Ryan Park's Eagle Project: CSMA Outdoor Classroom

Ryan Parks has taken a neglected space on our campus and turned it into an incredible learning space that is already in high demand.

Like many large scale projects, this one had its share of obstacles. Ryan remained undaunted.

After meeting with Ryan and his Dad, Randy, we came up with a plan that fit the space, had seating for 32 plus room for a couple of wheelchairs, and, hey, how about a lectern, and, say, wouldn't a large dry erase board be nice?

Dealing with the grass was the first main obstacle. Round Up? Nope, not compliant with our organic philosophy. Concentrated vinegar/salt mixture- turned out to be too complicated, and the Bermuda grass just laughed at household strength vinegar.

As it turned out, it took two passes of the rototiller to conquer the tough turf.

The troop manually removed the defeated weeds, rocks, and chunks of clay heavy soil. Then they covered the ground with landscape cloth after installing the tiered benches. They also spent the better part of two weekends filling in the site with crushed granite.

Ryan's design is well thought out. Being on the tall side himself, the back row is comfortable even for the tallest students. It increases visibility for the instructor and students reading from the whiteboard.

Visible in the background is additional Troop 505 Eagle project. Brian Bales, another CSMS alumnus, built a sturdy and heavily used tool shed two years ago. And, if you look closely at the first photo featured in this post, you can see one of the many bird boxes Garrett Dunaway installed around our campus last year.

Ryan surprised me with his idea to dedicate the classroom to two of his former science teachers at Small. Dale Branam passed away five years ago. Susan Fillman, who he had in 6th grade died this past September.

An interesting tidbit about Ryan: he was the first student at Small to win our campus level National Geographic Geo Bee twice.

Earth Day @ Small

Despite the overcast skies and intermittent drizzle, Small students added another 15 trees to our campus grounds today. Advisories, clubs, and classes had the opportunity to purchase a tree for our Earth Day plant-a-thon.

The holes were predug by my student aides and science elective classes. At times the drizzle was heavy, and some groups have opted to plant when the weather is more friendly.

In this photo students are scooping out the loose soil. In the background you can see a section of our Grove of Champions. For each sports championship our school wins, we add another tree to the grove. We have planted 60 trees in the grove so far and still need to add 4 more.

As the trees mature, they will also serve as a wildlife corridor, connecting the wooded area on the south end of our campus to our central native gardens.

The grove is dedicated to our former principal, Sheila Anderson.

We also held another cleansweep, targeting areas that Mr. Rosenberg's classes couldn't get to on April 9th. Though twice as many students participated this time, the amount they collected was less than half. This is a testament to how thorough Mr. Rosenberg's classes were two weeks ago.

Another site where we added trees was the Small Forest. Like the Grove of Champions it is on the Williamson Creek watershed side of the campus. It too is crossed by a usually dry and shallow wash. Most of these trees were planted by students attending our summer orientation camps for the incoming 6th graders. The rest were planted on last three previous Earth Days.

Traditionally we plant a tree (or create a flower bed) to memorialize students, staff, or family members of our faculty who have passed away. The last two trees we planted today were in the memory of the parents of our librarian, Elizabeth Newell.

Wildflowers, Monarchs, and the Maiden Voyage of the Outdoor Classroom

Wildflowers

Over the past few years my classes have tossed fistfuls of wildflower seed around our campus.

This fall we received a small grant from the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center to purchase seeds from Native American Seed in Junction, Texas. To say this is a banner year for wildflowers is an understatement.

Below are some of the results.

Indian Paintbrush

Castilleja spp.

Texas Bluebonnets

Lupinus texensis

Look closely at the petals on these bluebonnets. The formerly white stripes are now red indicating that they are already pollinated. Bees also notice this and know not to waste any time there.

Texas Bindweed

Convulvus equitans

Prairie Bishop's-Weed

Bifora americana

Looking north. In the foreground is the overflow pond for runoff control. To my knowledge it has never contained any water.

