Hey Guys!

We wanted to create a medium easier to update where we could get you information faster.

Here's what's been going on:

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
4:00 PM
Gina and Natalie attended the Interschool Ecological Council meeting at Villa Duschene High School. After sitting in on a guest lecturer speak about her work with water, Gina and Natalie spoke about the importance of rain gardens and discussed the rain garden at Ladue High School. The presentation covered the purpose, benefits, and installation of rain gardens. Twenty brochures were passed out to the members of the council, which included students and teachers of various private girls schools in the area. The group asked several great questions, expressed interest in installing rain gardens at their own schools, and even asked if Team LEAF would be available for consultation if and when they put in a rain garden.
7:00 PM
Gina, Mark, Max, and Natalie drove out to August A. Busch Conservation Nature Center (also called Busch Wildlife) to present their work on rain gardens to the Master Naturalist meeting (Confluence Chapter, St. Charles, MO). Team LEAF spoke to this chapter of the Master Naturalists about the importance of rain gardens, again covering the purpose, benefits, and installation of rain gardens. The Naturalists asked a number of questions, and seemed most interested in Team LEAF”s progress with the rain garden at Ladue High School. About 40 attended the meeting, and brochures were passed out as well.
After presenting to roughly 60 different people, http://www.teamleaf.org/ showed 64 hits from Tuesday, March 10.

Saturday March 14, 2009
9:00 AM
Rivi and Natalie presented at a Project WET event at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. Project WET is a “supplementary environmental education program” with emphasis on water. Educators who work with students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade attended the workshop. Rivi and Natalie spoke about the importance of rain gardens, including purpose, benefit, and installation. After presenting and passing out 60 brochures, the group asked questions. One woman even asked if a rain garden would be suitable for a specific location in her yard that was eternally collecting storm water, and was relieved to learn that there was a simple and inexpensive answer to the problem.

9:00 AM
Team LEAF finally began planting the rain garden at Ladue High School. Max, Mark, and teacher sponsor Sarah Barton began by arranging purchased potted plants according to the plan. To see the design for the rain garden, click here. Earlier in the week, the plot for the garden was prepared by spraying the grass with the common herbicide, Roundup. After presenting at Project WET, Rivi and Natalie met up with Team LEAF to plant. Various members of Elements, Ladue’s environmental club, also joined Team LEAF throughout the day to help. When planting the already established natives, the students dug holes roughly twice the diameter of the pot and mixed in a small amount of topsoil. The plants were placed level with or in the wetter areas of the plot, slightly above the ground, in order to prevent sinking. For a full list of the native species Team LEAF included in the rain garden, click here. After all of the natives were planted, the students shoveled gravel, carefully spreading the rocks in a two-inch layer across the plot. The gravel will prevent weeds from growing, protect the plants, and keep the dirt of the garden from eroding during rainfall and storm water run off. Since mulch in rain gardens has a tendency to sink into the mud and disappear, Team LEAF used gravel instead. A few specific plants were not available yet, including copper iris and spicebush, and the seeds Team LEAF has been prepping for the garden were not included in this planting both will be incorporated in the rain garden as soon as possible.