Simins’ herb garden QR code links to this google doc

Thanks to Bill and his volunteers, we have a regular bike repair workshop at LaPlaza.

featuring:

Claudi from Pinc Louds

Drag Performances, Tarot Reading, Acupressure, Shirts, Wellness, Raffle, Food, and Drinks!
3-9 pm
$10 donation at the gate
Sat. 6/19, 3-9pm, s/w corner 9th & C

photos by Marie-Helen

La Plaza Sandbox project

come and have breakfast Saturday 6/4 at 9 am with us to find out more

La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden offers a unique learning opportunity for the youngest New Yorkers.

Here our children play and have fun while learning how to take care of plants, how to compost, and where our food comes from. Most importantly they learn how to be part of a community. Playing in a garden where all ages, ethnicities, religions, and races meet and where many different activities take place at the same time is the best way for them to learn and grow.

photogallery from Olympia:

and this is what is was before the gorgeous re-build:

Our garden has a big community of families with children and the sandbox is literally where many long-lasting friendships start. The La Plaza Sandbox is heavily used daily during the warmer months but also on the weekends during the colder season by many local families. For more than six months of the year, this part of the garden literally functions as an oasis for toddlers and under-slept parents. We’re now designing and building a new sandbox that:

Will restore the structure; replenish the sand and add a protective mesh tarp for rain, trash, and rodents
The new design will offer smart sitting for guardians that function also as storage for toys and children-friendly tools.

PDF FLYER

PDF of plans

The Eventbrite link for tickets is here

Help Make La Plaza Shine! Save the date for our après ski winter fundraiser in the garden on December 9th from 7pm to 9pm.

About this event:

Join us for our winter fundraiser, featuring Neapolitan pizza made on the spot with the freshest ingredients by the folks from In Crust We Trust, seasonal drink offerings and s’mores from the Wayland, hot chocolate, tarot card readings, a live performance MC’d by Robert Galinsky, live music by Eric Hoffman+Ken Hatfield, and a chance to win amazing prizes in our raffle, including dinners from many local restaurants.

You will be kept warm, fed and entertained in our lovely garden under the stars in NYC’s East Village.

We are a group of volunteer community gardeners at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden along with some friends, raising money to install solar panels to power the garden so we can get off-grid. The pavilion will also serve as a four-season classroom offering workshops to the community.

The La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez community garden will be constructing an outdoor solar pavilion that would serve as a teaching and function space as well as an example and experiment in urban sustainability and permaculture. We intend to hold meetings and teach workshops within the space as well as have it open to anyone who is visiting the garden. The structure itself will be critical in permaculture instruction since it will serve as a working example.

Our organization is a volunteer-run non-profit registered under ‘New 600 BC East 9th Street Block and Neighborhood Association’ but doing business as La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez. As a licensed GreenThumb community garden we are concerned with the stewardship and management of the garden space as well engagement with our local community. We rely on our members to do all of our own fundraising, organizing, and administration in addition to the labor that goes into maintaining the garden space. We provide plot space to allow members to grow their own vegetables and flowers while we also function as a local outdoor space that is open to all members of the public.

We have worked with timber frame specialist Greg Katz and architect Andrea Warchaizer to design the structure. We have also partnered with local architect Paul Castrucci who has helped us prepare for the DoB filing and will be the architect listed on the submission. We selected the site of the project in order to maximize sun exposure to the panels while also limiting the impact of the structure on the existing functional space of the Garden. After doing some shade studies and consulting with the membership we selected the current location.

The structure will have a clerestory roof, with the upper plane holding a solar panel and the lower a green roof. The solar panels will furnish the power needs of the garden while being grid-independent. In addition to running the tools and water pumps of the garden we also need electricity for the various events, we host throughout the year. We provide the neighborhood with a venue for small local gatherings as well as hosting free public theater and music. This serves the community directly and helps to raise money for the garden.

We are acutely aware that in many ways our neighborhood sits directly on the front lines of climate change. During Sandy, reliable access to power was far from guaranteed in the neighborhood. This solar infrastructure will help to increase local resilience by providing a sustainably grid-independent power source in a public place. This goes hand-in-hand with objects of the Gardens Rising project and those of OneNYC.

The project is funded through a $30,000 grant provided by Tripadvisor.

a PDF of the Presentation

The Eventbrite link for tickets is here

thank you Pedro for making the signs to fund to finish of the Solar Pavillion.

photos by Marie Helen.

some photos for now, Matt will add the meeting notes shortly.

garden meeting 04-10-2021

garden meeting 04-10-2021

garden meeting 04-10-2021

garden meeting 04-10-2021