Hello Gardeners,
On Wednesday morning Sarah met with about 20 representatives from Denver Parks and Recreation and various city agencies to learn about the plans for the expansion of their maintenance facility and the impacts it will have on Rosedale garden. Work is expected to begin within the next week. There will be several phases of work and each will impact Rosedale in specific ways, both permanently and temporarily.
Purpose of the construction: expansion and upgrades to the Parks maintenance facility, including construction of a new office and equipment building.
Impacts on Rosedale: Permanent Impact on North side of Garden: Parks will reclaim approximately 5 feet of the north side of the garden. There will be a new fence constructed which will run along the northern pathway of the garden. The estimated location of the new fence is indicated on the attached map by a bright pink line.
Temporary Impact on West side of Garden: Trenching: Parks will dig a trench along the western edge of the garden to accommodate drainage of the new retaining pond being installed in the south west corner of the Parks maintenance yard. A chain link safety fence will be TEMPORARILY erected on the western edge of the garden during the trenching. The trench will run the entire length of the garden from the existing northern fence line to the southern fence line and approximately 10 feet east of the existing western fence. The approximate location of the safety fencing is indicated on the attached map by a bright pink dashed line. As you can see on the map, the TEMPORARY fence will run over the western edge of every garden in that line.
Trenching is expected to begin within the next week, with an approximate start date of February 23. Their goal is to complete the trenching, refill the trench, remove the temporary fence, and return that area of the garden to us by the end of March, but let’s plan on the end of April to be safe. The importance of minimizing the impact on the planting and growing season was repeatedly expressed to Parks management.
Gardens on the west side: The trenching is expected to be completed, and the safety fencing removed, by the end of March in order to accommodate the garden’s planting and growing season. That it will be inconvenient goes without saying, but Parks will work with the garden to make it manageable. In the meantime, all structures/fencing/water hoses/tools will need to be removed from those gardens along the western line..
Sheds: Parks will move the sheds during trenching and will return them when completed.
Compost: Parks will remove the giant pile of “compost” –Hooray! Mt. Hock-a-lugie will be gone. Every effort will be made to preserve the compost stalls.
Emergency Work Day – Saturday, February 19, 9:00 to noon
In order to prepare the garden for the construction, an emergency work day has been scheduled for this coming Saturday February 19, 9:00 to noon.
Tasks to be completed on the work day include:
- Sheds Everything will need to be removed from the sheds prior to Parks moving them. A POD has been ordered to hold all of the sheds’ contents and will be placed in the southwestern section of the garden. Sorry, Waldorf School, but it will need to be TEMPORARILY placed on your plot. The POD will be removed as soon as the trenching is complete and the sheds have been returned to their original location, near the end of March.
- Straw – will need to be relocated within the garden.
- Junk – Parks will provide a dumpster (delivers on Friday) to dispose of any and all of the unnecessary junk around the sheds.
- Garden plots: Assist gardeners on the western edge to removeall tools/trellises/hoses/etc., from those plots. Any wooden frames/raised beds in gardens will need to be dug up and moved.
- Bees: The bee hives will not be impacted, but the bee equipment in the shed will need to be temporarily relocated. Most, if not all, can be placed in the POD. If easier access is needed during construction, the bee team may want to consider storing those items at home, e.g., protective clothing, etc.
We appreciate that this is very short notice, but we need all hands on deck to get our garden prepped for this work. The leadership team will also be on hand to answer any questions about the construction as best we can. Also coffee and breakfast.
Thanks and see you Saturday!
No responses yet