Good Fences Make Good Neighbors — and Gardeners!

A line of "de-fence" digging up the ground before posts were placed.

By Madie Murray

A Virtual Army Showed Up!

Fifty-plus men, women, kids and even dogs spent the day Saturday digging, pulling, turning, de-rocking, chopping blackberry bushes, setting posts, making scratch pizza, and sweating for the school garden…and the outcome was enlightening, dazzling, gratifying, enormous, delicious, beautiful and unbelievable. There just aren’t enough words to describe this incredible outpouring of energy and love for our public school garden.  Volunteerism is certainly alive and well on Orcas Island.

Those who poured their heart and soul into the project know who they are, but I’ll try to mention a few in this limited space.  This is the dream of Chelsea Cates, the Farm to Cafeteria school garden keeper who wants to

Sam Sutton gets his John Deere Wheelbarrow to collect stones removed from the turned soil.

turn it into an area of growth…not only of the plant kind, but of the human kind. She envisions a garden that will ultimately include an outdoor classroom, weather station, water catchment system, drying shed, a huge new area to grow food and herbs for the school cafeteria, a topiary, edible flower garden, and multiple themed mini-gardens…all under and around the graceful and watchful limbs of the beloved maple tree. Last fall, with her enthusiasm, drive and just plain cuteness, she got the approval of the School Board and started “planting the seeds” for her dream.   Saturday was proof that dreams can come true.

Learner Limbach picked up the mantle while Chelsea was with her Dad in India opening a medical facility. He helped summon a fleet of workers and made sure all the elements of success were in place.

Then along came Geddes Martin who brought his cob pizza oven to feed the workforce. What a treat!   Many people were so focused on the task at hand that kids were sent carrying plates of pizza to tell people to stop working and eat!

Behind the scenes and leading up to this party were these unbelievable people:  Learner and

In the end it was Jorgen Harle (the island's blacksmith), Evan Allred, Chelsea Cates and two enthusiastic youngsters staying past 5 PM to provide the late afternoon heroics needed to set the last of these monster split-cedar posts.

Ron Thompson felled a cedar tree from Syd Exton’s land.  Learner cut the logs and split them into posts with help from Chelsea, Evan Allred and Tom Gosset.  Bill and Peggy Griswold purchased wire fencing for the whole area.  Ezra Richardson helped with the fence design and layout, Ken Wood and Sea Island Sand and Gravel supplied gravel for post setting, Justin Paulsen provided a mechanical post-hole digger, and Andrew Stephens milled custom wood for bracing and raised beds. Student, Lexi Cuthbert filmed the whole event, and a link to a slide show of photos taken by Audra Query has been put on the www.orcasislandf2c.com web site photo gallery page.

Prior to this party, Erin Bennett organized one last spring which garnered additional enthusiasm for this one, and Phil Heikkinen of Sustainable Orcas Island backed the expansion prior to school board approval.

Then there are those mighty volunteers who showed up to lend their backs to the task which included a crew of WWOOF volunteers from Doe Bay and a gaggle of Lopez ladies who came over specifically for this event. It was a joy to behold.

I think Didier Gincig summed it up when he remarked, “This is one of the most beautiful things that has occurred on this Island.”