Franklin Library: Indoor Seed Starting - Jan 15

A presentation by the Blackstone Valley Veggie Gardening group will cover "Indoor Seed Starting" at the Franklin Public Library on Tuesday, January 15 at 6:30 PM.

Franklin Library: Indoor Seed Starting - Jan 15

"At Blackstone Valley Veggie Gardens, our mission is to inspire others to grow their own fresh produce. We deliver residential and community based training, consulting, and assistance in vegetable garden development. We are dedicated to the belief that most people should have the knowledge and opportunity to grow wholesome fruits and veggies in containers, raised beds, or in-ground gardens."

For more info about Blackstone Valley Veggie Gardening visit
http://www.blackstonevalleyveggiegardens.com/

Community Garden Committee Annual Report For FY 2016

"The mission of the Community Garden is to provide Franklin residents with a place to meet, learn, and grow, by providing a healthy space in which we can share the joy of growing organic fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

In partnership with the Town of Franklin, the Recreation Department, and the nonprofit Friends of Franklin Community Gardens,

Your Community Garden Committee:

• Identifies appropriate locations
• Coordinates design and construction of new gardens
• Develops and enforces rules and regulations for the gardens
• Oversees the plot lottery, gardener registration and plot distribution

We pledge to continue:

• Supporting our community in growing local food
• Providing locally harvested food to those in need
• Promoting increased social interaction through gardening within our community
• Developing an educational garden for all ages

The King Street Community Garden continues to thrive in its fifth season! This year we have 52 beds available for planting, all of which are currently leased to community members and local non-profits, including St. Vincent De Paul, HMEA, and the Franklin Food Pantry. Our annual May plant sale was a success as always, and last October’s garlic planting demonstration was well-attended. The Community Garden welcomes interested gardeners of all skill levels.

Over the past fiscal year, the Community Garden Committee has focused on two areas in addition to our typical tasks. First of all, we undertook a review and rewrite of our bylaws, rules, and regulations, in order to incorporate the best practices and experience we have gained over the last five seasons at King Street. This updated “gardener’s handbook” has been made available to all gardeners electronically via Google Docs.

We have also made a concerted effort to recruit new gardeners and new members for the Committee. With the departure of former Chair, Christopher Clay, the Community Garden Committee is in great need of additional Committee members to help us efficiently run the King Street Garden and plan educational programming for the community. Our Chair, Bonnie Kaiden, sent a letter to all of our current gardeners seeking new Committee members, and we are awaiting responses. We have not yet succeeded in finding additional Committee members, but we are continuing our efforts in that direction and hope to have new members soon.

We look forward to many more harvests to come! If you would like to join us for the 2017 season, please visit the Franklin Recreation Department in person or online. For more information about the Community Garden, contact us at franklincommunitygardens@gmail.com or visit our website at www.franklincommunitygardens.com.

The Community Garden Committee meets the First Monday of the month at Town Hall. Check the Town of Franklin Meeting Calendar for details.

If you are interested in serving on the committee, please contact any committee member or visit the Town Clerk’s office."

• Bonnie Kaiden, Chair 
• Kiernan Reed, Secretary 
• Amy Acevedo, Member 
• Rich Clauser, Member

Respectfully submitted,
Kiernan Reed Secretary

fresh growth at the Community Garden in August 2016

This was shared from the official Town of Franklin page
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_News/024A19CA-000F8513

Other related posts on the Community Garden

• 2016

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2016/05/franklin-community-garden-seedling-sale.html

• 2013

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/community-gardens-photo-essay.html

• 2012

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/06/franklin-community-garden-diatomaceous.html

Social Media Roundup: scam alert, drug that kills, rain garden tour, golf fund raiser

Items that I saved from my Facebook feed that seemed share worthy. You likely realize that everyone's Facebook feed is unique to themselves. What you see is not what someone else sees. The continuous Facebook algorithm changes makes it hard for groups to get their message to a broad audience without having to pay to "boost the post". Hence, from time to time, I'll share what I find that makes sense for Franklin to be aware of.

Scam alert from Franklin Police

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2016/08/25/that-is-not-the-irs-calling-you/

Via NPR comes this on the latest in opioid drugs that kill

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/02/492108992/an-even-deadlier-opioid-carfentanil-is-hitting-the-streets?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160902

The Charles River Watershed Association write up of the recent tour of Franklin's rain gardens

http://blog.crwa.org/blog/take-a-tour-of-franklins-best-rain-gardens

FHS boys basketball boosters schedule a golf outing as a fund raiser Oct 8th

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-franklin-boys-basketball-alumni-and-friends-golf-tournament-registration-27345808048

sun rise on the Town Common

Franklin Community Garden Seedling Sale ->> May 28-29

This year's seedling sale will be held May 28-29 (Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend), at the King Street Community Garden, from 9 AM-12 PM both days. 

