Nora ... I echo the admiration of other comments for you efforts ... I'm of the generation when our school had a Victory Garden and have very happy memories, not to mention fortifying familial gardening pattern for a lifetime of enjoyment. May I add to the list of educational benefits to the children, the cross-generational habit/culture .... also the example of starting small [workable money/ time/ experience/ manpower-wise] is HUGE! The children will really feel the importance of their contribution if the scale is small. Visual aides are also valuable ... both for children and adults/community to see the scope of the plan. Re: soil tainted with toxic materials ... raised beds are great, but the pathways will kick up dust and airborne problems unless well-mulched. Because the oldsters and youngsters may be already at risk to airborne toxics. Again, a reason to start small, so as to throughly cover all the bases. Even if the soil test comes back OK/CLEAR, the fact that construction waste was dumped on the site is a major argument in favor of raised beds. Would you be able to use those rocks in the picture for some of the raised beds? They would be so pretty, not to mention FREE!

According to this rather vague survey it appears these kiddos are in Colorado, so that might be U Colo at Denver. The survey is obviously intended for Colorado residents - note Question #11, "Which Colorado area do you reside in?" - it's a giant waste of time for 99% of Forum members. Woulda been nice if they'd simply said that in the subject line so we could ignore it. Erm, what is the difference between 'potting soil' and 'planting mix'? Inquiring and irritated minds want to know.

Larry, Macrophylla does not have any notable affect on fruit quality. I wouldn't grow citrus in volcanic soil, if I had a choice; volcanic soil binds the phosphorus, so you have to add a lot of extra P; fertilizer tends to leach out of the root zone more quickly also. The roots of cuttings or from seedlings tend to be weaker and more susceptible to root rot or drowning during our rainy season. I chose Macrophylla for my operation because it is very vigorous, relatively resistant, and I am planting my trees close to hedgerow them. I get full production at 3 years, 3-400 fruits per tree. Anyway, as I have said before it really is still just an experiment; I may find that the Macrophylla is a bit too vigorous, in which case I will choose another for future plantings.

Some of my ideas for activities are: This will be the first year to start back up, I’m told a teacher ran one many years ago here. My goals depend upon contribution levels. I will canvas local stores for donations as well. If you know of any local nurseries that have helped with this sort of thing in the past that would be great. I would like to start with potted plants in the fall. I can buy one house plant, and since they are always crowded, split it many times. I want to get medium terracotta pots that the students could decorate, and eventually take home. I am also considering that if a teacher wanted a plant for their classroom they could sign up and we would deliver them after a month or so. I will get some LED overhead lamps to dedicate a shelf or two for starting plants inside. I would love to get back into vermiculture and keep a worm bin in my classroom, kept under a table. I have done extensive composting when I had a backyard garden and kept worm bins in my garage. I even took a worm bin to some boy scout camps, and gave presentations on sustainability. I would like to compost here on the school grounds as well using a pallet bin method I have used before. I would like to involve the cafeteria into sorting out some of the compostable waste as well, starting small to get them on board. A leaf blower that reverses would aid in shredding OPBL other peoples bagged leaves that I will collect and bring to the school. I plan on preparing raised beds this fall to plant in the spring. My past experience with gardening in VA is that raised beds are much more manageable with the amount of rainfall we get. One thing that would absolutely depend on donations is a hoop houses using plans that require PVC and low raised tunnels. The final stages of the student garden would be a fund raiser with potted flowers for Mother’s Day and a few Saturday mornings at one of the local farmer’s markets selling produce from our garden.