Spartan Garden

 

                This fall, Green Club has take on the school garden in a big way. It had fallen deep into weedy disrepair in the last year or so; there was no time to work in it with last year’s schedule. This year, I changed mine to eliminate an advisor class and now, on Fridays, about a dozen students and I head out cross the football field to the school garden patch.  It is amazing what twelve people can get done in 40 minutes—more work than I can do in six or seven hours. We go out in the grey drizzle, feeling powerful in the face of bad weather, and walk back to school laughing when we are done, damp.

·         We’ve pulled all of the big weeds (the small ones are still there).

·         We have filled the yard debris barrel over and over again.  We could use another.

·         We have hacked back the blackberries that reach through the fence because they are rooted between a fence and a garage.

·         We have broken down the ancient non-functional  compost bins and replaced them with hoops.

·         We have pulled most of the grapevines out of the arbor vita—the rest is waiting for a ladder and a day without anyone else around.

·         We have laid a thick layer of leaf mulch over most of the garden beds in two large swaths.

·         We have rescued strawberries that were in the path and they are now in the back of my classroom waiting for a new bed.

·         We have planted two fava beds.

·         We wrote a grant for six raised beds and six benches which would have a huge impact upon the space.

·         We have transplanted all of the native plants that were along the chain link fence line into the area around Dixon Creek with all of the other natives.

It looks a LOT better. But, there is still:

·       

  Greenhouse needs to be repaired and bricks laid down as a floor.

·         The trellis over the entrance needs to be rebuilt.

·         More mulching and weeding.

·         The fridge in the shed needs to go away—it works, if you want to haul it!

·         Weed trees need to come down.

·         Plant the line between the garden and the football field with pollinator plants so that it is clear that the neglected patch by the cross country shed is not our problem.

·         Blueberry bushes! Raspberry vines!

·         Glow up the scarecrow! Fix the stained glass garden art! Make pretty signs!