Saturday, May 19, was a great day for the school garden at Davidson in San Rafael. Before our team of volunteers arrived, the Garden was abundant with flowers and winter vegetables all going to seed.
Our team got going in a hurry, pulling up old brassicas, redundant calendulas, and over-reaching borage (all good friends, but over-staying their welcome), then laying down fresh soil from our worm bins.
Two-year-old chard, having given hundreds of leaves for our delectation, had to to go, too. Luat Tran, project leader for the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership, got a big one out of the ground:
Gricelda Gomez was one of our soil-spreaders:
The Garden beds needed so much re-filling that we had to retrieve extra soil from a pile left over from last fall.
Edgar Quinillo at work
There were lots of vegetables and herbs to take home, including celery, cabbage, onions, mint, kale, a few fava beans, one potato, and chard of course.
We sampled borage, calendula, and nasturtiums, too. Eating flowers was a first for many of us!
When we were done, the effusive, over-taking, past-prime blooms and seedheads were gone. In their place: fresh, rich soil; re-laid irrigation lines; and many planted seeds. Come back in a month to see the sprouts of cucumber, eggplant, peas, pole beans, tomato, and watermelon!
Many thanks to our team: William Castro, Kathleen Enriques (not pictured), Chas De Ferrari, Risa De Ferrari, Gricelda Gomez, Ashley Kelley, Edgar Quinillo, Vilyn Reyes, and Luat Tran.
