[Green] Call for agenda items

[Dawn Hewitt]

HI Jim,

Sorry to be late to add something to the agenda, but it just came up today.

Proposal: To build three *turnable* compost beds behind the RE building.

In years past, Wendy, our hard-working building steward, hauled grass
clippings and raked and blown leaves and other yard waste to Greenleaf --
in her own car--throughout the year as required. But last fall, we
encouraged her to rake the leaves into chain-link structures on site (under
the tall evergreens behind the RE building).  She appreciated the
convenience, and filled all three "bins" with leaves and branches. But
there was no easy way to turn the material in those tall, narrow bins. They
were so full of brown matter (dead leaves) that there was no room for green
matter (fresh grass clippings, or vegetable food waste). Consequently, the
leaves did not break down at all during the winter. In the past week or
two, Roger (and YOU) emptied the chain-link bins and hauled the leaves to
Greenleaf. We hoped the bins would be friendly to insects that overwinter,
and that vegetation that grew on FUUSM property could decompose on FUUSM
property, building the soil. We failed.

Maybe insects that overwintered in the leaves did end up in the soil, on
site, but the leaf matter got hauled off, so no benefit to FUUSM's soil.

Wendy proposed that if we had three square, adjacent, 2- or 3-foot tall
bins, we could alternate brown and green matter and turn the contents, and
we'd have more success with insect friendly biomass management onsite.

Thanks for chairing the meeting!

--dawn




On Tue, Jul 9, 2024 at 9:15 PM jamesgrecni--- via Green <green at fuusm.org>
wrote:

> Hi greenies, this is what I have so far for our July 21st meeting.
> Please let me know if you have any other items for discussion.
>
> Just so everyone knows about the current recommendations for the solar
> bench, which was damaged by flood waters this spring, I am including these
> excerpts from recent emails:
>
>
>
> Jay has agreed that he can rebuild the solar bench but only if it is in a
> safer location.  Roger and I have an idea:
>
> Since the solar bench needs moved to safer ground I'm wondering how FUUSM
> folks would feel about moving it to the Washington Co. main library.
> There's been a discussion of creating  a garden with some wooden sculptures
> and this could be a location.  Or, perhaps in front of the library.  I'm
> hoping Roger and I will have a meeting in the next couple of weeks for a
> wrap up from May Art in Alley (to begin planning for 2025 as well) and it
> would be good, if you have no objection, to suggest the idea of a new home
> for the solar bench.  Annie Warmke
>
>
>
>    Thanks for your vigilance with the solar bench.
>
> I think that the placement of the solar bench is a call for the Green
> Sanctuary Committee.  They'll be meeting soon.  George Banziger
>
>
>
> I think the plan to move it to higher ground is wise—no one will object to
> that. The challenge, though, is that we worked with the City of Marietta on
> this project, and the library is Washington County property. Surely the
> city will understand the need to move it to higher ground, but they might
> want it to stay on city property. If  they let us move it to county
> property, and if the library and county commissioners are agreeable, then I
> think the library would be a great spot.
>
> But this needs to be a Green Sanctuary discussion, and then we need to
> talk to municipal officials. Thank you for suggesting it, and it’s high
> time we get this bench moved and working again.
>
> Huge gratitude to Jay for being willing to repair it after it is moved to
> a more sensible location.
>
> —dawn
>
>
>
> Please be prepared to weigh on these options or to offer your own ideas.
> – Jim Grecni
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Green mailing list
> Green at fuusm.org
> http://fuusm.org/mailman/listinfo/green_fuusm.org
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://fuusm.org/pipermail/green_fuusm.org/attachments/20240711/181f245b/attachment.htm>