Last weekend a bunch of wonderfully kind-hearted parents gave up their Saturday to come out to dig in the soil here at Mo
ntclair Elementary. And what do we have to show for it? A beautifully restored all native garden- with a wonderful new boardwalk, a new irrigation system, and bunch of new plants growing in the soil! This garden was first established ten years ago by parents who wanted to give their children a place to learn about the beautiful plants that are native to our landscape. A wonderful plan but unfortunately between the kids playing and very little upkeep, the garden had fallen into some disrepair. But no longer.
With much thanks to George Manalo-LeClair and Tracy Zeltser, the school received a grant to bring this garden back to life. Suddenly not only did we have the money, but we needed to spend the money quickly- or else we would loose it. A rare problem for the programs here. I got together some fine parents and we set to re-designing this much needed green space.
The new garden is full of some wonderful fast growing flowers and shrubs- so many that a few years from now it should be overflowing with greenery and flowers.
Much thanks to all of the people who came out on this unusually warm spring Saturday to help revitalize our garden- demonstrating that digging in the dirt can be both worthwhile and fun. A special thanks to the parents who helped get things ready before the big day- most notably Lara Jealous and Eric Veldhuizen. And a great thanks to Nancy Bloom, who has supported us all along the way. We're keeping the fence up for the remainder of this school year to give the new plants a chance to grow. Starting next school year the students will be able to walk and touch and even learn from our beautiful new garden.
