A School Garden

This is my first year as a volunteer on the Garden Committee at my son's elementary school. The garden was created about eight years ago and continues to be a source of fascination and learning for the children.

We just started cleaning up the beds, pruning and preparing the soil for planting.

The garden consists of four raised beds with another bed going around the perimeter by the fence. It gets mostly full sun except for the southwest corner which gets shade from the tree outside the fence.

The far bed above is typically planted with strawberries on one end and garlic on the other.
The other bed is planted with various vegetables, some sown by seed, others planted by seedling.
There are also three compost piles that are maintained and used in the garden.
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There are two more beds on the other side of the path that will be planted with vegetables. The children have already planted seeds for radishes and carrots at one end. At the far end of the photo, along the fence, is a raspberry bush. It's one of three that we have in the garden. And just outside the photo, on the right, is the herb garden filled with all sorts of wonderfully smelling plants, even in their dormant state.

Outside the garden entrance and along western wall of the school is the Rose Garden. It's been weeded since this photo was taken (a big job as you can see!) and now we can see the pansies and daffodils that are also sharing the space with the roses. The water feature in the center was created a few years ago by the art teacher and his fifth grade class. Each child designed one of the tiles. I think it is so cool.

Last weekend we weeded more of the beds, tilled the soil and pruned the raspberry shrubs. Once the beds are ready, the children will be invited outside and given seeds or seedlings to plant. It should be fun to watch them get their hands dirty and also learn about growing their own food. I'll keep you updated on the progress!