Growing Community: Greenhouse Update

Growing Community

Making progress in the Ivy Street Community Garden Greenhouse Project

By Kimberly Langin, Community Engagement VISTA Member

This past week has been very eventful for the Ivy Street Community Garden Greenhouse Project! The Groundbreaking Ceremony took place on Wednesday, October 16th and was well attended by city officials, residents, community partners, and the Ivy Street Community Garden gardeners. Starting off the day’s event was Erik Johnson of the Livable City Initiative (LCI). Erik then introduced Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., who poignantly noted that “what’s growing here is not only vegetables; it’s community.”

The mayor was followed by Delphine Clyburn, Alderwoman for Ward 20, Jim Paley, Executive Director of NHS, Stephen Cremin-Endes, Community Building Specialist at NHS, Velma George, LCI Neighborhood Specialist for Dixwell, Newhallville, & East Rock and Greenhouse Committee Chair, Mrs. Ida Felder, community gardener and next door neighbor to the garden, and Yolanda Jones-Generette, Principal of Lincoln Bassett school, which is across from the Ivy Street Community Garden. Everyone expressed their excitement to see this innovative project underway. Attendance at the event was incredible – we packed an impressive amount of people around those garden plots!

 Mrs. Jones-Generette concluded the ceremony by introducing the Lincoln Bassett School Choir, who shared their talents with us by singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “God Bless America,” with the crowd joining in.

The event was a great success and we have experienced quite a bit of new interest in the project!


The United Way of Greater New Haven was kind enough to pair Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven with the Walsh Construction Company—PCL Joint Venture II for their "Days of Caring" event.

The company has donated their time, skills, materials, and resources to the greenhouse project. Following the Groundbreaking Ceremony, Walsh Construction Company—PCL Joint Venture II formed and poured the footing of the greenhouse. Waiting a day for it to cure, the group removed the footing forms on Friday.

The volunteers spent the next day laying the 30x15 foot, 8 inch thick foundation for the installation of the greenhouse, formed the greenhouse walls, and poured the concrete for the walls.

 
This Monday, the 21st, the group removed the wall forms and did some final clean up before backfilling will occur next week by Lior Excavating, LLC, who also did the initial excavation of the site prior to the pouring of the foundation.
 
A great big thank you to Sean Bush, project manager for the Walsh Construction Company—PCL Joint Venture II, his crew, and Jan McCray-Price of the United Way of Greater New Haven for all of their energy, hard work, and dedication, without which this project would not have been possible!

Greenhouse Groundbreaking

Join us for a Groundbreaking Ceremony - October 16th! 

 

Loving Your House: Love Note #2

Loving Your House: Love Note #2

(Helpful hints for homeowners and homeowners-to-be)

By Henry Dynia, Director of Design and Construction

In Loving your House Love Note #1 last winter, we talked about carefully planning work with regard to season, scope, materials, and available time and monetary resources. We are now in the waning days of the warm season and are heading into the cooler, windy, wetter weather of fall and winter. The days that are favorable to many exterior maintenance projects are limited!

If you plan for these projects in the spring, you will either be ready to finish them or squeeze them in during the remainder of the nice weather. Remember, the days may be warm but the nights can be 30 or 40 degrees cooler. Blowing leaves can stick to paint, and wet leaves can stain your prepared surfaces.
 
It is important to think about how you want to put your landscape to sleep for the winter. We are now in a dry period, with rainfall about 8” below normal for this region. Plants, especially evergreens, will not fare well over the winter with dry roots. Because these plants retain their leaves or needles, there is some transpiration taking place in winter, although more slowly. If wind and sun suck all the moisture out, the plant will become “desiccated” and decline or die. This can be avoided by mulching and watering the plant before winter so that the root zone is saturated and has plenty of free water to draw upon. Ground-up leaves are great for this purpose because they contribute to the overall health of the soil. Huge mountains of leaves can prevent moisture from getting to the soil, so don’t overdo it! Two to four inches is plenty. The mulch insures that the moisture that is put there stays there and is not quickly evaporated by the sun and wind.

Mulch also helps to retain any additional moisture from rain or snow and to some degree acts as insulation against extreme cold. An additional step that could be taken to insure that your plants come back strong in the spring is to spray them just before the onset of freezing weather with an anti-desiccant, such as Wilt Pruf®, which is an Elmer’s Glue-like substance that helps to keep moisture in the plant.

It is a good practice to identify weak or broken branches that may come down from heavy snow or ice. Try to anticipate which long, spindly branches on your shrubs and trees may break under additional weight and wind. Usually a portion of the end of such a branch can be removed to make the remainder less vulnerable to breakage.
 
Leaf collection is often regarded as a tiresome, thankless job that produces no great result. It is time to GET EXCITED about leaf collection. Grass should not be left too long over the winter, and, contrary to their name, leaves should not be left on the grass, because this could foster molds and lawn diseases. The best way to deal with leaves on the grass is to mow over them, slowly rounding them up in a pile, and then mowing the pile. This will reduce the bulk by two thirds or more. All the small crumbs that stay in the grass will help to build the soil. The remainder of the pile of ground-up leaves can be spread on shrub and garden beds or stored for later use. These ground-up leaves will foster earthworm growth and are like gold for your garden. Once you see the benefits, you will asking your neighbors to give you their leaves!
 
Have you prepared your heating system for the winter? An annual check-up by a heating professional is a good idea. You should give your system a trial run during a cool night. Remember, heating professionals will be tough to come by, once it gets cold. Be sure that the serviceable portions of the system that you can manage are attended to, such as changing filters and cleaning radiators and registers. If you are interested in learning more about your home's heating system, feel free to attend our heating workshop on October 16.
 
