My Green Lake | Seattle's Green Lake Blog

After much blood, sweat and fundraising, last week was the make-or-break week for Daniel Bagley Elementary School’s garden renovation.  Dubbed “Garden Week,” it was packed with daily student activities during and after school to get the garden ready for fall planting and student harvesting.  The dramatic highlight was clearly Wednesday night’s “Move the Mountain” work party – the third and best attended since the renovation started last spring.

The “mountain” was primo Cedar Grove compost, dumped between the garden and the playground that afternoon, that had to be dug, bailed, shoveled and swept into the newly built garden beds.

Easily 150, maybe 200 students, siblings, parents, teachers and one principal surrendered their evening to the cause, braving the pungent aroma of decomposing nitrogen.  As one child said, “Why does it have to be so stinky and warm?” Because it does. Pumped-in tunes stoked up the crowd, shovels and buckets flew, and the mountain was leveled in under an hour.  Diggers were rewarded by a to-die-for chocolate cake with a garden theme donated by Tom Douglas’s Dahlia Bakery.

Even little sisters get into the act. Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Actions speaking louder than words. Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Dirt never looked or tasted so good! Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Students of all ages helped throughout “Garden Week” at every stage.  After the no-tools cedar beds (from Naturalyards) were assembled by fourth and fifth graders, second and third graders laid sand to prepare the ground for pathways, and then first-graders and Ks layered the paths with cardboard and straw to slow down the weeds.  Teacher/Garden Committee member Marguerite Humphrey actually took a vacation day to supervise the bed-building. Besides compost-hauling,  a host of parents volunteered to sort the wooden bed kits, babysit compost delivery, and help their kids’ classes in the garden.

The new garden layout includes one bed for each classroom.

A student lays a brace support for garden bed.

A representative from Naturalyards talks the kids through the bed assembly, which requires no tools.

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Neither rain, nor sleet … Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

The garden will be thoroughly tilled into the Bagley curriculum, supporting science, math, writing and art curricula.  It started before the garden was even opened; as the upper graders were fitting the beds together Lincoln Log-style, a kindergarten class drew the new garden as an art activity.  Surplus from the first harvest will go to local food banks.

The week culminated in an all-school Apple Social to celebrate the garden’s opening on Friday, with some help from local businesses. The Greenwood Food Bank offered the school seed packets they’ve collected for the garden, and Lettuce Link donated a scale that the students can use for weighing the vegetables they harvest and donate to the Greenwood Food Bank.

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

Photo Credit: Trudy Tessaro

A relaxed and relieved Garden Committee. Clockwise from left: Marguerite Humphrey, Barb McKague Nelson, Trudy Tessaro, and Andrea Day Huber (Photo supplied by Trudy Tessaro)