BPCG Volunteer Meeting March 29th 2018 –Minutes
Attending: Doug, Val, Roland, Cat, Kate, Dafydd, Andy, Errol
Apologies: Chris
1.updates from last meeting
leaky hose – foxes made holes in them. ACTION: pour Dafydd’s vintage urine around, also chicken wire on top of beds. Could also try SCOOT. Kate to check it is safe around vegetables (it is.)
decking plans – will be complete by for May Fete – May 12th . Andy to make 2 planters at his workshop and possibly afterwards. Doug emphasised that these must be on legs to avoid damage to decking. If there is space, people would like more than 2 planters. Safety of people (and of veg beds) must be ensured on veg bed side of decking. Everyone liked the idea of growing hops along the wall adjacent to large pond in park. Possibly we might also grow a male and female kiwi over the decking…..
events calendar– now up on white board. Kate drew attention to cake baking for May Fete (May 12th) and general help required. Planning meeting for all those who’d like to help is on Wed 2nd May at 5pm at BPCG
tidy ups – Many thanks to all who have helped sort out Nissan Hut. Great progress. Dafydd reported that paints and paint brushes still need sorting. Dead water based paint tins can go in skip but nb oil based ones can’t and need to be taken to Wandsworth WREF site. Can we ensure there is a bucket of water / white spirit made available for people to clean out their brushes when they are painting and that brushes are looked after properly and so re-useable.
passive greenhouse – great progress. Doug reported the solar is 99% all ready for wiring. Only delay due to increased power requirements from lower greenhouse (24 Volts). Andy’s made the planter too. Cat will ensure this is planted up by end 1st week of April. Doug is going to try and extrude some Geocell from the base of the Passive Greenhouse so that we can show this in a little box to members of public and volunteers to explain thermal insulation properties of base.
outside taps update – Robin has located the parts needed. Kate has ordered these. Robin will fix them by end of April but is away currently. Other malfunctioning taps are the upper 8 crop tap. Doug and Dafydd to look at building a stand to straighten it out. Dafydd and others to look at tap in Upper Greenhouse by Propagating room
2. greenhouses renovation/extension consultation – please contribute!
Doug and Val had not seen this as had been away. They contributed to it. All agreed that we need at least 4 potting up spaces. Meantime, Cat to buy large plastic potting trays to use.
3. volunteer visit to Biddenden and other volunteer outings.
Agreed that it’s nice to do trips! People positive about Biddenden although Kate expressed reservation about how far away it is and said it is quite niche (? Spitalfields City Farm might be better ?)…also May is a very busy time at BPCG if this was considered best to time to go to a vineyard…but Cat to explore further. Generally, Kate emphasised that if individuals are happy to be point of contact for trips, she can do the publicizing that there is a trip on via the weekly volunteer email. All the point of contact has to do is to tell her the place they want to go, the date they want to go, receive emails from those wanting to, arrange a meet up etc…. There is a small budget for these trips so do think on.
4. pond in walled garden. Susy from BPCP asked if BPCG would be interested in maintaining this. On balance whilst we like the idea of the pond being restored in the walled garden, we are sorry but we can’t mainting it as we have too much to do already!
AOB
Gas bottles behind kitchen….if we are not using these, we should dispose of them. Can anyone volunteer to take them to appropriate place? A garage / WREF? (Robin has taken the ones from Nissan Hut to Remakery.)
Paths by Nissan Hut down to Pond Container – beyond the tarmac: – these are very slippery and muddy, please can the next batch of wood chip go down here.
