On Saturday, September 16th, 2023, Daily Acts volunteers completed the first phase of a landscape transformation at McKinley Elementary and Petaluma Accelerated Charter School. Over 15 volunteers, including McKinley Elementary students, parents, and staff gathered to lay cardboard, compost, and woodchips across 3,000 sq ft to “compost the lawn in-place.” Participants learned about sheet mulching as a strategy to build soil health, prevent erosion, and retain water in the landscape. Volunteers learned about the entire process from edging to completion and problem solving challenges posed by utility boxes and trees. At the end of the day, over 35 yards of mulch and 15 yards of compost was spread throughout the landscape, preparing the land to be planted.
This workday was the first of two in our effort to install a pollinator hedgerow to be fully irrigated by rainwater. Prior to the workday, 8,000 gallons of rainwater catchment with a raingarden for overflow was installed by contractors RH and Sons. On November 4th, we will complete the job by planting drought-tolerant and native plants throughout the sheet mulched landscape and laying drip irrigation to bring water from the rain tank.
