Annual Garden Events
These events maintain and build the culture of our school garden
GrandFriends Garden Tea
The idea of a GrandFriends Garden Tea was influenced and recreated from past GrandParents Teas that the school ran decades ago to strengthen community.
Since 2014 GrandFriends Garden Teas have been run during one week of garden classes during the hour of normally scheduled garden classes. Planning begins at the start of the school year by selecting late spring date that doesn't conflict with testing or test prep. The school has crates of tea cups and saucers that help to make the event special.
See the Master Planning Document for planning timeline and steps
View the GrandFriends Garden Tea Planning Folder that includes
invite templates
Activity templates
State of the Garden templates
Annual Garden Workdays
Some of the most important elements of running workdays it clear communication of the tasks at hand and keeping a good list of projects to keep volunteers engage. See many more tips and ideas for running successful school garden workdays. https://lifelab.org/garden-workdays/
Hosting garden workdays is a great way to bulid community and help out the garden. Workdays are most often hosted on weekends, but from time to time we have hosted workdays during the school week with special invites/scheduling of class visits throughout the day.
A few times we have tracked our school community volunteer hours as a means to solicit donated Disneyland Tickets that are used for our school auction/fundraiser. Disney equates a certain number of community hours to the number of tickets they will donate to our school. Inquire with Parents Club to see if they are seeking Disney tickets and if tracking volunteer hours is needed.
We have also called upon the services of the California Conservation Corps (CCC). These service members are based in Watsonville and their members often need a certain number of volunteer hours. They come on the weekend with steeltoed boots, hand tools, and strong backs! During the summer / fall they are often tied up fighting fires so think about working with them in winter/spring. Call their office (831) 768-0150 to inquire about scheduling.
FoodWhat Youth program based in Santa Cruz has also been called upon to help on volunteer workdays.
We have often called upon Whale City Bakery to provide coffee, pastries or lunch for volunteer crews.
View past Pacific School workday documents to inform you of future workday resources
Micro-Enterprise: Plant, Flower& Seed Sales
Learn about seed saving and making seed envelopes here:
Gifts from the Garden
Popcorn with a raffia tied or corn husk tied plant lable
Collect Garden Seeds
Make Boquets
Technical How To
Instructions
Archival Photos
Maps
And more
There is a battery powered timer behind seed house with two cycles to water the garden boxes and rock garden area in two zones. There is drip lines to all trees that can be manually tied into the green house faucet to water trees in spring, summer and fall. There are two mist systems for the greenhouse. 1. controlled from the greenhouse faucet timer 2. ran from an inline timer that is inside the greenhouse.
Electricity has traditionally been provided from an extention cord from the western side neighbor's house.
Add map of garden irrigation in systems (including perennial hillside), french drain, main water turn off, on / off valves in seed house. Add video of how to use the battery powered timers.
Photos of Greenhouse and Lawn Undergroungs Pipes
Summer Care
Summer Care has been done by having one or two families sign up to visit the garden once a week during the summer.
Modify this Scheduling Chart for your year. You can email an editable copy via school newsletter and place a copy in school office (as long as you have a plan to update written entries on the digital copy)
A video shot on a phone and shared to familes highlighting tasks has worked to support sharing summer garden tasks.
View videos sent to summer care takers in past years: 2013 2016 2017
Ideally you'd create a late spring crop plan that will result in fall harvests when students return to school. Popcorn has been a fun crop to plant and can be gifted to to teachers and the community in the fall. Winter squash and dry beans have also been a great crop to grow. Winter squash and beans have been hghlighted FoodLab and Farm to Table Benefit Dinners. Students have also done pumpkin math and sorted/counted beans they harvest.
If you plant crops that will need summer harvest or replanting make that clear in your instructions so that families will know what to harvest.
Learn more about school garden summer planning at www.lifelab.org/summer-vacation
View Past Summer Instructions
2018 Sign Up For Summer Garden Care - Eat Plums, Pick Peas, Cut Flowers and Care for the Garden and New School Landscape!
The Best Fertilizer is the Gardener's Shadow.
Directions and a Care Video
will be emailed to you.
