GROW San Mateo

As luck would have it, our fellow volunteer Amy Hansell is a landscape designer - and as you can see in the Beresford Park flower bed design below - she really has a talent for transforming a space into a vibrant, living area.  Plant images have been added below Amy's design to give everyone a sense for the types of plants that will be going in next Saturday.  16 different types of plants in all.  (click on the image to view a larger version) Amy is also helping us get the plants ordered and we'll be heading out next week to get everything in time for Plant It Day.   Thank you, Amy!  

Thank you SO much to everyone who participated in our sheet mulch event today.  As you can see, the result is amazing.  It certainly seemed like riding downhill today - and the full wheelbarrows actually were going downhill - what a nice change from Dig In Day(s) last weekend.  Many comments were heard about the relative weight difference between the dug up sod vs. compost & wood chips.  4 wheelbarrows in constant rotation filled the beds back up in record time.  Now we'll let them sit for a few weeks and let nature do its work. Awesome to have Donna Divodi, Citywide Volunteer Coordinator, out there with us this morning.  Thanks for wrestling that cardboard with us, Donna! And a big shout out to Jo Ann for waging war on the weeds behind the center bed.  Thank you, Jo Ann! Please mark your calendars for Plant It Day - Saturday, May 4th. Here are some photos of the team at work:  

It's been a busy week since a dedicated crew removed a dump-truck load of dirt from the flower beds @ Beresford Park.  Big thank you to the Parks & Rec landscape crew for removing the dirt on Monday, bringing in our compost & wood chip material on Tuesday and installing the drip irrigation system yesterday.  Fantastic!  Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning.  We'll group up at the flower beds at 9am. Cheers!

Goodbye to the old (dirt) - and hello to the new (compost & wood chips).  The mountain of dirt that the Grow San Mateo team removed a wheelbarrow at a time last weekend has been loaded up into a dump truck (we filled the whole thing!) and moved out - and the compost & wood chips have just been delivered.  Big thanks to the Parks & Rec crew - you guys are awesome!  It's going to be a great Sheet Mulch Day.  See you Saturday!

The Beresford Park flower bed transformation has begun!  Thanks to all who came out this weekend to move a bunch of dirt out of the beds.  Howard was tenacious in removing the stubborn green posts and rope that formed the previous barrier.  Renee, JoAnn, Phoung and Rita shoveled like crazy.  And Greg ran a string of wheelbarrow runs on Sunday morning that pushed us over the finish line.  Well done, everyone! We're on track for Sheet Mulch Day!  See everyone next Saturday, April 20th starting @ 9am.