Our ongoing beautification initiatives unite our dedicated volunteers, involved families, and supportive community to continually enhance our school environment, ensuring a vibrant and inspiring space for our students.
BEAUTIFICATION DAY
Beautification Day #3 update: Putting first things first in the garden has paid off. After dedicating our first two Beautification Days to pulling weeds and refreshing the soil, we've come to the more fun part -- planting and making the garden look pretty.
Succulents and herbs now fill the planter in The Nest, accompanying the flowers that the garden club planted last week. The planter in front of room 35 will soon be a wildflower bed and the school garden will soon have some vegetables ready to harvest.
We were also treated to a fun seed lesson thanks to our special guest, Diane Richmond from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County, who recently volunteered to be our school garden consultant! Many thanks also to San Diego Seed Company for their generous donation of seeds, Thelma Martinez, and our Beautification Day volunteers.
Want to be part of more efforts to spruce up our campus? Join the Garden and Beautification Committee! Our next Beautification Days will be on April 20 (Earth Day theme) and May 18 (repainting The Nest). Please email hickmannest@gmail.com for more information.
The Garden & Beautification Committee is requesting donations of gardening supplies to help our students and volunteers cultivate and maintain the school garden. We are especially in need of kids gardening gloves, organic fertilizer and amendments, vegetable and flower seeds/starts, drought-tolerant perennials, and succulents (donated plants must be non-toxic and contain no thorns or sharp tips). Our complete wish list is here.
Donations can be dropped off at our seed starting booth at Hickman's Health Fair on Saturday, January 20th from 9:00-11:30 am. Any contribution is appreciated!
Hickman's Gardens Get a Fresh Start!
We are thrilled to share the wonderful success of our recent Beautification Day! On Saturday, November 4th, volunteers from our school community dusted off their gardening tools and put their green thumbs to work to help make Hickman a more beautiful and welcoming place.
Tasks included clearing out the planter within The Nest to enhance visibility during assemblies, clearing raised beds for future student-led planting projects, and pruning shrubs and hedges in the courtyard. Aesthetics were not our only goal. To improve safety around the school, our volunteers removed large weeds growing through the cracks around the courtyard and playground, which have caused students to trip and fall during recess. Our volunteers also trimmed the tree in the back garden area so that both adults and students could easily get in and out of that area without getting hit in the face by low-hanging branches.
The success of this day wouldn't have been possible without the incredible support and hard work of all the volunteers who generously contributed their time and efforts. We especially thank our young volunteers for bringing out the fun, bugs, and good spirits; Scott Eisold from Keller Williams Realty for contributing his landscaping expertise; and last but not least, Matt Glandon from the Hickman office for coming in on his day off to open and close up the school for us. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for their dedication, as their contributions truly made a significant difference in our school environment.
Looking ahead, we're excited to announce that there will be more opportunities throughout the year for everyone to get involved. Our upcoming beautification events will focus on various aspects, including planting, pruning and weeding other areas that were not covered during our last event, maintaining the condition of our planters, painting, and much more.
If anyone has suggestions for additional ways to beautify our school, please share your ideas with us. And if you are interested in being part of the planning and implementation of these exciting projects, please consider joining the Garden & Beautification Committee. Anyone interested can contact committee chair Liezel Labios at liezel.labios@gmail.com.
Don't have time but still want to be involved? Please consider donating items to help supply our student garden club and stock our school shed. Here is a list of gardening items we are especially in need of.
Thank you once again to all the participants, and let's continue to work together to keep our school a beautiful, inspiring, and welcoming place for all.