Category Archives: Community Garden

DEAD TREE REMOVAL: Prep for ReTree the District

CoLab, Community Garden, Linear Park, ReTree, Tool Library

LinearPark250Please join the University Heights Tool Library, CommuniTree Stewards, and residents of University Heights as they look to remove dead trees, which unfortunately died during the drought earlier this year, that will be replaced during the fall ReTree the District planting on November 5th. Meet at The Tool Library [5 W. Northrup Place] on September 24th from 9am to 11:30am. Anyone over the age of 18 is encouraged to attend. Gloves and refreshments will be provided.

Make sure to RSVP for the event by emailing colab@ourheights.org or by registering through out Facebook event so they are able to bring an accurate number of tools for everyone!

                                 https://www.facebook.com/events/611989835646358/

June Workshops at the Community Laboratory [ 9 W. Northrup Place]

CoLab, Community Garden, Housing, Tool Library, Uncategorized

The Community Laboratory (CoLab) is at it again to offer you free and low-cost DIY workshops to improve yourself and the community around you. The CoLab are a multipurpose space that offers DIY workshops and open space rentals in the University District. Check out what’s for offer below!

JUNE WORKSHOPS AT THE UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS COMMUNITY LABORATORY

DIY Spoke Card Workshop and Fundraiser! – Friday, June 3rd @ 10am – 6pm – Spoke cards can be fancy or functional, blingy or blasé. These handmade cards are laminated to weave into and adorn your spokes with information about where you have been, your thoughts or artistic style, or maybe information to keep on hand (road rules anyone?!).
 
All crafting materials will be provided, but feel welcome to bring something of your own to laminate. We encourage friends, neighbors, and fellow bike enthusiasts to join in on the fun. Let them know you’re coming by clicking (and registering) here!
DIY Exterior Paint Workshop by Valu Home Centers – Saturday, June 4th @ 10am – 2pm – Valu Home Centers and their team of experts will be back at the CoLab again hosting a FREE workshop for those of you who need a brush-up, no pun intended, on how to properly paint the exterior of any home. They will provide a brief but detailed tutorial then lead you thru a hands-on demonstration as everyone helps to prime a tagged wall of the University Heights Tool Library, which will transformed with the inclusion of a new mural! Register here!
*NOTE: The first 25 participants to register for the workshop will receive a FREE $25 Gift Card to Valu Home Centers, great for buying a few gallons of paint!*
Little Library Decorating Day at The Foundry – Saturday, June 4th @ 10am – 1pm –Come participate as skilled artists and residents add that last special detail to the little libraries crafted in May which will then be auctioned off publicly to help raise funds for future Tool Library and Foundry community projects. Bring a friend or fellow crafty person to get your design on! The workshop will take place at 298 Northampton in the Foundry’s wood shop.
Little Library Decorating Day at The Foundry – Sunday, June 5th @ 10am – 1pm – Come participate as skilled artists and residents add that last special detail to the little libraries crafted in May which will then be auctioned off publicly to help raise funds for future Tool Library and Foundry community projects. Bring a friend or fellow crafty person to get your design on! The workshop will take place at 298 Northampton in the Foundry’s wood shop.
DIY Bike Tune-Up and Resources by Bufvelo -Friday, June 17th @ 5pm to 7pm – Bufvelo are back yet again to offer their wisdom and expertise when it comes to the biking world! Join Andy and Nat as they answer questions pertaining to your bike and its ventures, and offer their knowledge of cheap and free bicycle resources around the city, country, and interwebs! Register here!

 

DIY Restaking, Retying, and Pruning Tree Saplings – Saturday, June 18th @ 10am – 12pm – Interested in urban forestry but just a beginner? Then this workday is the right place to get started and into everything trees. Come learn basic tree biology and techniques for tree maintenance as amateur arborist and CoLab co-founder Joseph Kurtz takes you around the University Heights to retie, stake, and prune young saplings planted during Phase II of ReTree the District. Register on the Tool Library’s facebook page!

DIY String Art Workshop – Wednesday, June 22nd @ 7pm- 9pm – Participants will have fun hammering away their stresses as they create their own, sophisticated piece of rustic String Art.  We will be using a vinegar treatment to give our wood a rustic appearance and several design templates will be available to choose from including a buffalo, a bicycle and a skull, just to name a few.  String Art is fun and easy to make and the results look great!  You will be proud to display your new piece or even give it as a gift.
Because we will be using hammers, this activity is best suited for artists ages 12 and up.

Participants are encouraged to Pre-register to reserve their space.  The cost of the workshop is $25.

Final Tuesday at the Tyler Street Community Garden Workday – Tuesday, June 28th @ 3pm to 7pm – Join the garden manager and volunteers of the Tyler Street Community Garden for their monthly workday as they share their gardening knowledge with other volunteers and University Heights residents who

Closing Out the Tyler Street Community Garden

Community Garden, Linear Park

With the snow on its way it’s time to close out another successful gardening season at the Tyler Street Community Garden. Our volunteers have put in a tremendous amount of effort to revitalize and maintain the community garden this year and we want to end the year strong with one last workshop and workday.