Stop by, get your plants, and talk to us about joining the Community Garden Committee! 

We need new committee members as well as new gardeners. 

If you can't make it to the sale but you're interested, please feel free to contact us through Facebook or email and we'll be happy to fill you in!

Community Garden

• Community Garden Committee on the Town of Franklin website

http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_BComm/garden

• Community Garden Committee on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Franklin-Community-Gardens-152040424825578/

Community Garden Committee - Agenda - Sep 14, 21015

The next meeting of the Community Garden Committee will be held at the Municipal Building at 8:00 PM in Room 205, Monday, Sep 14.

The agenda document can viewed or downloaded here




And from the official Franklin page here
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_News/021EDFF0-000F8513

Franklin Community Gardens - located at King St Memorial Field

Additional info on the Committee can be found here 
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_BComm/garden

Franklin Community Gardens: Pollinator Event postponed due to the weather

Hello Gardeners,

The work day and pollinator events have been postponed due to the inclement weather. We'll update you all as soon as we have confirmed a new time with the speaker for the pollinator event.

bee on flower

http://www.franklinmatters.org/2015/06/pollinator-talk-in-king-st-community.html

Pollinator Talk in the King St. Community Garden June 28th at 11AM

Ed Szymanski will be giving at a talk at the King St. Community Garden this Sunday, June 28th, at 1PM. Please join us to learn about the role that pollinators play in making the community garden a success each year.

bee on flower

​Updated 6/25 - 8:00 PM - > Note: We've moved the time of the pollinator event to coincide with that morning's workday. The workday will run from 9am until 11am. At 11am the pollinator event will start and will run until approximately noon.

If you plan on attending please RSVP to franklincommunitygardens@gmail.com so we have a rough head count as there will be handouts.

Sincerely,

The Franklin Community Garden Committee

Franklin Community Gardens - June Update

Hello Gardeners,

The garden is looking good as we move into the middle of June. 

Open Registration for Additional Beds

We still have a handful of open beds in the garden. At the last committee meeting we decided to open the registration on these gardens to existing gardeners, allowing you to obtain and additional bed if you so choose. This bed would only be available for this season, and when you renew next year you'd need to choose which you'd like to keep. If you are interested in an additional bed please visit the Recreation department to register.  

Garden Work Day & Pest Control Tutorial - June 13th 9am to Noon

I apologize on the late e-mail for this, but tomorrow we'll be holding the first official work day of the season and we will be doing a tutorial on organic pest controls. The workday runs from 9am until Noon and allows you to get your required volunteer hours done in one shot. The tutorial will start at 9am.

Future Work Days for the 2015 Season

• June 28th
• July 18th  - Will include a tutorial on tomato plant maintenance and diseases.
• July 26th
• August 8th - Will include a tutorial on fall planting
• August 23rd
• October 12th
• October 27th

Sluggo Plus

There was a discussion at the last committee meeting about the prevalence of cutworms in the garden this spring, along with additional pests. One of the potential remedies would be to apply Sluggo Plus to the garden beds, but for it to have long term results it would need to be garden wide. There are conflicting reports on its toxicity to some beneficial critters such as bees and earthworms. 

Franklin Community Garden photo from 2014 season

We will discuss this further at the next committee meeting, so if you have any strong feelings on the subject please let us know or attend. 

As always if you have any questions let us know!

Sincerely,

Chris Clay & The Franklin Community Garden Committee

--

http://franklincommunitygardens.com/

Visit us on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Franklin-Community-Gardens/152040424825578

Follow us on Twitter!

http://twitter.com/#!/FRKLNCommGarden

Community Garden continues to grow

On my Saturday walk I went by the Community Gardens to see the raised beds and how they were growing. The beds were in various states of growth. I met and talked with a couple who with their young daughter had just gotten a bed this week. They were setting out their plants while their daughter was having a good deal of fun with the dirt.

