Final Stretch

This Friday at DeGolyer we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with the rest of DISD by reading his books out loud in all of the classrooms in the school and after the fun I walked out in the garden to see what we had done and still had to do and was reminded of the Lorax quote-

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

The parents, students, teacher and faculty of DeGolyer are proving that they care a whole awful lot.....

I would like to write something original here instead of my standard gushing about the dedication of our parents and their commitment to our school and children- not to mention the wonderful support of the DISD facilities staff who have helped- I would like to but there is no other way to express how amazing they have all been!

We had another of our Family build days- our fourth and final one on Saturday and a large turn out put the finishing touches on many areas of the garden. We planted the Mexican Feather grass, finished the paths in the vegetable garden, created cold frames to get a jump on the vegetable planting with the students, cleaned and arranged.

 We only have a few details left to take care of over the coming weeks and then we are ready for the dedication March 31! Since the last entry we have also installed two of the triangle benches, stained a labyrinth on the concrete circle and the pergola is starting to take shape.  The daffodils we planted in the fall came up like little cheerleaders encouraging us to keep going- its worth it!

 I will put a special shout out to our Dad's Club President, Todd Smith who like a elf in the night erected the pergola structure in a blink of an eye. His amazing craftsmanship will be a gift to the students for generations to come- built of cedar this thing is ready for all that Texas has to throw at it. Enjoy the pictures and get ready for some more tweeks and treats between now and the dedication- Saturday March 31 during the DeGolyer Spring Carnival (from 2-5). Hope to see you all there.

Welcome to the New Year!

Last weekend I was once again amazed and impressed by the very dedicated parents of DeGolyer Elementary as well as the cubs and their parents from Cub Scout Troop 836 (sponsored by the DeGolyer Dad’s Club). The cubs came out as part of their service project- some of them simply live in the community and do not attend the school... Thanks Scouts!

We moved 6 cubic yards of soil into the vegetable garden and the butterfly raised beds, put down landscape cloth and piled on the decomposed granite all around the butterfly beds and into the vegetable garden, sunk in all of our raised beds boarders and organized the planting area in the vegetable garden, got one of the toppers on the butterfly garden and installed two of the triangle benches. Talk about a run on sentence of WORK!

The weather matched our spirits by being beautiful- even in January!

Here are the scouts putting down the ground cloth around the butterfly garden

Shaping the Vegetable Garden

Bringing in the Benches

Everyone was helping at the Dirt pile

I dont know how much the kids shoveled but they had a great time.

The Vegetable Garden taking shape

Last bag of Granite (for today)

Starting the Butterfly Garden Toppers

Working together to make the garden great!

Off site we are in the final planning stages of the pergola/ gazebo, ordering our stone pavers to honor or teachers and preparing for the next build day March 3^rd. With the dedication March 31! Mark your calendars!

Final push of 2011

Today we planted hundreds of bulbs in the discovery garden as well as cleaned up the garden area in front of the school.

Although at the end of the day the garden looked no different than when we began the daffodils and iris  have all been planted with care and gently watered in the hope that they will make their grand entrance in the spring.

Lucky for us a DeGolyer neighbor and hopefully future DeGolyer grandparent, Lynn Hill, found out about our little project and donated the iris bulbs from her daughter's yard.....
"I was told that the family who owned the house belonged to the Dallas Iris Society and had some prized bulbs in the garden.  We never found out which ones they were, but the luck of the draw may put DeGoyer in possession of show quality bulbs!" 

 

That just makes the upcoming spring all the more exciting! Thank you Hill Family!!!!

The iris bulbs were planted by the teacher lounge window as a splash of beauty before the kids head back into school. The daffodils will peek out from among all of the grasses.

Looking forward to the upcoming holidays and then getting back to the garden in the new year!

Family Build Day- The Sequal

Working on the raised beds in the Veg. Garden

 There are no better group of parents than DeGolyer Parents! Another day of moving dirt, granite and taking back the vegetable garden.

In the vegetable garden we were able to  dig in the new dividers for the raised beds, uncover the rain barrels and designate a great location for compost as well as take back the supply corner from debris and make it a useful space again.

Veg Garden taking shape

Day Two of moving- adding more dirt & granite

Raised Beds taking shape

View at the end of day, Sunday

View at the end of the day, Sunday

We are poised for the next build weekend to install the benches, finish the raised butterfly garden beds, plant some more of our landscaping (including bulbs) among other things.

Our Gazebo structure will be installed in the spring along with the vegetables and finishing touches.




Thanks to all the great parents and kids who helped this weekend. This will be a project we can all be proud of.

Saturday's Family Build Day

What a great way to spend a Saturday and meet some more amazing parents! Yesterday was our First Family build Day at DeGolyer and everyone from the principal and teachers to the girl scouts, boy scouts and even a Lowe's Associate showed up to help. And we cannot forget all of our wonderful parents who lent a hand anywhere something needed doing. There were wheelbarrows to load, granite to rake, cinder blocks to lay, tilling, weed block fabric and just the cleaning alone- not to mention feeding hungry workers, watching kids and just all around being amazing.

We started out the morning trying to simply dig holes for the trees (Ramona the River birch, Charles the Chinese Pistachio & Filbert the Forest Pansy Red Bud) Well, the dirt proved even too much for the rented commercial auger that was brought. Thankfully there were some very kind and generous construction workers near by who just happened to have a back how and a soft place in their heart for elementary school volunteers.  The trees were planted, watered and staked in their new homes where they will watch over our kids for years to come.

The cleaning of the garden and the picking up of the debris from the concrete pour rounded out our morning.  We moved on to laying landscape fabric to help with weed control and filling those areas with decomposed granite and rubber mulch from a parade of wheelbarrows. The vegetable garden was cleared and ready for a new beginning. Our hardy girl scouts and dads braved the clay and planted some of our grasses before all was said and done we were starting to look like a real garden.

It seemed like every time I turned around there was someone else asking what they could do to help. We finished more yesterday than I thought we would get done in the whole weekend.

Just in case you were wondering about all that debris, the guys returned from dumping and it ended up being 2.7 TONS!!!! That’s a lot of moving!

Morning Auger

Trying to start the hole & moving debris

more raking

Bringing in the "big guns"

This is cool right?

I mean come on

Look at all our workers- Even Dr Cobb!

The girl scouts starting the granite

Many Dads make light work

Starting to look like a Garden!

Moving mulch

Add caption

End of Day One

Kids conquer the dirt

Vegetable Garden ready to go!

Teacher's are workers too!

Dirt Delivery

The dried concrete ready for work

cinder blocks & rubber mulch

Our tree Family

Teachers in the garden Re-hab

More Garden Re-hab

At the end of Friday

Friday a gaggle of teachers stayed late after school and got our build weekend off to a great start. They began the rehab of the veg garden, started to lay out the landscaping fabric and trim the roses.....
All the items we will be using this weekend were also delivered today... its getting exciting!
Thanks for all the amazing teachers who put in extra time for our kids!