A Rain Water Harvesting Garden at Prince

A local church wrote and won  a grant to cool our neighborhood.  It involved lots of money, lots of plants, and lots of work.  It included training of parents and classroom lessons for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades 

It all came together on Saturday morning, one of those clear, crisp, days that make Fall my favorite season of the year.  Sweatshirts required early, sun hats necessary all day.

There's a new bus pick up/drop off area adjacent to the school.  It was an empty lot before the paving began.  The condition of the land in which we were depositing plants can best be described at hard packed dirt.  

This family has done other garden projects together.  They were quite prepared.  There was enough planting materials for the little guy to announce to anyone and everyone who might be interested that he was using his dump truck and blue shovel, moving the gravel around. 

On the other side of the fence, there was much digging and flattening and berming to be done.

The shallow troughs created by the berms designed to retain water around the drip line of the plants.

The availability of water in a wider area around them should encourage the roots to explore and spread out, increasing their likelihood of survival.

There was smoothing and beveling with rakes of all sizes and descriptions.

The plants were set out, just so, and then the shovels and the muscles came out.

Jamming the point of the shovel in to the ground was often the only way to start a hole... even a little hole.

See those clumps of dirt lining the hole.  The grey shirted Prince Scholar and I spent an enjoyable interlude breaking them up into smaller pieces, easier for the roots to penetrate.  

The kids had lots of energy.  The grown ups were often happy to sit and watch.

This was a true community effort. There were Prince families and teachers (and their families); church members who drive by the school and feel it's part of their neighborhood;  Watershed Management staff making Tucson a cooler place to live.

As if I didn't think it was already a pretty cool place to live.