Summer Workdays to get the garden installed

Mahalo Jeff for your dedication to making this school garden happen. Summer is not the easiest time for teachers and parents, and we are so grateful that you took the time to lend a hand and help us with the installation.

Aaron giving Carter and the Kamehameha students a lesson on pick-axing. This is one way that people commonly hurt their backs, and tool maintenance and body-mechanics lessons often get overlooked in garden-installations, so we all were so grateful to have an expert on hand to share his guidance with us all. 

So grateful to have the help of an amazing parent Jeff who has been so supportive of the garden from the beginnings- this week he came out and saved us hours of labor by removing a couple of the big shrubs that were in the middle of the garden space. 

Tracy Tarlow taking a much deserved break on the pile of cardboard we got for sheet-mulching. The idea with the cardboard is to get only dye-free board, it's non-toxic and acts as not only a great weed-barrier under the mulch but also as it breaks down it feeds the soil and is a great house for worms.

Leveling out the backs of the beds- pre-measuring each bed and flagging them so that we were able to spend the energy just on leveling the bed-placements rather than the entire area (which could be better leveled after the mulching is added).

Many Hands make Light Work

Mentorship begins with the garden installation- it's a time for intergenerational sharing, for building community, and a sense of pride for a job done together.  

That's a lot of mulch to go through- Mahalo Justice, Jordan and Buddy- it was a couple long-hot days but so rewarding (especially since Buddy was a Pukalani School graduate). Such a great way to give back to your old school. 

Such a great team of volunteers- Mahalo to our Kamehameha Students Buddy and Jordan, to School-Garden Warriors: Justice, Kaleed, Tracy, Carter, Aaron, Garrett, Bob, Ed and Rebekah & Lehn Huff with Maui School Garden Network for making it all happen

It' beginning to look like a garden.
Mahalo to Kimberly Clark/ Events in Paradise/ JNR and all of the employees who built the garden boxes, the compost bins and painted these incredible signs that are actually making this garden possible! We are so grateful