Moving Forward

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

-       Sir Winston Churchill

The beginning of EPPG is over and we move steadily into the body of our work. What a great beginning it was but today we all got our hands dirty. The beds are all weeded and the garden looks great. But there is still much work to be done as we begin expanding the garden in two directions. The first will be mulching the ditch were the sunflowers are grown. The cardboard is down and as we wait for the much we weed our way back into the undergrowth to develop a pineapple garden.  This turned out to be no simple task. The grass is tall and well-established and other weeds seem to be stubborn in giving up their ground. The ground is firm and slightly rocky.

As we moved slowly backwards our compost piles grow higher and higher. However great progress was made. Our already resident pineapples are now happily sitting in their new private plots. The progress was slow and slightly daunting at first but besides a few run-ins with man eating spiders and incredibly stubborn plants we moved ahead undaunted. Much of the undergrowth is removed and soon we will be able to lay down some serious layers of cardboard and mulch. We have also been ordered to quest out into the world and return with as many pineapple tops each student can find.

Working in stages with separate groups makes watching the development of the garden very interesting. Every time I go it is slightly improved and looks slightly better. Also it leads to some very interesting conversations such as how different children treat nature. Some love to stare some love to touch things and some like to cop attitudes and stomp frogs apparently. We did get a quick visit from a kindergarten class today. The looks of excitement reminded us all of why we are working so hard in the morning sun. In the end it was worth it and I believe were all excited to keep moving forward.

Tristram Norman