Potatoes & Portables

The Green LIONS Garden Group held its final meeting for this school year on Monday. We welcomed Clay Dills from Dills Architects to speak with the kids about the many ways his company uses environmentally-friendly methods in its design and building. He involved the kids in a lively discussion about the way we all use electricity and water and how we could do a better job in their conservation. He showed the students many examples of using this conservation mentality in harnassing solar power to supplement energy in schools, collecting rain barrel water to heat floors, and light sensitve lighting that shuts off when natural daylight is sufficient. The students received a valuable lesson in how they can practice simple ways to conserve their own energy output at home.

Mr. Dills also shared an exciting new project with our group that his company is developing; a green roof, solar-powered classroom portable that he hopes to be on school campuses soon. This project is an impressive culmination of the energy conservation practices mentioned above into a miniature, but no less powerful model. The green roof will provide insulation for heating and cooling and will be watered by collected and pumped rain water. The portables will be built from sustainable materials and he hopes they can be completely supported by solar power. Very exciting!

We ended our meeting with a potato harvest digging up a huge pile of Yukon Gold and Fingerling potatoes for all the students to share with their families. We also harvested Rainbow Carrots, and the last of our radishes and sugar snap peas to share all around. The garden bid a bittersweet fairwell to its caretakers of the past months and now awaits a summer cover crop of buckwheat until we return in the Fall.

We can't thank our parent and teacher volunteers enough for the help and support you've given us this year. And thank you to our speakers and community volunteers. This has truly been a community garden program and all the support we received from everyone involved was vital. The Green LIONS Garden Group students, teachers and parents want to wish all our readers a happy and fun summer. Get out there and grow something, visit a farmers' market, ride your bikes places and enjoy our beautiful outdoors! See you back here in the Fall.