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San Francisco Bay Area Chapter

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Chapter Project

Willow Glen Middle School gets new Life Lab

By Dale von Dohren

Starting as a chapter goal a few years ago became a reality on March 3, 2001. The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the California Landscape Contractor's Association had expressed a desire to install a Science Garden Life Laboratory in a local school for sometime. If the youth of today were educated in horticulture at an early age, it would foster a continuation of our industry for the next generations.

A couple of days prior to the project start date, John Singley and his crews from Blue Spruce Landscape arrived to grade and prepare the area of Willow Glen Middle School that would house the eleven new 4x10 redwood planter boxes. With the threat of rain the night before, there was some concern that we would not be able to complete our project on Saturday. As the morning sun came up it appeared that we would luck out with the weather. With shovels and hammers in hand, and soil and mulch delivered on the sidewalk, we began our project.

Under the direction of the co-chairperson Dale vonDohren, Landmark Landscape, everyone arriving was assigned to a specific task. Co-chairperson, Barry Cohen, Diablo Landscape, Inc. did what he does best, managed the installation.

After the general layout, Mike Hertzer of Modern Landscaping and his crew started drilling the footings while Don DeFever and Jeff Sheehan starting cutting the wood for the boxes, in the mean time Kevin Olympia and Dave Romeri of Romeri Landscape and Larry Dent of Landmark Landscape assembled the boxes. In the midst of the box assembly process, John Frieden and Sam Whitney’s employees were working on the irrigation with crews from LandEscapes and Dynamic Management.

As each planter box was completed and bolted together, they were installed in rows of three with plenty of walking room between each planter box. After leveling, each box was cemented in the ground. Gopher wire was then placed at the bottom of each box. Tom Bressani from Bay Area Bobcat showed us his driving skills as he maneuvered in the narrow walkway back and forth to move the soil from the sidewalk to the boxes.

The fast paced system was working very efficiently when a Willow Glen Resident stopped by for a quick photo shoot and interview. By noon, all eleven planter boxes were set, filled and rough irrigation was in. It was time for a well deserved break. The Woman’s Auxiliary Group brought in lunch for the hungry volunteers. After a little bit of conversation and a lot of pizza, it was back to work. Even though the sun was still out, we were still concerned about the threat of rain.

The mulch was spread between each of the planter boxes to provide a dry walkway as well as enhance the the beauty of the project. By 2:30, the irrigation and spreading of the mulch was completed. The sidewalks were then swept and washed down.

As the cameras were recording our hard work, a sense of pride and satisfaction was felt as the volunteers began to pack up and leave. We knew that with a concentrated effort we had completed a couple days of work in less than seven hours. Knowing that the boxes will be used to plant and grow gardens, the students at Willow Glen Middle School will receive a real "hands on" learning experience about horticulture. As we drove away feeling good about a Saturday well-spent with our friends and associates, we looked back at what a great day we had.

A Special Thanks to the following volunteers that made this possible:

John Frieden

Don DeFever

Jeff Sheehan

Erin Gill

Mark McCabe

Romeri Landscape- Kevin Olympia, Dave Romeri

Dynamic Landscape Management-Craig Rapp, Peter Henck

Samscaping-Sam Whitney, Juvenal Garcia, Jose Garcia

Modern Landscaping-Mike Hertzer, Juan Bererra

LandEscapes-Arturo Rodriquez, Cesario Villafuerte

Blue Spruce Landscape-, Jon Singley and Pre-site Crew