The Garden Keeps Growing Community

The last couple of months have gone by so quickly, so we will have to backtrack and share all the great things that have gone on in the garden.

On Saturday, November 19, the Emerson Avenue Garden Club (the non profit that will be overseeing and managing the community garden) held a yard sale for the garden.  It was a very successful fundraiser on many fronts.  They collected items from community who emptied out their closets and garages and donated them in support of the garden.  We had the Austism class from Westchester High selling their beautifully hand crafted reusable bags.  There was even a delectable bake sale.  Folks stopped by and bought items, learned about the garden, and reconnected with the school.  So many people made this a successful fundraiser and EACGC raised over $700 over the course of the sale.

Also the Boy Scout Troop 915, just finished a beautiful seating area in the southeast corner of the garden.  Joshua Ohnstad made his Eagle Scout project constructing a seating area that was made from urbanite (recycled concrete pieces) and decomposed granite.  They also built a bench that they installed.  A big thank you to John Tikotsky for organizing and supporting the project.

Picture of the completed space coming soon.

The Orville Wright Garden Club with the help of Joanne Poyourow planted  a demonstration garden in front of the main office.  It has a mixture of edible plants, herbs and flowers.

 

And last, but not least, our own Orville Wright parent, Jeanine Geisregen, submitted a grant with her other Sony employees for the garden and we received it!  The grant form Sony's " A Greener World Green Grant Program" is  for $7500 to continue to establish the student garden and build the community garden with an additional 38 plots for neighbors, OW families and community members.

The Spiral Butterfly Garden Planting

The community  came out on Saturday, November 12, despite the dire warnings of rain to plant the native species in the spiral butterfly garden.  A special thanks to community member Karen Shaeffer for organizing the design and palnting and going all the way to the Theodore Payne Foundation to purchase the plants.  A big thank you to the Orville Wright PTO for allocating $250 for the planting.  After Thanksgiving holidays, Karen is coming back to work with students on seeding the area.

Willow Teaches Us All About Worms

Another great community collaboration, Willow McJilton, joined us on a Friday afternoon in September to show us how to build our vermicomposting bins.  Students from Ms. Cohen and Mr. Fordyce's classes learned how to create a worm condo and what conditions worms like to live in.  We will be feeding our lunch scraps to the worms to create nutrient rich soil and worm tea for our vegetable garden.  Willow was an amazing teacher and we all learned so much.  She also made us containers to hold our scraps and and a pitcher to keep our worm tea with great labels that she created.  We have named all our our worms "The Chakas" and we hope to keep them happy and composting our food for our garden.

Tomatoes are the Big Crop of the Summer

Thanks to all the gardeners who planted tomatoes and basil last workday on June 11, the garden is alive with tomatoes.  Thank you Christine for all the tomato and basil transplants!  Summer in the garden is a little quiet, but  our great community partners headed by Dorothy come and water and maintain all the fruit trees at the south end of the garden.  On Fridays Ms. Cohen has a fun group of College Bound students preparing beds and planting.  Every other Tuesday, Sister Rashida comes and works with a group.  Our newest garden angel is Jennifer Sullivan, also our new PTO president.  She brings a crew of young people each week to water the mandala garden.  The tomatoes thank them:-)  and they are growing beans and sunflowers.  
Don't forget that you can join us Saturday, July 23 from 9-noon and help us with building and maintenance.  We will be sheet mulching the mandala garden pathways to eradicate the crab grass, plus weeding and other fun crafts.  Bring sunscreen and hats and join us!

A Big Sunday on a Saturday!

Another great student run lemonade/bake sale!

Weeding and mulching...

Setting the walking spiral...

Planting more trees...

Awesome alumni...

Look what we grew! (Who could resist?!)

The spiral awaits planting...

as the mural grows, too.

Thank you to everyone who made our Big Sunday Event a wonderful day!

Honoring Earth Day in the Garden

April 9 brought the community back together once again to keep greening our space on Emerson Avenue.  A multiple generational event, this Saturday we double dug 4 beds, planted 7 trees, weeded, made flags and signs and  prepared the larger piece of land for the big tilling.  A big thank you to Darin Early and LMU for providing us with awesome food and great labor, including his three wonderful daughters!  OWMS students Naya Royas and Clarke Brown sponsored a Lemonade Stand to fund-raise for the garden.  After lunch, we had our first ever tree dedication in honor of Helen Rosebaugh. Kathy (Helen's daughter) and her husband Matt were both alumni of OWMS.  Helen's husband , Bill, and grand daughter shared in planting an Anna Apple tree in her honor. Dr. Pride pointed out how much this has already become a place for community.  Joanne Poyourow taught us how to plant the tree.  Another shout out to Princess and her grandfather.  So many people have given their sweat and labor to the garden!

Sister Rashida Is In The Garden!

Orville Wright just got lucky!  Sister Rashida, a  certified Master Gardener from the UC Cooperative Extension has come to Orville Wright to work with our students.  Thanks to Bryce Collin Davis from LMU for making the great connection.  Bryce and Sister Rashida work with two groups of students on Tuesdays and already have them planting  broccoli, strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, etc.  in the garden.