Administrative progress

We haven't posted here in a while, but we have been busy behind the scenes. We have had meetings with various City officials, and the journey toward getting approval for the garden project is continuing to progress.

We're getting closer!

Here's how you can help:

1. Garden Club. A garden club is being formed which will be the leadership for the garden project. The garden club could be made up of people who hope to get plots, and it could include people who are interested in supporting the project. The garden club initial duties will be to create the rules/guidelines for how plots will look and people will interact, they will form the legal organization that will make the garden possible with the City, they will design/run the system for getting plots, and they will probably be the ones to guide the "demonstration garden" part of the project.
2. City Liaison Team. This team is already hard at work, but they could use additional help. They're learning City requirements, attending meetings, making connections, drafting agreements, and easing the way for the garden to be installed.
3. Garden Installation. We will be gearing this team up in the near future. We have preliminary general designs, but we'll need to break these down into construction details and detailed budgets. Then we'll need to solicit donations -- "in kind" donations and "found materials" as well as money.

If you would like to volunteer, join our YahooGroup or email us.

Garden Club

Announcing the Garden Club for the Community Garden at Westchester/Loyola Village!

We are forming a Garden Club for people who are

• interested in seeing this Community Garden project come to fruition
• interested in learning about growing organic vegetables
• veterans at growing organic vegetables who want to share their knowledge
• interested in eventually entering the lottery for a plot at WLVCG
• interested in being part of the leadership team that forms the organizational structure for WLVCG
  

Come join us on Saturday Aug 29 at 11am and on Saturday Sept 26 at 11am.
We'll gather at the site of our "sister" garden, 83rd and Dunbarton, Westchester (map)

There will be a free garden class beginning at 9am, and the Garden Club meeting will immediately follow.

Free Garden Classes in Westchester

Our "sister" garden, the Community Garden at Holy Nativity (83rd and Dunbarton, LA 90045) offers an Organic Vegetable Gardening class series that is open to the public. Most of the sessions are free.

Upcoming classes include:

July 11 - "Good Bug / Bad Bug" Organic pest control for our gardens. Learn to identify which bugs are good and which bugs are not. A baby ladybug is a great example - it looks pretty scary but it would be a shame to "do it in" and remove future generations of ladybugs. (9am)

July 25 - "Attracting the Good Bugs" Learn what flowers and plants to grow in your garden to encourage the good bugs. Provide homes and breeding places for pollinating insects and for the predator bugs that eat the bad guys. (9am)

As the WLVCG gets underway, this garden class series will probably be shared between the two locations. But for the present, all are welcome to join the classes, to learn and share.

And we're off!

On July 2, the WLVCG had its first meeting with the Park Advisory Board (PAB) for Westchester Park.

The PAB was 100% in favor of the garden concept and praised our presentation. We were invited back for their September meeting where we hope to make the presentation to additional members of the Parks & Recreation department.