From the Gardens Registrar: CORONOVIRUS PRECAUTIONS; How to Throw Things Away; Bricks and Blocks; More Seeds; Garden Manual; Spring Plant Sale

Hello Gardeners,

CORONAVIRUS PRECAUTIONS – The Garden Committee continues to discuss how we can keep our gardens open and our gardeners safe. Everybody’s being really good about social distancing, and thank you! But the shared tools and carts are a problem. I have already recommended that gardeners bring hand sanitizer and use it to wipe down handles before and after gardening. Wearing gloves of any sort is also helpful, although they do not give complete protection from viruses. If we can find (or make) sanitizer, we will have some at the Gardens, but it’s unlikely we’ll be able to keep it refilled. If you have sanitizer, please bring it with you. If you have extra that you don’t need, please bring some to share.

Hand sanitizer is not as effective against the virus as washing your hands with soap and water, but until our water is turned on for the season, it won’t be possible to do this in the gardens. We can’t get the water turned on until the UW Plumbers can fit us into their schedule, and they are very understaffed at this time. Also, if water is turned on  too early, the pipes could freeze, and be heavily damaged.

At this point, we recommend, for greater safety, that you provide your own tools, if at all possible. At Eagle Heights, we have a couple dozen tools that were donated to us last fall – I have left them at the Share Shelves, and  gardeners may take and keep them in their plots for the time being. (Please do not keep any of the garden tools, with pink handles, in your plot.) However, we will have to continue to share carts and wheelbarrows – there’s no way around this.

During the next few weeks, particularly until the water is turned on, there is only so much that garden management can do – it will be up to each individual gardener to keep safe, and keep from spreading infection. Please do not come to the gardens if you are sick. And be as careful as you can.

HOW TO THROW THINGS AWAY AT EAGLE HEIGHTS/UNIVERSITY HOUSES – If you have cleared a garden plot of weeds and old vegetation, please bring that material to the weed pile – the concrete slab next to the leaf pile at EH, and the concrete holding area at the entrance to UH. If you are throwing away trash, such as old garden fabric, wire, broken pots, etc., please put it in the dumpster near the entrance. (The UH dumpster is by the parking lot.) If you have long sturdy sticks in good shape for trellises, please leave them in the blue stick barrels at both gardens. If you have plant pots, tomato cages, and other garden items in decent shape, bring them to the share shelves for other gardeners to reuse.

BRICKS AND BLOCKS – The bricks and blocks piled up near the weed pile at Eagle Heights are for a project to shore up the 900 row, which we hope to work on this spring. Please do not take them for your plots, and if you have taken some, please bring them back. I’m sorry – we didn’t have a sign up, and most material available at the garden is for gardeners to take, but these are not.

MORE SEEDS – I’m continuing to bring more spring seeds, plus seeds for tomatoes, to both gardens, so keep checking out the share shelves.

GARDEN MANUAL – If you are a new gardener, I suggest you take a look at this page on our website: https://eagleheightsgardens.org/gardens/organic-growing/ It includes a Garden Manual, with very detailed information on gardening, which was written specifically for our gardens.

GARDENS TO BE SPRING PLANT SALE – We still hope to have our annual cool weather plant sale at the end of April. Scott at Gardens To Be is growing lots of vegetables he hopes to sell to us. However, due to the virus, it probably won’t be possible to hold the sale in our usual way. One possibility is gardeners pre-ordering and paying on-line, and then picking up their orders at the Gardens. I’ll let gardeners know when we have the details worked out.

Happy Gardening, and Stay Safe,

Kathryn