Usually the biggest bang for the weatherization buck is improving the energy performance of the building envelope. This means sealing up air leaks and improving insulation. What can be done in any one house is variable and should be tailored to the particulars of that building. Consultation with energy specialists, such as utility-based programs for homeowners, energy raters, or insulation contractors, can help steer a homeowner to the wisest course of action. One size does not fit all when it comes to energy conservation strategies. The homeowner is in the driver's seat and needs to learn how to steer!

The Great Give 2013

Help Support NHS during The Great Give - Oct. 2 & 3 

 

Yale Divinity School

Yale Divinity School Day of Engagement

By Kimberly Langin, Resident Engagement VISTA Member

Pictured: Daniella of CB&O, Mrs. Felder, and the 6 student volunteers from Yale Divinity School.

On Friday, August 23rd, Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven participated as a host site for the Yale Divinity School’s Day of Engagement. The Community Building and Organizing Department was joined by six dedicated Yale Divinity School students at the corner of Ivy Street and Shelton Avenue in Newhallville, where they participated in projects at the Ivy Street Community Garden and at Mrs. Ida Felder’s house next door.

Two of the students and I joined up with some of the local gardeners by preparing and staining the garden's picnic table and benches. We also did some minor landscaping and trash removal from the garden site. Kim, Daniella, and Stephen from the CB&O team worked with the other four students in Mrs. Felder's backyard, helping to arrange and repair parts of her fence by securing loose posts and removing broken ones. The group also cut away a number of dead trees and even helped her to repair her trusty clothesline. 

Picnic table - before

 

Picnic table - after

Through this work, the YDS students were able to make new relationships within the New Haven community and learn more about ongoing community projects! Thank you to our YDS volunteers!

Yale Focus 2013

Yale Focus 2013 @ NHS of New Haven 

By Kimberly Langin, Resident Engagement VISTA

During the week of August 19th, NHS hosted a group students participating in Yale FOCUS 2013. Yale FOCUS is a weeklong volunteer-based program for Yale students who hope to engage themselves within the City of New Haven by partnering with a local non-profit, learning more about local issues, leaders, and resources, and ultimately finding their own role within the greater New Haven community.

On Monday, the Community Building and Organizing team and the Yale FOCUS Group did some landscaping and street clean-up on West Division Street in Newhallville. We planted some trees and other plants before placing mulch in the yard of 319 West Division Street, a renovated NHS home that is waiting for a homebuyer.The FOCUS Group then connected with some other residents on the street and helped to add mulch to their yards, as well.

On Tuesday, the group continued their landscaping activities on West Division Street before picking up litter on several blocks in the area. Later in the afternoon, the group prepared and stained the fence surrounding the Stevens Street Community Garden in the Hill neighborhood. The day concluded with a few hours of undertaking property observation surveys, noting the exterior conditions of many properties in the Newhallville community to determine areas in which we should focus our community revitalization efforts. Wednesday continued the surveying theme, this time by taking property observation surveys of 100 houses on Newhall and Lilac Streets. Wednesday afternoon was dedicated to collecting resident experience surveys, which involved knocking on doors and engaging many Newhallville residents.

Thursday, the final day, was hampered somewhat by some less-than-perfect weather. Nevertheless, the FOCUS group took a thorough tour of the Home Improvement and Energy Conservation Lab, learning about its green and energy-efficient features. Afterwards, as the rain continued to pour, the group was able to spend some time in NHS’ office, helping to mail out 90 resident experience surveys to Newhallville residences. Later that evening, Stephen, Daniella, and Kim of the CB&O team attended the FOCUS dinner event at Dwight Hall to thank the student volunteers and their host organizations. Overall, it was a great week filled with community engagement, learning experiences, and both personal and community growth. Thank you to our Yale FOCUS volunteers!

Overall, it was a great week filled with community engagement, learning experiences, and both personal and community growth. Thank you to our Yale FOCUS volunteers!

The Greenhouse Project

The Greenhouse Project

In order to shed light on the abundance of wonderful and successful community gardens scattered all throughout the Newhallville neighborhood, a group of community leaders has begun a project to construct a greenhouse on site at one of these urban farms. After much discussion, the group selected the Ivy Street Community Garden as the future site of this greenhouse.

The Ivy Street Community Garden, located at the corner of Ivy Street and Shelton Avenue in Newhallville, is an ideal location for a greenhouse because it is nestled between the Lincoln-Bassett School and St. Andrews Church, which is a host site for the Solar Youth programming. The garden is also meticulously maintained by a number of avid neighborhood gardeners, who have now become an integral party in the planning process. Eight additional groups have committed to the success of the greenhouse project: the City of New Haven’s Livable Cities Initiative, the New Haven Land Trust, Lincoln-Bassett School, Solar Youth, SEEDnh, Common Ground High School, and Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven.

The planning committee wants to ensure that this greenhouse will be a neighborhood icon that is built to stand all tests of time and weather. The greenhouse will measure 15 feet wide by 30 feet long. It will serve as a model facility where gardeners will be able to extend their growing season while both students and community residents will be invited to learn urban farming practices and sustainable energy techniques. We are also hoping that this greenhouse will inspire the construction of similar structures in other Newhallville gardens.

The Ivy Street Community Garden Greenhouse Planning Committee is very excited about this project and thrilled at the progress it is making. Groundbreaking should take place in early fall. When the greenhouse is completed, the committee will be hosting an open house, inviting everyone from across the city to see the finished product!

If you are interested in learning more about the greenhouse project, please call the Chair of the Greenhouse Committee, Velma George, at (203) 432-6189. The planning team has also broken down into three committees: Design & Build, Programming, and Resource Development. If you have a special skill or interest in any of these areas and would like to volunteer as a committee member, please reach out to us by emailing Stephen Cremin-Endes, the Community Building Specialist at NHS of New Haven.