It has always been a goal of the Bolivar Garden Project to include members from the wider Bolivar Community, not just students, teachers, maintenance, and administration but to other school staff, the wider students community (K-12), parents, alumni, The Board and friends of the school. For this reason a series of Bolivar Garden Weekends has been proposed to encourage wider participation, to learn about gardening and agriculture and to share time together in the beautiful and wonderful environment that we are so happy to have at the Bolivar Garden.
Dates were set, invites sent out through social media, word of mouth, and we waited for the response.
The first Bolivar Garden Weekend was on Saturday the 16th September and it was a great success. We had participation across the Bolivar Community spectrum: students, teachers, parents, grandparents! Family, administration and alumni. Over 25 keen community members attended.
A lot was accomplished. The second terrace was completely overhauled by those present. It was levelled, the soil cleaned, and made ready for sowing. A tour was made of the garden, the tanks visited, and we talked about how to secure the river banks and what to sow and plant.
A soil respiration test was made using Solvita Test Equipment.
A-Frames were taken out of storage and members were shown how to first calibrate them, and then use them to make levels.
The next path and terrace were successfully staked out, ready for digging.
Another group of community members tackled the hard job of digging out the first compost pit. Once dug out and levelled we can start collecting raw vegetable scraps from both cafeterias and recycling food waste by taking it to the compost pits and effectively making new, nutrient rich soils.
Posts were painted in a bright yellow colour, stones were collected, and new friendships were made.
I was overwhelmed by the response of those that came. Everyone had a great time, and though we were all tired and had some aching muscles at the end of the day we all felt as better for the work. We discussed how this garden can help both the school and organizations that could make use of donations of our produce.
I want to invite all of you that came to come again! Bring more friends, more ideas and equipment and help make this project truly part of our community!
Thank you all so much,
Dr Wojtek Waliszewski