Garden Cleanup

Bodine High School has a great outdoor area for their school garden! The space includes raised garden beds, hanging growing bags, picnic tables, storage for lots of gardening supplies, a trellis, and even several fruit trees. Unfortunately, the space also had lots of trash, both from students and blown in from the streets, much of it mixed in with big piles of leaves.

Luckily this didn’t dissuade the garden club; the teens quickly got to work to clean up the space. They had already begun the cleanup the previous week and were eager to see more progress; everyone was in high spirits and the garden was filled with chatter and laughter while they worked. Together, the students, Ms. Wardlaw, and Ian tackled leaf piles filled with plastic bags and wrappers, raised beds home to plasticware and empty milk cartons, and a rain barrel that had been used as a trash can. Their efforts paid off and by the end of the afternoon the garden was already looking much better!

Everyone gathered around one of the picnic tables for a quick reflection to finish off the club meeting. This also gave the students a chance to start discussing what they would like to plant in the springtime. One student suggested adding some flowers to make the space more inviting while another was interested in creating an herb garden. The group agreed to spend some time creating mood boards in the coming months to prepare a solid plan.