Vietnamese Sunflowers: Creating a sustainable environment

In our school there are 58 nationalities and 65 different languages spoken which makes for a diverse and interesting cultural mix of students to teach. Whether the students are new immigrants, second generation or older the majority have no experience in gardening. Our project in horticulture is to show the students how to create a sustainable environment. In the courtyard we begin by cutting down the weeds and pruning the bushes. The next step is to show them how to recondition the soil.  The students must dig out the roots of the weeds. Students have to be shown how to use a pitch fork or a shovel to spade the earth to a depth of at least 12 inches. The earth is turned over and the weeds removed.  The students bring in wheelbarrows of sand that is placed in the flower beds. The sand is mixed into the soil with a second digging.  The flower beds are then raked smooth and flat with a rake.  The flower beds are now ready for the spring planting. I would like to locate some fresh loam to dig into the flower beds to add nutrients. We are looking into making some compost bins to recycle the vegetable peelings from the commerial foods classes. The environment club is looking into making a recyclable rain water collection system to water the flower beds. In the spring, we plan to plant vegetable and flower gardens in the courtyard to make a sustainable environment so students will learn how to create sustainable environments.