My wish for this project is that the students will work with community members to rip out water-hungry grass and replace it with plants that will encourage pollinators, and produce edible produce. My hopes are the students will see the difference they can make in an ecosystem when they take action.
The project will consist of planting native plants in the garden beds around the campus. We have a lot of abandoned garden beds that are just dirt, and some that have grass. We have a terrible drought in California right now, and we would like to remove the grass, and plant edible native plants that will require less water than the grass. We would also like to plant some pollinator-attracting plants in those beds. The need is to replace water-thirsty grass areas, and dirt areas, with native plants that use a lot less water. The students learned about how soil needs nutrients to make it rich, and that those nutrients come from plants, so they want to plant native plants to use less water, and to enrich the soil. Also, they had a visit from a native plant nursery volunteer who told them about the need for pollinators to have nourishment so they want to provide a food source and habitats for pollinators. We have three community organizations who will consult with us, provide us plants at cost, and help us plant.