Photos from a random sample of the beds and their growth.

growing in Franklin -1

growing in Franklin -2

growing in Franklin -3

growing in Franklin -4

growing in Franklin -5

Related posts on the Community Gardens

Annual Report 2013
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/01/annual-report-2013-community-garden.html

Growing - July 2013
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/07/community-gardens-photo-essay.html

Getting ready for 2012
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/01/heralding-in-new-gardening-year.html

Build day - 2011
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/05/community-gardens-build-day.html

More about build day in 2011
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2011/05/and-then-there-were-gardens.html

Plants for sale - Community Gardens

Starting your garden? A variety of vegetable plants are available at the Community Garden.

a sample of plants for sale

listing of plants and prices

The sale is scheduled Sunday from 9:00 AM to noon.

Where is the Community Garden?  At the King St Memorial Park

Franklin's Community Gardens - ready for growing

In the rain Saturday, I stopped by the Community Garden. It was quiet and empty. Signs of preparation for the growing season were around.

Franklin Community Gardens

worthy caution

garden beds ready for planting

garden beds ready for planting - 2

rain barrel and shed

Fresh mulch was added. It ha snot completely been spread out yet so some piles remain.

For additional info on the community gardens, visit their page on the Franklin website
http://town.franklin.ma.us/Pages/FranklinMA_BComm/garden

From their section of the Annual Report
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2014/01/annual-report-2013-community-garden.html

Where are the community gardens?
In the King St Memorial Field

Walking Saturday

Saturday gave us a teaser of spring with the temps getting into the 50's in the afternoon. I went for my walk in the morning and caught the following photos to share.

point of view

When you frame a photo, you are setting up a point of view. We all have a point of view. Some times we act and think like we don't but how we frame things definitely affects what we think and do.

Emeritus at 656 King St opening in May 2014

 A new senior living center is opening on King St in May. The Emeritus website is full of information on the approach they take for this time of life and the special needs associated with it.

Emeritus entrance on King St

The Emeritus blog has good articles. Recent articles include one on how to live to be 100
http://www.theseniorcareblog.com/post/how-live-be-100

and one on how to make exercise fun
http://www.theseniorcareblog.com/post/how-make-exercise-fun

King St Memorial Park sign

 I need to do some research on this person. Can anyone help provide me some insight on who William A Somerby Jr. was? He is recognized with this sign and a memorial in the park.Other than that he was a Colonel in the US Air Force the signs don't provide additional detail.

ready for March madness?

 The basketball court looks too wet to play today but give it another day or two of this good spring weather and there'll be some folks gathering to play hoops

Community gardens in their snow blanket

stream flows under King St

lucky to catch a melting drop of water

Sometimes the right amount of being there and patience brings a reward. I was able to catch this drop of melting snow! Did you get to take a walk on Saturday? Where did you go? What did you see?

Would you be interested in joining me for a walk some Saturday morning? If so, please leave a comment or send me an email. If there is interest, I'll schedule some time for a group walk and talk.

Community Gardens - (photo essay)

The Franklin Community Gardens are located at the King St Memorial Park off King St in Franklin. I stopped by 2 weeks ago to take some photos to share. Yes, the 2 weeks has just flown on by.

Franklin Community Gardens

Abiding by the guidelines of the garden, I visited and left with photos and memories

zucchini

I found zucchini

summer squash

I found summer squash

a full garden bed

Some garden beds were chock full of green growing plants!

acorn squash (if I recall correctly)

I found acorn squash

not sure what this is?

I wasn't able to identify this one but with the dew on it, the photo was too cool to pass up. Can someone help me identify what this is?

green beans

and green beans

bee-utiful

It was a bee-utiful visit to the gardens. How is your garden growing?

Summer Sprouts - July 13-14 from 9:00am to 11:00am

From the Franklin Community Garden website:

Please join us on July 13th and 14th, from 9am to 11am, at the King St. Memorial Garden for child focused gardening events. Grown-up children welcome as well! Attendees can make their own pots and plant green beans in them to take home. We will also be planting green beans in the garden itself. These beans will then be available for children to harvest at events on September 7th and 8th, when the beans are mature. 

green beans 

We will also be giving tours of the garden to help children identify the plants that grow the fruits and vegetables that they love, or refuse, to eat. This is an excellent opportunity to have your children learn about where their food comes from, and eat something they've grown from seed. In the short time since the garden was founded we've had numerous parents comment on the difference growing their own vegetables made in their children's eating habits. This is an opportunity for the community at large to join in the fun, so please tell your friends!

