This is a test...

This is a test...not from the Emergency Broadcast system, but from me (Shannon) to see if I actually figured out this blog thing.  No, I haven't blogged before.  This is only a test.  In the event of a real 'blog posting' I'll actually say something worth while.  BEEEEEEEEEEP!

Two Friendly Reminders!

Reminder 1: Shop locally!!! As we begin to enter the summer season, this is a great time to visit your local farmer's market. I visited a great one on Memorial Day near Lexington, Mass. Everything was so beautiful and inspiring. Such amazing colors in all shapes and sizes...and even onions as big as my head! Dream big, 20/30's! This could be our garden in a few short months.

Reminder 2: When composting, keep in mind this easy list...

Compost Kitchen Greens: Fruit scraps, vegetable scaps, houseplant cuttings, coffee grounds, rice, pasta, egg shells, and tea bags.

Compost Kitchen Browns: Coffee filters, stale bread, paper napkins and towels, dryer lint, and hair.

Compost Yard Greens: Flowers, vegetables, plant trimmings, hedge clippings, grass (small amounts).

Compost Yard Browns: Leaves, straw, hay, small twigs/chips, dried grass, and weeds.

DO NOT Compost: Meat, fish/bones, dairy product, oils/fats, sauces, ashes, pet waste, diseased plants, or mature weeks with seeds.

Week 1

Monday, May 19th: We tilled, weeded, and planted the garden.

Tuesday, May 20th: We did not have a small group visit the garden, but Pat went out and water the plants that look liked they need it. Thanks, Pat!

Wednesday, May 21st: We got a hose! I went by and watered all of the plants.

Thursday, May 22nd: Brighton got some rain, so when Yana and Kate went to the garden it was wet enough that the garden did not need watering. They noticed that some of the lettuce is not doing so well. Hmm...

Friday, May 23rd: The garden was unattended this day.

Saturday, May 24th: I went back to the garden and gave everything a thorough watering. It's official; we lost three out of our six heads of lettuce! What a bummer! But the good news...drum roll...our compost bin arrived!! So, I set up the compost bin (Pat and Sky, the dog, supervised!)...now if we can just learn how to use it. :)
This is the website for the Earth Machine Compost Bin:
http://www.earthmachine.com/

I've attached a few new pictures. The unfortunate loss of our lettuce has been documented, as well as the possible sign of a visitor. I'm wondering if we might have a "wascally wabbit!" And, in an effort to start the compost (still have a lot to learn), I threw in some dried leaves and the old daffodil bulbs that I initially thought were wild onions.

Another "Shout-Out" of Thanks:
Many thanks to Cathy Scoff! Cathy took the initiative to contact the City of Brookline to get the compost bins for both the 20/30 Vision Community Garden, and another compost bin for United Parish. Apparently, the City of Brookline will distribute the compost bins to residents for FREE!
Many, many thanks Cathy for your thoughtfulness and support!

Garden Prep Day!

Yesterday, six of the twelve 20/30 Vision Community Gardeners were able to get together for our Garden Prep Day. With the use of our borrowed roto-tiller, we were able to till, weed, and plant in less then 3 hours. We are quickly learning that there are many aspects of gardening that are foreign to us, so this whole endeavor is a bit of an experiment (and certainly and new experience) for all of us, but there is also something very exciting about learning how to grow food that we will eat...at least that is the goal!

A few "shout-outs" of thanks:

• Thank you to the Wong Family for the donation of their gas-powered roto-tiller. The use of this man-made marvel made our work much easier!
• Thanks to Stacy Whitley for ordering and picking up our seeds and seedlings from the local, organic farm in Natick, MA.
  
• Thanks to Yana Forney for making the run to Home Depot for our organic top soil and mulch.
• And, of course, many, many thanks to Reverend Pat and her family for allowing us to use the backyard of the parsonage for our garden. Without your generosity, this project would not be possible!
  

20/30 Vision's Community Garden Takes Shape and the Organization Continues...

Community understanding and principles - This is a community garden. Participating in this garden means that the volunteers will attempt to visit the garden once a week with the members of their small team to water plants, pull weeds, and pick the harvest when necessary. As a community, we recognize that some weeks people are sick, people are out of town, and "life" happens. When volunteers are unable to visit the garden during their assigned time they are responsible for letting someone on their small-team know. As a community we will work together; this is not supposed to be something that makes one feel stressed, but rather is our opportunity to do something together that builds our bonds within 20/30 Vision, makes a statement to the larger community, and enables us to live healthy lives while caring for our earth.