Still facing northward. This is the "wet" pond. It provides habitat needs for a variety on birds and insects, including our purple martin colony. It also filters the water flowing off our parking lots, sidewalks, and road during rain events.

Pink Evening Primrose

Oenothera speciosa

Monarchs

Our milkweed was very late emerging this year. This was the second clump that leafed out and had 5 caterpillars on it yesterday. Today only one remains. Look in the upper left of this picture.

Same caterpillar. Notice how chewed up the milkweed is.

This is the first clump that emerged. It is already recovering from

the ravenous monarch larvae.

A neighboring tropical milkweed plant untouched by caterpillars.

We'll tend to that nut sedge shortly.

Maiden Voyage of the Outdoor Classroom

Chris Brooks' 6th grade Social Studies class reviews African geography.

This classroom was designed and built by former Small cougar and future Eagle Scout, Ryan Parks. It will be dedicated to two outstanding science teachers, Dale Branam and Susan Fillman. Ryan had both of them while at Small.

Campus Cleansweep

Nate Rosenberg, 6th grade teacher and stalwart member of Small's Green Team, led his five Science classes on a massive, campus-wide litter pickup this past Friday. The event kicked off our Earth Month activites. Their efforts also encompassed the soccer facility west of our campus.

His students recorded of the amount they collected, as well as what types of litter they found.

Student salvaged what was recyclable.

The data they collected will be entered onto a spreadsheet in order to create a pie chart.

Students will then hypothesize what are the main sources of our campus's litter, and propose strategies to address this environmental problem.

Another, even larger Cleansweep is planned for Earth Day, April 22nd. Students from many advisories (homerooms) will be assigned sections of our adoption area which includes the entire length of Monterey Oaks Boulevard. Unfortunately, it seems there's always more litter to pick up.

A Successful Sale

Thank you to all who shopped with us on Saturday. I enjoyed visiting with you. I especially wish to thank all the students who volunteered. And, thanks to my wife, Rita, for providing donuts and making supply runs.

Our next sale will be in October. Hope to see you then. We'll have a greater variety of student grown plants and an expanded selection of trees and shrubs as well.

Spring Plant Sale Update

Please come out this Saturday, April 10th from 9 am to 1 pm and shop.

Bring friends and relatives. Proceeds will benefit our campus green efforts.

We will be setup in and around the greenhouse.

Small Middle School has been hosting spring and fall plants sales for 8 years now.

Increasingly we are growing what we sell. Here is our student produced offerings. Most are either in 4 inch pots or one gallon containers:

Spiderwort

Inland Seaoats

Heartleaf Skullcap

Obedient plant

Skeletonleaf goldeneye

Prostrate Rosemary

Mexican Oregano

Salvia greggi

Eve's necklace

Aloe vera

Sabal minor

Evergreen sumac

Over the years we have had tremendous support from a couple of nurseries. One, Medina Garden Nursery, was featured in the previous blog entry. The other has been with us since the beginning, Emerald Garden.

Jeff Yarborough runs the nursery, and he has been a huge supporter of our campus gardens since we began in the spring of 2000. He has outright donated dozens of plants and much of our pond equipment. What wasn't donated, was generously discounted. He has been a guest speaker in my classroom. Whenever I need

information, advice, or help finding unusual native species, he is the first one I turn to.

For our plant sales, he provides the bulk of our inventory with little mark up on his end. What we don't sell, he cheerfully takes back.

Forming a partnership with a local business is a crucial part of having a successful gardening program. Obviously, there is a limit to the number of schools any one business can support.

If you are a beginning garden sponsor, start with the closest nursery to your campus. The sign for Emerald Garden is visible from our school grounds. (More than once have I visited them on my half hour lunch break to get more vegetable starts, a memorial tree, or organic fertilizer.)

The nursery itself is a wonder. In addition to a very respectful inventory of native plants, they

specialize in ponds, fountains, aquatic plants, and fish. They also offer a wide variety of trees, cacti, adapted, xeriscape, and tropical species. Jeff likes to describe it as, " Aquatics to exotics."

