Yesterday, we did a lot of garden work and look forward to the flowers settling in! The plants we put in last year (ajugas, black grass, liriope, ferns) are doing great, though some have suffered from trampling and an unexpected mowing (we caught that in time, thankfully). Back to yesterday, we completed a line of hostas and mulch from the front walkway to the arches near Ardleigh. In what may qualify as going bonkers or making it more fun to garden, we made the letter J with hostas! Putting in a pattern should make gardening a more fun and rewarding experience, since keeping the J looking good is a reasonable goal. There's even room to add the rest of "Jenks," but that'll depend on how many more plants we get. We also cleaned up the weeds and mulched in front of the sign in preparation for adding sun-loving annuals and perennials in time for the Chestnut Hill Garden Festival May 6th. Thanks to Adam Eyring for donating the hostas, Angela Stewart for donating mulch and helping, and Bridget Davis and daughter for helping out. Thanks also to Haviva Goldman and family for helping in a clean-up two weeks ago.

It's been quite a while since the last post, but we accomplished quite a bit on the indoor side of Jenks. We couldn't improve everything in the time we had, but we made some progress! We did a lot of glass cleaning, particularly on doors of the first floor. Some had so much tape residue and dirt that it took trying different kinds of cleaners to see what worked. We also polished the main doors of the auditorium and repaired one door so it had a more attractive appearance. There's still more to do. We also removed the decades-old bars on the doors of the first grade classrooms and cleaned up the doors, as the pictures show. We identified areas of the auditorium that could use improvements so students are practicing in better lighting and the walls don't look as damaged. We are continuing to work on those and hope to make more progress before the play in May. Thanks to the parents and potential parents who helped: Adam Eyring, Kim Raznov Coon, Neveen Michael, and Jim McMillan.