Legacy

When I initially heard about WISE my junior year, I had my heart absolutely set on leaving a legacy at the high school.  I wanted to do something huge that the school would always have and remember.  One serious thought I had was putting in a system where rain water could be captured and used in the toilets.  In any case, I wanted to leave an environmental legacy.  My project is not on that same path...but I e-mailed Dan Klein yesterday and the word legacy came to mind.

Dan Klein works at the cornell cooperative extension (so far almost ALL of my work has been connected with the co-op).  He is the coordinator of the Tompkins County Beautification Brigade.  I was a part of the Brigade last year, and loved my time spent around town planting flowers.  Just Monday I got an e-mail from Dan about the 2011 Beautification season.  First of all, I thought- whoa! Beautification already? But it was 5 degrees out today! And then I realized, time is going by really fast.  I should remember this when I'm sitting on the couch not doing my WISE work...
Secondly, I thought, hey! Dan knows a lot about gardening! So I e-mailed him a quite lengthy e-mail about my project.  He said he would do all that he could in order to help me find a location for my final project and to supply me with donations.  But he mentioned that before I can start a project like this, I need to plan out who will maintain the garden after it's completed.  I never thought about that.  I just envisioned a huge community garden build day that would be engaging and fun for everyone.  But now I have to think about the legacy.  Some quick ideas are- the Master Gardeners, the Children's Garden, Green Team, the Master Composters and the Beautification Brigade. They are possible groups that could keep the garden in good shape.  I think about that more though...

Tonight was my composting class.  I learned about compost! yayyy!! We mostly did work with outdoor bins.  Not really bins though...more like open piles.  I learned about the Lasagna method of compost.  Layering of materials is crucial to a healthy compost bin.  Carbon, such as leaves and sticks, below nitrogen, such as food scraps, and continue the layering of carbon and nitrogen items.  Sticks are important to a compost bin because they keep the pile somewhat porous.  A porous compost pile allows a good flow of water and oxygen through out the bin, keeping it healthy and increasing the rate of decomposition.  Cool!

I also met a woman tonight at the composting class who works with Gardens 4 Humanity.  I told her about my project and asked if she had any ideas for a location that I could use for my community garden.  She told me to contact Liz Falk, who I know.  So that is the next step! But she did give me another piece of helpful information- and that is I could start my own garden plot with the Gardens 4 Humanity.  She said it wouldnt be a huge community event, but it would be my own space.  The only thing with that, though, is that those plots are not really about design and aesthetics.  They are more about growing plants, especially for people who do not have the space.  We will see.

I want to use this time, and this space to list the upcoming events that I need to keep in mind.  The Gardens 4 Humanity is giving a free 20 hour gardening workshop.  You must attend every session and the dates are as follows: Monday March 14 6-9pm, Monday March 28 6-9pm, Saturday April 2 10-4pm, and Monday April 11 6-9pm. I'm not sure if I am interested in this or not.  Well, thats not true.  I am really interested, I just have to figure out what I can manage before I sign up.  I have the composting class every thursday, and then 60 hours of service to do for that.  Then this class is 20 hours all together, and then you must do 20 hours of service in exchange for the class.  Plus the hours I hope to get at Cayuga Landscaping for my internship= a lot of hours.  I need to figure out whats most important for me and then divide my time accordingly. 

On another note, Beautification Brigade is up and running! The times for that are:
-Tuesday March 22 6:00 - 8:30 BB training
-Monday March 28 6:00 - 8:30 BB training
-Saturday April 2 1:00 until bulb planting at Cooperative Extension
-Tuesday April 5 5:00 pansy planting May
-Wednesday April 6 10:00 pansy planting
-Tuesday April 12 5:00 pansy planting backup date
-Wednesday April 13 10:00 pansy planting backup date
-Saturday May 7 Business Planting Day 10:00 - 1:00?
-Saturday May 14 Plant Sale
-Sunday May 15 1:00 – 4:00 Plant Exchange in Danby
-Saturday June 11, 10:00 – 4:00 Open Days Garden Tour
-BB sessions will again be Tuesday evenings 6:00 - 8:00 and Wednesday mornings 10:00 - 12:00 from mid-May to late June.

Can I handle all of this?  I need to sit down and plan this out! Right now though, I need to do more other homework and sleep.  Tomorrow is friday, thank goodness.  But my weekend is filled with work at Wegman's and volunteering for the Master Composter class.  Lots and lots of work.  Next week is  re-vamp week.  I think I will buy a sizable paper planner.  And start seeing all of my time commitments laid out on one sheet of paper...hopefully that will help.