Putting Your Garden to Bed 2Putting Your Garden To Bed

Learn how to prep your ground and raised beds for the cold, winter months in this free workshop presented by expert gardener Caesandra Seawell. This is a learn-by-doing demonstration so come prepared for one last round of gardening as we’ll be covering the beds and laying down landscaping fabric and mulch along the paths between the raised beds. Anyone and everyone is welcome so bring a friend or two to get your last minute gardening fix!

*Note: We have King Alfred Daffodil bulbs available for any participants

When | Saturday, November 21th @ 10am

Where | 73 Tyler Street Community Garden

 Final Tuesday in Tyler Street Community Garden

Since we tackled the closing of the garden last week at our workshop,  we’ll be having our first (of multiple) planning meeting for next years season! So come with any ideas and ways to improve the connection between the garden the community we are aiming to serve. We’ll be meeting at the University Heights CoLab next the the University Heights Tool Library.

When | Tuesday, November 24th @ 3:30pm

Where | University Heights CoLab [9 W. Northrup Place Buffalo, NY 14215]

Topics of Discussion:

– Allocating a number of raised beds to communal beds

– 2016 Events & Workshops

– Signage and Fence Mural

– Community and volunteer outreach

 

Final Tuesday in the Tyler Street Community Garden

Community Garden, Linear Park

Final Tuesday's October Slider II

Final Tuesday in the Tyler Street Community Garden

It’s the final Tuesday of the month again! Join residents of University Heights and the dedicated volunteers of  the Tyler Street Community Garden (73 Tyler Street Buffalo, NY 14214) today from 3:30 – 5:30pm for their monthly workday in the garden. Today’s agenda will consist of prepping the beds for the winter and planting crocus, tulip, and daffodil bulbs in the beds and neighboring green spaces,  which will blossom in the spring.

They’ll bring to the tools and gloves. You bring a family member, friend, or neighbor and an appetite for community improvement!

Planting Spring Bulbs and Garlic on Saturday, October 24th @ 10am

CoLab, Community Garden

Planting Garlic Slider

Learn how to plant Spring bulbs and garlic at a FREE workshop offered by a local gardening expert on Saturday, October 24th from 10am-12pm in the Tyler Street Community Garden.

Participants will have the opportunity to take home free gloves of garlic and other leafy-veggie seedlings for planting. Tools and gloves will also be available for everyone so come ready to work and to get dirty!

Submit the google form below to register for the workshop and we’ll see you on Saturday!

Community Garden Cookout

Community Garden

TSCG_workshop&cookout

In order to celebrate the sweat and hard work we’ve put into maintaining the Tyler Street Community Garden this year we’ll be throwing a cookout at the garden on Sept. 19th from 12-2pm immediately following the Extend Your Growing Season Workshop. Bring your family, friends, neighbors, and fellow gardening fanatics for some good food and even better company!

If you would like to bring a snack or drink to share, we’ve listed a few things we’ll need below. Please email Joe Kurtz at kurtz.josephj@gmail.com if you’re bringing so we can avoid having 5 veggie platters and 1 bag of chips 🙂

  • Chips/Pretzels
  • Pop/Juice
  • Plates
  • Lawn Games (cornhole, kan jam, croquet, ladder golf, lawn darts, bocce, etc…)
  • Veggies (we can eat some of our crops too)

This is a community cookout so anyone and everyone is invited! If you have any questions or suggestions don’t hesitate to contact Joe at the above email. Looking forward to seeing you there!

REMINDER: Workday in Tyler St. Community Garden Moved to Wednesday, August 26th

Community Garden

DC Watering

Reminder: the workday in the Tyler Street Community Garden has been moved to Wednesday, August 26th from 1pm-4pm.  We’ll be working with UB students to weed, deadhead, and perform maintenance on the all of the beds and surrounding landscape. Anyone is welcome to join in on the collaboration for a few hours or the full day. We’ll provide the gloves and tools, you come ready to work!

