Finally an update

Quite a few things have happened since the last post. Before the year ended, Scott and Adam managed to get dozens of daffodil bulbs planted in the forest and along the playground. The forest ones were done with the help of teacher Fitzsimmon's class, which learned about bulb planting. On Martin Luther King Service Day (day after official MLK holiday) Adam worked with several students and a volunteer from State Rep Cherelle Parker's office to clean the front stairway and hallway, wiping down grime and relocating banners. We are in the process of preparing the front stairway walls for painting. More to come...

Welcome to the scarecrows!

The 1st grade class, with the guidance of parents Adam and Scott, created scarecrows on Nov 8th by stuffing straw into old clothes and burlap supported on wooden frames. The kids had lots of fun but the teachers were almost in tears from all the straw spilled out in the classrooms! (A bit too chilly to go outside, but Adam and Scott cleaned it up well!) Parents Dustin and David today mounted the scarecrows and filled the pots with winter cabbage and branches. Now they are welcoming everyone to the school! (Thanks to Angela for the clothes donation.)

Nov 4 work and Nov. 9th bulb planting

The Nov. 4th work session had a small crew (Adam, Susan, Angela, Scott, plus a potential parent whose name we are trying to clarify), but thanks to Scott bringing a gas blower, we got the leaves on Southampton sidewalk and steps picked up. We also transplanted numerous ajugas from a parent's yard to an erosion-prone area in the forest. Our own battery-powered blower was on order and we look forward to using it.

On Nov. 9, Scott and Adam worked with the 5th grade class to plant daffodil bulbs in selected spots for beautiful spring blooms. Scott talked about how bulbs grow, the fertilizer he added, and general plant info. The students were very engaged and enjoyed it. Adam will be giving Mr. Fitzsimmons, 5th grade science teacher, milkweed seeds for cold storage in preparation for a spring planting by the 5th grade students. The milkweed will attract monarch butterflies, among other beneficial insects.

October 21 Work Session

This past Sunday October 21st had an awesome turnout and many new faces! The abundance of help enabled us to rake leaves off the sidewalk and from around the plants. It was easier to see bare spots that could use plants. More ajugas were planted, thanks to Kim for bringing them. The remainder of the mulch was spread around. An old table was found overturned in the former Jenks garden on Ardleigh and brought over to the enclosure to serve as a crafts table for classes. Many thanks to Angela, David/Jeremias, Kim/Skip and family, Scott, James/James, Melissa and family, Susan and her mother and child, Haviva, and potential parent Michael.

The shed is up!

Our work session on October 14 had a great turnout and we managed to get a donated shed set up! (see pictures) The shed came from a resident on Rex St and she was very happy to give us the shed through Freecycle. Now we can store our tools and lock them up! We also spent the same day planting roses, hostas, ajugas, lilies, and carving more of the new path. Thanks to Kim for bringing the ajugas and Dustin/Dave for bringing the other plants and Angela for bringing donuts and juice. From left to right in the group shot: (standing) Dustin, Angela, Scott, Adam; (sitting) Dave, Jeremias. Kim took the photo. Click on each picture to see a larger version in a slide show.

New roses.

Greetings everyone! This is a long-overdue update, but we have nonetheless been keeping up with the garden work bit by bit. Since the last post (where did summer go?), we added new plants such as astilbe, two rain barrels (yay!), and cleaned and replanted/mulched the corners with beautiful flowers for the summer. We have been very proud of the corner work and passers-by have noticed. A large amount of mulch was purchased over the summer and spread over the corners and around many individual plants - and there's still more mulch to use. We started cutting down vegetation near Ardleigh to create a path on the highest ridge to be able to reach plants up there and reduce some of the maintenance needed.

Angela Stewart and Adam Eyring have officially been designated as the co-chairs of the Beautification Committee. We prepared a long-range plan that outlines the work needed to do (many are ideas for now)and when. Please ask if you'd like to see it. The plan also includes ways for students to be involved this fall, including planting daffodil bulbs, starting milkweed seeds, and making fall decorations for the front. We also agreed on the 1st and 3rd Sundays, 10 am-1 pm, to be our work sessions. The next one is October 7th, so please come out! Thank you for your support!

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.

Thanks for the great work on MLK Day!

Jenks chose the day after MLK Day as its service day and we had a number of volunteers helping with indoor beautification. Most of the volunteer hours were dedicated to organizing the storage closets on the first floor by the main stairs. A couple of the volunteers also went around removing old staples, tape, and other debris from classroom doors. We plan to improve the signage and touch up the finish on the doors. We are appreciative of the work by Jim McMillan (parent of first grader), Neven Michael, and Katey McGrath (both potential parents, Katey also brought a crew of seven from Elfant-Wissahickon Realtors). Katey's crew also helped with classroom activities.

