volunteers. I hope you can join us for one of the gardening experiences offered below: And on Friday with seven to eight of us we planted nearly two acres. Monday June 17th Heath Johnson, DCCG lead grower, will be harvesting at the Mayor’s Garden in the early morning, then North Ave., and out at the County outreach campus on North Annie Glidden. If you would like to help with the harvesting stop one of the gardens to lend Heath a hand. Also on Monday DCCG will be working out at the North Ave. farm all day starting around 8:30am. The North Ave. Farm is located on North Street about a mile out on the east side of Cortland. Drive into Cortland on Somanauk Road and turn East on North Ave. and drive out of Cortland about a mile. North Ave. is the second street North of the railroad tracks. Monday evening starting at 6pm there will be a presentation on Beneficial Insects by Russ Higgins (see above for details) and our meeting at 7pm Tuesday June 18th DCCG will be working in Genoa. We will be laying wood chips between the beds and planting any unplanted beds. We will be starting around 9am. If you can lend a hand on Tuesday in the morning up at Genoa or in the afternoon at North Ave. in Cortland please do, even if you only come for an hour or two, we will be happy to see you. Wednesday June 19th DCCG will be working at North Ave again all day starting around 8:30 am and working until dark. (We will not be there during lunch time.) DCCG will be hosting a Boy Scout Group from Cortland at 5:30 who will be volunteering. Also Art In the Gardens group will be meeting at the UU at 7pm to plan creative events. The group will also be planning for the first DCCG set-up at the DeKalb Farmers’ market on June 27th. Please spread the word to your artistic friends or any one who you think would enjoy being a part of this exciting new activity with DCCG. Thursday June 20th Thursday is the United Way Cares day. DCCG will be hosting volunteers in the morning starting at 9am at the Annie Glidden DeKalb County Outreach Gardens, Dolce Vita, and Ideal Acres. In the afternoon, starting at 1pm, DCCG will be hosting volunteers at Dolce Vita and at Ideal Acres. We would welcome additional volunteers as well. Friday June 21st DCCG will be finishing up the planting at North Ave all day Friday. If we are able to finish at North Ave and at Ideal Acres this week we will have planted nearly 9 acres, or 408,285 square feet with vegetables, with people power, and very minimal carbon foot print. Never doubt what a small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish, it is the only way to change the world for the better. Then Friday night at 5:00 pm we will be celebrating at Twins. Join us for talk, stories, and laughter as we celebrate the completion of a phenomenal planting season. Indie Go-Go Fundraiser To End at 2:30 am Monday June 17 If you would like to contribute to DCCG through our Indie fundraiser you have until 2:30 am Monday. Go to the link below and contribute what you can. Thank You! indiegogo/projects/local-gardens-at-community-outreach-center DCCG Art In the Gardens Wish List The local artists who gathered for the first spirited meeting of the DCCG Art In the Gardens have many great ideas. They are talking about sculptures, murals, giant vegetables that stand 9 feet tall, and many other exciting ideas. If you want to be part of a group that is full of energy and creativity think about joining their movement to bring art to all of our DCCG gardens. Below is a wish list they created to help them make the projects into a reality: WISH LIST Exterior Latex Primer (white) Exterior Latex Paint (colors, white and black) Brushes, buckets, drop cloths Nails or screws to put signs together Cement to secure sign posts into the ground Donations for Grimco Aluminum Panels Donations for Meta-latex paint for Aluminum Panels Wood of all sizes for signs (2 by 4 foot quarter inch plywood for our main garden signs (? is that best?) and smaller pieces for labeling crops - some to be cut in vegetable shapes as well as metal or wooden stakes for installing signs. Some may be attached to raised beds. Garden benches or old chairs that can be painted and placed in gardens Tractor Hoses Gardening tools Gloves for gardening Craft supplies for use with children - Acrylic Paint, Fabric Paint, Beads, smaller brushes, paint pots, marbles (these to be pressed into holes in our signs for light-catchers) Natural items such as smooth stones for painting, pine cones or other natural materials, Cement to make stepping stones and glass marbles or flattened aquarium glass beads to insert into stepping stones for a mosaic effect Clay Pots of all sizes (I have made toad houses with children and perhaps we could have that as a garden activity. If they are buried halfway into the soil while lying on their sides they shade toads from hot summer sun) Bird Baths Window Screen Epoxy Putty to use with armature and window screen to form giant vegetable sculptures (peas in a pod, corn, etc) If you can donate any items to this list please call Gladys Sanchez at 708-710-0684 Closing Thoughts As you can see DCCG has been very busy, I have been very busy, so busy that I have not had time to really think about my retirement from public schools. So starting on Saturday I am going to partially unplug and take a trip to Maine. The next three weekly updates will be coming to you from Sheryl Nak, DCCG Associate Director. I have started a new book that I will be taking with us on our trip. The book is, The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane. The forward is written by David Holmgren one of the founders of permaculture in Australia in the mid-70s. He writes: “… gardening is the most sustainable form of agriculture and the basis for the relocalization of our economies. … gardening should be recognized as a serious and important form of agriculture that functions as an incubator for new farmers and farming methods.” As we go about our days of planting, tending, and harvesting, and as we notice the small weed growing between the potato plants, we also need to keep our eye on the big picture of the culture of working with the soil. We have experienced up close on our hands and knees in the fields that we have been planting these past two weeks,( one field we saw only two or three worms after planting nearly two acres.) it is clear, when you look closely, that our present methods of farming are taking, and taking, from the soil; much in the same way our industrialized culture takes and takes natural resources without regard for future generations. Now, that farming has become “agribusiness” with the culture removed from agriculture, we can see the devastating results. DCCG is not only growing vegetables, and growing community, we are also rebuilding the soil. Please spread the word and invite your friends to join DCCG and the important work that all of us are doing. See you in the gardens! Dan
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:13:05 +0000
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