The garden at Bryson Avenue Elementary School was full of vibrant colors. Students identified vegetables in the garden by matching pictures with the plants that were in their garden beds. Students were asked, “what colors do you see in the garden?” They quickly shouted, “purple, red, orange, pink, blue, yellow, green!”
Any idea which veggie the color pink was referring to? If you guessed chard, you weren’t wrong. This little beauty was hiding under the soil so no one could see it until we harvested it!
Students in Mrs. Delgado’s class at Woodlawn Elementary School read to me a beautiful letter they wrote. They shared their vision of helping Mother Nature by choosing to, “Go Green!”
They’ve already planted many seedlings and several large trees on their campus but they want to “help build 1 or 2, maybe 100 gardens throughout Los Angeles Unified School District.” They sure are an inspiration!
Here are the all-stars that wrote the letter. They just harvested some of their favorite veggies from the garden.
Where there was once one squash, there’s now two! These beautiful butternut squash plants are crawling around the garden floor. Underneath their large green leaves, hide these new little treasures.
The flower of the butternut squash is just as beautiful as the fruit!
Students at Monlux Elementary School already have green thumbs. They’ve learned so much about ecosystems, seeds, edible plants and much more.
Today, these little gardeners helped remove pesky weeds from the native garden and learned about the garden’s friends and foes.
The garden at Alta Loma produced beautiful beets, chard, kale, cabbage and much much more! But…It’s that time of year to make sure the soil is healthy for our new crops. After the helpers amended the plots, we planted tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, thyme and cucumbers.
Yummy food is just around the corner!
The Luther Burbank Middle School garden is in full bloom. Early this morning, birds, butterflies, bees and a slew of insects filled the space. Months ago, when we were nervous about morning frost we ventured out and planted potatoes, garlic, onions, kale and chard. This week we enjoyed the fruits of our labor. After harvesting the edibles, we rinsed them off and threw them onto a pan.
Students were amazed that they grew every ingredient, except for the mushrooms!
The garlic bulbs needed to be dried ahead of time but we harvested a new one for the following week. Yummm!
Wait, there’s more! The corn we planted in March is thigh-high…That means it easily surpassed the saying, “knee-high by the 4th of July!”
The plants at Markham Farm seem to be enjoying the warmer weather. There are signs of new and tasty edibles in the future! Check out this young butternut squash. In some countries, young squash like the one below are considered a delicacy.
The native area is full of many vibrant colors that are sure to attract our friends the pollinators.
The artichoke plant at Atwater attracts a lot of ladybugs in all stages of development. Great for learning!
The students at Atwater Elementary made heart-shaped seed bombs for Mother’s Day, made from old newspaper and other scrap paper. Each student got to make a heart filled with carrot seeds for their moms. It was a fun activity and as one of the teacher’s pointed out, the hearts are symbolic of our love for our mothers and when the seeds start growing it will be a continuation of that love. 
Hearts and smiles for mom.
Canvas was stretched all over the garden for drying.
“Yummmm!”
That was the first word that came out of a new student’s mouth. We worked in the garden for a bit and then prepared this quick snack. Everyone agreed that the fresh cilantro and lime juice made the salsa even tastier.
- Green Mother’s Day Gifts
What are some ways to be Green on Mother’s Day? Start by giving handmade, local, organic, Fair Trade, and eco-friendly gifts. Choose organic local flowers. Most flowers are mainly grown in other countries that use harmful chemicals and pesticides. Who wants to bring that into their home? Green Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: • Make your [...]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
5/8/2013
Contact Tomas O’Grady. Tomasogrady@enrichla.org. 323 387 3866
The new learning Habitat and Farm at El Sereno Middle School is to be completed on May 18th, 2013 in celebration of Harvey Milk Day. 200 volunteers will build a mini farm, dry creek and native garden.
This schoolyard habitat will offer an opportunity for all El Sereno students to become stewards of their landscape and to engage directly with nature. Schoolyard habitats create an opportunity for on-campus curriculum-based science learning. The students will not only be part of the work day when we build this habitat, but can be part of its upkeep. Over time, we expect the habitat to become a natural extension of their classroom.
Community Partners
Boston Consulting | Gay For Good | Fox Gives | The Office of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa | You Think | Whole Foods | Los Angeles Unified School District | City Of Los Angeles | Sodder Studio | LYFT | Monica Garcia, School Board President
“Our goal is to create a schoolyard habitat built on sound ecological principles for habitat restoration and on innovative educational programming.” Tomas O’Grady
The Woodlawn Elementary School garden has well over 30 species of edible plants. Some of these wonderful fruits, vegetables, and herbs are hard to recognize in their immature stage so we decided to make signs to help our garden community.
The signs were showered throughout the garden when we finished up the day. They’ll helps us all learn the plants in our beautiful space.
Hundreds of students at Wilton Place Elementary School came to their school garden today to transplant seedlings. While they were planting, they noticed some of the gardens living things. One student shouted, “Beeeeees!” Another exclaimed, “Worms!”
Needless to say, it was a fun day in the sun!
Students at Wilshire Park tasted pico de gallo with a sweet little twist. This recipe is great for cold and warm weather, alike. It will be even better when the peppers and tomatoes come from the school garden!
If you are interested in making it at home. Use these fresh, healthy and simple ingredients:
-1 Tomato
-1 cup Pineapple
-1 Mango
-1 Bell Pepper
-1 Persian cucumber
-1 Green Onion
-1 Lime
-Touch of salt
Chop tomato, pineapple, mango, bell pepper, cucumber and green onion into small cubes. Squeeze lime juice over ingredients and add salt. Mix and enjoy!
*Makes 4 cups- enough to feed many little mouths!
Even on this rainy day, students at Luther Burbank Middle School got their hands dirty. This time it wasn’t because of the soil, it was from pastels, ink pads, markers and crayons. Check out the great signs they made.
Using a projector, students looked at images of the fruits, vegetables and herbs growing in the garden and tried to name them. Once they identified the produce, they created signs which we’ll laminate and use in the garden.