Planting is done for now

Thanks to Darlene (parent of 5th grader) joining me Nov. 5th, we finished planting the last bunch of ferns. To date we have planted around two dozen ferns, about ten ajugas, and a few black grass clumps. We removed many dead tree parts and weeds. We'll attempt one more session in early December (if it hasn't snowed yet) to remove more dead tree parts and invasive vines. Thank you to the many volunteers for making this work! We're already starting to think about indoor projects for the winter, so share some ideas you have. Principal Mary has some ideas for us.

Next clean-up/planting Nov. 5th

I still have the last batch of ferns needing planting, so let's shoot for Nov. 5th at 11 am. I'll bring supplies for raking leaves and pine needles to make a compost pile. We should also remove some invasive vines. Please bring any tools you have. Hope to see you there!

Rain and snow!

Looks like Saturday will be a drenching day, so let's reschedule the garden work for next weekend. Thank you for your support.

Post-Harry Potter and Next Clean-up 10/29

The visit by Harry Potter fans this past weekend was tremendous, with the Jenks playground transformed into a large chessboard! Thankfully, the work we've done in the woods didn't appear to be affected. Saturday morning I managed to get a few more ferns planted and I apologize for not reminding everyone I would be there. I think the work we've done by the playground entrance looks great, but we are looking for more stones and other barrier material to minimize trampling of the new plants. I think we should also focus more on the other end. There is a lot of weed and branch removal to do, as well as sprucing up the corner. If you are able to spend a few minutes during the week days doing some clean-up, you are welcome to - just drop me a message when you do it.

As for the next clean-up/planting, I am not able to schedule myself for early Saturday mornings for a while. I plan to be present at 11am on Sat. Oct 29. If you want to come earlier that Saturday, let me know and I can give you some ideas of what to do. Thank you for your support.

Planting and clean-up Oct. 10

We planted many donated ferns on the south end of the forest, as well as removed many weeds and emptied the overflowing trash can. Four families, including a potential Jenks parent, helped. A couple of hose connections were finally found, plus some hose in good condition. One of us will bring a tool to turn on the water this week and finish watering the plants. We'll have another session Sat. Oct 15 at 9 am to rake up fallen leaves, plant more shade plants, and whatever else we can get done. Grant applications are underway to get more tools, border stones, and shade plants.

Work done to date.

Ferns are perfect for the shade, so we've planted a bunch donated by friends and relatives of Adam Eyring. We also planted mondo black grass and ajuga (bugleweed) from Adam's garden. Although the latter two are not native, they love the shade and spread too slow to be considered invasive. They should help with controlling erosion on the slopes.
The first picture shows a large fern with black grass in front.

Ajuga (dark green/purple leaves) on one of the slopes. Spreading will be evident next year and eventually this slope will have good erosion control.

Ferns, hostas, and ajuga along the curve in the path going to the playground.

When these ferns fill in some day, this spot along the fence should be pretty!

A good look at the crew at work on the Saturday just before school started. Current, former, and potential Jenks parents helped out! In the picture: Hardesty family, Adam Eyring, Davis family, Julie Sneeringer, Goldman/Lattanzi family, Dhondt family, and Katie Eyer.

Some views of the grounds needing improvement.

Three groups of plants growing on old stumps and maintained by neighbor Brian Rudnick. The middle group could use some more plants, but it needs to be determined if this is a sunny or shady spot.

Middle of mosaic needs tiles reapplied.

Along the edge of the toddler playground. A good spot for sunny plants, but the dirt is full of sand and needs to be replaced.

Notice the clumps of hostas along the walkway. Good evidence of prior garden work.

One of the darkest spots along the path. Not sure what should be planted here - any ideas?

An interesting enclosure for probably outdoor classroom events. Trimming of the vegetation should make it nicer.

In what apparently was a garden of sorts set up by a garden club in the early 1990s. Other than repairing the benches, we need some ideas of what students could do with the space.

A wild idea - construct a bridge to connect the corner with the playground over the building service entrance!

The Start of the Outdoor Work

The committee started its work in mid-summer by focusing on some clean-up of the plants near the playground and putting perennials in the shade of the "forest" along Southampton Ave. The goal was to start cleaning up the grounds and beautifying with plants. Ultimately, students will be involved as part of a class or extracurricular activity. The forest is overgrown with weeds and ivy, but there was evidence that prior work had been done. Regularly-spaced clumps of hostas (small-leaved, so we don't know if that's the type or the plants were weak from lack of attention) existed from prior garden projects, plus a hose and bird feeders could be found. If you know when this work was done, please contact us.