April 11, 2015

Moab Charter School Gets A Garden!

Before, during, and after photos of a garden project. The first photo shows grass and bare dirt; the second shows freshly tilled soil with a sign reading 'Future Site of our Pollinator Garden'; the third shows completed swales lined with large rocks for drainage and wood chips for mulch.

Winged children buzzed around the Moab Arts and Recreation Center (MARC) at the Pollinator Party, a fundraiser for the new “Bee Inspired Garden” at the Moab Charter School. The event included garden-themed art work by all 100+ students, a bee-themed choral poem recited by 6th graders, face painting and coloring of pollinators and wildflowers, a “sponsor-a-plant” drive, a bake sale, silent auction, honey tasting, and an observation bee hive with local beekeepers! It was a fun, educational, and magical event. All plants were sponsored thanks to generous donations from many teachers, parents, and community members. Because of their support, we have enough funds to establish a beautiful, lush garden at the school.

Children getting their faces painted with painted cutouts of flowers, hummingbirds and other nature items.

This event and this garden have been organized by Utah State University students: Claire Core, Ali Reese and Ruby Woodruff for their class project in Communicating Sustainability with Dr. Roslynn Brain. Their collaboration to the Moab Charter School has been highly successful and fun! The students, teachers and principal have been very supportive of the garden. The Moab Charter School holds the value of experiential learning for their students and the teachers plan to incorporate the garden’s outdoor learning space into their curriculums throughout the years. This garden will be a part of the students’ experience at the school and they will learn about the water cycle, regional plants, landscape ecology, and more. The garden and the students will grow together.

The day after the Pollinator Party, we began digging! In a permaculture-styled garden, you must consider all the observable (and sometimes unseen!) environmental factors and existing patterns that may influence your garden design. Living in a dry climate, our biggest consideration is water. To increase the benefit of the rainwater is to harvest the water from the surrounding classroom buildings and direct that water into basins. Three infiltration basins that will slow, spread, and sink the roof rainwater into the garden. We will also use mulch that will add organic matter (nutrients) while holding moisture in the soil near plant root zones after a rain. 

Child and woman looking at potted plants on a platform
We couldn’t make this garden happen without the support of our community and we have been filled with gratitude in the past few weeks with the abundance of support we have been shown. We received a grant from WabiSabi’s “Make a Difference” fund that will go directly towards buying plants and materials. Our local community food co-op, Moonflower Market, is also generously donating 5% of their proceeds on May 19th to the charter school pollinator garden and this money will be used for the next phase of the garden and to create a garden fund that will be used by teachers and community members who want to do projects in the garden and need materials for creative projects such as creating an adobe garden bench, an entrance gate, artwork, and more.
Children working in a garden with purple flowers in the foreground.

On Saturday April 11th, at 9:30 a.m. at the charter school, we will be planting our garden! Come help us lovingly plant each tree, shrub, grass and flower so they will one day grow into a beautiful and thriving garden. 

The Bee Inspired Garden Initiative has been busy this spring. In addition to the charter school’s garden, other locales will be receiving a pollinator garden on their grounds. The Aarchway Inn hosted a community garden design charette last fall and are now gearing up to install the garden. On April 18th at the inn at 9:30 a.m., join the Bee Inspired group for the installation of earthworks and planting on their garden. 

The Bee Inspired Rain Garden at the Utah State University Moab campus, established and planted last fall by Jeremy Lynch and many community volunteers, is lush green and blooming! Jeremy and members of the Moab Bee Inspired Gardens Group will be hosting a Phase II garden planting day on April 25th at the USU campus between 9:00 and 3:00. Local experts will present in the morning and planting will take place in the afternoon. For those interested in learning about more specific design aspects of the rain gardens at USU, but cannot make the April 25th workshop, contact Jeremy for a personal tour.

Contact Claire Core or Jeremy Lynch for more information: 
claire.e.core@gmail.com 
jeremyelliotlynch@gmail.com
Or go to our new website:
http://beeinspired.usu.edu/ 

Post by Claire Core

A collage of children working and playing in the garden.

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