Tyler Street Community Garden Planning Meeting Minutes from 07/15/15

Community Garden

 

Lilies

Thanks to everyone who joined us last night at the Colab for our planning meeting! We had a lot of great conversations regarding the present and future direction of our garden. If you were unable to attend the meeting, read the minutes below to see what we chatted about:

Planning Meeting Agenda -Summer 2015 (download)

  1. Purpose
    1. To create a green space where the public can enjoy, events, workshops, and community grown produce
    2. Beautification of the neighborhood and outreach to kids
    3. An example of how a community can turn a vacant lot into a neighborhood asset
  2. Delegation of Responsibilities
    1. Co-Managers:
      1. Anne will get back to Joe the week of the 20th on whether she would like to be co-manager
      2. Joe has offered to take up the role if she does not want to
      3. Tasks include attending all Grassroots Gardens leader meetings, plant distributions, etc…
    2. Communication –Primary contact between managers, Grassroots Gardens, and volunteers (Joe)
      1. Email (kurtz.josephj@gmail.com)
      2. Google Docs/Polls
      3. Will contain everything in Garden Binder
      4. Joe will share will all volunteers
      5. Garden Binder (which will be kept at the CoLab) for managers and volunteers
      6. GiveGab events and workshops
    3. Grounds keeping – Joe will contact Mickey for the role
      1. Tasks include – mowing the lawn, watering, brush/trash cleanup, ordering materials
      2. Develop a grounds keeping schedule with Mickey (Joe)
      3. Follow up with Mickey about woodchips (Joe)
    4. Citizen Scientists – Anne
    5. Anne will contact Joe the week of the 20th about setting up a meeting to discuss the programs
  3. Neglected raised beds at end of W. Winspear
    1. Beds and plants will be removed and transplanted
    2. Making sure the knot weed has been terminated so it isn’t introduced to the garden
    3. Joe will send out a poll to see the availability of the volunteers to plant a workday
      1. Or will be handled at the next Final Tuesday Workday (07/28/15)
    4. Since beds are pressurized, they will be converted into a “planter bench”
    5. Location in Community Garden (TBD
  4. Events
    1. Community Cookout has been set for September 19th following the Extending Your Growing Season Workshop
    2. Contact UB, Farmers Market, Capen Garden Walk, GG, GJP, and local block clubs about attendin
    3. Add End-of-year-beginning-of-year postcard to blue bags UB sends out (Darren
    4. Joe will create and share GiveGab and Facebook events
    5. Donation events such as plant swaps and seed swaps can be used to raise funds for the garden (Dates TBD)
  5. Clarify adoption system for beds
    1. We will discuss the possibility of moving from an adoption system to an open-community bed system during/following the Final Tuesday in November
    2. A formal meeting date at the end of November/beginning of December will be decided thru a doodle poll (Joe)
    3. Potentially allocating two raised beds as community beds which can be used for free public harvesting
  6. Signage
    1. An A-frame will be built and secured at the Tyler Street Community Garden and Winspear Triangle (Darren & Joe)
    2. Contact block clubs to find out who made their signs (Darren or Joe)
  7. Diagram of Garden
    1. Uploaded to the TSCG drive (Joe)
    2. Find date to tackle the Japanese knot weed (Joe)
    3. Provide literature on best methods to remove weed before workday (Caesandra & Joe)
  8. Communication (Joe)
    1. GiveGab page for volunteer events, workshop, and month to month tasks
    2. Find day to train volunteers on how to use GiveGab (Joe)
    3. Facebook page (Joe & Darren)
    4. UHC Web Page (Darren & Joe)
    5. Google docs will contain everything in the gardening binder (Joe)
    6. Canvassing about events, and workshops will be done thru social media (Joe)
    7. Contact UB about adding informational postcards to the UB Blue Bags (Darren)
    8. Plants Map (Anne & Joe)
  9. Month by Month Tasks
    1. Tasks for each month will be present on the Tyler Street Community Garden GiveGab page and chalkboard/bulletin board in the community garden (Joe)
    2. Send out a doodle poll for an alternative workday starting at 6pm (Joe)
    3. Create small sign of top 5-10 weeds for public to pull at any time (Joe)
    4. Find day for monthly meeting thru doodle poll (Joe)
  10. Annual Plan
    1. A planning meeting will be scheduled for the end of November or beginning of December to discuss the 2016 plan for the garden (TBD)

 

Community Garden Planning Meeting

Community Garden

TylerSt_surveyheaderWith the growing season well underway, it seems like a good time to meet up and talk about short and long term ideas for the Tyler Street Community Garden, plan for the rest of summer and fall, and get a jump on next year.

If you’re interested in attending a planning meeting please respond to this doodle poll with your availability: http://doodle.com/g8kxirwfyxkwcyhh

Hopefully we can luck out with some nice weather and meet right in the garden.

A few things to figure out in the short term include:

  • Dealing with the resident gopher/ground hog (There is extra chicken wire in the shed if you’re looking to protect your bed)
  • Re-locating two raised flower beds from the end of West Winspear
  • Uses for remaining compost and soil
  • Signage for the garden

FREE Workshops in the Tyler Street Community Garden

Community Garden

Looking to learn a thing or two about gardening this Spring and Summer? Well we’ve got some workshops that might interest you! Whether its learning about Rain Gardens or Attracting Pollinator Friends (Yes, even the bees) we want to know what workshops you’d attend. Gardening Workshops will be hosted for FREE by the University Heights Tool Library and the Tyler Street Community Garden.

Complete this short survey on some of the workshops we hope to offer so we can start scheduling!