Back to the ... Courtyard!

After a wonderful summer break, with some amazing weather, I hope that you’re all settling into the routines of the new school year and after school activities. I'm still trying to figure out what is going on, and I’m honestly already tired of making lunches! Ha ha ha!

Together we have already achieved quite a bit on our courtyard revitalization journey. We were able to remove tree stumps, root balls from unwanted shrubs, and we began to tackle the overgrowth of weeds and wild rose bushes. I must report that the weeds are back with a vengeance as well as those pesky rose bushes! With regards to the rose bushes, I don’t think that there are any major root balls, but what is growing is the result of the suckers that are growing from the remaining roots in the soil. It sure feels like a never ending battle!

This year we (I) have big plans for our courtyard, focusing on the west garden beds (there are five raised garden plots).

We made loads of progress last year, and will continue to do so this fall. My goal is to get our weed situation to a manageable state. Between our administration and support staff, we have found four evenings in which we will be permitted to enter the school courtyard after hours. The dates are listed below, and all times are between 5:00 and 7:00 at night. During these evenings, I am hoping that we can make our way through the five west garden beds and remove as much of the weeds and other vegetation (remaining roots) as possible. This will be a shovel and spade exercise, for the most part. Once completed, I am hoping to implement the next phase of weed control. Stay tuned!

Because this work is occurring after school hours, you do NOT need a valid police clearance.

Dates for weeding:

Tuesday September 20th

Wednesday September 21st

Tuesday September 27th

Thursday September 29th

If you are at all able to help with the weeding, please let me know. This will be a lot of work, and so if there are any other people in your parent network that you could bring, that would be helpful (send me their e-mail address please!)

We also have picnic tables that need to be assembled. I believe that this will require some power tools, but honestly I’m not certain! (I will find out more details) There are two dates available for the assembly of these tables which are listed below. We will only have the assembly on one day, so if you are available please let me know which dates work, and I will let volunteers know which date works for the majority.

Potential dates for picnic table assembly:

Tuesday September 20th Wednesday September 21st

Thank you so much for your time. We could not do this without us all coming together as a school community.