Operation Art Gardens

     So luckily, this is my spring break and I’ve had all week off to get ready for the third Operation Art Gardens fundraising plant sale.  I still have a lot to do, but I wanted to put up a quick blog about the two most important aspects of the sale and Operation Art Gardens as a whole-the plants and why we’re selling them.  

     In the pictures below, you will see some of the huge variety of cacti and succulents that we are selling this weekend.  Every sale is unique because different people donate their cuttings and plants, and because we are trying to make each sale more successful than the last.   This sale is a little similar to our first sale from last April, in that some of the same generous gardeners responded to my craigslist ad again.  It was great to catch up with them and tell them about how we raised $2400 in the last year to help support the video production classes at South Junior High and Katella High School.  

     In addition to some old friends, we had some new donators give some really special plants to the cause.  One gentleman in Laguna, is what I would call an Aloe connoisseur.  He had over 50 varieties of Aloes in his back yard and he donated about 20 plants.  These are not your Home Depot variety aloes.  Most of them I had never seen anywhere but in a book before seeing them in his yard.  If I had any more space in my yard, I would probably buy them myself.  

     Our friend Colleen donated dome rescued native plants from the nursery she works at.  They perked right up with some watering, but they are still pretty needy.  They will be on sale for $2 each.  Look for them in the yellow wagon below.

     My wife Wendy is adding another new element to this and all future OAG plant sales-vegetable sprouts.  She is a passionate vegetable gardener and has decided to apply her sprouting skills to the cause.  Unfortunately, the idea only came to her a few weeks ago so it will be a limited trial run of crook neck squash and armenian cucumber sprouts.  The tomatoes probably won’t be ready by this Saturday.  For the next sale, in October, expect a full arsenal of winter vegetable sprouts.

     So, on to the cause.  As I wrote earlier, Operation Art Gardens raised over $2400 for the video classes at South Junior High School and Katella High School in Anaheim. Money from the first sale went to some much needed video storage drives, some tripods and one new video camera for South Junior High.  The money from the second sale went to purchase basic video editing software for 30 computers for Katella High School.  This is the first video production class at the high school so they had nothing in the way of equipment and nothing in the way of money to support the program. 

     For this weekend’s sale, we already have a wish list of items that are needed for both programs.  First on that list is a new set of wireless microphones and receivers for recording the video news programs at both schools.  We are using an old set that literally has to be held together with tape.  We are also trying to buy some more professional software-Adobe CS5 Production Premium to be exact.  I hope to post some videos of students using the equipment as soon we purchase it.

     Enough of my blabbering, on to the plants!

     Okay, so after last October’s Operation Art Gardens fundraising plant sale, I kind of went off the grid-bloggily speaking.  I was pretty wiped from all the work put into the sale.  The wife and I headed out of town for a weekend and I sort of forgot about updating things on this blog.  With a new laptop and a renewed vigor for communicating about my fundraising efforts, I have returned.  The quick update from the last sale, goes like this.  Once again, we raised about $1200 and used it to buy some basic video editing software for the Multimedia Productions class at Katella High School in Anaheim.  

     I don’t remember if I’ve written about this before, but the video program at Katella is being built from the ground up.  When I was offered the chance to start teaching a high school version of the video class I’ve been teaching at South Junior High School for the past 12 years or so, I was really excited.  I was slightly less excited when I realized I would have a budget of $0 to get the program started.  The last plant sale helped get things going by allowing me to purchase video editing software for 30 computers.  The school even kicked in some money for new video cards when it was clear that the computers couldn’t handle the video software.  I pretty much have my dream job, still teaching four sections of junior high multimedia, getting younger kids excited about video production, and now getting to teach those same kids as high school students by teaching one class of multimedia productions at the high school in the afternoon.  We’ve even brought Katella it’s very first Video News Program called the K-town Review.  

     So there you have an extremely brief update of all things OAG.  Now it’s time to start getting people pumped up for the next sale.  I’ve decided to make the next sale a two day event to better accommodate people’s weekend schedules.  I actually did this on the fly for the sale last October, I realized after the first day of the sale that I had a bunch of plants left over so I rushed out a Craig’s list add and contacted peeps via Facebook.  This time it will be advertised and planned as a two day event.  Mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday April 9th and 10th.  Saturday’s sale will be from 8:00am-3:00 pm. Sunday’s sale will be from 11:00-2:00. Below, I have some pictures from the new sight of the OAG nursery at South Junior High School.  We’ve taken over an area that used to be occupied by a live on caretaker.  It’s fenced in and secure and conveniently close to a water source.    I swear I’ll be putting up more pictures of some other lovely specimens as the sale approaches.  

