THANK YOU WHOLE FOODS MARKET!

It is a pleasure to inform you the Boise Public Schools Education Foundation has received a $1,959.50 contribution for Garfield Elementary from Whole Foods Market for last quarter's bag donations.  This donation will be directed to the Garfield's Garden Project!

Thank you to Whole Foods Market!

Garden Informational Meeting!

All are invited to Garfield on Monday, November 18th at 3:30 p.m.  We will have an informational meeting for staff and parents interested in being a part of this project. BUGS (Boise Urban Garden School) will present information on how the teachers will integrate the garden into our lessons.  We will also share the monthly plans for our garden implementation!

Garden Plan for 2013-14 School Year

Garfield Team:  Kristina Taylor, Sarah Lane (parent), Marie Hattaway (parent), Sonia Galviz (teacher), Debbie Donovan, Malina Howell (parent), and Catherine Dickson (parent). Any other parents interested in participating in the steering committee-please email Debbie Donovan at Debbie.donovan@boiseschools.org

Calendar

ü       August Mtg. with BSD facilities staff and BUGS at Garfield—Plan out area, watering, etc (Completed) 
      Day of Service with Whole Foods—Build Raised Garden Beds—Sept. 10^th 5:00-7:00 p.m.(Huge Success)

October:  General informational meeting with Garfield staff and Garden Committee by BUGS. 

January 25: Curriculum workshop –at the Ustick Library 9:00-3:00

March: Setup watering system (District F/O), begin to build compost for planting.

April: Curriculum begins-seeds in the classroom.  

May:  Plants/seedlings into the ground

June/July/August:  Maintenance plan developed-students, parents, Jr. League of Boise, church groups, etc.

September:   Kids in the Kitchen –classroom presentations

Ongoing--Summer BUGS program for students---scholarship students to become ambassadors for the Garfield Program. 

THANKS!

Thanks to all the amazing volunteers who came out on September 10th to make our Garden a reality.....

We can change the world (at Garfield) in 2 hours!

The Whole Foods Event was a HUGE success!  We had over 70 volunteers from the community who came together to build 16 garden bed frames.  8 of those will become Garfield's garden beds and 8 will go to a variety of community gardens throughout Boise!  (ALL DONE IN 2 HOURS)   First the sod was to come up......we quickly realized we need extra sod cutters to get the job done.  Thanks to Tates Rents for quickly delivering 2 additional sod cutters.  Then the sod had to be rolled up and stacked for removal.  Thanks to the Boise School District for removing the sod rolls.  Now it was time for top soil to be added to even out our garden surface.  While this HARD work was going on...we had many teams of volunteers building the frames.  WOW! The garden beds were ready to be placed in the space.  OOPS...the line wasn't even.  Out came the sod cutter for one last cut to even out the line of garden space. :)  Beds were carefully placed and then came the mulch.  Mulch was placed around the beds to provided a needed walkway between each bed.  Thanks to Boise City for donating the mulch.  The remaining top soil was placed in the boxes.  We still had time to spare...so the volunteers help cleanup from the event. WOW!  We did it!Garfield is so very fortunate to be a recipient of such wonderful work!  We thank the the many volunteers from the community, Whole Foods, our parents, students and a group of volunteers from ISU Pharmacy Dept.   HUGE THANKS TO MATT COLLINS from Whole Foods, ERIN GUERRICABEITIA from BUGS, and AMY STAHL from the City of Boise--without your amazing work this event would have never been such a success! 

BEFORE.....

AFTER....now we wait until the spring to prepare our beds and plant!

Thanks to the many who also provided fun activities at our Make A Difference Night!

Idaho Botanical Gardens, State Dept.of Education Health/Fitness and Jr. League of Boise also had  booths at our "Make a Difference" day

Timberline TREE Club also participated in the event!

Thank you to the Timberline Students who are part of the TREE club for preparing a fun event on recycling for our kids and families!

City of Boise also became invovled in this event!

Thanks to Amy Stahl with the City of Boise! We appreciate their partnership in this event.  She coordinated the delivery of mulch, top soil, and the infamous "Mobile Rec Van" kids. She also setup one of the stations that the kids could participate in while the parents/volunteers were building our garden beds.

Along came WHOLE FOODS!

Huge thanks to Matt Collins at Whole Foods!  He organized a "Make A Difference" day at Garfield!  You can change a world in 2 hours!  (They certainly did.)

Along came BUGS (Boise Urban Garden School)

Summer of 2013--Met with Erin Guerricabeitia and she outlined the steps involved in making our dream a possibility.  She also connected us with Boise Jr. League who will also help with the development and classroom components involved in utilizing the garden.

Erin working hard and getting just the right placement of our boxes.

Thanks to Kristina Taylor!

Then came an energized parent who shared in this vision!  Kristina Taylor spent countless hours researching funding sources and other resources to get this idea off the ground.

Beginning.....

Garfield's Garden started by an idea from two students.....