RAD GAB Project

LANDSCAPE PROJECT TURNED INTO A TECHNICAL EXERCISE
Skagit Valley Herald staff

BURLINGTON — The RAD GAB (Reading and Discussing Great Amazing Books) students at the Burlington Public Library take pride in reading books then implementing what they’ve learned by doing a community project. Their most recent undertaking Tuesday, April 28, was planting thyme, wild strawberries, tall Oregon grape and other drought-tolerant plants on the triangular city lot at Hazel Avenue and Cascade Highway in Burlington.

Burlington Children’s Librarian Lisa Anderson said the project quickly became a math and environmental exercise as the students — Max Cook, Nathan Dills, Lochlin Elliott, Riley Flynn, Bearett Hicks, Gunner Hurley, Grady Wells and Susanna Williams — designed their own landscape plans.

She said the RAD GAB participants first read two novels — “First Light” by Rebecca Stead and “The Dead and the Gone” by Susan Beth Pfeffer — that focused on environmental issues. After reading and discussing these books, they decided a planting project would best utilize what they had learned, but discovered they still had to do a lot of work to do before they got out the shovels.

The budding landscapers found a location, then had to beef up their knowledge of soil and plants. Anderson said they also learned about science and conservation and how to place the plants to avoid blocking visibility for traffic.

Math and science skills also came into play as each student designed t h e i r o w n l a n d s c a p e plans for the project. One student, Nathan Dills, spent eight hours designing his plan, she said.

Anderson said the students used a standard building scale in which one-quarter inch equals one foot. They practiced reducing fractions to lowest terms and adding fractions to determine the diameter of circle needed to represent each plant they included on the to-scale blueprint.

“I made them figure out the size circle for a 9-inch strawberry plant,” Anderson said.

The finished landscape blueprints were submitted to the city for review and approval. Rob Biggar from Ecotone Solutions and Margaret Fleek, director of the Planning Department, approved Nathan Dills’ landscape design for the project. Bearett Hicks’ choice of plants was incorporated into Nathan’s plan.


Submitted photo The RAD GAB (Reading and Discussing Great Amazing Books) kids at Burlington Public Library take a break April 28 while sprucing up a vacant city lot with drought-tolerant plants. Participants are Nathan Dills (from left), Riley Flynn, Grady Wells (arms crossed), Lochlin Elliott, Susanna Williams, Children’s Librarian Lisa Anderson, Max Cook, Gunner Hurley and Bearett Hicks.