I'm tired but feeling great after this weekend's big project! My friend had a great idea for our kids' elementary garden. She wanted to make it bigger and better (but that was no easy task). Back in December we talked about this and she had wanted to do it for several years. Apparently she talked to the PTA president teacher and she said she would help us. So, I was the designated garden design coordinator.
We brought big plans of making edible landscaping and gardens around the whole campus and brought it to the principle. We got shot down for most of the areas, but he said perhaps we could start with a portion of it and then in future years work up to the larger-scale plan. So, my plan for a mini orchard went out the window, but at least the idea that each grade level would get to have two planters and a tree to take care of sounded good. A lot of approval from the district office and maintenance had to happen, but the big gardening day took place on Saturday (after months of going through approvals)!
Here are the plans... It was a long seciotn so it was broken up into two pages. Although the final outcome I didn't get the 24' section on the left of the first page--we squished everything from the left of the lemon bush but it still came out fine.
My friend, Steffanie, went through a lot of work getting the plants to be delivered, the soil to be delivered, and the old grass to be tilled before the project began.
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| Grass was tilled, taken away and we got mulch. |
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| It was a lot of grass that was removed. We were expanding the garden by about 170% |
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| Soil delivery! 12 cubic yards. |
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| One of the main guys going over the plans with me to make sure all the planters and benches would fit. My original plan was bigger, but they wouldn't let me take the garden an extra 24 feet since utility trucks need space to turn around and come into the school near one of the gates. |
Sharefest was the main contributor and helped organize volunteers and funding to sponsor our plan. Here's the registration table.
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| Sharefest brought in a camera crew and did a few interviews before the project got underway. |
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| Volunteers ready and going to help out! |
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| While I had a crew working on clearing the older section of garden there were crews putting together the planters. |
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| With the four old planters cleared, we planted plants from the local nursery. |
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| Lots of crews working on different sections of the garden. |
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| Sharefest had helped make these boxes in the past, but kids would put trash in them. We finally put soil and a rosemary plant in each corner box. These bench designs were modified to be part of the new garden too. Read on! |
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| Planter boxes were laid out but then we ran a sprinkler system under them. |
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| Sharefest organized lunch with Chick-Fil-A. Yummy after working hard, but still more to go. |
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| The planters were put back down, got a bunch of soil, but it was time to put mulch all around them. |
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| Looking good! |
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| Our first bench we assembled! Only eight more to go. We filled the planter ends with herbs. |
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| More planter boxes that needed the slats put on to make a bench. |
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| New plants need water : ) |
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| Putting the finishing touches on the garden, only a few more benches to go! |
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| It was a lot of work and a lot of volunteer hours, but it is looking beautiful. |
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| We're done! |
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| And it looks amazing!!! |
Now the school has a garden we can be proud of. Kids can come out and read here and learn more about plants. Hopefully we can enjoy the fruits and vegetables too : )
Thanks again to over 60 volunteers, many who worked from 8AM to 5PM. Well done!