     Well the next OAG plant sale is only two weeks away from today.  I’ve been making preparations, like trying to actually advertise a little better around town here in Fullerton and elsewhere.  The plants are looking beautiful and ready for new homes, so I thought I would post a few more pictures.  I’m excited about this plant sale but I’m already thinking about the next one in April of 2011.  If you know of anyone who might have some cacti or succulents to donate please contact me at oagnursery@gmail.com.  Enjoy the pictures and we’ll see you on October 2nd from 8:00 am -3:00 pm.

             Alright, so the fun and traveling of summer vacation pretty much prevented me from doing any updates to this blog for quite some time.  What I have been doing, is taking care of all of the donated plants and getting them ready for our next sale.  Mark your calendars for Saturday October 2nd.  The sale time will again be from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.  As detailed in the posts below, we made over $1200.00 at the first sale back in April.  All of the money was donated to South Junior High School in Anaheim to be used for their video production classes.  I’ll update the blog in the future with the details of what was purchased.  The money from this sale will be used to help purchase video editing software for Katella High School’s new video production class.  If you’re noticing a theme, it’s because I teach both of these classes.  I hope one day that Operation Art Gardens can grow large enough to support more arts programs at both schools.  For now, I’m trying to take care of the most pressing needs in my own department.  

     Below I have included a number of photos of some of the plants that will be on sale.  I promise you, the prices will be cheaper than most nurseries around.  I can also promise you that I keep exactly $0 of the money made for myself.  Enjoy the pretty pictures and we hope to see you on October 2nd at 8:00 am.

      I thought I would take this opportunity to show pictures of some of the newly donated cacti and succulents that will be on sale in October.  A lot of them are blooming now and they won’t look this pretty come sale time.  Of course, I think they look pretty awesome all the time.  These pictures were taken at a little nursery spot I’ve carved out in the parking lot of South Junior High School.  I’ll post more pictures of the nursery in future blogs. Enjoy the pics and keep supporting the arts.

     For those of you who are new to the Operation Art Gardens Blog, let me give you a little history of myself and the organization.  My name is Jeff Numainville and I teach video production at both South Junior High and Katella High School in Anaheim.  I have been a teacher for 16 years and have been teaching video for about the last 12 years.  I have been lucky to have a really supportive administration for all of those years and I have never felt underfunded.  However, with all of the budget woes in California, and my own district, it is nearly impossible to keep my program running at a level which offers my students a meaningful arts education experience.  Of particular concern is the price of replacing expensive video and computer equipment when it breaks down, which, lately, it seems to be doing a lot.  I know that lots of other arts programs at my schools and others around the state are experiencing similar budget pitfalls.  

     So, that is the problem.  What is the solution?  That is where my hobby/passion/obsession with succulents and other drought tolerant plants comes into play.  About 2 and a half years ago I started landscaping my front and back yard and slowly but surely fell in love with succulents.  As my friend Charlie put it, I became a total nerd for gardening. While I’ve been know to dive head first into some hobbies, (air hockey, bocce ball, poker) none of them have come close to how much joy I get out of spending time in the garden, digging in the dirt and just generally communing with the little slice of nature I’ve carved out of the wasteland that used to be my back yard.  

     As an avid gardener, I’m always looking at other people’s front yards to see what they’re doing with their space.  I’m probably more dangerous than a texting teen driver with how much I look at people’s yards instead of the road in front of me.  Last November, while driving around my neighborhood not looking at the road, I got this idea that people would probably be willing to share cuttings or even full plants that they didn’t really need or want if they knew it was for a good cause.  I already had a good cause in mind and so Operation Art Gardens was born.  

     Four months, and several Craig’s list ads later, and I had enough plants for the first OAG public school arts fundraising plant sale.  It took place in my driveway on April 3rd of this year and was a huge success.  In addition to meeting so many interesting and like minded people, OAG raised over $1200 which was donated to South Junior High School to help buy Art supplies.  Check out the Big Check donation picture up above and few other pics from our first sale below.  I’ve always wanted to recieve one of those.  It was pretty awesome giving it away.  To see some more pictures and hear an interview about the first OAG plant sale check out a really cool blog done by my friend Charlie called The B-Roll about doing one creative thing a day for a year.  You will probably get hooked looking at it everyday like I have.  

     So I’ve already been collecting plant donations for our next scheduled plant sale which will be sometime in October.  If you know anyone who has some succulents or cactus that they would like to donate, please contact me through this blog or via e-mail at oagnursery@gmail.com.  We can also use plastic pots.  I’ll try to update this more frequently than the old squarespace blog as preparations continue for our next sale.