Our late fall bulb plantings

November 1st - the day after our first snow of the season - students planted bulbs around our PermaPark sign.

Students planted a variety of bulbs including miniature tulips, daffodils, iris, crocus and grape hyacinth.

Despite an early snow, the ground was still warm and easy to plant with the recent rain.

Students were happy to have the floor mats to keep their shoes from getting muddy!

On Monday and Tuesday, November 4th and 5th, the weather was a little nicer and students continued to plant bulbs all along the front of the food forest hugelkultur facing Pulaski Road.

Over 200 of the bulbs we planted were tulips donated by Odile Compagnon, an architect and SAIC instructor who has worked with us on designing the food forest since we started in 2017.

Once the bulbs were placed, we added chicken wire to deter digging from squirrels, covered everything with soil and topped it off with a nice cover of compost from GlenArt Farm.

Our last planting was Wednesday afternoon when staff had a chance to plant daffodils and crocus next to our newly planted River Birch trees.

Students and staff put over 600 bulbs in the ground over the course of four days. Mr. Smith did most of the prep work so planting was easy. Thank you Mr. Smith!