The Douglas Gardening Committee enhances the Douglas grounds and gardens by creating and maintaining special areas around the campus.
These areas include Rosie’s Japanese Garden, Mrs. Scott’s garden, the garden under the front office windows, the center island gardens, the circle garden behind the school, the plantings under the school sign on Elm Street, and the planted containers near the entrances.
We typically organize a fall and spring clean-up and help make the grounds look nice for special occasions such as back-to-school and sixth-grade graduation.
The Garden Committee welcomes volunteers with no prior gardening experience. Children are welcome. Typical jobs include raking, trimming, weeding, edging and pruning (depending on the season).
Volunteers can offer as little or as much time as they can, from an hour or two to a full morning. We believe strongly that “many hands make light work,” and try to make work days a pleasant, social experience for all.
Schedule of events
Cleanup days during the school year are either on Saturday or start shortly after buses leave in the morning on a weekday, and continue until noon or 1pm.
Back to School Cleanup (Mid-August, prior to Newcomer Orientation). This cleanup typically involves removing the weeds which have been growing all summer. The good news: 4-foot tall weeds are easy to locate and remove! Gardens are trimmed and raked, and walks are swept to make school presentable for the start of the new year.
Fall Cleanup (late October to early November). Typically raking and pruning. On occasion, this cleanup has been skipped due to weather issues (early snow, etc.).
Spring Cleanup (early April). Our biggest cleanup. We need to have all the garden beds weeded, raked, and prepared for mulching.
Senior Service Day (typically a Friday in late April). Garden committee chairs and volunteer supervisors (only) join a group of ABRHS seniors who spend their spring Community Service Day at Douglas. The seniors do a number of jobs around the school, including moving and spreading mulch to gardens all over campus, sweeping and removing trash, weeding along the edges of buildings, raking any remaining debris left after the Spring Cleanup.