GreenSchools! Team Volunteers at McKinley Technology High School
Beautiful weather in Washington, D.C. made Tuesday the perfect day for some outdoor community service.
Gathering on the HSBC Corporate Day of Service, the USDA Forest Service and Urban Forestry Administration employees met at McKinley Technology High School for a morning of volunteer activities at this Project Learning Tree Green School!
Half the volunteer group cleaned the greenhouse, and the other half laid down mulch around the trees on the school lawn. I was a part of the mulching group.
My team used organic mulch, which is generally comprised of wood chips, hardwood and softwood bark, leaves, and other organic plant matter. The Urban Forestry Administration provided us with an overview about the do’s and don’ts of mulching and why this gardening practice is important. Other volunteers and I laid down mulch around the circumference of the trees ,about four inches high and four inches away from the trunk.
You may ask, why does one mulch? The answer is that soils and the root system of plants benefit greatly from it.
Some benefits of mulching:
-Helps maintain soil moisture and reduce evaporation- The mulch that is laid down is organic, which holds nutrients and moisture. Mulch helps keep the soils moist, which is helpful to arid soils and soils that are suffering from a lack of precipitation.
-Performs as an insulation blanket- Mulch helps keep soils warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, helping the plants survive extreme weather.
-Reduces pesky weeds- Mulch can reduce the growth of pesky weeds; making your gardening easier, appearance more aesthetically pleasing, and reducing competition of water and nutrients for the plants root system.
-Read more about proper mulching techniques.
Laying down mulch at McKinley Technology High School was right up my alley; volunteering is one of my favorite things to do, which is why I had such a great time. The GreenSchools! volunteers all enjoyed themselves, and we were able to complete a significant amount of work in such a short period of time.
Visit www.greenschools.org or learn more about Project Learning Tree's GreenSchools! initiative.
Photo credit: Al Stenstrup
