Calendar2023 — Dallas Youth Garden

Calendar

Normal Garden Work Days

Tuesday 4-5
Thursday 4-5
Saturdays 9-11

Start of Garden Schedule

April 7 - Applications Due
April 13-19 - Interviews
April 20-22 Job Offers
May 2- First Day of the Garden Season
May 4-Pull Tarp Day
May 7- Zoom garden plans
May 9 - Day is Off
May 11 - Cleanup from the Plant Sale
May 14 - We start Planting

Garden Calendar (Link)

2024

PreSeason January - May 2

January 20th - Coordinate with Master Gardeners On Tomato and Pepper Plants
January 30th - Apply for Dallas Community Foundation Grant
February 27th - Wilco $300 donation setup (Thanks! )
February/March - Finished up the 2023 Books got nonprofit state/federal stuff submitted
March 14th - Got intern announcements to Bill at Dallas High School and to FCO for student inclusion
March 26th - Bought Seeds at Wilco sale day
March 27th - Awarded Dallas Community Foundation Grant (Thanks!) for $900 for operation support
March 27th - Nonprofit Board Meeting
March 30th - Cleaned up greenhouse and bought mulch for seeds
April 1st - Dropped seeds off to Linda to get squash starts started. Sent and dropped off flyers to all for volunteers and interns.
April 12th - Intern Applications closed. Application information sent to interview committee.
April 16-19th - Intern Interviews. All applicants did a great job with interviews.
April 21-22nd- Intern Job Offer Phone Calls. Fun to offer jobs but also sad to tell some applicants that they did not get the job
April 25th - Dropped off job registration forms at Morrison and Dallas High School

Last Year (2023)

Pre-Season - Feb-April

January - Apply for grants
Feb 15 - Coordinate with Master Gardeners on tomato/pepper plant starts
March 1 - Get announcements out for garden supervisors
March 15 - Post intern job announcements
March 21 - Hold pre-season board meeting
Much 26 - Purchase seeds and garden supplies
March 28 - Advertise at school for job openings
April 1- Volunteers plant squash and cabbage starts
April 8 - Intern applications due
Apri15-20 - Intern Interviews
April 22 - Make job offers to interns
April 30 - Pull tarps off garden and meet garden supervisors

May:

May 3: First day meet at the garden - pass out paperwork

Early May Workday Zoom Meetings - Garden was awfully wet so we did our initial garden meetings as Zoom meetings. Interns started to plan their gardens.

May 9-13: Interns continued to plant their gardens. The interns helped to clean up the Polk County fairgrounds on May 13th. The interns and master gardeners helped to put away chairs, table and helped to overall clean up the fairgrounds space. Bonus: The interns were even able to take some plants home for free this time including tomatoes, peppers, and different house plants! A before, action shot, and after picture of the interns cleaning up:

May 16- 25: The interns continue to plant their gardens, and water, and work on their websites.

May 23-27: The interns have finished planting their gardens and will now primarily work on weeding, watering, and picking flowers off plants such as peppers and tomatoes. The interns also created signs for their gardens.

June:

May 30-June 3: The interns continue to upkeep their gardens by watering, weeding, and picking off flowers. The May newsletter came out as well!:

June 6-10: Interns have now started to put straw down in their gardens. The straw will help prevent the weeds from growing in unwanted places. Interns continue to water, weed, and pick off flowers in their garden.

June 12-17: Interns continue to weed, water, pick, and lay down straw. As the end of June is approaching they are also working on their leadership projects. The shirts for this year have also been decided and are currently being ordered, “You look absolutely radishing.” in red/magenta color.

June 19-24: Interns continue to weed, water, and lay down straw. While continuing to work on their projects as they will present them next week.

July:

June 25th-July 1st: Continued laying down straw, weeding, and watering. All projects were turned in.

July 2-8: Continued to weed and water. Finished laying down straw on Saturday. The June newsletter was created.

July 9-15: Continuing to pick, weed, and water the garden. Making sure to close weed in all the rows.

July 16-22: Continuing to pick, weed, and water the garden. Continuing to close weed all rows to leave room for the plants to grow further.

July 23-29: The interns discussed how they would like to be evaluated. Continued to weed, pick, and water the plants.

August:

July 30-August 5: The interns continue picking weed and water. Finishing up their leadership projects for the month of August.

August 6-12: The interns are now focusing on picking more than weeding. They are now picking more beans and tomatoes and they begin to ripen.

August 13-19: As of this Thursday 2 tons of produce has been harvested. Interns are watering and picking almost all plants. We focusing more on harvesting rather than weeding now, instead opting to close weed squashes and tomatoes instead of rows.

August 20-26: The interns continue to pick their squashes, beans, tomatoes, and zucchinis as well as watering and close weeding.

September:

August 27th-September2nd: The interns had an optional day as well as a day off due to weather. The interns continue to pick, weed, and water.

September 3-9: The interns had their final week before the end of the garden and the beginning of the “extra-innings". They continued to weed, water, and pick all of their produce. They also had an end-of-the-season party!

September 10-16: As part of the extra innings the interns now pick and water their gardens. However, they do not record the weight of the produce. The interns also took away bean and tomato cages that were no longer necessary.

September 17-October 7th: The interns are now picking a lot of beans, along with anything else that is ready to harvest. Taking out tomatoes cages, and shredding any of the plants that no longer produce. Also, putting tarps on the garden on the very last day (October 7th).