On January 14th, our group met up with Michael Wasserman (Gowanus Canal Conservancy). We did some gardening and cleaning up. These plants were in pretty bad conditions. Most of them were dead, piled with trash, and some were even frozen! We knew immediately we had to get down to work. It was awfully cold, but we knew this had to be done. We first threw away all the trash that were in these planters with grabbers and gloves. We found things like candy wrappers and plastic bottles. We collected around 2-3 bags of trash. After cleaning up, we added compost that had nutrients and worms! These are key when it comes to planting. Micheal told us that in the spring, Gowanus might be planting again. I am looking forward to that! I was wondering if maybe one day we can make our own compost. We can reuse things from the school like  banana peels and orange peels. It would reduce trash and even help with growing. What if LREI made its own garden in which middle schoolers can make compost and garden once in a while?