May 1 – We pulled out our best graphic design and AI skills to create a visual map of our gardens so we could best prepare our garden designs. We cross-referenced with Burpee guides to be sure that whatever we plant will work well with its neighbors.
May 7 – Library Director Erin George asked the local Girl Scouts to create plant markers for our gardens and made plans with the library landscaper to put in the final garden bed in preparation for an end-of-the-month planting/ground-breaking!
May 8-10 – Research was done by several patrons and volunteers on fencing and other tools/things that would be needed for our gardens, like hoses, etc. Erin also researched the cost of plugs, bulbs, and plants that are already established versus seedlings already started in the conference room. Meanwhile, library children continued to keep an eye on seedlings to be sure they were watered and turned to and away from the sun as needed.
May 13 – Gay-Kimball kids had a blast planning gardens using seed catalogues and creating gardens all their own, learning more about the differences between pollinator gardens and other types of gardens.
April 17 – A regular patron volunteer removed the rocks from our cardboard and spread compost over it so that the cardboard could begin the process of decomposition. We will soon add a layer of mulch to complete the prep for our pollinator garden for now.
April 21 – Just in time for Earth Day, we held a special Storytime by inviting a special guest in to help us get seeds started for the gardens. Ruth, known to the library kids as “Nans” or “Nana,” came in to teach the kids about seeds. The kids planted sunflowers and transplanted tomatoes. These plants will continue to grow in pods in the library conference room over the next few weeks, and the children will take care of them during weekly Storytimes. The Girl Scouts, in the meantime, will also look after them. Nana left seeds, pods, potting soil, and more for other age groups to plant throughout the week, and librarians designated several tables in the conference room as spaces for our makeshift “greenhouse.”
April 22 – We had a teen volunteer come in to help us plant seeds in starter pods in our conference room for the following for our veggie garden: cauliflower, lettuce, eggplant, and peas! We were also able to help a patron with tomatoes she’d lost in an early frost by replacing them with our own starter tomatoes from the Storytime group; what community gardening is all about!
April 23 – We moved the two ten-foot container gardens outside and lined the back of the building with them. We filled the bottoms with cardboard and mulch and brought in two truckloads of soil to fill them.
Week Three
This week was all about planting more seedlings, keeping them watered, and the research. While we continued our learning in programming with books like “The Bad Seed” and “Growing Together,” we also looked toward tools like “Burpee Companion Guide” to plan our garden designs. We learned that some plants are poisonous to one another, while others complement each other, and came up with the following plans for our gardens:
