Newsletter 11 - August 30

** HARVEST SEASON **

Greetings Fellow Gardeners!

Donations to the Parkdale Food Centre began this week and the quantity of items was impressive. Thanks to everyone!

Please harvest for the PFC on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Leave your harvested items in the shade beside the rain barrel. Someone will come by at 8 pm to put everything away in the shed.

If you need help harvesting please contact catherine@ibtype.com with your name, plot number and a list of items for harvest-donation.

If you would like to be part of a small “harvest” team, please reach out to the same email.

Gathering at Goldenrod to harvest this week felt joyous and real in a way that the past few Covid months have not. People chatted, shared gardening tips, checked out each other’s plots, discussed what they would do differently next year. A handful of potatoes were exchanged for a bouquet of zinnias. A gift of ground-cherry (Physalis peruviana) delighted: they taste like a lemony-strawberry but have the consistency of melon. Three of us watched a too-comfortable field mouse traverse plots like he owned the joint. And we’re pretty sure he does…

ALERT

No pesticides/fungicides or chemical additives of any kind are permitted at Goldenrod. Please remember that the Membership Agreement you signed includes section eight which reads:

8. I understand that GCG is a fully organic community garden and I commit to gardening exclusively with organic methods, as required by the Ottawa Community Garden Network. I will not use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, nor any other harmful substances in any part of the Garden.

Elections are coming and we need help. Interested in standing for election, but not sure what happens at meetings? Drop in on the next interim board meeting, Tuesday August 31 at 7 pm to see the interim board in action. Send an email to goldenrodgarden@gmail.com to receive the meeting link.

Volunteer as Goldenrod’s Election Officer

At the Annual General Meeting on October 6, members will vote to elect a Board of Directors. We’re looking for an election officer to help make democratic magic. This could be you!

An elections officer will:

• Help plan the voting process

• Collect board nominations

• Count the vote and announce the winners

If you’re interested please submit your name via email at goldenrodgarden@gmail.com before August 31st.

Please note: the elections officer cannot compete in this Board election. And perhaps your dream is to be on Goldenrod’s Board? If so, please…

Nominate Yourself

Board of Directors: Nominations Now Open

AGM Coming Soon – 7 pm on 6 October 2021

The first Annual General Meeting for the garden is planned for 6 October 2021 when a Board of Directors will be elected to replace the interim board. Nominations for this Board are sought from current gardening members and Friends of the GCG. Why not consider submitting your name to make a valuable contribution to the operations of the Goldenrod Community Garden? You can nominate yourself, a fellow gardener, or a Friend of the GCG here, goldenrodgarden@gmail.com

Further details and links will arrive in your inbox soon. Watch for it

Getting to Know You /a Major Donor Profile

Ian Brignell is company co-Director of IB TYPE Inc and a major donor/supporter of Goldenrod Community Garden. We thank him for his donation and his innumerable efforts on behalf of the garden. He is a lettering and logo designer with the soul of a farmer.

He and his wife moved their lives and their business to Ottawa almost 4 years ago and immediately began searching for 2 things: a community initiative to support and a place to grow vegetables. Happily, they discovered Goldenrod!

Ian cultivates carrots, peppers and tomatoes in plot #63. He has just planted beets and more carrots for an autumn harvest and he has started to plan for next year; saving tomato seeds from this year’s crop.

Ian loves Goldenrod, the soil and the people he gets to meet there.

Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment

The community associations representing Wellington Village, Champlain Park, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville have formed Neighbours for Tunney’s to focus on Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment-related issues. Click this link or more information.

Community Resources, Responding with Compassion

As we continue to educate ourselves on sharing the public space that is Goldenrod, members have found these 2 links very helpful.

The Coalition for the Homeless (USA)

Somerset West Homeless Crisis Outreach

Newsletter 10 - August 23

** the HARVEST edition **

Greetings Fellow Gardeners!

Beginning this week, Goldenrod members can donate to the Parkdale Food Centre !! Please harvest Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The PFC will come to the garden early Wednesday and Friday to pick-up harvested items. We will use the shed for storage. Pick-up will continue 2x weekly until frost.

The shed is locked so please leave your harvested items in the tub behind the shed and Catherine (your newsletter auteur) will come by by 8 pm Tuesday and Thursday evenings to put it all away.

This is a wonderful opportunity to share your harvest with the community. Donated items will support Cooking for a Cause, a program that supplies fresh wholesome meals to seniors citizens. Please read more about all the good work that the Parkdale Food Centre does here

If you need help harvesting please contact me with your name, plot number and a list of items for harvest-donation: catherine@ibtype.com

If you would like to be part of a small “harvest” team, please reach out to the same email.

Tons of thanks to Greg Strahl for helping to make this happen!

And we can all continue to donate anytime to the Community Fridge (another important initiative spearheaded by Parkdale Food Centre). Details below.

It really does take a community to make a community garden. So, please…

Volunteer as Goldenrod’s Election Officer

At the Annual General Meeting on October 6, members will vote to elect a Board of Directors. We’re looking for an election officer to help make democratic magic. This could be you!

