Proctor Terrace Garden Volunteers
Purpose
Proctor Terrace Elementary has two outdoor garden spaces maintained solely by volunteers.
We meet monthly to maintain and improve these incredible teaching spaces for students
Join our mailing list to get first notice of our next volunteer work day
No gardening experience needed
Come when you can -- All ages welcome - Invite family, friends, neighbors!
Other ways to help
Do you have a strong chainsaw? We have some stumps to level out for seating in our outdoor classroom space
Get cleared as a SRCS Volunteer and ask your child's teacher if you can help when the class is in the garden
Thank you to Vego Garden!
Through their Giving Back program, Vego Garden approved our Garden Coordinator's donation request for a raised garden beds! Over $1000 donation!
Watch for updates as we remove beds in disrepair and replace with new Vego Garden beds
Check out their Vego Garden Kids Program - an easy way to get your littles gardening AND get a discount for sharing a picture of your child in the garden!
What is coming
2023/2024 has some BIG goals for our amazing outdoor learning spaces
Replacement of the crumbling raised beds in the food garden - FALL 2023 - COMPLETE!
Level tree rounds to create seating for outdoor classroom in Habitat Garden
Deliver rocky soil and DG for the Crevice Garden. Excavate around the Peace Pole and place donated flagstone to create an amazing Crevice Garden (lizard habitat!). See sample photo above
Identify solar or other power options for the Greenhouse
But we can't do it without volunteers! RSVP above, or join our mailing list below so you can help us make our Proctor garden spaces full of wonder for our students.
2022/ 2023: Amazing work completed thanks to our monthly garden morning volunteers!
Installation of an outdoor sink for hand and produce washing
Finish the Habitat Garden plantings, with the support of 80 Monarch and Native Pollinator 4” and 1 gallon plants from a Xerces Society Grant
Transport 3/4 yard of donated flagstone for crevice garden/lizard habitat -
Build trellises to support Passion flower and Dutchman’s Pipe Vines
Constructing 6x12 foundation and assembly of the greenhouse
Delivered and placed 1000 lb basalt dish stone in Habitat Garden (natural water hole for hummingbirds and insects) - photo above
Delivered 2 bales of rice straw, 1.5 yards of compost and 3/4 yard of donated flagstone
Relocated bulletin board to provide Habitat Garden Signage
Delivered and spread 2 yards seasonal topsoil for Butterfly garden plantings
Harvesting 100+ fuyu persimmons
Removed trees with fire blight
Expanded sheet mulched area to reduce weeds
Repaired wheelbarrows
Spread compost to mulch for winter
Harvested, weeded and tidied our spaces, including the outdoor teacher lunch area
Fall and Spring plantings - two flats of fall/winter veggies plus carrots, beets, turnips and peas to seed
Our Story
During the 2021/ 2022 school year, our Parent and community volunteers resurrected the school Food Garden after a year of distance learning to welcome students back into the teaching space.
We also created a new and exciting outdoor learning space for students with Native Pollinator Habitat Garden! Thanks to a generous grant from Federal Department of Fish and Wildlife and facilitated by the Sonoma County School Garden Network , we converted 4000+ sq feet of dirt and weeds to a new usable space. Volunteers sheet mulched the space, did an initial Spring 2022 planting and irrigation and installed new bike path connecting to our student bike rack.
And since we love our teacher and staff, we gifted them a new outdoor eating area so they could enjoy their lunch in a quiet and safe space.
Student Participation
Many of the Proctor Terrace classes have a weekly opportunity to participate in garden time, weather permitting. With more classroom volunteers, we can support more visits.
The students at Proctor Terrace are an integral part of the success of the garden:
Sowing seeds in raised beds as well as containers for starts
Transplanting
Building raised beds with broken concrete, bricks rocks and making paths in raised beds
Planting bulbs
Learning how to use tools effectively and safely such as: lopers, clippers, rakes, hoes, shovels, and saws to name a few
Watering and fertilizing
Picking and tasting what’s growing
…and harvesting crops and setting up for Farm Stand sales
Ask your Proctor student what they have been doing in the garden!
Rainy Days? We can still integrate the Garden!
Story time (TK-3)
Make seed tape (practice fine motor skills and measuring)
Seed anatomy and dissection
Experiments left in the classroom for daily observation