Something is better than nothing; slow is better than never

Hi, this is the blog for Lietz Elementary Garden. I'm Winnie, the lead of our garden team.

How the garden looked like back in 2023 Fall.

Last year, I signed up to be the garden lead for our Home and School Club. I love gardening and enjoy the process of starting a garden from scratch. I noticed the school garden seemed to have been neglected for a long time and wanted to help. In the Fall of 2023, I took a walk through to assess the current state. After some initial planning, I started by cleaning up the garden. Luckily, another volunteer, Mary, joined me. We began by removing debris, reorganizing the shed, and fixing the edges of existing garden beds. Then came the Winter break.

Trespassers pulled old edging logs off to build unstable structures.

When we returned after the break, we discovered that trespassers had been causing trouble during our absence. The 2023-24 winter brought significant rainfall, preventing us from working in the garden for a couple of weeks. Upon our return, we were overwhelmed by the weeds that had grown everywhere. To make matters worse, there were more instances of trespassing and break-ins to our shed. Mary and I battled the weeds, either pulling them by hand or using electric tools. Finally, we prepared our garden beds for planting the spring/summer crop. I also installed an automated irrigation system to eliminate the need for manual watering.

We cleaned up debris, pulled weeds, pruned the tree, and organized the shed.

We planted veggies, installed irrigation lines, and built new garden beds.

At the end of the school year, another volunteer, Jan, joined us. She and her husband, Steve, were a great help with the hardscaping. Over the summer, we used leftover blocks next to the building to create new garden beds and edging along the fence. We repurposed old edging logs as tree boxes and reclaimed wood for compost bins. Now the garden has a completely new look!

New edges, new garden bed, new compost bins, new tree boxes, all from recycled materials!

Many people have told me that the garden has changed a lot. Indeed, it is huge if you compare photos from last year to now. But for us, it was a slow process. Sometimes it seemed like the work we did was undone by spreading weeds or damage from trespassers. However, we persisted and did what we could. I often told myself that something is better than nothing, and slow is better than never. I was very lucky to have such wonderful teammates join me, and together we made a difference. I hope you can join us too. (Sign up here: https://forms.gle/LHwK185RgZeTTe5z7)  Every little bit helps, and over time, those small contributions can lead to truly amazing results.

The ladies in our team: Mary, Jan, and Winnie