Wow! Did you plant/organize all this? It looks so healthy and it's in a tough location. Who tends the garden during the summer? Why did I bother to ask?-It's Bill(Yah,right).

BTW,
I love your labeling of the plants.

Enjoy a peaceful RELAXING summer.

mike

That's fabulous, Sherry!!
Growing a garden in an urban island isn't easy, but it looks like you've done it - the plants are so healthy looking!
I hope you get cats on your host plants and lots of butterflies on the nectar plants!
MissSherry

Thanks!

It is NO easy task, believe me. :P I am the gardener. Bill helped me this past weekend (Monday) since the beach was packed with people because of the Memorial Day holiday and there was NO way he was going surfing with THAT many people there! (He has gotten spoiled in his retirement...)

We spent a little over three hours doing some transplanting and weeding. I usually go over on a weekend and weed. It is no easy task, believe me, because it is a lengthy area and the weeds just grow like mad. PLUS the soil is awful. I added a lot of soil conditioners back when I originally planted the garden (you veterans may recall when we originally put the garden in and had several Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts PLUS a grandpa who was visiting from Canada who helped dig all the cr** and cut the vines off the fence). I swear, the district uses this nasty stuff that is a mix of clay and cement for what they consider 'good topper soil.' HA! It's the same stuff the put into MY planter after I had that horrible hazardous waste situation a few years ago (and then I had to remove most of it and dump it!).

Anyway, the battle I am having right now is with the custodian because the sprinklers only come on every other day and NOT on the weekends at all. Bill was complaining about how DRY the area is (I agreed) and when I mentioned this to the custodian he said that everything is on a timer and that if it was changed to daily that everything gets soggy. hmmmm...let's see...perhaps if we left the sprinklers on for a SHORT time each day instead of a LONG time things wouldn't be soggy? Sheesh. Bill and I also think that some of the sprinkler heads are broken.

As it is, we had to cart the water BY HAND out to the parking lot (no mean feat) all the way from my classroom. We were both so exhausted Monday evening, and I even got a bit of a sunburn on my back. Oh well...hey, anything for the butterflies, right? :)

We had a Painted Lady, Carpenter Bee, loads of Honeybees, several Skippers, and others visiting while we worked all day. It was lovely.

MissSherry, I've collected NUMEROUS Monarch cats off of the Milkweed out here so I KNOW butterflies frequent the garden.

In fact, several children (older kids) came up to me just yesterday and said, "Miss Skipper, I saw some of your butterflies!" (they think ALL butterflies are MY butterflies)

:)

Sherry, I think that your school garden looks just great! I can tell that you put a lot of work into it. It takes one dedicated person to keep up with such an undertaking. I think that's cute how the kids think that all of the butterflies are yours. :)
Cathy

Sherry, Just wow! Your garden is really looking fine.

I have found the best way to get help and co-opperation from janitors/gardeners ect. on a school campus is lots of nice bribes ( food gifts, have the kid's sing to them on their birthday.)

Do your plants have idenitfication markers on them? Seems like if they did this would help continue the teaching process even when you are not there.

What a labor of love, Tdog. :) It is beautiful. Hopefully, you will be able to figure out some kind of watering system. Carrying buckets of water this summer does not sound like my kind of fun.

Most parking lots are just places for cars, yours is a thing of true beauty.

Not an easy undertaking considering the dryness and the heat.

Jill,
I did have plant markers for each plant. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't stay/last! I gave up and decided to remove some of them. Part of the problem was the Santa Ana Winds. Part was the weird watering situation/lack of watering and the soil drying/over-soaking just didn't permit the stakes to stay in. Then of course, there were some goofs who'd go and move them! ARGH! The newest plants we put in have metal plant markers but I am certain they won't last either...

As far as the custodian? Food, Home Depot certificates, etc. just do NOT work with this guy. Too bad he's the 'head' custodian. The other two are FAB-the one who is the 'head' just is NOT the best...which is the bummer. I swear, can you imagine? He says, "If we water everyday, it gets muddy out there." hmmm...Could it be that the water is on TOOOOOO long? If the !@#$% thing is on a timer, couldn't it be fixed so it is only on for a short time EACH day? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out...Also, it appears that SOME of the heads aren't in working order. Of course, this doesn't appear to him...(big sigh) moronic administration doesn't help matters. I am looking forward to a change in admin right now. The new gal is organized and much more Type A like me.