It Takes a Village to......

....... raise a child, but also to raise a productive garden!!  I'm so glad this is called the "Dysart School Garden," because it will take our entire school community to get it completely functional.  Thanks for everyone's encouragement, support, and advice.  I appreciate it all, and I have a funny story to tell about my latest garden advisors. 

If you read my last post, I was brainstorming ways to pollinate the non-producing vegetables.  After publishing the post, we did head out to Lowe's and purchased several heat-resistant perennials.  I began planting them around the northeast corner of the garden's perimeter, which was a slow and tedious job due to the compacted nature of the soil on the edge of the garden.  After an hour in 105* heat and only planting six flowers, I needed to stop or have a heat stroke. 

I was walking up to the school office to pick up my children (who were smart and waited in the air-conditioned building).  Along the way, I noticed my favorite district landscaping crew pruning the trees by the front door.  They were my biggest fans throughout School Garden #1 (see first post of this blog).  We would sit on the straw bales (my organic fence) and chat during their breaks, and I have sneaking suspicion they were my zucchini and watermelon consumers.  :)

One of the landscapers, Jesse, asked me how the garden was going, and after an hour of back-breaking work in crazy heat for non-producing vegetables, I told him exactly what I thought of that garden.  We went over the solutions for the soil, rabbits, weeds, and bees.  Jesse was very sympathetic and encouraging, and I left, feeling a little better. 

When I came back an hour later to turn off the irrigation, Jesse was waiting at the garden's gate with news for me.  He said that another landscaper, who was filling up the playground with bark chips, is a rose farmer who was a well-known agriculturist in Mexico.  Jesse called over the landscaper, whose name is Rogelio.  Rogelio began our garden discussion by letting me know the reason why our first School Garden was so incredibly successful.  On an early Saturday morning in October, while bulldozing the area for the first garden, Rogelio had transported in beautiful, healthy El Mirage farm soil.  I was blown away by that news-- no one ever told me!!  So as we walked into the garden, Rogelio scooped up the soil, took one look at it and let it sift through his fingers, and promptly deemed it worthless for plants.  He went up and down the garden, looking at the soil and shaking his head.  Apparently the soil that was under the 800 Building (which is now the garden soil) is just useless.... no nutrients to facilitate plant growth!!  But Rogelio had a solution; he is going to transport more farm soil into the garden for us.  I am so excited...... although that means so much more work.

When the soil comes in, I'll be asking for volunteers to help out.  :)