Planting begins...

Ready, rain. Whenever you are.

Water... our most precious resource

Fingers crossed the rainwater collection system will be operative by the end of the day Friday. The "nerve center" is located behind the fence at the back of the patch. 23 fifty five gallon barrels connected in series should provide us with an ample supply of the wet stuff. And if Mother Nature complies we will rely little on outside sources. Thanks again are in order to Paula at the PCGN and her connections and transport (hope your car is better soon!) As well many thanks Laura at PCCHU and the YWCA for a generous donation of several vegetable plants for the communal garden which will hopefully be planted over the weekend by our enthusiastic Pingo Pongo crew. Laurie joins the ranks with her husband Kyle and we are still waiting to hear from the last three folks who showed interest awhile ago.
The water system "tapped out" our garden cash kitty so we may need some creative fund-raising events in order to get some more projects started. (Think neighbourhood parkette, fence on the parking side, gazebo, storage shed, etc. etc.) But we've certainly come a long way people!

Moving along...

Lots of progress lately. Plots are divided up as follows so far:

first row- Viktoria,TBA,Carmen
second row- Jay, Tim,Patrick
third row- Hank,Jamie,TBA
fourth row- Sion/Kelly,Gavin,TBA... with only the final two plots to be confirmed, the garden is looking full for the upcoming season!

Looking forward to seeing all of you out there in the dirt! There will be people gathering on Wednesday to put together the water collection system and plan for a communal planting in the near future. A subtle reminder: 2010 FEES ARE NOW DUE!!!

Rototilling and Compost Containers

Great day for the Pingo Pongo Patch on Friday. Jay, Alex, Hank and Sion all chipped in to cut the grass, pull some nuisance plants, till the communal plot and build some compost containers. Many thanks are owed to Paula at Greenup for the use of her rototiller and transporting it to the site. We need access to a pickup truck or car and trailer in the next while to round up barrels, lumber, benches, and other supplies. Viktoria joined the ranks of paid Pingo Pongoites, thanks! If everyone else could step up with funds we could get some needed materials soon.
The individual plots will be divided up shortly so let us know a.s.a.p. your plans and desired location.

Action Week!

Calling all Pingo Pongo People! Looks like this week we'll finally start to see some progress. With any luck we'll have one, maybe two rototillers working the land. There's plenty of work to go around, with the collection of materials, tilling the soil, building a rain barrel support, moving rocks and other obstacles, etc, etc. There will be a group meeting shortly where we can organize ourselves and channel our energies. Everyone needs to tap into their connections/resources and see about scraping together some materials. Need an assignment? Call Sion at 876-1972 and we'll definitely put your energy to use. On Friday Sion and Alex went scouting for supplies and may have found twelve 50 gallon rain barrels and some decent lumber, plus possible sources for cheap (free?) eavestroughs and plumbing fixtures. Ideas, plans and materials are needed for the park space in the front and help is also needed to plan the communal garden. Let's show Peterborough the Pingo Pongo Power!

Donations, keep 'em coming!

We've been generously offered two decorative wood and iron park benches from Brenda Adams who read about the garden in The Examiner. That's awesome! Moving forward, hoping to resolve the water issue and get growing!

Water: This just in...

PUC just called back and they won't reconnect the service at the moment. They spoke of costs, maintenance issues, security issues, etc. They did however, mention that the Ashburnham Garden was allowed access to water through pressure from the mayor himself. Looks like we need to get some political power on our side. Hmmm, don't the people put the politicians in office? Power to the people!

Updates: Compost, Topsoil, Water and some Press!

So, 7 cubic yards of compost was dropped off by the city today which is great. Jay has been collecting and dropping off garden waste and grass clippings and others are encouraged to do so as well so we can start our own compost and mulch. Harold at Cavanagh's has convinced a landscaper friend to drop off some topsoil for free and that should be later this week, all awesome. Following up on Tara-Lyn's suggestion, Sion went to City Hall this morning and was directed to Peterborough Utilities regarding the possibility of reconnecting the water service to the lot. Keith at PUC seemed very supportive and said he'd get back to us in a couple days, fingers crossed! Having a source of water on the lot itself would be fantastic. By no means does this mean we'll be relying on it as our main source of the stuff that falls from the sky. Sustainability! Last, but not least, The Peterborough Examiner did a piece on our project which hopefully will draw some people and organizations to lend us some support both physically and financially. Check it out: http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2550641 Go Pingo Pongo People!

Friday Meeting at The Only

Jay, Tim, Sion, Anne and Peter made it to The Only this past Friday for a brief guidelines and strategy meeting. Guidelines and suggested fees have been established and we will have a group get together soon to make sure everyone is on the same page.
We should have two correspondence letters ready this week; one for neighbours inviting their involvement and feedback, and another for local businesses soliciting support through material or financial contributions.
Tara-Lyn made a good suggestion recently that we should approach City Hall to see if they can reconnect the water service. This may involve some funds, all the more reason to get the fees and guidelines agreed upon and start raising some capital through membership and donations. We still need to get a rainwater storage system together. Some feedback, people?
Sion will try and get to City Hall this week to keep things moving forward. Compost will be delivered this Monday, and with some luck we'll have the rototiller soon. Let's start growing!

Water Storage System

Hmmmmmm...
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-rain-water-collector/

Compost from City Hall

The City of Peterborough is generously donating 3.5 cubic yards of compost (value, including delivery $140+/-) For another $40 we have doubled the order, which will be delivered Monday, April 26th sometime. Quick math: 7 cubic yards compost + delivery = $40... (good deal) We need to tackle the water issue sooooon.

New Developments

After meeting with the majority of the Pingo Pongo people it was decided this weekend to go forward with rototilling the entire patch and allowing individuals to decide what method they would use for their own plots. Laura is getting the rototiller prepared and suggested checking for potential underground hazards. The folks at Cavanagh said that all services had definitely been disconnected 20 years ago. To be on the safe side Sion and Jay went to city hall on Monday. The entire parking lot actually takes up three building lots; 338, 342 and 346 Stewart Street, with the garden site taking up most of 342 and 346, with 338 being still used as customer parking. The planning engineers assured their were no city services that would cause problems and suggested we call "Ontario One Call" a locating service. There will be a surveyor checking for Consumers Gas and Bell Canada due some time this week. The PUC said the earliest they could make it was May 4th.
Paula at Greenup said her trailer would be available for Friday should the rototiller be ready, Her car with the trailer hitch may not be available... any trailer hitch connections, folks? Paula also mentioned that City Hall has in the past "donated" compost to a community garden. Jay dropped off some brown bagged garden waste and will look into some pallets to build a composting system. Moving forward!!

The start of something big...

The Pingo Pongo Patch started with a couple with little garden space on their property enviously eyeing their neighbours immense yard and scheming and dreaming of how to acquire a portion for the purpose of growing food. Peterborough needed a neighbourhood gardening organization to provide neighbours with growing options (can you see the acronym forming?) They started going to Peterborough Community Garden Network gatherings and soon found a spot big enough for more than a few folks. When TJ Cavanaugh's on Charlotte Street was approached and liked the sounds of a community garden on their unused portion of the parking lot, Pingo Pongo was born. The rest, let's hope, becomes history.