Nuestra Zemlya

Summer vacation has arrived!  Actually it has been in effect about a week now.  During the past week or so we as teachers have decided to take a small hiatus from work and take a much needed break.  We did finally get about seven yards of soil mix dropped on our garden site the last school day.  The soil will be moved into berms around the garden to give it some contour and help give it more of a pond-like area in the winter months.  Planting will be done mainly in August and September when the children arrive back from vacation.  They are the main reason for the garden so any major steps will be made with them at our side.  
Moving dirt is not always the most enjoyable experience for children but planting can and will be the most memorable and gratifying for them.  Thus the adults will move the dirt make the plans and then bring out the children for the planting celebration/educational day.  During this time we will work on making another video and hopefully getting some local news coverage for these days to come.  This is also when the ribbon cutting ceremony will take place sow that our garden takes root in our community!

Well we here at Nuestra Zemlya Garden are proud to say that the garden project has taken a step forward. Or shall I say a few steps forward. On the morning of May 8th Woodburn Public Works showed up with a small crew and some large equipment; a forklift, track hoe, several 7 cu.yd. trucks, and some shovels. I am sure coffee or some sort of caffeinated beverage was thrown in the mix somewhere too. By 10 a.m. the ground breaking took place! The track hoe had made its first scoop, the first of many. Over the next several days Public Works dug out approximately 4680 sq.ft. of our soil! During this time they removed sewage and gas lines no longer in use, fixed the existing sewer line and replaced our drain for the garden area. On May 12th, 49 tons of drain rock was put in its place to a depth of 1 foot. Two days later our garden was filled back with amended drainage soil. This soil consisted of 1/3 sandy loam, 1/3 fine woodscraps, and 1/3 of the original soil. The most encouraging ordeal of it all was the interaction between the students and the work crew. Classes were free to go and observe, take notes, ask questions, or simply passively enjoy the engineers at work. Smiles shinned on the kids faces. Interest was sprouting in their minds. Curiosity was raking at their thoughts. The majority of the students were flooding with questions and "answers". During this time I gave several presentations in the elementary school and Brad Agenbroad I am sure was busy with presentations and explinations on his end in the Middle School. The following week we had a meeting with Al's garden center, Marion SWCD, and FFA teacher from the High School. Plans were laid out and ideas tossed around and eventually a rough sketch came out of the mixture. Thereafter, Brad Agenbroad and I got together to finalize, chalk out, measure more precisely the area so that we could have a better representation of what our garden is going to look like in the end. We added berms for contour, gravel river beds to mimic natural streams, observation points for collecting data and making scientific illustrations. The first goals in the gadren have taken hold. But now the goals has budded new growth with new goals and purposes. Not only will it serve as a "living laboratory" for the students to do some long-term-ecological-research (short term too), but it will function as a demonstration garden for the Woodburn public. Hopefully this garden will educate them on water issues and what can be done to help conserve and clean our water. Our garden will serve as an example to local businesses, schools, and neighborhoods for Public Works of Woodburn and options they can provide for water treatment alternatives. We should have a video and newspaper clip coming up soon. I will post them as soon as I receive them.

Here at Nuestra Zemlya Garden we have not got our hands too dirty with the land herself, but we have been cultivating and nurturing our relationships we have made with our local community. To date our rooted partnerships are with Woodburn Public Works, Al’s Garden Center , Marion Soil & Water Conservation District (Marion SWCD)! Right now we are organizing a dig date with Woodburn Public Works to properly install our rain garden. Shortly thereafter we will be working with Al’s Garden Center and Marion SWCD to create a list of plants our students will plant in our beloved rain garden.

This garden or “Living Laboratory” will be a site that cleans the rain fall that is collected on Lincoln Elementary and French Prairie Middle School roofs. The purpose is to create an area of hands-on observation for our students, make use of a naturally flooding area by creating a demonstration garden for the public, and clean the water before it enters the local creek/ river/aquifer. Our “Living Laboratory” will help educate our students and do its part for the earth in which they will be inheriting

The three "R's" today are Rigor, Relevance and Relationship. To build, plant and maintain a garden provides many opportunities to develop these attributes into our curriculum. A garden provides rigor when students pay attention to detail and graphing long-term, continual research projects. A garden provides relevance when what students are learning can be applied to the real world. Hands-on learning must have originated in the garden. And of course a garden provides opportunities for relationships to be formed among students, local businesses and service organizations as they interact in building, sharing wisdom, combining resources and planting gardens. For several years, teachers from French Prairie Middle School and Lincoln Elementary have been discussing utilizing the green space between the two schools for a garden project. This unique space provides close proximity for both schools, unobstructed sunlight, protection from wind and is set away from the street to offer some privacy. It is currently not in use, but now it is the planned site for a naturalized "Living Laboratory", rain garden, and school garden. Since October we have come a long ways. We had a patio laid down by a local Eagle Scout. In early November we acquired new participants along with rejuvenating interest for our garden project. In March Nuestra Zemlya Garden was formalized. Shortly there after followed and grant from FISKARS for plant and tool materials (both of which were lacking in the beginning). Within the last month we have branched out into our community making partnerships with local businesses and organizations. The first was Al's Garden center, the ever loving and knowledgeable "purple people". The newest have been the City of Woodburn and Marion County Soil and Water conservation District. As the project gets underway we plan to strengthen our connections with the schools and community. Our garden will not only be a site of where knowledge and understanding are sown and cultivated but so are our community relationships!