Details on Limited Gardening Opportunity; Info Sessions 6pm Tonite, 10am Sat

Here is more information about the opportunity to garden (in a limited capacity) in May and June.  Learn more at an info session at 6pm tonite OR 10am Sat. (RSVPs to cvearthlab@gmail.com will really help us manage numbers).

Overview for CVEarthlab Members Interested in Gardening During Pandemic

A small number of volunteers will have access to the garden for watering duties and transplanting.  Note that these volunteers (who sign a waiver from CV) will enjoy access to the fenced-in outdoor space while gardening (no kids under age 4 in the garden proper).  We will need people to commit to watering and checking the garden in the mornings 1-2 days a week.

Volunteer Gardeners Needed!

We also need some volunteers to steward tomatoes that Sandy started.  This means bringing them home to sit on your window sill, watering them and then hardening them off, and transplanting in early June.

More details about modified gardening are below.  If you are interested, we will give you a hard copy of the waiver.  Thank you!  -Denise, Sandy, Shari + Judith, Core Garden Committee Members

How We Will Garden Safely and Responsibly

Despite the critical need for social distancing and sheltering in place, many authoritative groups have shared professional guidance on operating a community garden during the pandemic.* We hope to use some of these guidelines to operate CVEarthlab Garden on a small scale this spring, from roughly May 1^st to early June.

We propose allowing @10 garden members to have access to the garden on a limited basis.  They will respect these strict rules.

1. Only healthy people, without symptoms, and without known virus exposure, can enter the raised bed garden inside the children’s play area.
2. Frequently used surfaces and shared tools (pad lock, hose, shed handle) will be cleaned and sanitized before and after individual use. (Gardeners will bring their own sanitizer; garden committee will keep backup supply on site.)
3. No more than 3 people are permitted to be in the raised bed garden space at one time. 
4.  If training sessions are needed (to show techniques for watering, transplanting or hardening off plants) we will hold multiple training demos to allow for staggered access. Please see attached map for an example of how 7-8 people could congregate around the general garden area (including the mulched walking area near the parking lot) while maintaining 6 feet of social distance between each other.  Each red spot represents one person, map is not to scale and the larger rectangular beds are 6′ in length for reference.
   5.    No more than 8 people are allowed in the general garden area at one time. This type of training demonstration or supervised activity would be necessary only 2-3 times, maximum, during the month of May.
5. All gardeners will wear face masks.
6. No children under 4-years-old are permitted in the raised bed garden inside the play area. However, with 1-to-1 supervision, children 4+ can water using their own watering cans (that they bring back and forth from home) in the public, open area.  (Children cannot use the hose or any shared tools.) Parents or other garden members must move flowers and herbs outside the garden area for brief watering sessions with young children.
7. Gardeners understand that if there are violations of these rules, change in circumstances or public health recommendations, garden access may end immediately

*GARDENING: A Guide to Community Gardening During Coronavirus Pandemic, April 7, 2020 (Purdue University)

* NYRP COVID-19 INFORMATION: Policy on New York Restoration Project Garden Access, April 1, 2020 (NY Restoration Project)

CVGarden-planning-layout-distance training 4-23-20