The grounds staff have roped off the orchard, which was planted with cherries, plums and apricots in 2018, in order to promote the growth of vegetation for two to four weeks.

In a Schoology post from Assistant to upper school Dean of Students Kelley McCoy on Oct. 12, the school cautioned students to stay away from the orchard temporarily.

“Please give the grass the best chance of growing by staying off of it,” the post read. “Thank you for your help to make our grounds even more beautiful than they already are.”

According to upper school Director of Facilities Shayne Hale, city guidelines enforce that active vegetation must be growing on the orchard floor to prevent runoff in the case of rain. Previously, the area had started to dry out because of the drought, so the school contracted a local landscaping company to spray the orchard with a mixture of different weeds, fertilizer and paper pulp in a process called hydroseeding. While the mixture may appear like “grass” growing in the orchard, it is actually composed of weeds, which can bring more benefits.

“A lawn you might have at home needs water every day, sometimes a couple times a day,” Hale said. “Trees in the orchard only need water once or twice a week, so if we put in grass, it would be way too much water for the trees. That’s the balance we struck there with some natural weeds, and that was the intention when the orchard was constructed.”

Green Team secretary Kinnera Mulam (11) feels excited about the new grass, which will add to the greenery and improve the overall atmosphere on campus.

“Our campus definitely has a lot of nature,” Kinnera said. “It’ll be nice to see more of that going on. We’ve definitely noticed in the past two years they’ve added all these trees into the orchard and all these different flowers, and I’ve seen the gardeners tending to them, so it’s really nice that they’re putting in all this care to do that.”

Gallery • 2 Photos

Claire Zhao

To protect the growing grass from foot traffic, campus grounds staff put the orchard area off-limits on Oct. 13. The orchard is a popular social space where students can sit at tables in the mornings, during lunch and after school.

Natalie Barth (9), who often sits in the orchard after school, noted that the new grass in the orchard would be a benefit.

“You can put your bag down on the [ground] and be less worried about it getting dirty,” Natalie said.

To prevent foot traffic from impeding the weeds’ growth, grounds staff moved all tables from the orchard onto the surrounding walkways. Some students found it more difficult to find open spots, as the tables were further from the lunch area.

“So far, if I’m being honest, it’s been a little bit of a hindrance,” Sonya Apsey (11) said. “A lot of people agree with that, especially since we’re having that many tables [moved], but I think it’ll all pay off in the end.”

Regardless, this type of full-scale renovation rarely takes place on campus. Instead, the facilities staff will continue to cultivate the new weeds on a smaller scale so that droughts won’t cause additional issues in the future.

“As we get dead spots from foot traffic, we’ll have to reseed those and maintain them, but we shouldn’t have to do it to this extent again,” Hale said. “We’ll just know now, that the city’s expectation is that we water the weeds and keep them alive.”