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  • MS 331 Middle School Students Painting Their Garden
project leader
Graham M
location
1970 Grand Ave.
(Morris Heights)
latest update rss
The Garden is Looking Amazing- Thanks to you!

the project

The Leave It Better Kids Garden is going to get healed up this summer!

There is lead in the soil of our garden, so we currently build raised beds and bring in healthy soil. The remediation is taking place on the ground in the rest of the garden. Our approach to lead remediation will be a hybrid approach. Our main strategy will be to add phosphorus, and then landscaping fabric- to cover the old soil, and then to put a six inch layer of new clean woodchips and soil. This will be for the heavily trafficked areas of the garden. Along the fenceline of the garden we will use phytoextraction - by planting plants that are effective at extracting lead from the soil: sunflowers, alpine pennycress, geraniums, and vetiver grass. When they are finished growing, and pulling lead out of the soil, we will extract them from the garden. 

 

the steps

Step 1- (End of July) We will clean up the garden and make measurements necessary to purchase all of the plants and materials for our renovation. Take samples of soil and send away for initial lead content. 

Step 2- (Beginning of August) Order materials with longer lead time for delivery

Step 3- (Mid August) Order materials with short lead time for delivery

Step 4- (Late August/Early September) Put in the shrubs, phosporus, landscaping fabric, woodchips, and lead remediating plants. 

Step 5- (Early October) We'll take a new sample of soil and test for lead. 

Step 6- (Spring 2023) We'll lead remediating plants again, and retest soil for lead again. 

 

 

why we're doing it

We have a lot of kids come through our garden. We already plant in clean soil, but we want to take the next step- we want our entire garden to be lead free. Join us to provide a beautiful, green, healing space that is devoid of toxic chemicals. 

 

We've been hard at work in the Morris Heights neighborhood for more than 12 years, and we're ready to fix the garden this summer and keep it that way for a long, long time. 

 

budget

Disbursed Budget

Landscaping materials/Delivery: $6,000

Staff/Labor: $4,000

Miscellaneous: $714

=$10,714.00



TOTAL RAISED = $10,900.00
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) N/A
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $186.00
TOTAL TO DISBURSE= $10,714.00

Approximate costs: 

30 Emerald Green Arborvitae: $3,300

50 cubic yards of mulch: $3,000

32 trays of sunflowers, alpine pennycress, geraniums, and vetiver grass: $300

Staff: $3,000

Miscellaneous: $400

 



TOTAL PROJECT FUNDING NEEDED $10,000
ioby Fiscal Sponsorship Fee (5%) N/A
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%)
(Donation processing fee does not apply to match funding.)		 $152
TOTAL TO RAISE= $10,152
Donation processing fees apply to donations only. 100% of match funding goes to projects. Please note, fees are estimated here and final numbers may change based on the final amount raised and amount of match funding applied to this campaign.  

updates

The Garden is Looking Amazing- Thanks to you!

Posted 10/01/2022 - 1:36pm

Hey Everyone

Hope this note finds you in the best of spirits. 

The garden has been transformed thanks to your support and to the partnership of MS 331, Nature Based, and our newest team member Esteban. Here are some recent photos of the lead remediation going on. We've also added some new galvanized stainless steel garden beds through another grant from MS 331. The extra woodchips have made sure that the contaminated soil is buried under over a foot of carbonaceous materials. The next step is planting lead remediating plants along the border of the fence in the Spring. 

best thoughts,

Graham

 

 

We Did It!

Posted 07/17/2022 - 8:16pm

Thanks to some amazing supporters- you- we raised the money to get the lead out of the soil at the Leave It Better Kids Garden!

Yay!!!

 

best thoughts,
The Leave It Better Team

The Final Push

Posted 07/15/2022 - 1:55pm

Hey Everyone!

Hope this note finds you in the best of spirits. 

We're in the final weekend of our ioby campaign to get the lead out of the Leave It Better Kids Garden. 

We are about 80% of the way to our goal, and every dollar donated will be matched!

Please share our campaign with friends and family, and on social media. Every little bit helps. 

Together we can do this!

best thoughts,
The LIB team

 

Wow! More than 75% of the way there

Posted 07/07/2022 - 11:18pm

Hey Everyone!

 

Hope this note finds you in the best of spirits. 

 

We're halfway through our campaign and we just passed the 75% point. Because of your generosity, we are well on our way to having the funds to transform the soil and the perimeter of the Leave It Better Kids Garden so the youth in the Morris Heights neighborhood can have an awesome 2022-23 school growing season. Yes!

So exciting. Please share this awesome project with another person you know who would love this, and we'll pass the goal by the end of this weekend!

 

best thoughts,

The LIB Team

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

  • Muki M.
  • JoAnna I.
  • Heather Q.
  • Nihar S.
  • Daniel A.
  • Carolina M.
  • Anonymous
  • Mary Katharine F.
  • Drew Eastmead
  • Carl H.
  • Dominique Bouillon
  • Anonymous
  • Anne H.
  • Kyle K.
  • Tanmaya S.
  • Jane D.
  • Cheryl & Erik
  • Karl R.
  • Aurin Squire
  • Pat & Heath Meriwether