All of Jeff's employees are knowledgeable and extremely helpful.

When I say Jeff provides us with plants for fundraisers, I mean truckloads. Tony's the guy that's there to help with loading and heavy lifting.

Following is the most complete list of the plants EG will be providing. Jeff's always good for some surprises. This is in addition to the Medina Garden Nursery donations listed in the previous blog entry.

Some species are 4 inch pots, and others up to 15 gallon pots.

Trees:

Big Tooth Maple

Texas ebony

Desert Willow

Kidneywood

Fragrant Sumac

Cherry Laurel

Mountain Laurel

Rough Leaf Dogwood

Mexican Buckeye

Oklahoma Redbud

Vasey Oak

Lacey Oak

(other oaks available by request)

Vines:

Carolina Jessamine

Coral Honeeysuckle

Crossvine

Grasses:

Gulf Muhly

Mexican feather

Perennials:

Blackfoot daisy

Mountain sage

Purple coneflower

Coreopsis

Blue eyed grass

Columbine (red and yellow)

Woody stemodia

Damianita

Blackeye Susans

Browneye Susans

Guara

Mealy Blue Sage

Lantana (horrida and hybrids)

Esperanza

Rock penstemon

Starflower

Pink skullcap

Mexican Bush Sage

Tropical Milkweed

Beebalm

Winecup

Turk's cap

Rain lily

Strawberry plant

We will also have a small assortment of modest sized trees that Steven Fulton from Bamberger Ranch started from seed this winter for my students to pot up:

Shumard Red oak

Catalpa

Escarpment Cherry

Mexican Plum

Goldenball Leadtree

Steven also kindly donated some madrones and Blanco Crabapple that we'll be offering at future sales. Here are pictures of established ones that are currently blooming on our campus.

A Trip to Medina Garden Nursery

Spring in the Hill Country, what better excuse for cruising the countryside?

Driving west on US 290 the bluebonnets are thick and blooming all the way to Fredricksburg.

South on Hw. 16 they start playing out past Kerrville. No matter. There are still solid patches of orange paintbrush, pink evening primrose, and purple prairie verbena.

Scenery aside, the real purpose of the trip was to visit my friends, Ernesto Carino and Ysmael Espinoza at Medina Garden Nursery and pick up their donations to our upcoming plant sale.

I first heard about Ernesto, Ysmael, and their incredible gardens from David and Margaret Bamberger. If you are serious about native plants or gardening for butterflies, a visit to their nursery should be at the top of your list. It's a little tricky to find. The first time I tried, I was in Bandera before I realized I had driven by it. Once you are south of "downtown Medina," there is a curve you'd be wise to slow down for. Just past this on the right is the nursery entrance.

I have since visited there dozens of times.

As I stumble along the pathway to successful plant propagation, Ernesto has been an invaluable guide. He encourages me to show up around closing time so we can talk, and if he's not too tired, show me some growing tips. Even though they are two driving hours apart, Medina and Austin are both located in the Edward's Plateau ecoregion. Nearly all the native plants he grows can be found in the Oak Hill area too. If you are looking for species that are hard to find, ask these guys.

Ernesto filled up three nursery carts of healthy stock: Sotol, Lindheimer nolina, Texas nolina, red yucca, Texas betony, indigo spires, salvia greggi. Anacacho Orchid tree, pinyon pine, Chinqapin oak, American beautyberry, Missouri violet, huisache daisy, prairie verbena, Hill Country penstemon, Lindheimer muhly, and snapdragon vine. All will be available at the Spring Plant Sale (see previous post)

Ysmael had to work in Kerrville when I visited, so I'll have to include his picture at a later date.

Thank you to these outstanding nurserymen.

If you want to shop there, take cash or check.

They don't accept Visa... or Mastercard.

13417 State Hwy 16-N

Medina, TX 78055

830-589-2771

gardentx@yahoo.com