Summer Care Takers
Summary of What You Can Do to Help
Cut bouquets and remove dead flowers (deadheading)
Weed out Borage plants (plenty more will come back)
Harvest fruit and veg (map coming)
Water plants with blue flags by hand
Extra credit weed outside of front gate (leave flowers to set seed)
Sweep up steps and rake back gravel from stairs
Tips for a great visit:
Pack a picnic and stay for a while.
Bring vases, jars, buckets, foil, or rubber bands to take flowers home.
Bring bags or baskets to more easily harvest food.
If harvesting lettuce consider just removing the larger outside leaves and leaving the plant there for future harvests
don't forget to harvest zuchinni
Summer Care Takers
Summary of What You Can Do to Help
Cut bouquets and remove dead flowers (deadheading)
Weed out Borage plants (plenty more will come back)
Harvest fruit and veg as shown on garden map and key
Water plants with blue flags by hand
Extra credit weed outside of front gate (leave flowers to set seed)
Sweep up steps and rake back gravel from stairs
Tips for a great visit:
Pack a picnic and stay for a while.
Bring vases, jars, buckets, foil, or rubber bands to easier take flowers home.
Bring bags or baskets to more easily harvest food.
If you dig potatoes (in bed 11 only) take note of the irrigation line and dig gently around it, better yet just the the three lines out of the way and then replace when done digging.
If harvesting lettuce consider just removing the larger outside leaves and leaving the plant there for future harvests
don't forget to harvest zuchinni
Sign Up For Summer Garden Care - Eat Plums, Dig Potatoes, Cut Flowers and Care for the Garden and New School Landscape!
The Best Fertilizer is the Gardener's Shadow.
Sign Up Here Directions and a Care Video
will be emailed to you.
2016 Summer Garden Care Instructions
Sign up to help and/or see when you or others have signed up to help on this form
Prepare yourself and kids to help
Read the following notes
Watch the Summer Care Video before you visit for more details. Also check out these extra credit tasks! Potting Plants and Clearing for Flower Bed
Learn how to record the weather in our weather station
The shed is the only area in the garden that is locked. I have sent you the combo. Please lock when you are done.
All our beds are numbered on the end of the bed and you can find a map on this page.
Fun Easy Family Friendly Tasks
Find details on this list in the summer care video below. This list will be updated throughout the summer.
Deadhead flowers (remove spent flowers) and cut bouquets for your self
Harvest lemon verbena, chamomile, and lemon balm.
Weed the vegetable beds
Pick up and compost fallen plum fruits (gorge yourself on plums)
Water plants that have a blue flags
Bring kitchen scraps to feed our worms
Extra Credit Tasks!
Pulling Kukuya Grass from our fence lines. See details in video
Taking the Kukuya Grass and other weed barrels and dumping them in the school's green waste bins near front of school
Taking the Garbage and Recycling from inside the shed and in the covered lath house and dumping them in the school's bins near front of school
Building Trelises for cucumbers in bed 10, for tomatoes in beds 2-6 and bed 9
Orchard Management
Orchard Story & Care
Our Orchard was planted in 2017. The Jonagold, Hudson Golden Gem, and Kumquat were added in 2019. View Tree Map & Harvest Schedule.
The best way to care for our orchard is to find a community member who knows about growing fruit trees in our coastal area and ask them for their help. Here are good resources to refer to:
CommonVision School Orchard Care Resources
Orchard Keepers Care Sheets
Orchard Blog Posts
November 2016 - Getting Started
March 2017 - Planting Day
September 2018 - Summary Video
Irrigation
Our irrigation is controlled by the Rainbird Controller on the south-west side of the Multipurpose Room. Valve 6 controls the orchard and area above the retaining wall. There is a valve that can turn off the retaining wall if needed. In rainy winters turn off irrigation during the winter. Refer to the irrigation notes at Orchard Keepers to estimate watering rates. Each tree has a drip line that emits ~ 10 gallons per hour.
Irrigation repair and replacement parts may be in our garden shed or they can be ordered from Dripworks.com. A local garden company may also carry parts. See components of our irrigation system from Dripworks.com
Orchard Signs
Find our orchard and native signs in this folder.