For more info about the Community Gardens visit their website
http://www.franklincommunitygardens.org/

Community Garden - Spring Plant Sale and Workday

Spring Plant Sale and Workday 

May 25th 9:00am to Noon 

King St. Memorial Garden

In event of Rain the even will be moved to May 26th

Join us for a day of planting and getting the garden ready for the growing season. We'll have organic plant starts on sale to help your garden get started right, and we'll be working on general maintenance of the garden as a whole. Weeding, spreading wood-chips, and other work the garden needs. We'll also be starting a pollinator garden at the garden to help bring in the beneficial bugs that the beds need for bumper crops. Please come lend a hand! For all plot holders please remember that you need to participate in at least one work day each season. There will be work days at least once a month.

Franklin Community Gardens

Could there be an Incredible Edible Franklin?

Pam Warhurst explains how they started:

We tried to answer this simple question: Can you find a unifying language that cuts across age and income and culture that will help people themselves find a new way of living, see spaces around them differently, think about the resources they use differently, interact differently? Can we find that language? And then, can we replicate those actions? And the answer would appear to be yes, and the language would appear to be food.

Food, ah yes. We all need to eat to live. This TED Talk describes how the community of Todmorden is working to change what they eat and how they eat. The Incredible Edible Todmorden is a story worth replicating.





We have the basics of this underway already in Franklin with the Community Garden. We just need to get more folks involved.

For more information on Todmorden, visit their webpage here
http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/

Three Franklin Events for Sunday, Mar 17th

1 - Start with the Community Garden. From 9:00 AM until noon there will be spring garden work and demonstrations
http://www.franklincommunitygardens.org/2013/03/spring-garden-celebration.html

2 - Help celebrate the solar installation at the First Universalist Society at 11:45 AM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2013/02/solar-anniversary-celebration.html

3 - Franklin celebrates it 235th birthday at the Historical Museum from 1:00 to 4:00 PM

Historical Commission Chairwoman Deborah Pellegri knows exactly how far her town has come since March 2, 1778, the date of its incorporation. And this year she will renew a tradition of holding public celebrations of Franklin's birthday. 

Pellegri, also the town clerk, invites one and all to a special party from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Historical Museum, 80 West Central St. In addition to wishing Franklin a happy birthday, she will recognize, as well, several residents born on March 2. 

Emma Newton, a 13-year-old harpist from Franklin, will perform, as well as local singer/songwriter Jamie Barrett, who’ll play "The City Known as the Town of Franklin," his ode to the town.

Read more: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1433797648/Franklin-to-celebrate-235th-birthday#ixzz2NhGy7Q9g

Jamie Barrett's "The City Known as the Town of Franklin"




And an alternative to these three events would be to get to Boston to see the boys hockey team play in the State Championship game

Photo essay: Community Gardens' growing!

I stopped for some photos as I ran by the Community Garden at the King St Memorial Field on Sunday morning. It is quite impressive to see so much goodness growing in the garden beds.

Cherry tomatoes

Red 'hot' peppers

The garden was built with raised beds to allow for the produce to be grown without getting contaminated by whatever pesticides and fertilizers had been used on the fields over the years. Nature does what it does best in good conditions, it simply grows. And in this case, out from under one of the raised beds, this tomato plant is doing it's thing!

How does your garden grow?

In the News: Army grad, school gardens

Franklin man completes the Army's toughest schools

by Matt Tota/Daily News staff

School gardens a growing idea in the region

by Scott O'Connell/Daily News staff

Weekend Outlook

Friday


Low flying helicopters today
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/alert-low-flying-helicopters-friday-may.html


Saturday


Oak St PCC Fund Raiser - Franklin Caf'e & Grill - 6:00 AM - 9:00 PM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/oak-st-pcc-fund-raiser-sat-may-19th.html

Library Book Sale - 9:00 - 4:00 PM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/library-book-sale-this-weekend.html



DPW - "Touch a truck" - 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM



A Tomato Planting & Support Demonstration - 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM
http://www.franklincommunitygardens.org/2012/05/may-educational-and-event-calendar.html






Master Plan Committee Public Hearing - 10:00 AM - noon?
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/master-plan-hearing-this-saturday.html

Sunday Cub Scout Registration - Sunday 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/franklin-cub-scouts-running.html


HMEA 5K Independence Run/Walk
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/hmea-11th-annual-independence-5k-may.html



BBC Fund Raiser for Kelly/Lazinski Family
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2012/05/bbc-fundraiser-for-kellylazinski-family.html