http://www.ronbravo.com/mytoolbox/source

IMPORTANT NOTE: I developed this software using the Mozilla Firefox Internet Browser because it complies with webstandards more than Internet Explorer and it has better development tools. This means some of the myToolBox features may not work in Internet Explorer. I am assuming that the tools should work fine in the Safari or Opera browsers as well, but since I have not tested this I cannot confirm it. I just know that Internet Explorer will probably not work. This does not mean Internet Explorer will never be supported it just means that it is currently a pain in the ass to work with and so I’m holding off doing anything with it.

Once you’re on the myToolbox site just click on one of the tool names and the tool should run. Below I give a little bit of a description about them.

Tabula Terra

This is a simple journal entry system to allow people to enter in different conditions for the day while they were in their garden. This is Jill’s idea so I will be working with her to try and flesh this out more. At the moment it is pretty much a clone of the functionality provided by the Seeds of Change Garden Planner. Ours is a little more sterile than theirs but I imagine as development moves on Tabula Terra will start to look a lot nicer.

Currently anyone can enter in a journal and mess around with it. Once user accounts get up and running we will be able to allow the journals to be organized more by an individual’s account. I also plan on allowing for charts to be generated so that we can get a visual representation of a lot of the data users will be putting in. I know that Jen has begun tracking her harvest at the end of the month and those are the kinds of things I’m hoping can get entered into the database(See Jen that’s the surprise I was talking to you about).

Some of the ideas Jill has thrown around are things like getting a nice database going of information on what people are planting, what their weather is like, and anything else related to growing food in our region. Hopefully in a year or so we will have enough data to compile and print for people to use. So there is a lot we can do with this.

Wiki Reader

This is a wiki application. Even though there is a ton of wiki software out there, many of them are pretty complicated. Most do not have the techno junk stripped out so that normal people can just jump right in and start creating documents. The few that I did like for easy of use required a subscription. No way. We need a free solution, and since I could not find what I think would be best for the group I’m hoping to create something that will. Now I will admit I have no idea how hard or easy creating wiki software is, but I figure we have some time before having a wiki up for AZHS is essential. In the meantime I will try and throw something together and see what comes out. Mostly though I’m using this as an excuse to practice my software development skills and gain a little more experience. So that in the future if AZHS does need some specific tool that does not exists I may be able to provide an option.

So that’s the myToolBox package in a nutshell. It’s all been license under the free, as in freedom not beer, license known as the GNU AGPL version 3. I’m also using several 3rd party souce code libraries to help take care of some of the heavy lifting in the development of this software. The big idea being that the source code stays open for any community to update, maintain, and modify how they see fit. Providing them with the freedom to do what they want with the software hence the phrase, free as freedom not beer. Of course the development community at the moment is only made up of one person, me, but I hope that will change in the future. So give it a spin and post back any feedback or suggestions you might have. As I said these tools are in very early stage so don’t expect much yet. Give it time and they will grow.

So another nice Citrus Glean hosted by Arizona Homegrown Solutions.

Wow an amazing meeting.

This is a wrap up of what is going on in North Phoenix and of the notes from our meeting.

