Calling All Green Thumbs! (Brown Ones, Too!)

Posted on by Elisabeth Tobia

This Saturday (10/13) is EC3’s monthly “volunteer Saturday,” where we gather parents, staff, neighbors, and friends of EC3 to work on a task together. This collaboration allows us to grow our friendships while fostering a sense of community; it also fulfills our standing as a parent cooperative organization and thus keeps our costs down. Our focus this month is EC3’s grounds.

To be clear, I am NOT an expert on yard-work or gardening; I tend to trim, plant, and pull according to what looks good to me. I can’t identify many plants, so I rely on those with more experience to tell me where the poison ivy is. However, it seems to me that there are lots of little projects to do around EC3’s property. Take a look:

This is the "butterfly bush" near the entrance--can we trim it up a bit? And how about planting some bulbs or mums at its feet?

Should we dig up this bit of grass, or add some edging to separate it from the entrance garden?

 

This hedge on the east side of EC3 has been partially trimmed--could someone finish the work so the Gecko students can see out the window?

 

The forsythia bushes in front of EC3 could stand to be uniformly trimmed--and the one on the left corner needs to have the weeds removed from its midst!

 

This hedge near the staff driveway entrance on West Street could use a trim and a lopping-off of any "volunteer trees."

 

This is a walnut. There are dozens of them on the toddler playground near Nipp Avenue. We're all for feeding the squirrels--maybe we can collect these and move them to an area on the property where children don't play? (What a great task for kids without allergies! They can volunteer too...)

 

This will someday be the infant playground--once we cultivate the soil and plant some grass seed. Bring your axe, there are a lot of big roots in there.

 

The garden in front of the Bumblebee room could use some tending: bulbs for spring bloom, mums for now, weeding and TLC.

This is one of six garden boxes near the ballfield that needs to be cut down, weeded, and turned over so we can start fresh in the spring. Wear gloves and long sleeves, a couple of these boxes have poison ivy!

What is this random plant growing at the fence intersection? Let's get it outta here before it starts to look like a tree.

We'll get new mulch in the spring, but shouldn't we do a little weeding first? And look at all the dead branches on this tree near the parent entrance on Nipp Avenue...

You get the idea. There are so many little tasks that participants will be able to select whichever one suits their skill and/or pleasure level! All we need are willing volunteers with a few gardening tools, plants, bulbs, and lawn bags, and this place will look inviting, tended, and cared for.

If you can’t make it to the designated volunteer day and time (9:00 – 11:00 a.m.), you are welcome to tackle any of these tasks any other time: during the week, during the day, in the evenings, whatever! Likewise, if you have other skills you wish to donate to EC3, e-mail me and let me know. Each contribution is valued and appreciated.

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