Monday, April 14, 2008

Zen Garden in Simmons!

During the first weekend in April, I helped plant a Zen garden INSIDE Simmons Hall! We've always wanted more greenery in our dorm, so our housemaster brainstormed some ideas. We thought a small garden in the entrance to Simmons was a great start. Later on, we'll probably plant a lot more greenery on our terraces. Our facilities chair, Zach (who is amazing at everything he does), was in charge of the garden. We poured some concrete to make a border. Then, we laid down a waterproof tarp so we didn't ruin the floor and some gravel (for drainage). We then mixed some soil and fertilizer, then finally planted some ferns and moss. We also have one flowering plant, which you can feed insects :-). Everything is still growing at the moment, but I'm excited to see what everything looks like in a few months.

We also decided to add some rocks to our garden. We didn't want to pay ridiculous prices for rocks, so we were resourceful. We had an adventure on the rail road tracks behind Simmons, which is full of unwanted rocks :-). We just took a grocery cart and piled rocks in. We got stuck in the mud, but eventually made it back to Simmons. Getting stuck was actually a good thing, because we found some moss by the tracks and salvaged it.

Planting the garden was fun and I hope I can help with further developments. Right now I'm trying to grow some
plants in my room: a lemon tree, a pear tree, and an avocado tree. Nothing has germinated yet, but hopefully something will happen in a few weeks! I'll keep you guys updated. I've posted some pictures of the entire process below.





















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