Highland School Xeriscape Garden Applic

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to DESCRITION OF PROJECT CaNT: 3. I The original idea carne from a d~ire to turn a desolate, unused spjce into a hands on, outdoor laboratory. One of our School Board memijers made me aware of the Community Development Technical Assistance ptogram. I contacted Tim Katers who works as a Community Development SpeciAlist. I Tim brought in Bill Jablonski, a Landscape Architecture Intern atICSU, who after looking at the area suggested a xeriscape approach for The area. While we were working on the design I carne in contact with Daniel,J. Wofford, Jr., of Western Polyacrylamide, Inc. Mr. Wofford sent me a good deal of research that has been done and is being done on the use!of Cross- linked polyacrylamide for water conservation uses. We became verylinterested in combining low water using plants and CLP mixed in the soil to ~ee if we can maintain a vibrant garden area for hands-on science and math fctivities with little or no water outside of rain water. I Parents and students will be directly involved in soil preparation, planting and taking measurements to determine the amount of water!used. There is also a local nursery that will be supplying us with somelof the trees and shrubs. We also have some parents who have offered to ~onate the Buffalo grass- grass seed and to transplant some trees and shrubs from their acreages to our project area. We have already worked ~ith the Community Development Technical Assistance Program and CSU to: get us started. Daniel Wofford, Jr. of Western Polyacrylamide, Inc. of Castle Rock, has also been great in giving us technical assistance on the use of cross-linked polyacrylamide and the research that has been don~ in this area of super-absorbent polymers. Our first newsletter for the 1993-1994 school year will have a ma~n article I about the project, inviting parents and community members to comei in and view the area and have the project explained to them. We will be, putting up a large display board in the hallway by the door leading out to the xeriscape garden explaining with charts, pictures, graphs and sto~y line the ins and outs of the project. We will invite the local newspapers from Eaton and Greeley to come up and do an article on the project and invite I people from allover the area to come and see how xeriscaping works and could work for them. : Ours will be the only xeriscape project in this immediate area. We will be an additional test sight to help determine the effectiveness o:f cross- linked polyacrylamide's water storing capability and helping redu~e irri- gation costs. We will have the only 200 sq.ft. no water, no wee~ flower bed in the area. I Weld Re-9 School District, Highland Elementary Building Accounta~ility Team, Colorado Department of Local Affairs, and CSU Cooperative ~xtension. I 4. 5. 6. 7.