Beginning the Work: Conversation and Compromise (Three Sisters Garden)

Although the crops were removed, the land remains. See how it springs back quickly after being striped to bare ground!  (Photo, 7/12/2022) The clay soil has been enriched during three years of gardening by volunteers. We added leaf mulch (created from leaves from the school's oak trees) and commercial LeafGro (made from the leaves you place on the curb each fall), which was purchased by a neighbor. We grew a small plot of "winter crops," which added nitrogen to the soil without artificial fertilizers. We improved the runoff "holding capacity" of the land as we broke up the clay soil and added organic matter to it. 

A few days after clearing the ground, district maintenance crews added straw and (apparently) some grass seed to stabilize the ground. Just in time. It has been raining heavily, and the ground is soft, but mudslides have not occurred. 

So now ... what will happen to this wee bit of MCPS-owned land? Will it revert to the thorny, vine-covered thicket that it has been for decades?  Will it become just another lawn that custodians have to mow, week after week, burning gasoline to do so? Or is there a third option? Might it become a small managed meadow, with some garden plots and interpretive signage here and there? 

Like the plants, the volunteers are springing back -- but this time slowly and deliberately. We hope to schedule meetings with managers and educators to discuss procedures for how to create and run a school garden program. The conversations have already begun.

-- Steven Sellers Lapham, PTA volunteer; MoCo Weed Warrior; and Strawberry Knoll Neighbor