Green Lake Garden Club will be hosting our annual Spring Clean Up at the school on May 21st from 10am – 2pm. 

Rain or shine – come out and help us clean up the beds and get the school grounds ready for Summer.  Bring your own tools or use the ones we will have.

See you in the dirt!

Early bird ticket prices if you buy before Feb. 22

But wait there’s more….. Stay with us as we continue our enhancements that include, more benches and a chess table, interesting signage and an artistic entryway into this special place we know as Olallie Garden.Click to view slideshow.

We have great  things planned: food, coffee and juice, music by Steve Hansen and Angela Blemker beginning at 10:30am to about 11:00; garden tours; a

Outdoor classroom paver

brief thank you presentation, a surprise gift to the library and more music with the Northwest Youth Bagpipe Band.   Come and join us for some fun and learn about our future plans! OlallieGardeninvite

1. Reclaimed  door to the tool shed from ReStore.

2. Green roof on tool shed creates oxygen.

3. Collecting water in the rain barrel.

4. Siding on the tool shed was reclaimed wood from Earthwise.

5. Transplanted shrubs instead of getting rid of them.

6. Composted yard waste with Cedar Grove.

7. Recycled wood scraps.

8. Re-used bench forms so we did not have to make a lot.

9. Used less cement in Rammed Earth Benches, than in traditional concrete.

10. The path is made from compacted gravel, not concrete.

11. Consolidated delivery loads and times.

12. Reused the straw from last years Charlotte’s Web school production.

13. Used grass seed for NW conditions.

14. Pruned plants instead of removing.

15. Planted grass seed in the fall to make use of the rainy season.

16. Recycled our cans and bottles from the work parties.

17. Made paths to go around existing plants and hills.

18. Used soil excavated from the paths and put it into the planting beds.

19. Designed the garden to minimize mowing/weed wacking.

20. Removed Rosa rugosa, exotic possibly invasive plant.

21. Re-positioned existing boulders.

22. Used re-claimed slate from ReStore as a message board on the demonstration shed building.

23. Placed all excess gravel under the ramp.

24. Place excess rocks under the demonstration tool shed.

25. Wood stakes used for the path were donated to the ReStore.

26. Recruited volunteers locally and lots of volunteers came on bikes or walked to the site.

27. Encouraged volunteers to bring their own water bottles.

28. Used “bad” gravel as fill.

29. Used leftover grout for colorant in the rammed earth benches.

30. Most of our communications were via the internet.

31. Used excavated soil to fill in existing ruts.

32. Used tools from volunteers, instead of buying new tools.

33. Group lunches, were purchased locally which saved car gas.

34. We used hand/human powered tampers for the REB instead of gas powered tools.

Our green roof adding oxygen to the environment. What's your roof doing?

35. Re-donated reclaimed lumber or or traded excess lumber for another material.

36. GLSA tended and harvested veggies and watered critical plants, instead of adult volunteers driving to school to take care of plants and also drive to foodbank.

37. Some  materials came from a local hardware store, instead of driving farther for cheaper products.

Fairies in our garden

Just before the morning light

Dewdrop fairies take their flight

Sprinkling earth with dewdrop honey

Dawn a day that’s bright and sunny.

In a winter, cold and gray, they sprinkle frost jewels at our feet

Covering all the winding way

With twinkling gems to greet.

Snowflake fairies high above

Sprinkle earth with their gift of love

Gently scattering as their duty

Lightly falling flakes of beauty.

-Author Unknown

We’d like to say that actions speak louder than words and pictures speak even louder.  We are so fortunate that our great volunteers and community business partners have spent their time and resources to help Olallie Garden.  We’re not done, but we’ve made tremendous progress.  We wanted to share some pictures  of the great work done to create function and beauty within this garden space.  In coming posts, we’ll tell some individual stories and give kudos where kudos is due.  For now, look how far we’ve come!!

Thanks to all the hard work by Chris Vegors and his team of volunteers we have Phase I – Excavation complete.  We’ll have gravel delivered this week and we need lots of help with shovels moving it into the path.  And if you ever wanted to know what it is like to run a plate compactor this is your chance as we will have two!

So if you are in town and able, stop by anytime between 9am and 4pm and lend a hand.  Every bit helps towards finishing this worthwhile project.

If you have questions please email us at:

olalliegles@gmail.com