Dear Gardeners,
It appears that cooler weather is coming. The geese have been gathering up in small flocks and the warblers are starting to come through from more northern regions. We still have a lot of gardening to accomplish including all the fall crops and clean-up in preparation for next year.
I thought you might be interested in knowing some of the facts about our gardens. We have about 580 plots, some with more than one family gardening so we are a very large community. We believe we are the oldest and largest community garden in Wisconsin, perhaps in the country with over 50 years of history. We have 3 part-time employees (all paid by garden fees) but together we only make up about a .65 position and hours worked vary by season. Many volunteers contribute to keeping everything running on our limited budget.  Our committee structure includes two volunteer co-chairs at the moment and meets once a month. Every current gardener is a member of the committee and welcome to come our meetings and vote. We start with a potluck of great food and keep the meetings limited to an hour. Please consider contributing to the Gardens by coming to meetings and helping make decisions about policies and projects.
We have a workday planned at University Houses this Sunday, Sept. 14 from 8 am to 11 am. There are chips to be moved and abandoned plots to be worked on. Please reply if you would like to work this opportunity and I'll get you more details. We will have workdays (weather permitting) into November, but remember that the workday obligation (work or payment) must be completed by Dec. 1. After that date, a late fee is assessed on top of the "no workday" fee and your priority for getting a plot next year is lowered to the "new" status.
If you have decided not to return next year, please let me know since it helps in getting plots assigned if we know which are coming open.
Enjoy the taste of fall coming this week and the asters that are coming into bloom.
Gretel, Garden Registrar