How much life can fit into a single afternoon of planting? In Stryków, the answer is: 240 ornamental shrubs, dozens of pairs of hands, and one shared day that will change the look of the school playground for years to come. On 16 April 2026 we gathered at Targowa 21 to green the grounds around the school together with students from Primary School No. 2 named after Polish Nobel Prize Winners in Stryków and volunteers from the Coring company.
Context and purpose of the event
We organized this planting with the immediate surroundings of the school in mind – a place that students pass every single day, on their way to lessons, heading home, or spending time during breaks. We wanted this area to become greener, while giving students the chance to take part in creating it themselves and to see firsthand what planting work actually involves, from the first spade of soil to the last watered shrub.
We chose species that cope well with urban conditions, tolerate frost, and don’t require particularly demanding care, giving the newly planted greenery a real chance to survive the coming years and gradually form a denser, more mature landscape. This matters because a single planting action only makes sense if its results last well beyond the day the volunteers go back to their everyday routines.
We also wanted the students themselves – rather than only a gardening crew – to put the plants into the ground with their own hands, right next to their school. A sense of responsibility for a place where you spend several hours every day is built in exactly these kinds of moments, when you can watch the result of your own work growing outside the classroom window.
What and how we planted
In total, 240 plants went into the ground, split across five species chosen to complement each other in appearance, flowering season, and role in the landscape. We planted 60 specimens of Euonymus fortunei ‘Emerald Gold’, a low, evergreen shrub with dark green leaves edged in a broad yellow border that takes on a purplish tint in autumn and winter. Alongside it, 60 specimens of the sister variety ‘Emerald Gaiety’ went into the soil – lower and more spreading, with white-edged leaves that turn pink in winter. Both varieties work excellently as ground cover, keeping the area looking dense and colourful year-round, even when other plants have shed their leaves.
To this mix we added 60 specimens of winged euonymus (Euonymus alatus), a deciduous shrub known for the distinctive, corky “wings” running along its stems and for one of the most striking autumn colour displays found in local gardens – its leaves turn a deep, vivid scarlet in the fall. Its berries are also a valuable food source for birds heading into winter.
We rounded out the planting with 30 specimens of Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’, an ornamental grass with feathery, cream-coloured flower spikes that appear in late summer and stay on the plant well into winter, and 30 specimens of Hydrangea paniculata ‘Polar Bear’, a large ornamental shrub that covers itself in showy white flower clusters through summer and early autumn, drawing pollinating insects at a time when many other plants have already finished flowering.
What the planting day looked like
We split the work into smaller teams, so that each group of students could focus on one species and go through the entire planting process from start to finish: digging a hole of the right depth, positioning the shrub upright, backfilling the roots with soil, gently firming the ground, and watering generously. Older students helped younger ones with the heavier parts of the job, such as planting the larger hydrangea shrubs, while the Coring volunteers made sure each plant went into the ground at the correct depth and with proper spacing from its neighbours.
Splitting the work by stage and by species allowed us to plant all 240 plants efficiently, even though a number that size could easily have looked time-consuming at first glance. By the end of the day, the plot next to the school, which had looked like an ordinary, empty strip of land that morning, had turned into an organised composition of five species, ready to keep developing over the coming seasons.
Students, volunteers, and working together
At the heart of the day were the students of Primary School No. 2 named after Polish Nobel Prize Winners in Stryków, who dug holes, positioned the young shrubs, and watered the freshly planted greenery with real enthusiasm. For many of them, this was a first experience of this kind – a chance to see with their own eyes how much physical work sits behind every shrub growing in town, rather than only admiring the finished result.
The students were joined by two volunteers from Coring, who brought hands-on experience and a willingness to help with the heavier parts of the work. Bringing together schoolchildren and corporate volunteers gave the day a distinctly intergenerational character – students learned from adults how to plant and secure young plants properly, while the Coring volunteers got to spend time outdoors, away from their desks, working on something concrete and visible for their local community.
Why this greenery matters
Urban greenery, even at the scale of a single street or a small patch of land, performs functions that are easy to overlook at first glance. Shrubs such as Euonymus fortunei form a dense, evergreen cover that limits soil erosion and offers shelter to small animals and insects throughout the year. Winged euonymus, with its autumn berries, supports birds preparing for winter, and the dry seed heads of Pennisetum alopecuroides left standing over winter become a natural shelter for insects overwintering in vegetation, as long as they aren’t cut back too early.
Hydrangea paniculata ‘Polar Bear’ flowers at a point in the season when many other plants have already finished blooming, extending the period during which bees and other pollinators can find food sources in the city. This kind of species diversity – evergreen ground cover, deciduous shrubs, ornamental grasses, and late-flowering shrubs – matters for more than aesthetics: on a small scale, it builds a fragment of local biodiversity, supports pollinators, and improves the microclimate of the immediate area.
Even modest shrub plantings matter for air quality and microclimate close by, because leaves capture some of the dust and pollutants carried in the air, while dense vegetation reduces surface heating on hot days and helps rainwater soak into the soil instead of running straight into the drainage system. On the scale of a single street, the effect of one planting can seem small, but repeated across many locations, actions like this gradually build a network of green, pollinator- and bird-friendly spaces in a city that would otherwise remain paved over.
Greenery around a school also matters for the students themselves. Access to natural, varied spaces close to where they learn makes breaks more restful, and children who have regular contact with greenery around their school are more likely to spend time outdoors and to learn to recognise the plants growing right beside them, rather than knowing them only from textbooks.
Summary
Thanks to the joint effort of students from Primary School No. 2 named after Polish Nobel Prize Winners in Stryków and volunteers from Coring, 240 ornamental shrubs across five species went into the ground, and the area around the school at Targowa 21 gained new, diverse greenery for years to come. In the coming weeks, the school will take over the care of the new plantings, keeping up regular watering of the young plants, especially during the first, most demanding period after transplanting.
We thank everyone who gave their time and energy on 16 April 2026 to make this change happen. We hope the plants put in the ground that day will grow alongside future generations of students, as a reminder that even a single afternoon of shared work can leave a lasting mark on the surrounding environment.
