Earth Day is a wonderful opportunity to invite families out to our school garden to prepare the plot for the season. Earlier in April we had spent a day preparing the soil and planting some of the cold hardy seeds, and this day was dedicated to mulching and weed control. Michael and Elaine turned up with large cardboard boxes which had been collected over the past year, and the workers began clearing off some of last year’s mulch to put down the cardboard. The Community Gardens provide free mulch for all of the plots, but the big pile was located quite a way from our garden. It took several wheelbarrows running back and forward for over an hour to collect all the mulch needed. Children were happy to help shovel, and jumped in for the ride to the pile each time.