Earth Turned

On Saturday morning, March 7, 2009, with heavy rains predicted, the earth was turned for the Okanis Garden at Prairie Moon Waldorf School!

Garden manager Julie Fernandes-Ferreira, garden mentor Barbara Clark, parent Melissa Watson, early childhood teacher David Werdin-Kennicott, Waldorf Association of Lawrence Board President Rick Mitchell, and volunteer Laurie Ward measured, staked, and finally tilled the garden into the following shape:

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There is 10’ of space between most rows, except for 18’ between the inside arced rows and the first straight rows at either end--to allow for entire Prairie Moon classes to help in the garden. The overall dimensions of the garden are 106’ x 50’.

If you use imagination and extend the arced rows all the way, you can visualize an “O” around the garden. In one of several instances of serendipity concerning this garden, I realized that the “O” could stand for Okanis!

The weather cooperated perfectly, and by noon we easily met our goal of finishing the tilling. Barbara commented the next day, “How nice it was to listen to the rain last night, knowing what wonderful work was accomplished in the morning.”

And Dave added, “The weather was nice for tilling, and I also thought how good your timing was, when we had the thunderstorms later that night. All in all I think it is a good start to great things this year.”

The soils surrounding the Prairie Moon Waldorf School are “black gold”--topsoil up to 90” deep. Several on the garden crew remarked that pushing the stakes into the ground was like hot knives cutting into butter. We have hopes for high productivity for the Okanis Garden at Prairie Moon Waldorf School!