Newtown Planting The Seed!
Volume 12
Garden Club
The Garden Club has been up and running for four weeks. We have 17 students and they are so excited. We alternate at the moment between the courtyard and the bus loop. That means either garden goes for two weeks without any attention from the club. Our goal is to be able to split the kids and one group work in each area each meeting. For that to happen, we have to have at least two staff members there at each club. We have been weeding, planting, digging and assembling chairs. The kids get so excited with every new discovery they find in the dirt or on the plants. They love getting to use tools to assemble the chairs and other things we get. You should try and come out for at least one club meeting and experience all the excitement.
New Growing Season
Greenhouse
The construction and repairs to the greenhouse are moving slow, but they are still moving. It will hopefully end soon. The remaining work is high work, up on a ladder finishing up the roof. We will need to replace three old brittle panels on the walls. But that will have to wait for the next grant. The panels are at Home Depot at $37.00 each roughly. Once the greenhouse is finished, we might be able to extend the growing season even further using large pots and grow some radishes, carrots, beets, lettuce etc. You see, with the right tools, you can grow almost year round.
Big News - Garden Expansion
City landscapers will be using 4X4 or 6X6 landscape timbers, providing the dirt and building the beds for us. There are some other considerations that will be added in. Instead of using mulch for the walkways, they will be using crushed stone. This will provide for better drainage. less effort for weeding. Add that in with a spacing of at least five feet between the beds these changes will ensure the garden is handicap accessible for those students or families we have or might have that are in wheel chairs.
They will also start removing the juniper ground cover along the walls to increase the growing area for the vegetables. I'm hoping to get them to put a crushed stone base in the green house too. In the spring, the bus loop will look remarkably different. It so exciting.
Volunteers Needed
We are always looking for more adult volunteers to help with the garden and keep the environment safe. I want to keep a safety ratio of like one adult to every 4-5 students. Please contact me at Kevin.Rickard@vbschools.com if you are interested. You will also need to fill out the form linked below and provide it to the office.