News on the Community Garden

The Bay Village Community Garden will be opening in early to mid April, weather permitting. The garden is located at the corner of Forestview & Wolf Roads and affords residents the opportunity to learn and practice sustainable, organic gardening methods.
Sponsored for Bay residents in a partnership that includes the BVGT, the City and the BV School Board, the community garden is all about sustainability. Not only does the garden allow residents and service organizations to grow healthy, organic, local food, but a technique called square foot gardening is used to maximize the crops produced in the 4'x8' plots.
With square foot gardening, you plant within each square foot, not in rows. The many "green" advantages by this type of planting includes less land and water usage (as the crops are close together), and fewer weeds.
A public meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 22nd beginning at 6:30 PM at the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center, 28728 Wolf Road, to discuss the upcoming year and answer questions from Community Garden renters and potential renters.
Plots for the 2011 growing season (April-November) are available on a first come, first serve basis to Bay residents, so sign up early by contacting Bob Shields at: bobshields@oh.rr.com if you are interested in renting a plot or if you have any questions.

See you at the garden!

Bay Community Garden Opens Memorial Weekend

Greetings Community Gardeners!

Preparations for the Bay Community Garden are well underway and garden plot assignments will be made as the community garden volunteers begin to stake-out the individual 4’ x 8’ plots this week. Square Foot Gardening will be the preferred method of planting with many great benefits including: efficient use of time with less work required, and increased harvest and water savings. The Bay Growing Guide is online and can be viewed on the city’s homepage at cityofbayvillage.com. The first 5-pages of the Guide give an explanation of this method in more detail. The Growing Guide also gives many examples of vegetables, spacing and planting within a square foot area.

Currently the garden area has been tilled—twice! The city has also dropped-off leaf humus at the site available for use by all to further assist in the conditioning of the soil beds. Remember, only organic fertilizers and compost may be used in the community garden – NO chemical fertilizers. The water department has been working to install a water meter at the site but we cannot guarantee that water will be available for the first week or so. A couple rain barrels will be placed in the garden for water collection; however, some may want to bring their own water until a spigot is installed at the site. The deer fencing has been ordered and will be up within the next 2 weeks. Also, each gardener is responsible for bringing their own tools which would include a shovel or spade, a hand trowel and fork, an unsharpened pencil, a layout of what will be planted and of course seeds/plants. And, a large bucket is helpful for transporting the humus to your garden plot.

Many varieties of summer vegetables seeds, seedlings and organic fertilizers are available locally at Cahoon Nursery, Canterbury Gardens and Landmark. Our local True Value carries a full-line of garden tools and organic fertilizers.

The garden will be open for soil preparation and/or planting this Memorial Day weekend. If you provided an email address when registering, you will receive an email informing you of your garden plot number no later than Saturday, May 29. Community garden volunteers will be giving a demonstration on Saturday morning, May 29^th at 10:30 a.m. on soil preparation and square foot planting. The grand opening will happen later this summer but for now… let’s start planting!

Thanks for making this a reality in Bay Village. We look forward to meeting you this summer at the Community Garden!

The Bay Village Green Team – Community Garden Committee