Garden Updates!
After all that wonderful rain pushed back our Opening Day a couple days, May 22nd was a successful day in the garden at Gurrie. All vegetable beds and native landscapes were prepped with food-amended compost from the SCARCE event last month, native coneflower plants from La Grange Highlands teacher Jean O'Brien were transplanted, and we took our first attempt at "lasagna composting" in new cedar beds. Thanks to Mark Omi and the Oak Park Conservatory we were able to turn their donated cedar into raised beds within our already established Chicago cobblestone beds (Thank you Pam Dlhy and the National Honor Society). It's a beautiful addition to the garden and we can't wait for the soil to be ready to plant more food.
The most impressive element of the day was the student teamwork used to get everything accomplished in one Monday afternoon. Current middle and elementary students worked alongside Gurrie alumni to get all seven garden beds prepped, planted, and mulched. We operated in a three-step approach to each garden section with one group per section. Here was our approach: Step 1-pull weeds, Step 2-amend soil and plant seeds, Step 3-mulch and water. It worked like a charm and our garden was ready for growing by 6 pm. Boom.
This is also a cool planting season at Highlands with new garden club sponsors Rebecca Brink and Amanda Schlegel taking the reigns. They've done an incredible job of getting the soil prepped, amended, and mulched with the help of Pete Wengerski at Power Gutters & Windows. Seedlings grown in their science classrooms were transplanted to their multiple raised beds. We'll update you later this summer.
We're also looking forward to our upcoming Green Team Summer Series sessions at Gurrie. Open garden days start this week for students to earn service hours and keep our gardens beautiful and healthy. Next week we'll be taking to the kitchen with Gurrie secretary Pam Dlhy and our third annual "Pam Jam" session. Pickling is right around the corner as is Eric Rejman's "Drones & Gardens" photography session. It's going to be a great summer. Stay tuned and go plant something!
