During my first year, one of the teachers retired. The remaining teacher and I got along well. She took care of it and purchased what was needed. I submitted her receipts for reimbursement. But, I also added a few steps for my part.
1. Open House on the day the parent organization sells mums
2. Helping with winter cleanup.
3. Shelves in the library for the gardening books.
4. Spring email to the teachers letting them know when the garden is available for classes.
That actually isn't that much. The teacher still took care of most things. But, she worked with the preschool program and my steps were focusing on including the elementary kids more. That included getting regular sized hand shovels for the older kids in addition to the above steps.
Over the summer, the teacher moved to a different school in town. I have a co-chair now. With Zach in his last year at this school, they need someone to be able to take over next year. I am lucky, I really like her and we have a lot in common other then just gardening.
But, I am coming across some surprises. We don't have a teacher sponsor yet so the principal is taking over that role. We have a good relationship and he feels confident that I have this under control. There are a few unexpected things my co-chair and I are taking care of that we originally didn't have to.
1. We are in charge of planting and purchasing the plants and soil.
2. I have to manage the facebook page for the garden now.
3. We have to take care of the cleanup.
4. We have to water regularly (my co-chair and I have a system when we are there for library).
5. We have more helpers then before.
See, when you get the elementary school kids more involved, parents are more likely to want to be a part of it. That extra help is significantly important! Especially with the weeding part.
This year we are ordering mums from the mum sale for the kids to plant in the garden during the open house. Planting was popular last year when we did a couple of perennials. So on Monday I checked the garden before library class. I just planned to figure out how many mums we will need to order. I'm glad I did.
Because the garden hasn't been weeded in two months and isn't even ready for classes! So, I spent a lot of time there this morning weeding. My co-chair joined me to talk through some plans. Another parents will help me when I go back to finish weeding tomorrow morning. At least now the benches are clear for the kids to sit on and the center garden is mum ready!
Mixed in with all those weeds were three different types of poison ivy in three different places. Non of it was in a small amount! At least, I THOUGHT it was poison ivy. After talking to a volunteer and doing research I learned it was likely clematis and raspberry vines. I do recommend the Cortaid cloths if you have poison ivy though.
https://www.amazon.com/Cortaid-Poison-Removal-Cloths-HEALTHCARE/dp/B0014X7K00/ref=sr_1_8_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1537465017&sr=8-8&keywords=cortaid+poison+ivy
I don't know what will happen when we do get a teacher working with us. It's required that someone is part of this. I don't know if they will want to take over planting and caring for it like the other teacher used to. It's very likely they will need to be updated but, will leave it completely up to the parents to take care of everything. As Zach gets ready to move on, I do wonder what will stick and what won't. I'll probably never know.
All gardens are full of surprises. Some are good some are bad. In my home garden I planted un-bloomed mums a few weeks ago. The buds are slowly starting to open. I am enjoying guessing what colors they will be. That is one of the good garden surprises.
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