Hurray! It’s April!

Spring is here, and we’re heading into our sixth season since the Greenfolks Garden was started by a small group of neighbors in 2001. The intention then was to develop a space in Riverwest where residents could cooperatively plant, grow and harvest delicious vegetables and beautiful flowers.

Every year since its founding the garden has evolved into a more aesthetically valuable element of the neighborhood. Now we are ramping up for our first event to raise the money needed to buy our garden plots from the city.

We have planned a party at the Friends Meeting House on April 30 from 3:30-7 pm with plenty of finger food and live entertainment. Headliners will be Willie Porter and Harvey Taylor, as well as some other renowned performers. Humans of all ages are encouraged to attend.

Claire Moore is in charge of planning fun kid stuff. We are looking for someone to be in charge of child supervision, a requirement of the Friends Meeting House.

We have decided on a suggested donation of $5-$50 at the door, with all proceeds going directly to purchasing the land. There will also be a raffle/auction for donated goods and services from members and businesses of our community (massages, paintings, free Sunday brunch certificates at our beloved Riverwest Co-op, and more were mentioned) Jen and Tony Lyon are going to head up the raffl e. John Gorecki is in charge of set up and getting the root-beer!

We are in the process of agreeing upon and signing documents that will make MUG (Milwaukee Urban Gardens) our fiscal and legal agent. Because they are already a tax exempted non-profit and have insurance, this will save us a lot of time. We looked at MUGs mission statement and feel like we are a perfect fit.

Master Gardener Catherine Cowling (the Gardengirl) came to our last meeting to help us plan the rain garden and make other landscaping choices.

Buying trees and bushes seems like it may have to wait until next year, as we focus on securing the land and doing more of the earth moving and landscaping work this year. Catherine jumped right in and is going to take charge of the refreshments at the party.

Our April meetings are all on Saturdays, the 1st, 15th and 22 at 11:30 am (the 22nd may be earlier pending Earth Day events.) On April 8th we are going to have our annual seed planting and swapping party at 1 pm.

All meetings are at the Pink House, 2474 N. Booth. Show up or contact us at 372-3824 or greenfolksgarden@netscape.net

April Garden Tips: Remember if you plant bushes or trees dig those holes deep! Don’t plant if soil is too wet. Moist is good, dry and wet are bad for working the soil. The earth is good.