Here are pictures of the painted, furnished and finished greenhouse!

Check out the articles that the Oregonian and the Portland Mercury wrote for the project:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/10/greenhouse_project_grows_bonds.html

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2010/06/24/middle-school-kids-build-greenhouse-for-homeless

For more information about the project please contact Joe Sneed at joe.b.sneed@gmail.com.

Thanks to all the participants and sponsoring organizations that made the project possible, including:

RACC (racc.org)                    

The Rebuilding Center (rebuildingcenter.org) 

Kailash Ecovillage (kailashecovillage.com)                                      

da Vinci Middle School (pps.k12.or.us/schools/davinci/)                            

Dignity Village (dignityvillage.org)   

This week we brought the tomatoes, peppers, basil and greens the students started in their greenhouse models over to Dignity Village and transferred them to garden beds. We also finished framing the walls of the structure. Let’s hope the windows fit!

For our last week of in-class work at da Vinci Arts Middle School, we assembled a cold frame greenhouse. We’ll be donating it to Dignity Village at the end of the project. On Thursday and Saturday we made trips out to Dignity Village. The deck of the greenhouse is sealed and a wall raised!

The greenhouse has got its legs and now its waiting on its walls and windows. A big week! Marcy and Shannon, Dignity Village garden coordinators, came to da Vinci Arts Middle School on Tuesday to review the designs, share ideas, and check out the group’s excellent greenhouse models. Then by Thursday greenhouse construction was underway. The kids and Dignity Village residents measured, hammered, bolted and posted up shipping palettes donated by The Rebuilding Center to serve as the raised floor for the greenhouse.

Thanks Tim for the last minute material pick up!   

We were back at Kailash Ecovillage on Monday afternoon, digging and constructing a bench for the community. After the hard labor, the kids scrambled inside to eat sourdough cakes and present their designs for the garden gathering space to Maitri, our friend and a community manager. With Maitri’s feedback, we’ll draft a final design that combines the kids ideas and the community’s suggestions and submit it to Kailash to consider for future construction.   

On Tuesday, we fired up our fourth and final workshop—creating a greenhouse with Dignity Village residents. Despite the thunder and rain, we made our way to the village for a tour and to begin brainstorming. We met with the board of directors to discuss what Dignity Village wants out of a greenhouse. Then the students took their fill of inspiration back to class and poured it into group discussion and designing.

Thanks to Jonboy, vice president of Dignity Village, for his assistance organizing the project, his enthusiasm, and his colorful stories about the village cats.

Here are pictures of the student’s amazing greenhouse models made out of recycled material. They’re all filled with pots and soil and plants are sprouting up.

We started this week’s workshop with a field trip to Kailash Ecovillage. We took a tour led by Ole, our friend and manager of the community. Then we joined residents for their monthly potluck and discussed ideas for a gathering space in the center of the community’s garden The students took notes during the field trip and then back in class made individual designs for the gathering space. We’ll dig the foundation of the structure and build some calluses on our hands next week. On Tuesday, Rodney Bender, programs manager at Growing Gardens, led a garden planning and design workshop for the group and we started a small vegetable garden in the da Vinci Middle School’s water garden.

Thanks to Ole and Maitri at Kailash Ecovillage for their support and thanks to Rodney at Growing Gardens for the workshop!

By the end of the week students were finishing their models and filling them with handmade pots. On Friday we volunteered for Growing Gardens to prepare for its Plant Distribution Day. Everyone worked hard, well earning a good night’s sleep and a sore back the next day.

Relaxing, maxing and snacking in the park after volunteering for Growing Gardens

This week local artist, Rebecca Shelly, showed us how to make pots out of newspaper. (See How To instructions below to make this nifty craft yourself.) Then Rebecca provided us with seeds and demonstrated how to plant. We also started our group action paintings, made by throwing tennis balls dipped in paint at canvas. We’ll work on these masterpieces everyday before the project.

Thanks to Portland Nursery for donating the planting soil!

How To: Make planting pots out of newspaper

Step 1: Collect a stack of newspaper that is printed with organic based ink (The Mercury uses soy based ink, for example), a canned food (beans are great) and scissors. That’s it for materials.

Step 2: Cut a page of newspaper in half lengthwise. Then make an inch deep cut about a can’s length in from the end of the paper.

Step 3: Fold in the long tab made by the cut.

Step 4: Place the can at the end of the newspaper with the folded tab. The can should be lying over the folded tab and several inches of paper should extend beyond the other end of the can. Roll the paper around the can to the other end.

Step 5: Fold the end of the paper without the tab against the bottom of the can.

Step 6: Pop the can out and then fold the tab into the rolled newspaper. The tab should work like tape to hold the pot together. And there you have it, your handmade pot!

Last Tuesday we made our way to the Rebuilding Center to select materials for our greenhouse models. On Thursday, we got our hands dirty and did some building. Also, see below for an outline of what we have planned for the next eight weeks.

Thanks to the Rebuilding Center for the materials!

Project Curriculum

Workshop 1 :

            Build miniature greenhouses with recycled materials. The youth group will tour The Rebuilding Center and choose materials for their individual structures. We will help each youth design a structure large enough to accommodate the growth of at least one plant.     

Workshop 2 :

            Design pots out of recycled newspaper for plants that will be grown in the miniature greenhouses. Rebecca Shelley, creator of the Local Victory project, will be our guest artist for this workshop.  She will demonstrate how to make the pots and plant seeds in them.   

Workshop 3 :

            Design a gathering space for Kailash Ecovillage’s community garden. The design will be based on a dialogue the students have with Kailash residents during their monthly potluck. 

Workshop 4 : 

            Build greenhouse at Dignity Village. The group will take a tour of Dignity Village, led by Joe Paleetas, resident and community outreach organizer. Then the youth will meet with village residents and discuss possibilities for the design of the greenhouse. After deciding upon a design, the youth group and the Dignity Village residents will build the greenhouse together out of materials donated by The Rebuilding Center.