• Looking for ways to get the neighbors more involved and doing things that allow us to get to know them.
• Nick is working to get a school garden started at North High School next year. He also has his eye on an empty plot of land by his home.
• Nick is working to get a school garden started at North High School next year. He also has his eye on an empty plot of land by his home.
• Proposed meeting once a month for the group. Possibly the second week of every month?
• Creating a community resource Database/Spreadsheet
  • List any materials or equipment people have to loan.
  • Might contain people and locations in the area that are composting for the community.
  • Adding a resource of stores or restaurants that give away organic material and coffee grounds.
  • Listing people who are storing seeds and what they are saving.
  • Anything else that might help people in the area.
• The Horses Help Facility want to work towards opening up their facility to sustainability programs and events
  • Horses Help facility is looking to become a major Hub Solution for the North Phoenix area.
  • Their presentaion room is open for teaching classes and hosting movie nights.
  • Looking to work with AZHS sustainability and gardening experts to help create garden beds and composting bins in the empty and unused areas of the Horses Help facility.
  • They want to hold Green events and tents to allow the public to come in and learn about sustainable living.
  • Creating and herb and sensory garden for autistic children and people will disabilities.
  • Inviting local chefs to harvest the food and to host classes on how to cook with the food.
  • Drawing in local schools to come see the horses and visit the future gardens.
  • Use the facility and things we offer as a way to generate income for both AZHS and Horses Help. For example charging for classes, events, and possibly charging for a few products we might be able to produce. There are a lot of opportunities to try and genereate a little money for both organizations.
  • We need to work on a economic model for sustainability. How are all these programs and projects going to be paid for and how are they going to economically sustain themselves.
  • Horses Help has a pool of over 250 volunteers who can help us setup what we will need for the site.
  • Eagle Scouts are an excellent resource for volunteers. They are usually limited to what they can participate in, however planting and gardening may be something that they can help with.
  • Several troubled teen or people help services can come to the facility to help us garden and maintain the site.
  • This seems like an optimal opportunity for Permaculture Design students to really come in and work their magic on this site. Gregg has practically given us free regin and is very excited to see what comes out of this.
  • Try to set up this North Phoenix facility as a model for many of the other Horses Help locations around the country.
  • Working with local busniess. One of the Horses Help members is Cathy Phifer, who’s husband is a regional director for Home Depot, so we may be able to ask them for help in the future. This may include things like creating a small list of needed items and seeing if business like Home Depot can give us a hand in getting those items.
  • Ken Singh has offered to give Greg and special one on one host and instruction on how to do composting on a massive scale. If we can establish Horses Help as another composting resource this should help aleviate the demand on Ken a bit.
  • Look at providing making this a place where youth from all over the valley at various schools or organizations can come to and learn.
  • Is it possible for Horses Help to have a green store on their location?
• Updates on Mountain View Facility
  • Currently working with Walter Knox who is the coordinators at the Mountain View facility to see what possibilities exists for a community garden to be put in at that parks and recreation center.
  • Talked with Ken Vonderscher Deputy Director of the Central Phoenix parks and recreation areas and he is interested in working with AZHS. Several other groups garden at some of the parks but they mostly do roses and flowers.
  • Ken also gave some advice on things the Parks and Services will be more receptive to:
    • AZHS might be able to give them advice on how to revamp the city’s adopt a park program.
    • Arranging for volunteers to help with graffiti painting, garbage collecting, light prunning, and some general park maintenance. Perhaps that can be part of the agreement of renting a plot?
    • The details of having a community garden at a park still need to be worked out but we do have to people from the city who we’ve started a dialog with.

Here are some of the pictures from the facility. Just a lot of areas where gardens could go in. Again we need to get some Permaculture Design students up here. They will go wild.

So a very relaxed meeting where we just got to know each other and began brainstorming ideas back and forth. This list is here as a reference so hopefully we can start creating a few goals and tasks to move ahead. There are good people in this group and we can make some magic happen.

So today I attended the, Seedballs 101 with Ruby Sheffer, at the Dolce Verde Solutions Hub. It was a very interesting class. For those who do not know, seedballs are made of clay, potting soil, and a variety of seed species that are all rolled up into little balls. The balls can vary from the size of peas, Coco Puffs, or Whoppers candy balls. They look so much like candy balls that I almost ate one.

In the class we spent sometime going into what seedballs are and how they can be used to help create plant life in an environment. We also discussed how seedballs can be very destructive to a natural existing ecosystem if one is not careful about what seeds are being introduced. Now this isn’t a huge concern if placing them within a downtown residential area, however as you start to get farther away from developed areas and closer to the desert this becomes a very important thing to consider. There are way to many occurrences of people introducing problematic and pervasive species, like Bermuda Grass, into natural environments. So importance was placed on researching and knowing what kind of seeds are being placed into the ball and what works well for where you live. I figure when in doubt, use native seeds. After the lecture we began to make the seedballs. Not a complicated process. Just pick some seeds, get some potting soil, get some clay, and add water. The recommended ratio was about 1 quantity seeds, to 3 quantity of potting soil, to 5 quantity of clay, so about 1:3:5. I use quantity because Ruby said you could use whatever measuring tool you had. We used teaspoons. Then we just made some seed balls. I enjoyed the class and thanks goes out to Ruby Sheffer for hosting it. We will have a follow up class so I will be planning a small seed project this week to see what kind of seedball mix I can come up with.

Mountain View Community Center

So all this talk about community gardens and the planting party at the Wesley Community Center, got me wondering what could be done up here in North Phoenix. So I drove to the park next to me and took a few pictures of the area:

Mountain View Community Center is a really nice facility. Just by chance I happened to meet Anna and Alex as they were leaving. After mentioning the growning interest in community gardens, they began talking about how they would like to have people with special skills come in and speak with the kids and elderly of the center. She even mentioned how the idea of planting a few things could be looked into. She did not offer any guarantees of this but at least it was not a no. Both Anna and Alex seemed interested and so I’m going to stop by Monday and see if we can talk about the details a little more. It was a nice way to end the day. If anymore develops I will post it. C ya.

