November 2012

Click to see some lovely fall bloomers doing their thing in the Highlands Butterfly Garden.

DO TRY THIS AT HOME!

Source: Uploaded by user via Highlands on Pinterest

Here is our plan for a Pizza Garden--loaded with veggies and fun for the kids. The missing slice makes it easier to reach and tend to the other "slices." The simple raised bed will be made of stacked stones.

This project is for next year so the students can participate in the actual fun of helping seed and plant the "ingredients." If you're interested in this idea, you can make your own pizza garden at home--an elaborate one with all the fixings or a small one in a planter.

A tomato planted in the center of a pot, anchored by three stakes or a tomato cage, will look beautiful by summer's end with various basils ("Purple Ruffles," "Variegated"...) trailing over the edge. Planting basil in the same pot as tomatoes has the added anecdotal benefit of keeping certain bad bugs away.

If you don't want to plant a tomato, you can still plant onions or scallions or pineapple sage in with your basil and let the kids pick these specifically for pizza.

At our house, we've discovered that if the Mini--"I DO NOT EAT VEGETABLES"--Humans have a hand in growing the produce, they're not only willing, but excited to eat said produce. We hope the same proves true with our pizza garden at school.

THANK YOU!

Many and much thanks to all of you hardy souls who came out in the mud and muck to plant a garden! Your hard work will pay off for many years in the garden you have helped create for our children! And yes, I know we owe you new shoes. (photo cribbed from Advent Women newsletter--thanks, Gretchen Williams!)

Wow Wow Wubzy, Garden Day is here!

Can't wait to see the garden's transformation tomorrow!

We want.....A SHRUBBERY!

Check out our virtual chalkboard above to see what wonderful shrubberies await planting on Highlands School's Garden Day---Saturday April 14, 2012 from 9 AM to 12 noon.

Bring you kids! (crafts, refreshments) Bring your shovels! Or just bring yourselves and see the before and after firsthand in our Insta-Garden day of work and fun.
Remember the BEFORE:

Imagine the AFTER:

You, too can be a shrubber!

Roger the Shrubber: Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say Ni at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land, nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress in this period in history.
King Arthur: Did you say shrubberies?
Roger the Shrubber: Yes, shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Roger the Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies.

GARDEN DAY is April 14, 2012!

Last school year, in the fall, we had "Gravel Day" to put in the Butterfly Garden's gravel pathway. We had crafts for the kids and refreshments for all.  Look at all these incredible parents, faculty, friends and kids who turned out to build the gravel path that now wends its way through the garden! We cannot thank them enough. It is amazing what a team effort can accomplish in just one day.

This year our GARDEN DAY (Saturday, April 14, 2012 from 9 AM to 12 PM) will focus on planting the shrubs and large plants that will give the garden its structure. We hope seeing this transformation will be as exciting as watching the gravel path take shape last year. Come on out and bring your shovel or wheelbarrow or just yourselves and your enthusiasm! 

Set Pieces

On the list above are the shrubs, trees and other large plants that will provide the overall structure for our Butterfly Garden. To envision them all together, look here.

Good news: the Butterfly Garden already has four fairly mature butterfly bushes..

Bad news: We took a cutting of the light purple flowers all around town seeking a color match, but to no avail.

Good news: Butterfly bushes root fairly easily. We took two cuttings and just stuck them in the ground in a partly sunny, sheltered location.  Seven months later, we have two more light-purple-flowered bushes--small, yes, but healthy.  One to plant and an extra, just in case. They are not even a foot high yet, but one day what a canopy of butterfly magnets we will enjoy! Hopefully, seeing tiny plants turn into giant bushes over time will be a memorable experience for the tiny humans who will grow into middle-schoolers and, one day, adults. Maybe even adult gardeners.

Raised Beds

If you look at our Butterfly Garden plan, donated to the school by wonderful landscape designer Jenny Carpenter, you will see three pre-existing raised beds down at the end of the garden. Currently these beds are a holding ground for various perennials that we'll be moving to other spots in the garden.

As the perennials come up and we can see what plants we have and where to move them, we hope to transform these three raised beds into themed gardens that will provide intriguing sights and scents for our kids to enjoy and learn about. With that in mind, we've designed a lemon garden flanked by two smaller herb gardens.

The lemon garden will be filled with lemon-scented herbs--of which there are many--as well as yellow perennials and annuals to keep it looking interesting and lemony year-round.

Diagonally and to the left and right of of the Lemon Garden, we will plant our two herb parterres. The first will be filled with herbs that give off delicious dessert-like scents, e.g. chocolate mint, spearmint, lavender, pineapple mint, orange thyme and (not pictured because it only just now came to mind, Fennel with its licorice scent and lovely tall fronds and flowers). Here is our dessert garden plan:

The second herb parterre will be our savory garden with such herbs as parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. And yes, I hope you DID just sing that. Other savory herbs include chives, garlic chives, dill, marjoram and tarragon. Here is our savory garden plan:

We hope to get some of these plants in the ground on our school-wide Garden Day--planned this year, 2012, for the second Saturday in April--on which parents, students, faculty and friends are invited to come out and work in the garden. Crafts for the kids, refreshments for all and fun in the (hopefully) sun where group effort helps us accomplish large tasks in a short time frame. That's April 14, 2012!

Check Out Our Photo Albums

January 2012. Our photo albums show some of what we've been up to since winter 2011. Mostly we've been preparing the garden in ways that aren't especially evident if you go there, but are crucial to making a healthy home for our future plants.

Last spring, we installed irrigation. Yay!

We've been working on correcting some very serious drainage issues. Yes, it was a clay swamp, but it will be a healthy vibrant butterfly garden one day.

We planted a trial morning glory teepee. The kids took to it right away. It will be a really fun thing to repeat in future years. This year, the kids aren't permitted to play in the "garden" too much yet until things are a little more finished up.

We planted a Dutch White Clover lawn. Even though we will probably have to turn the clover under, this will add a lot of nitrogen to the soil. We will keep the clover lawn inside the teepee.

We solarized weeds with lots of plastic and sometimes cardboard. Battling the weeds while we wait to get plants has been a tough job.

We put in place some of the plants from our wonderful garden plan drawn for us by landscape designer Jenny Carpenter.

We planted moonflowers along the righthand chain link fence. They did very well and showed us that the fence will look great bedecked in flowers--hopefully thornless roses in addition to annual vines one day.

We prepared a bed of Highlands-Blue spring bulbs. There are many varieties to give a long show. We hope they will prosper and propagate for decades to come. Can't wait to see them this spring!