The Plants in our new Garden

A few of the California Native Plants at Baldy View





Chilopsis linearis

'Burgandy'

Desert Willow

Aristita purpurea

Wild Grass

Wooly Bluecurls

Trichostema
lanatum








Sages:
Salvia
clevelandii




Salvia
leucophylla
'Point Sal'


















Desert
Mint



Monardella
villosa










Many of these California native plants were used by the California Indians.




My dog 'Shasta' enjoying a Sunday nap in the garden!






More plant identification to come in our next posting!

Planting Day! Sept. 12, 2009

Visit our new Baldy View
California Friendly Garden!

What a wonderful turnout! A big THANK YOU goes out to all our terrific families and students who made our Sept. 12th planting day so successful. We started out at 8:00 am and finished up at about 1:00. Everything looks so beautiful and we did it all ourselves.

We had Andrew Kanzler (Inland Empire Utility Agency) teaching us how and where to plant the native and drought tolerant plants,

Bob Jones (father of 3 terrific daughters that are BV alumni) who directed students in planting as well as the big job of knocking down and spreading out our HUGE decomposed granite pile,

Mr. Dixon who graciously donated his time to BBQ us hotdogs for lunch (with chips) and Mrs. Dixon who was a digging machine!






Mrs Barnes and Mrs Beuhler both came and lent a hand planting, as well as many wonderful moms and dads who came and supported our school by planting over 400 plants,

leveling and raking a HUGH pile of granite

and we can't forget the "water girls" who kept our lovely new plants from getting too thirsty!

We didn't even need to call on the UUSD groundsman for support! Everyone worked together and finished the job in record time, and it looks beautiful! Our families are wonderful and we are proud of their accomplishments.

Update on the New Drought Tolerant Garden Progress

Today the first phase of our drought tolerant garden irrigation lines went into the ground. Our IEUA liason, Andrew Kanzler, was there to assist the UUSD groundsman in the installation. He is the gentleman responsible for creating the landscape design plan for our lovely garden and he will be helping us complete the final portion of the irrigation after we have planted the greenery. Next step will be tilling in topsoil, laying out the planter beds and planting the trees, shrubs and groundcover plants. We can use all the help with planting that we can get, so everyone get your shovels ready! Right now we are looking at Sept. 11 as our delivery date and Saturday, Sept. 12 as our planting date, but more information will follow as we firm up the schedule with the IEUA grant team.

In the garden we have a cotton plant that is beginning to set the cotton bolls. Mrs. Sorvetti is very excited because she has never seen cotton grow before and thinks the cotton flower is so pretty!

There are a lot of birds and insects we have seen over the last week enjoying our garden. Our friend the Praying Mantis has taken up residence again on the sunflowers!

There are also a lot of weeds that have taken root! Anyone who would like to help clean up the garden weeds with Mrs. Sorvetti is welcome. Some of the Baldy View staff and students have enjoyed eating some of our summer harvest of vegetables. Maybe Mrs. Sloan and Mrs. Martinez will share their recipes on our blogsite for their stuffed zucchini and tomatillo salsa. School begins in just a few more days and we hope all the students will visit the garden and tell their parents to come on Back to School night and see "what 's growing on".

Surprises found while Summer Weeding

Today I went to weed a little in the garden, and was surprised to find that the Upland Unified groundsmen have already removed the grass in the area that we will be planting with the drought tolerant plants. Thank you to all of you guys for such quick work.

We were able to harvest lots of Mr. Ortiz's cucumbers, they are huge! We also picked a bit of zucchini, garlic, tomatoes and tomatillos.

The grapes are getting bigger and the corn is almost ready to pick!

The students of the gardening club planted some sunflowers in May and they are fun to see now, so pretty and tall! We will keep you posted on the changes going on in the new garden expansion as things advance.

We are expanding!

In May of 2009, Baldy View was approved to receive a grant from the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) to expand and improve our garden! We will be taking out a small sloping grassy area near the existing vegetable garden and converting the plot over to drought tolerant in-ground planters and a leveled seating area. The goal is for the grass to be removed before the end of summer so that the students and adult volunteers can begin planting in Fall. When the students come back to school, in late August, they will be greeted by excited teachers, upgraded technological classrooms and new landscaping. Things will be looking good soon!



Thank you to all of you who helped with the application process for this grant, and thanks to everyone in advance that will be helping to make this garden come to life.



We especially want to thank Elizabeth Hurst of IEUA and Dave Schroeder of Chino Basin Water Conservation District for their efforts in making this garden turn from a dream into a reality!

History of our Garden Beginnings

The garden at Baldy View set down roots in 2007 as a Boy Scout Eagle Project created by an Upland High Senior named Kevin Sorvetti. Kevin attended Baldy View from Kindergarten through 6th grade and wanted to give something back to the school he fondly remembered. He thought of the garden concept while visiting his sister, Laura, who lived in San Luis Obispo (SLO) and was attending college at Cal Poly. On a family visit, he happened to come across a quaint community garden at a neighborhood park in SLO, and the seeds for the idea began to take root. In November of 2006, Kevin contacted both the Old Baldy Boy Scout Council and the principal at Baldy View, Mrs. Lorrie Buehler, for their approval. They both agreed to the idea and, after working out the minor details with the Upland Unified School District, Kevin lead his scout troop through the garden building process. After the foundations for the garden were in place, an after school gardening club was formed of Baldy View's 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade students, under the supervision of Kevin and his mother Mrs. Ann Sorvetti. We were harvesting our first crop by the May 2007 school "Open House". The garden was officially dedicated at Kevin's Eagle Court of Awards ceremony on a Saturday afternoon in June of 2007.