COMPOST

Many people have not paid for the compost they took. IF YOU TOOK COMPOST from the big pile that was on the north side of the community gardens or from the smaller piles elsewhere around the gardens PLEASE PAY FOR IT! The cost is $5 per regular or mounded small wheelbarrow and $7.50 for a mounded large wheelbarrow. Please send checks made out to "City of Boulder" with "compost" written in the memo spot, to Community Gardens, 3198 N. Broadway, Boulder CO 80304. Thanks ever so much!

CHIPS

I am having an extremely difficult time procuring chips! (Another effect of El Nino - no heavy storms to bring down branches so chips are in short supply this summer.) Please help. If you have any friends who own or work for tree trimming businesses ask them to bring us chips. Beg! I can send or fax them a map to show entrance and drop points. I may be able to get a large amount of chips towards early June but I don’t know yet. You can go to Western Disposal and load chips into a pick-up truck or into garbage bags and transport them in a car. Call 444-2037 for directions.

If you have not been able to chip your paths, please keep the grass and weeds down to no more than 4 inches in height. ANYONE WHO OWNS OR HAS ACCESS TO A WEED WHACKER or MOWER PLEASE HELP OUT. WHACKING or MOWING CAN COUNT AS VOLUNTEER HOURS AS LONG AS IT IS AROUND OTHER PLOTS THAN JUST YOUR OWN.

MOWING

The City’s Park Operations Division is currently very understaffed. (El Nino didn’t cause this problem - but there are less kids around to hire for maintenance level wages and many places are understaffed. Start looking at the "Now Hiring" signs. They are everywhere!) Therefore the Park’s staff will mow around the gardens as soon as they can get to it. Other parks have a higher priority because they are more in the public eye. If anyone has some ideas about how we can keep the grass down and you are willing to coordinate your idea, please call the office. Does anyone know someone with equipment that could help us out for free? We have no money to pay for mowing.

COMPOSTABLES

Compostables are plant matter, wood, roots, etc. PLEASE PUT THEM IN PILES ON THE FAR EAST-SIDE OF THE GARDEN ONLY. Please do not put compostables on the chip piles (look before you dump!) or in the main middle path or on the west-side of the garden (or anywhere else other than the far-east side.)

TRASH

( i.e., non-compostable material) goes in the dumpster over by 14th and Jefferson, in front of plot #108.

CARPET PILES

Western Disposal is going to bring by a dump truck on our first work day (Saturday June 6th) but you are welcome to transfer any carpet over to the dumpster before then too.

STRAW

The Boulder Creek Festival kindly donated 100 bales of straw to us. PLEASE TAKE ONLY ONE BALE PER GARDEN. If you have a 1/3 or 1/2 size plot please use as much as you need and then share with others. We only received 100 bales and there are 210 plots rented out! Please jot a shor thank you to them. There should be a clipboard with paper on it out on the bales or hanging from the tree. I know they will appreciate hearing how helpful this donation is to each of you. Thanks!

WATER LINES

Our water lines for the irrigation are very shallow and easily punctured. They run diagonally across the garden running southwest to northeast starting between the 100-200 row up though the 700-800 row. Stand by a spigot and look south and north for the next spigots between the plots beyond yours then draw an imaginary line connecting them. That will be approximately where the water line will run. If the water line appears to track through a portion of your garden, do not drive any trellis or fence poles in within one foot of the imaginary line. Please use care. We have already had three punctures this spring.

COMICS NEEDED

We need any comics or cartoons that have to do with gardening or anything vaguely related! Otherwise, you will see repeats of the ones from last year in this year’s newsletters! You can drop them by the office or mail them to 3198 North Broadway, Boulder 80304.

BULLETIN BOARD

Hopefully soon! We have plans but have to try and get the materials for it. Then it will be built. We will place it on the center path over near the bushy tree - near plots 514 & 614.

VOLUNTEER HOURS

To clarify, four hours of volunteer time can be spent on the upkeep of your paths. The other four hours of time must be to better the program or community garden as a whole. It can be attending the work day, picking up trash, helping out in the office, writing for the newsletter, being a garden buddy, etc. The more people pitch in and work together the better our gardens will be!

TIRES

This year tires were not allowed at the community garden do to concerns about them leaching cadmium. From all the information we have now been able to obtain, they seem quite safe. There is no danger of cadmium. Therefore, tires are now allowed in the garden but must be maintained - i.e., weeded around the base.

WORK DAY
SATURDAY, JULY 11th,
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

WORK DAY
in August will be
announced, if needed

WORK DAY
SATURDAY, SEPT. 19th,
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

WORK DAY
SATURDAY, OCT. 17th,
9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.