Just a reminder to check our website (www.HintonCommunityGreenhouse.org) for any and all information! This blog is currently waiting for some interested person to keep it going - if that's you, please contact us at hintoncommunitygarden@gmail.com! Happy Gardening.

July 16 workbee!

Stephanie has been busy with moving things, so the blog hasn't had too much activity lately! We'll miss you Stephanie! This is a little update on what's been going on at the greenhouse recently. If any of you would like to volunteer to keep this blog active, please let me know! It has great potential to help connect the "community" part of the Hinton Community Greenhouse & Gardens.

Construction took a back seat briefly while people were busy getting their plots planted. In the meantime, the "landscaping committee" (Jamal, Bill, and Steve) have been busy planning and preparing lots of little (and big!) improvements around the site, including the fence line bordering Barrow Safety Services' parking lot, rock gardens at the entrance to the north greenhouse, and lots of other improvements. We have a new roadway and parking lot cleared and functioning. We're putting the finishing touches on our sign for the front entrance (courtesy of Amanda Hack and her Communication Technology class!), and should have it erected in the next week or two. And today we had a very productive work-bee and built several sections of screening fence along the front edges of the greenhouses complete with planters and benches, stained the 4 new picnic tables, mulched all the outdoor landscaping, extended the fence line, put up some bulletin boards in the north greenhouse, and placed all the currently built boxes for outdoor raised beds ready for planting next spring! A huge thank-you to Jamal, Bill, Garry, Bernie, Sharlin, Joe, the Duval family, and Cel.

The judges from "Communities in Bloom" are going to visit the site on July 20, so a lot of the above work was to spruce things up in time for that. Our next work bee is scheduled for Sat., August 6, so mark your calendars! The plan is to finish off the south greenhouse and outdoor plots ready for next spring. There's always stuff to do, so please check out the website for details, as well as lots of useful information about the greenhouse - www.hintoncommunitygreenhouse.org

Happy Gardening!

Noel

Nervous new gardener?

Are you looking at the pictures longingly, but worried that you don't know how to garden in a greenhouse?

There are TWO awesome opportunities for you coming up right away!

First of all, Sharon McGettigan has graciously offered to host a workshop at her new venture,

Mother Earth's Medicine Chest,

on Saturday May 7th, from 2-4 p.m.

The building is at 227 Kelly Road, next to the SPCA.

She will talk specifically about greenhouse growing, having had a commercial greenhouse in the past, as well as experience here in town with her own private greenhouse! Don't miss out on a chance to ask questions from someone who really knows what plants grow best, what varieties work well in greenhouses, what about intercropping, companion planting, how to improve the soil for what you are growing... There is no charge for this workshop, but there will be a pot for donations for the use of the space...

Just a few days later, the library is presenting

The Urban Farmer

7-9 p.m. on May 10th -

Edson Recycling has sponsored him to be here, and i'm sure he'll have a ton to teach you about growing an "edible garden"! Check out his inspiring website here at http://theurbanfarmer.ca/ and come prepared with your questions - get ready to be challenged and educated by Ron Berezan!

The next workday is coming up, and we'll finish filling the plots that are already in the greenhouse, and then basically we are ready to start sowing seeds!

New faces, new season, countdown!

Well, i hope you've all found the www.hintoncommunitygreenhouse.org website we've also got, but just in case, i thought i would update here:

This Saturday was a beautiful sunny (but windy) day - I worried that i hadn't brought a jacket, just a vest over a long sleeved tee shirt, but it was so nice and warm working in the greenhouse! And the light is beautiful in there.

We worked from 10-3 p.m. and we're planning another workbee on Tuesday evening, too, to get the boxes filled.

We are hoping to have the portapotty ready to go that day as well, and we'll have some machine help from Caylor contracting, who have been a huge help to us in this project.

Meanwhile, on the board end of things - we are working on having and placing our sign to make the site more easily found, and also working on delineating our space in the property, which we share with two neighbours, NeighbourLink, and Barrow Safety.

We've also had some changes in our board positions with Casey Petkau stepping down to a directorship, allowing Jamal Nasrabati to take the position of secretary. I(Stephanie Fehler) am also stepping down as vice president, so at the next board meeting (tentatively April 16th), we will be looking to fill two positions of director, and one of the vice presidency. If you have been involved up to now and have some understanding of where we've been, that would be helpful, but this job includes overseeing workdays during the spring/summer, and attending board meetings, possibly organizing the volunteer hours (this may be a VP or a director's task). Bring your talents/time/ideas and come on out to the meeting!

(I'm still around! But with a husband working on his master's this summer, i didn't want to commit to more than i know i can handle...)

We've also added Jennifer Rinehart to the board as a director - make sure you introduce yourself to her if you see her around town or at the worksite - she will be gardening with a group of students in our greenhouse!

We are one third of the way through the month of April, and we *are* accepting registrations for plots - so if you haven't done it, or, more importantly, haven't heard from Mary Anne to confirm your plot registration, please phone her! We are also now taking payment for the plots. After the end of April, plots will be available on a "first come first served" type of basis.

Thank you so much to the wonderful volunteers who came out this Saturday! I hope to see more of you in the days to come!

FINALLY! TIME TO RESERVE YOUR PLOT!

Are all those capitals up there driving you bonkers? Then you probably aren't one of the people who have been waiting over a year for your first year of greenhouse gardening!

Tonight at our meeting (all our meetings are open to public!) - we set the date(s)

If you want a plot in the greenhouse, please call Mary Anne - she will need to know your name, contact info, and the size you would like to have. If we have a huge demand, we will mostly likely start with a basic smaller size and allocate more space on an "as available" basis - which means, we'll try to make sure everyone gets as much space as they need :)...

Our second greenhouse most likely will not be ready at the beginning of the season as we still need a lot of help finishing it up - if you are interested in this, you can leave a message here (in the comments section) OR check out our beautiful website:

www.hintoncommunitygreenhouse.org

for all our contact information -

And now... deadlines! Please have your name in by April 1st to reserve a space (if you haven't already done so - we do have a list of people/sizes of plots - but if you haven't yet, you have until April 1st). We will take payment that month (till April 30th) and after that time, you may lose your plot unless there are extenuating circumstances!

We are excited for this spring and i hope this brightens up your wintry wonderland of a day...

Incredible opportunity for greenhouse gardeners!

Cultivating Community – The Invermere Community Solar Greenhouse

An evening presentation by Bill Swan – Greenman Sustainable Solutions

Wednesday February 23, 7:00pm

Grant MacEwan University CN Theatre Rm 5-142

In response to the growing interest in local food security, healthy food in schools, and the overall sustainability of our agriculture systems, 300 community volunteers in Invermere BC teamed up to build a 300 sq. ft. greenhouse. It is now producing both food and sustainability programs for school and community audiences. Bill Swan, Community Greenhouse Project lead, will discuss how the project was developed including the many social, technical and logistical challenges and successes the project team encountered during the design, construction and operation of this successful initiative. This is part of a three seminar series on solar greenhouses sponsored by Alberta Agriculture.

Location: Grant MacEwan University CN Theatre – Rm 5-142

Cost: Free, no reservations necessary. Seating is first come, first served. Free refreshments

Further info: see attached flyer or go to: www.solaralberta.ca (click on Seminars)