When planning a garden project there's so much to do! All our research said that plants native to Southern California would be best suited for our local climate. For the rain garden location, we had to find drought-tolearant plants, frost hardy, evergreen, adaptable to winter sun, summer shade, and alkaline, clay soil. We made notes of blooming seasons and wildlife attracted. With the help of Mrs. Sigman, we devised a scoring system to help rank possible plants. From 60 plants on the "Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers" website guides for shade and clay, we narrowed the list to 15-20 choices.
Once we figured the square footage of the runoff funneling into the rain garden, we were able to calculate that our garden area should be about 300 sq. feet. We measured, staked the perimeter, and mapped the area. By creating 1, 2, & 4 ft diameter circles, we planned to allow space to accomodate each plant's size when fully grown. This would help know where the plants would be placed in the final garden so each plant would have enough room to grow. We consulted with Mrs. Clark, Mr. Richter, Mrs. Nordskog, and Mrs. Saunders.
Our research suggested creating plant zones. The center zone required plants that might be flooded for up to 24 hours after a hard rain. The next zone out would have less water saturation. The outer most zone would have the least water build up and would need to deter erosion. Final "before" picture of whole team and zones. The Dad Crew picked up the donated compost and mulch then unloaded with a little help from the boys. Mr. Mangarin, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Goldstein give the DPC team final instructions and pep talk for the Rain Garden construction the next day. Let's do it!!!
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sigman returned from the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers in Sun Valley with a car load of plants--27, to be exact. With her help to identify the plants, the students arranged the plants in the rain garden space according to the 3 zones. There was a lot of leaf litter that needed to be moved aside but we had only one rake. No problem! Everyone grabbed leaves by the handfuls and the job was done in a matter of minutes! With the banners up, it was time to go home, rest up, and be ready to work the next day.
Saturday, February 11th. Bright and early at 8:30 the DPC kids arrived to set up for the work party-posters for Adopt-a-plant, tables for displays, tools for digging, and bottled waters were moved to the dig site. With no funding for equipment rentals, the garden would be constructed manually. In addition to all 33 Disney Planet Challenge kids, over 70 other people-families and friends- turned out to help excavate the "dry pond".
Displays included graphs of soil testing results, map of school trees with longititude and latitude coordinates for precise identification, non-source point urban runoff water shed demonstration model, and timed game activity to see how quickly can remove debris from water without harming/netting the "fish".
The Rain Garden Work Party had two purposes 1) to build a rain garden and 2) to educate the community. Sixth-grade girls manned the information table with the "before/after" poster they created to give visitors a quick overview of how rain gardens function. Without the dedicated leadership of Mrs. Nordskog assisted by Mrs. Clark and Mrs. Ramsey, the Disney project would not have happened! Finally, after weeks of planning, the DPC team can dig in!