Dylan Lawhead's Garden Clean Up Period 4

  Gardens do a lot for us. They give us food, pleasant scenery, an ozone layer; all the important stuff. But what do we, the average Joe, ever do for the garden? I asked myself this very same question two days ago when I realized that we had to do a service project. Purely a coincidence, I assure you. There was only one way to answer my question, to satiate my curiosity (and my grade), and it was 2:40 after school.

  When I arrived on the scene, I saw a few friendly faces in a dilemma similar to mine. We chatted a bit until Mr. Bursch asked who would be tasked with what. We vied for mulching the garden. I don't mean chopping up the garden when I say that, for the record. Ever wonder who spreads all those wood chips on the ground? That would be what we did. The process goes a little something like this; there are two teams, one shovels mulch into wheelbarrows, and the other spreads the mulch on garden ground. I was in the shoveling/wheelbarrow department, and to keep a pretty boring story short, the shoveling department ended up as the only one working, then the only one outside, then the only one on campus in the span of 15 minutes.

  But let's not focus on that, let's focus on why we scoop mulch into wheelbarrows. There's a couple reasons why we throw wood chips on the ground. First and foremost is that it looks, and more importantly, smells nicer. Now I know most of you are well acquainted with the Gallus Gallus Domesticus or, the common chicken, but do you know how often they poop? I can tell you from experience, pretty often. What might be a bit more useful for the garden itself is the prevention of soil erosion. Do you know how after a rainstorm previously fine grass is absurdly muddy? That's soil erosion, and it's not that good for ranch and farm land, because it loosen the soil so much that you can't walk on it. Nobody wants eggs from a muddy chicken.

Here's a sick shot of the finished product