Something remarkable is about to happen

Posted on August 16, 2012 by kidsingardens

Julian has a few famous people. One of these local/global treasures is the artist James Hubbell, who lives and works in our little town. Mr. Hubbell has buildings, sculptures and paintings all over the globe. People find his work wildly creative and soaringly beautiful, and he’s known the world over for his visionary spirit, wide artistic range and kind heart.

Guess what? He’s making a piece for our school garden.

Not just any piece—an original gate, inspired by our little garden. This work of art is going to be installed on a section of our school garden that was once a no account piece of broken asphalt in a weedy corner of campus that no one ever visited. This, I believe, is redemption writ large, and it’s all happening in the next two weeks.

I’ll be telling the story in the next couple posts. For now, just know that something remarkable is on its way, and this is the “before.”

Gardening as a community

Posted on July 24, 2012 by kidsingardens

One of my favorite things about Master Gardeners is that I’m now part of a gardening community that stretches across the county. Through this network, I recently read about a sale of a native plant in a San Diego wholesale nursery. A large-scale landscaping project recently fell through for them, and the nursery ended up with 1,000 California fuschia which they are selling for cheap to the public. I decided to pick up a few for my house, a couple more for the elementary school garden, and yet a few more for the garden at the junior high. I put the word out, and one neighbor asked me to pick up 7..another asked for 10….one more asked for 3….. And so today Elliot and I happily loaded up the van with 35 epilobium canum.

It’s a cool plant because 1) it’s a California native that requires minimal water once established, 2) it’s good for hillsides which are features at both my house and the school garden, and 3) its beautiful orange flowers attract hummingbirds. I had fun driving around my town tonight, making my plant deliveries, chatting with friends in the dwindling light of a perfect summer evening, and savoring this sweet example of gardening in community.

Do a small job, be our hero

Posted on June 20, 2012 by kidsingardens

You know how a single job can be quick work for one person, and a seemingly massive task for another? I’ve thought about this a lot, in my quest to get everything done in the school garden that needs getting done. And I’ve come up with this idea: compiling a list of small jobs in the garden and putting it out to our community at large to see if we can get any takers. The idea is that if you want to help our school garden, you don’t necessarily need to join the Garden Club or commit to a big, ongoing project. Just look over our list of “small jobs” and see which ones might be easy and fun for you to do. We’ll quickly reimburse you for any expenses. Come do one job and be our hero for the day!

Take our wheelbarrow. It needs fixed, and for me to do it, I’d spend an inordinate amount of time assessing it, researching what bolts and nuts and braces it would need, and then shopping for the right things, and finally locating all of the necessary tools. (Sad, but true.) Yet for the right person with the right tools…this would be a relatively quick task.

My church has expressed interest in helping with the garden, and so I published a list of jobs in a newsletter, and Hans (who also happens to be my next door neighbor) was the first to say he’d help out. In no time at all, he got our wheelbarrow operational and repaired a fruit tree sign as a bonus! I was so grateful to cross this task off my list, thanks to Hans’ willingness to serve! It’s a good example of a community member investing in kids and public schools, even though his own children have long since graduated. Thanks neighbor!

All Hail the Eagle Scout!

Posted on January 21, 2012 by kidsingardens

Big tip: the Boy Scouts of America are an amazing resource for school gardens. The ultimate goal of any Boy Scout is to achieve the rank of “Eagle Scout,” which requires many things and culminates in a big project. And what do all school gardens have in common? BIG PROJECTS! Making an addition to the garden, the scouts have the opportunity to leave a legacy at the elementary school they attended. Thus far we have been the lucky recipients of two projects.

A “doorway” at the side entrance of the garden:

A small orchard of five fruit trees: apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum. (By the way, kids love the fact that the trees were purposely planted in alphabetical order!)

And now a third young man is getting ready to begin the construction phase of his project: to build a dry riverbed in order to direct rain runoff and beautify the north side of the garden. I should be able to post on the finished project soon. Here’s the “before,” as he’s raking away woodchips to mark out the riverbed’s footprint: