Working Together

    Today we held an event to mulch the pathways of our school garden.  We finally had our 16 large garden boxes built and filled this spring. The children planted all of the boxes with seeds.  A few families and teachers kept the boxes weeded and the pathways between the boxes mowed and trimmed this summer.  In  a year when it rained constantly for most of June and July, we did not have to worry about watering as much.  (Our resident groundhog and his family have been enjoying a lot of very wonderful eating and we are so glad that they do not seem to like cucumbers. Thus is the life of gardeners.)
    Today was the big day, a week before the school start date.  At last, we were going to groom this garden and make those pathways really finished looking by adding the mulch.  Putting down landscape fabric, newspaper and shoveling mulch did not sound like fun, but it had to be done.  Volunteers have not exactly been knocking down doors to help us out.  Three current teachers ; the 9 year old son of a teacher, who is on crutches: a recently retired teacher; and a young family with four children under seven made up the mulching crew. Please note that the children were every bit a part of this team! The 8 month old baby did his part by being so quiet and good while his parents worked. It was amazing that all of that truckload of mulch could be moved by this somewhat motley and, at times during the day, very sparse crew! 
     Working together toward a very specific and defined goal was the very satisfying part and seeing the beauty when we were done was the inspiring part. Some people could not stay until the job was complete, but that did not matter: they gave what they could.  From  7 AM to 1:30 PM,  the project lasted and it was really fun in spite of our preconceived ideas.  Being stiff was my badge of courage and feeling that special camaraderie that only working together can give was my joy!