$16K and counting!

When the idea of starting a garden at Foothills came up eight months ago, it was nothing but an idea. Eventually it became a proposal. Parents and neighbors were enthusiastically supportive of it, our administration was behind it, our PTO was excited about it.

Then came the grant applications and then some fundraising. I had no idea what I was doing, really, just muddling my way through something I knew that our community and our school wanted, and trying to do it as efficiently as possible.

We are starting to see the results of some of that labor and our community is still supportive of this project. Here is where we stand today:

• At this point in our fundraising, we have approximately $16,000 raised, either pledged and coming soon or already sitting in the garden account. More posts will follow with information on where our funding has come from.
• We have approval from the city to build the garden (after some re-drawing of district and city responsibilities for the land where the garden will go). 
• We have piles of reclaimed lumber waiting to be find a new life as garden beds (we still need more decking, though). 
• We have a boy scout who would like to take on the process of building and filling the raised beds for his eagle project. 
• We have a fencing company who is ready to construct our fence.

Things are moving along. You may walk by that patch of bare land every day and wonder whether anything is actually happening, but I can assure you, we are moving.

My personal goal for this summer is to get the fence installed (approximately $7,000). I would like to have firm bids from plumbing contractors to nail down an exact price for plumbing the garden (we are expecting it to come in between $8,000 and $11,000, but are waiting on detailed requirements from the school district). I would like the school and community garden beds to be built and, if there is enough money and if we have the materials, I would like the perimeter beds to be built, too. The cost for this is expected to come in under $3,000 for soil and screws to put the beds together. We are collecting wood for the beds for free -- it will all be reclaimed lumber.

We are probably not ready (financially speaking) to plumb the garden this year, so we will have to figure out a creative temporary solution for watering the garden this fall. But, we are standing on very solid financial ground to continue fundraising and applying for grants and, if we keep moving at this pace, there should be enough money to plumb the garden next spring.

Keep checking back on the blog and expect to hear about July build days. Then, please mark your calendars and help us make this plan a reality!