1. Check with mulching services at dump. Sometimes city dumps set aside organic materials like yard clipings and tree leaves.
2. See if any municipal leaders can help. Two names came up Maria Baier and Phil Gordan.
3. Look into the New York City, Washingon DC area community gardens and see what they did to get up and running. Maybe contact them?
4. Locate and start tracking potential plots of land. Then find out things like who owns them, water source on plot, places to compost, what residents live in the area who would be interested, and so on…
5. Can community gardens be had at the Phoenix parks?
6. What more is needed to get schools involved?
7. Get schools to start growing their own food for kids’ lunches.
8. Opening schools up in the evenings for things like community pot lucks, free urgent care facilities.
9. Getting schools, especially middle and elementary, to teach more culinary classes and agriculture classes.
10. Contact churches to see if they would be interested in starting compost piles or even community gardens.

Phew. Yeah we had fun thinking of a lot of things. Again, this is based on a bunch of assumptions. We have no clue what is involved to get a lot of this done, but decided it was still important to think about. It’s energizing meeting people who have this authentic desire to help. Makes me want to leap tall buildings in a single bound. LOL!. Anyway, met some cool people and hope to keep this up. Now for the hard part, which is trying to get some of the stuff on this list done.

My Hole in the Ground
After a few days I’ve managed to remove about 90% of the dirt in a plot from my backyard, as the photo below shows.

My Backyard Photo

The size is roughly 4ft wide by 37ft long by 2ft deep. I broke a few PVC pipes which was frustrating but I think I should be able to fix them tomorrow. I talked with Jen and we should be setting a site analysis for my home in the next couple of weeks or so. I know what you’re thinking, “But Ron, shouldn’t youhave done the site analysis before you decided to dig a grand canyon in your backyard?” To which I can only reply that you are correct. Oh well. In any case should be a good chance to get some PPG Design Course students out here to see what they think and to provide some advice. In the meantime I need to work on fixing the PVC, getting woodchips, getting a little more compost, getting some coffee grounds, and a few cardboard boxes. Then I can begin filling the hole and start planting. The good news is I a close friend named Debbi who is interested in starting her own garden as well. So the digging doesn’t stop here.

Software Development
So after the decision to stick with Ning for a while, I decide to turn my attention to a few other things:

1. Installing a wiki
2. Looking into making some widgets for the site.

One of the things that came out of the AZHS’s class at Partners in Participation, was that we agreed to install a wiki or some kind of software to document stuff. This way member have a resource they can use to help them with gardening that is specific to our region. As with most software there is sooooo many to choose from. So I’m still looking.

In the mean time I’ve also been toying with some widget stuff. Check it out here:

My test widget!

So nothing to impressive, but it is a start. From there I hope to do some more stuff. I’m using a widget/user interface library I came across called ExtJS. It uses javascript and was orginally made for the Yahoo widget library. The best part is that ExtJS is open source and very mature.

Now some people wonder why I’m a huge advocate of free open source software. One of the biggest reasons is freedom. You are not tied down to the decicions and policies of the developer, as I found out in this Ning Developer post about widget laboratory. Essentially the story goes that due to issues Ning was having with a 3rd party over repeated violations of user information, Ning had to let the developer go. Some people were a bit angry as the decision was made without their concent. This was a set back for some as they had invested a lot of time and money in both Ning and the third party Widget Laboratory. In the end Ning recovered and now offers a bunch of cool little apps and a development platform through the OpenSocial API. However, I hope my point is clear that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes opensource can give you that freedome to branch off and move on if the developer does something you don’t agree with.

Anyway, we’ll see how ExtJS holds up.

That’s all for today. Time for bed.

Not as many people as last time but we still managed to pick a lot of fruit. I think somewhere around 1200 pounds. The cool thing was that a friend from work Alfonso Elenes decided to come along for the trip. He’s the one who took most of the pictures this time. Enjoy.

From what I understand this is becoming more popular with people who have fruit trees. They are also very grateful that we are doing this since it would normally cost them about $150 dollars to hire a person to come out and pick the tree for them. After that the fruit is usually just thrown away. So in the end the Citrus Gleaning is working out well for everyone.