Organization of the Garden and Work as a Community-
a) A request was made to members of UP to donate new or used tools for us to use over the summer.
b) Members of the garden will equally split the costs of seeds, soil, and set-up materials. The cost will be kept as low as possible, but also the ultimate goal will be lower grocery bills when we start having a harvest.
c) We had one "Garden Prep" day in May to plant seedlings and get things going. As many people who could attend were encouraged to come on this day.
d) Once the garden is established, we will divide into small teams. Every individual will be responsible for going to the garden sight (at the UP Parsonage) once a week to help in the maintenance and upkeep of the garden.
e) During harvest season(s), each Garden member will have a crate/paper bag with their name on it in the garage. Harvests will be divided equally among the crates/bags. When Garden members go to the site each week, they will be encouraged to check there bag for fresh veggies that they can take home!!! :) NOTE: We will have a crate/bag for Rev. Pat as a thank you for letting us use her yard!

The Garden Consists of:
Tomatoes (12 seedling)
Red Onion (6 seedlings)
Romaine Lettuce (6 seedling)
Beets (1 pack of seeds)
Summer Squash (1 pack of seeds)
Sweet Bell Peppers (6 seedlings)
Cucumber (1 pack of seeds)
Chives (1 pack of seeds)
And one mystery plant! (6 seedlings)

20/30 Vision's Initial Community Garden Proposal

April 13, 2008
Memo: Proposal for a Vegetable Garden
Prepared by Megan Hornbeek on behalf of United Parish’s 20/30 Vision

“Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars. We’re consuming about 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen—about 17 percent of our nation’s energy use—for agriculture, a close second to our vehicular use…If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country’s oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week.”

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver, page 5.

Go green! Eat organic! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Think globally, act locally! All of these slogans are used in current popular culture, politics, academia, and religion to spur conversation about humanity’s behavior and treatment of our one Earth. United Parish’s 20/30 Vision recognizes that if the current course of human action is not altered, then the plant we all call home is due for an irrevocable change, a change that will drastically alter current civilization. With a massive environmental crisis looming, the members of 20/30 Vision would like to begin taking the small steps toward reforming the way we live on this planet, Earth.

20/30 Vision would formal like to propose and request the opportunity to start a small garden in United Parish’s backyard. Many of the members of 20/30 Vision have participated in general and informal conversation regarding our desire to garden and produce fresh vegetables in the summer months. However, since the majority of the members of 20/30 Vision live in urban apartments and condominiums, the land to start such a garden does not exist for us. Therefore, we are requesting the church loan us a plot of land (minimum size of 10 feet by 10 feet) which the members of 20/30 Vision will take responsibility of during the spring/summer of 2008.

In conjunction with the activity of gardening, 20/30 Vision will read and discuss Barbara Kingsolver’s best selling book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s book is based on her family’s real-life attempts, successes, and failures to eat only what could either be grown locally or bought within a 50 mile radius of their home over the course of one year.

If this proposal and request is accepted, 20/30 Vision would like to publicize the progress of their endeavor to the United Parish and Brookline community. We believe this would be one small way to raise community awareness, and, if we are lucky, inspire others to start their own gardens and/or shop at local and farmer’s markets. It is also worth mentioning that since many of us have never “officially” gardened before, we welcome learning from those in our community who have experiences in gardening. Also, we would like to accept donations of old, hand-me-down tools from members in the community; these gardening tools would be used to get us started!

Many thanks, in advance, for reading and considering our proposal. We look forward to hearing from you; we sincerely hope that you are as excited about this idea and proposal as we are. It is our sincere hope that bringing this proposal to action would both benefit our immediate group and the larger community as well.

Respectfully,
20/30 Vision

Welcome to the United Parish blog for the 20's and 30's adults. The point of this blog is to give the cool and hip demographic of our church a place to chat, vent or just stay in touch. Sadly, I am too old to participate (:0( but will do what I can to keep you youngsters in line. Everyone is welcome to view and comment on this blog. If you feel that you positively, absolutely must have posting priveleges, then feel free to contact either myself (up2030@gmail.com) or any of the other admin's and we do what we can.

-UP Webmaster