If you take a good look around the senior parking lot, you may notice some things like the outline of burger king crowns spray painted onto the pavement from years of spirit week, or seniors waving through cars on ripsticks, students tossing around a hackey sack, or maybe frustrated students changing a flat tire eager to just be able to drive away from the place that they can not wait to graduate from. But what you will probably overlook is a small unique garden in between Boone Jones and Sam Kavarana’s car in the middle lot against the back fence. It is easy to spot with the large bag of soil and watering can resting against the fence, and the colorful assortment of cacti that all have their own names. These two best friends work as a team to keep their family of cacti alive along with the plants hanging atop the fence behind their cars and the miniature garden of other plants that has seem to once have been lively and growing, but now it seems as though the boys have turned their attention towards the cacti to keep them alive.

Jack Mcfee has been inspired by Boone and Sam’s garden and has suggested to the entire senior class that everyone creates their own personal garden in the nearest dirt patch next to their cars to create a wonderful assortment of plants in the senior parking lot. This would give the lot some much needed character ad spaz but with graduation quickly approaching, it seems as seniors have had other things on their minds and are too busy cramming for finals and realizing that they need to finish their thesis still to have the time to put together a garden. There is one senior though, that we have just recently discovered who made his own small garden. Josh Dark has planted some orange and white flowers by himself that he put on social media saying the time (4:08pm), “a job well done”, “no help from Chris”, “at all”, and “all me”. We asked him about his garden and he said “Spot 146 features plenty of smaller flowers, but mainly a large hibiscus planted near the tree. It is in the median between my spot and Chris DeHart’s. Hopefully in the future something like this can become a tradition for both the junior and senior classes within the parking lot because the bare useless dirt patches between spots just aren’t that appealing.

We interviewed Boone and Sam to find out more…

1.When did you guys make the garden?

Boone: “about 3 weeks ago”

2.What kinds of plants are in it?

Sam: “Well, we have 7 cacti and we used to have lemon bomb and oregano but they both died somehow” Boone: “Yeah it is because you watered them too much” Sam: “no actually it is because we did not water them enough. We also have Ivy but he is on his way out mostly because he needs water too and we haven’t watered him”

3.What inspired you to plant this garden?

Boone: “We were inspired by the fact that our curb side area was really bland and had a lot of trash. The curb is the only one without a tree and it looked so boring so we had to beautify the spot somehow.” Sam:”Yeah now our curb is the nicest spot in the whole parking lot”

4. Do both of you guys split the responsibilites of watering and taking care of the garden?

Boone: “Well, Sam is in charge of bringing the water” Sam: “Yeah I bring it everyday”

5. Do you guys ever worry about your garden on the weekends?

Sam: “Since they are cacti, no. However, when we first started the garden and only had lemon bomb and oregano they both died somehow but probably because we were not here to water them over the weekend. When it rains a lot, especially on the weekends, we worry because the soil is so bad and could easily wash away and leave the cacti to die.”

6. We heard that your cacti have names…what are they?

Boone: “We have 7 Cacti and their names are Big Boi, Russell, Tussell, Zurf, Lil Ash, Archibald Jr., and Mario.”

So next time you find yourself aimlessly wandering the senior lot, keep an eye out for some pop of color within a dirt patch, and you will probably look up to find Boone and Sam admiring their baby cacti and caring for them with water, sunlight, carbon dioxide, and love. Boone also told me that he may need to pass the responsibility onto someone else since he is graduating soon, so if you are interested in mothering (or fathering) a cute family of cacti and Ivy, hit up Boone Jones or Sam Kavarana.

(In the picture you can see Boone and Sam casually tending to their garden and their gardening supplies up against the fence in the back behind them.)