The Beach farmgirl has been out and about on Cape Cod visiting her new farmgirl friend Melissa and The Children’s Garden she helped to create at Barnstable Community Horace Mann Charter Public School where her children go to school. She’s not an official sister ( yet ) but she’s a tried and true farmgirl at heart! With the support of the Principle, students, volunteers, local businesses and a shovel full of can-do spirit she helped design and build 30 raised beds and a blueberry patch to boot! This schoolyard garden is an inspiration to anyone who has ever dreamed about starting a community garden.
To build your boxes – What kind of wood did you use? I am under the impression it cannot be wood from the local lumber yard.
Debby, I’m not exactly sure what type of wood they used in the Children’s garden. It might say on their website. I do know that many folks use Cedar and even Red Wood not pressure treated wood to avoid toxin’s getting into the garden soil. I purchased Cedar planks from our local Home Depot and they cut them to length for me there.
Thanks for reading,
Deb
Hi Deb, what a beautiful post! Thank you so much for your wonderful visit.
FYI: The wood for the raised beds is not pressure treated due to terrible preservatives such as arsenic used in the process, that will leach into the produce planted in them. You can use wood from the lumber yard but be sure it is not treated. These were 4"x 4"x 8′ posts cut to 12 inches high for the bed’s corners. The sides of the beds were cut from 2"x12"x12′ pieces of lumber.
As the garden is on school grounds and entirely organic we are very limited as to the "chemicals" we can use in the garden. I hope these help answer some questions 🙂
My pleasure Melissa! Thanks for the info on your raised beds! We appreciate it.
*OH NO!!* Something has happened!! Everytime I try to go to your OTHER website, your "Dandelion" one, a different website about ‘moving to Hawaii’ comes up!! Have you moved your website address or something?
Joy, you can still find me at Dandelion house here: http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com
This is one of the prettiest garden areas I’ve seen. So neat and tidy and decorative! I would like to know what type of wooden mulch material that they used. It doesn’t look like the type of bark mulch that I am familiar with, here in the pacific northwest.
The paintings that the children do are fabulous! They should auction them off. Maybe I could enlist my neighborhood children to make me some for my garden area. Summer craft1 101..
Wanted to let you know that I made your rhubarb chutney and it is MARVELOUS. My first chutney and won’t be my last!
Good job!
Jan
Thank you for the compliments Janice! We use woodchips from the town which are a blend of pine and oak. The town makes them as they tend to wooded areas in Barnstable that require trimming. The children’s art was done on left over lumber pieces after we made the raised beds. Love the auction idea!