Wild weather, including snowy Saturdays and hurricane-like winds, initially slowed us down, but like May flowers after April showers, our team is springing into action. This year, we are focused on garden education by offering hands-on garden workshops at many public schools around the area, and our vision is for Weaver Creek Park to serve as a living classroom where students and community learn about plants, ecology, and sustainability.
For Mother’s Day, we organized workshops where students made wildflower seed bombs as gifts, learning about seeds and planting all along the way. These were made from sifted compost, clay powder, and native wildflower seeds. Our team has also been focused outside the classroom, and this spring we built seven raised bed gardens at an elementary school. I am excited to report that these gardens are complete with automated drip irrigation to help conserve water. One challenge schools face with gardening is garden care during the summer, and this is an area where Jovial is stepping in to help. This summer, we are supporting 5 schools to make sure the gardens are in shipshape come the fall semester so that the active gardens can be integrated into their curriculum.
We host educational workshops on sustainable gardening practices every Sunday at Weaver Creek Park as we continue our weekly educational programming with individuals with developmental disabilities twice a week. A highlight from this year is our 'guerrilla-garage' vegetable seed-starting operation, which has ensured that we have enough seedlings to cover all of the school and community gardens we support. At the orchard, we are grateful for all of the community involvement and volunteer support we have received. Over 50 volunteers have come out to help us rebuild raised beds, plant seeds, and generally get up and started this season, and their help has gone a long way.
In another area of focus, we installed bluebird boxes throughout the orchard to encourage biodiversity and support local bird populations at the park. In addition to providing habitat for this beautiful but threatened species, we are hopeful that the birds will also help control some of our insect pests. We are taking careful but deliberate steps toward our dream of building an ecologically mindful and beautiful outdoor learning laboratory at the park.
I am constantly amazed by our team and community. Together, we have done a lot, and there is much more to come. We have our eyes set on rebuilding fences, planting berry patches, re-grading paths and walkways, and replanting some areas that grasshoppers devastated last year. And that's only scratching the surface of what we have planned for the year.
Truly, none of this would be possible without you. On behalf of the Jovial community, we thank you for your support.
Kind regards & Happy Gardening this year!