Victory in the Fenway

Hi All,

The board puts a lot of work into our monthly e-letters, alerts, and keeping you informed through facebook.  Help us out by checking your e-letters and alerts for the latest on issues like compost and chips. 

In the June e-letter compost and chips were discussed under “2012 Boston Natural Areas Network Soil Delivery Update”:

BNAN has for many years been the sole source of community compost from outside the gardens.  Each January BNAN members and partnering community gardens can place a seed/compost order.  That’s where the free seeds provided to attendees to the FGS Spring Meeting come from, and FGS usually orders 80 cubic yards of soil/compost, which is delivered in the spring whenever it becomes available from the City of Boston.

The soil/compost is free to members/partners. FGS does not pay for it; it is provided as a perk to our members.  There is no provision for an entitlement to free high quality soil/compost in the FGS Guidelines, Regulations or bylaws. We obtain it when available due to longstanding relationships with institutional partners.  Should the membership wish to include a provision requiring that each member receive a quantity of high quality soil/compost deliverable on demand the board would recommend raising dues by $5-10 a year to cover the cost. 

Members who can’t wait for the BNAN/City of Boston delivery of free soil might check with neighbors to see if any are interested in going in on a group order, or contact the FGS hotline at (857) 244-0262 to inquire about others in the Gardens who may be doing so.

Chips for individual gardens are also the responsibility of individual gardeners.  Chips for garden paths come from Boston Department of Parks & Recreation and Arborway Tree Care when available.  Their availability to FGS is based on many unpredictable factors and is never guaranteed.

This year’s compost was contaminated (click here for the story), and while BNAN is promising clean compost sometime down the road, we can’t tell you when.  It’s really just out of everybody’s hands this year.

If we have any new information on any of this, you can be ABSOLUTELY SURE we will share it with you right here and on facebook as soon as we get it, as we have always done.  Please look for it here first.

Thanks All!
Mike