This coming Wednesday we are going to have a Garden Planning Meeting!  The meeting will be next Wednesday, February the 13th from 8:30-9:30 pm in the Butler Community Room.  During the meeting, we will address concerns by all gardeners, new and returning, and we will talk about our goals for the Butler Garden for this upcoming season.  

We would love for you to join us to help plan the upcoming gardening season while enjoying food and beverages.  You are not required to bring anything but yourself to the meeting.  However, if you would like to contribute and bring something to eat or drink, you are more than welcome to do so!  Please RSVP as soon as possible so that we can have an estimate of the number of people coming to the meeting.

We are very excited to have our first meeting of the season and look forward to seeing you there!!

Butler Garden Sign-Up and Retention Dates

Hello fellow gardeners,

We would like to draw your attention to the upcoming Butler Community Garden Sign-up. If you are interested in gardening, like to eat freshly grown, organic products from your own garden, then we welcome you to sign up for a plot. The cost is $10 for a half plot and $20 for a full plot. Please note that half plots are still a lot of space that you can grow a lot in! If you are new to gardening, you might consider taking a smaller plot so that you don't get overwhelmed. Plots are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and they go fast, so please mark your calendars if you are interested. Gardeners who are not granted a plot will be placed on the waiting list for plots that become available during the season.

Here is how it works:
1/8/13 - Current gardeners will receive an email asking them if they want to retain their plots. They have until 1/14/13 to notify us or their plot will be reassigned. If you are a current gardener and you do not receive an email, please email one of the garden coordinators.
1/17/13 - Available plots will be posted on the Butler Garden Blog. Make sure you go out to the garden and check out the plots you think you'll want to sign up for. The garden is located behind 222E-H on Halsey St. in the Butler complex and a map can be found at http://www.princeton.edu/~butlerap/butlerlarge.png.
1/21/13 - A post with an embedded form will go live at 8am on the Butler Garden Blog, and remain active for 24 hours.
1/23/13 - New Plot assignments will be posted on the Butler Garden Blog and gardeners will be notified via email.
2/4/2013 - Payments by check made out to "Butler Housing Committee" need to be given to Waiyee Chiong (222C King Street) or Laura Danysh (222E Halsey Street). If we don't receive your payment by 2/4/13, we will reassign the plot to someone else.

If you have any questions about how to renew or sign-up for a plot, please don't hesitate to contact us!
We look forward to gardening with you!

Waiyee and Laura

Discount for Butler Gardeners at Obal Nursery

Hi Everyone, I was at Obal's Nursery (Alexander Rd, Princeton) yesterday and got us a 10% discount. So when you go shop there, just mention you are a member of the Butler Community Garden and the discount will apply to all your purchases. Happy Gardening, Waiyee

Composter

Hi everyone, Dry Material has been delivered so the Composter is functioning again. Please see instructions on proper usage before composting. In addition, I have also added a geobin near the woods as another composting station. Happy Composting! Waiyee

Compost and Composter

Hi Everyone, Thanks to the help of fellow gardener Eric who helped me empty the composter today, we have new compost ready to be used. The compost is in the big black bin next to the shed. However, please do not add anymore scraps to the composter at this point because we are out of dry material and awaiting delivery of more. We will let you know once you can start using the composter again. Thanks, Waiyee

For those going on vacations during the summer and need their gardens watered, I've made a Google Calendar. With this, we can see who needs help watering when, and maybe have neighbors step in and offer to help.

In addition to marking when you'll be gone, please also include (approximately) which Plot number you are. Since the garden is divided into 4 parts (from left to right), it would be helpful to have people who have gardens nearby to help water.

Calendar

New Toy, Unworked Plots

Hello Gardeners,

I wanted to let all of you know that we have purchased a battery operated weed trimmer to use to clear the paths in the garden and possibly clear any plots that are not being worked. Since it is battery operated, I will be keeping this at my house so that there is a place to charge the batteries and store the charger. The weed trimmer can be picked up from me at my house (220B Halsey Street) when needed. Just send an e-mail or stop by to pick it up and return it after you are done, and I will make sure that it is always charged up and ready to go.

I know that some of you are interested in gardening neighboring plots that are not being used. If you have a request for a specific plot, please e-mail myself or Wai Yee so that we can confirm whether or not the plot will be used by its current owner.

Also, please be mindful of your watering times in this extremely hot weather. It is best to water in the morning or evening so that we do not waste water.

Happy Gardening,
Khirika