Good news! We received word yesterday that we won a $5,000 Small Sparks grant from the Department of Neighborhoods to complete design and construction documents for improvements in the southwest corner of our playground. Our generous PTA will be providing additional matching funds to make this happen. The work we do in the next few months will prepare … More Grant for playground design
Eager for spring planting? To raise money for our school garden, we are holding a Seattle Seed Co. online fundraiser for three weeks, from today through March 17. Order organic seeds and/or other garden-related goodies (flyer below) at https://www.seattleseed.com/gatewood-elementary Gatewood receives 50% of proceeds. Spread the word among family, friends and neighbors!
First the snow fell, now the rain pours down, but flowers are starting to bloom and spring is in the air! Right? So it’s high time for a learning garden update: Raised beds. We finalized a basic design for the raised beds and are pricing lumber and other supplies. Teachers Mr. Revello and Mr. Gaynor and I made a first … More February garden update
Happy new year! Water We returned to school after the winter break to see that the hose bib in the garden has been installed, so we have water access again after a couple of years without it. This will be a significant improvement over dragging hoses through classroom windows or from the custodial closet in the basement, or lugging innumerable watering cans … More Water and worms
We will be adding an after-school gardening club to our club line-up in the spring, with classes led by Seattle Tilth (soon to be Tilth Alliance)!
We had over 70 people respond to our school survey about improvements we’d like to see in the southwest corner of the playground (the field). Thanks to everyone who responded! The top five elements desired in the southwest corner of the playground (current field) were ranked by students and adults as follows: Students’ Ranking Adults’ Ranking … More Playground survey results
We had our first work party in the garden yesterday, and 23 people–students and their families, teachers, and community members–braved the cold to help. We moved plants, built an arc of (at least temporary) classroom seating with some of the log rounds, and piled the rest of the rounds in the middle for now. We’ll keep some of … More Successful work party and other garden news