An elections officer will:

• Help plan the voting process

• Collect board nominationsCount the vote and announce the winners

If you’re interested please submit your name via email at goldenrodgarden@gmail.com before August 31st.

Please note: the elections officer cannot compete in this Board election. And perhaps your dream is to be on Goldenrod’s Board? If so, please…

Nominate Yourself

Board of Directors: Nominations Now Open

AGM Coming Soon – 7 pm on 6 October 2021

The first Annual General Meeting for the garden is planned for 6 October 2021 when a Board of Directors will be elected to replace the interim board. Nominations for this Board are sought from current gardening members and Friends of the GCG. Why not consider submitting your name to make a valuable contribution to the operations of the Goldenrod Community Garden? You can nominate yourself, a fellow gardener, or a Friend of the GCG here, goldenrodgarden@gmail.com

Further details and links will arrive in your inbox soon. Watch for it!

Whew. That was a lot of information: the Harvest, the AGM, the Elections Officer… Perhaps now is a good time for a time for a photo? Enjoy this tiny frog, discovered near the river (.pdf version only).

Getting to Know You /a Major Donor Profile

For Greg Strahl, it all started with a television show called Coronation Street. When he was a child, watching the characters on that show garden and gather in their "allotments" fascinated him, and that vision stayed with him.

When Greg heard about volunteers coming together to establish a community garden in Kitchissippi he knew that he wanted to help. He responded to Goldenrod’s call for tools with a generous cash donation, and for that we are grateful. Why tools? Greg said that from a donor perspective the targeted "ask" triggered his desire to give.

Greg Strahl knows a lot about fundraising: he is a former Chair of the Ottawa Food Bank and today continues his involvement as a member of the building committee. The business of food insecurity and distribution intrigues, so he helps however he can.

Next year, he hopes to have his own plot at Goldenrod, but he’s going to need help because it will be his first ever opportunity to grow vegetables. Greg looks forward to learning, gardening and gathering.

Farewell Amanda Joy! A note from the Interim Board

Amanda Joy has been an enthusiastic and dedicated Secretary on Goldenrod’s interim Board of Directors. She resigned her position last week to devote more time to her career and family. We wish her all the best but just have to say - Amanda will be missed.

Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment

What happens at Tunney's Pasture will have a significant impact on the residents of our neighbourhood; the housed and the homeless, the advantaged and the disadvantaged.

The community associations representing Wellington Village, Champlain Park, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville have formed Neighbours for Tunney’s to focus on these and other Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment-related issues. Click this link for more information.

Community Resources, Responding with Compassion

As we continue to educate ourselves on sharing the public space that is Goldenrod, members have found these 2 links very helpful.

The Coalition for the Homeless (USA)

Somerset West Homeless Crisis Outreach

Reminders

Remember to visit the Kitchissippi outdoor Community Fridge. The rules of community fridges are simple: take what you need, leave what you can. Please find more information here.

Newsletter 9 - August 16

We are famous! The Capital Current wrote about us in a recent issue, Growing concern: Second community garden opens on NCC land in bid to battle food insecurity in Hintonburg-Mechanicsville area

And so did the Hintonburg Community Association ! We blush…

David Walsh at PCL has had a temporary ramp installed to aid wheelchair and other access to Goldenrod while construction continues along Parkdale. The new ramp is within the same parking lot, slightly west of the old access point.

Coming Soon. NOMINATIONS –

Goldenrod Community Garden BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The first Annual General Meeting for the garden is planned for October 2021, when a new Board of Directors will be elected. Nominations for this Board are now sought from current gardening members and Friends of the Garden. Why not consider submitting your name and make a valuable contribution to the future of the Goldenrod Community Garden? You can nominate yourself, a fellow gardener, or a Friend of the Garden. Further details and links will be arriving in your inbox soon. Watch for it!

Goldenrod has been gifted a pop-up tent and two chairs. They are for future workshops or circles happening in the garden. We thank the Tool Library’s Chris Osler for the donation.

Just want to give a shout-out to the Build committee again because the new fencing around the water tanks is very handsome.

Are your tomato plants suffering? Are the leaves withering? Seems like the culprit might be leaf mold. You can find out more about it here.

Finally, don’t forget to check out our Gardening Tips page. You will find a new and very interesting item about what to plant now for an autumn harvest. And please email Goldenrod if you have tips to share. Please put “Tips” in the subject line.

Happy Harvesting!

Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment

What happens at Tunney's Pasture will have a significant impact on the residents of our neighbourhood; the housed and the homeless, the advantaged and the disadvantaged.

The community associations representing Wellington Village, Champlain Park, Hintonburg and Mechanicsville have formed Neighbours for Tunney’s to focus on these and other Tunney’s Pasture redevelopment-related issues. Click this link for more information.

Community Resources, Responding with Compassion

As we continue to educate ourselves on sharing the public space that is Goldenrod, members have found these 2 links very helpful.

The Coalition for the Homeless (USA)

Somerset West Homeless Crisis Outreach