Field reports from
Micheltorena Elementary School
Dexterity and Patience – Learning about plants through exploration at Micheltorena
When we grew started growing indigo it was to solve the overwatering issues we were having in one of the raised beds. What ended up happening was that the indigo began to thrive and it created a beautiful pollinator-friendly Over the past 2 weeks, we’ve been harvesting and trimming back the indigo. It was ready…
Using the Scientific Method to Recalibrate Compost
Over the last year the kids have been able to compost a lot of their lunch waste, about an average of 15 lbs. a week. Miss Araceli and Mr. Victor have been able to fully support the lunch line to glean any potential non-waste. The part that I oversee is the compost. The kids…
Plant Anatomy and Field Research @ Micheltorena
Plant anatomy is slowly turning into my favorite lesson to teach and to learn from. Not only is this a great introduction to how our earth feeds us, but it’s also great in understanding why pollinators are so important. Hint, hint! without pollinators we would struggle to feed ourselves – either directly or indirectly. We…
Apple Anatomy @ Micheltorena School Garden
Last week, the kids worked on plant anatomy and discussed plant reproduction. It can be hard to conceptualize multiple types of plant reproduction but sometimes we need to ground our lessons in something tangible. This week, we’re working on apple anatomy. It’s great to break down the parts of an apple and look at the…
Welcome Back Micheltorena!
Welcome back Micheltorena! It’s great to connect with the kids, teachers and parents for another year. I’m pumped to talk about plant life cycle. Last year, we started so many seedlings, some made it and some didn’t – but since our classes are 6 weeks, some kids weren’t able to see how successful their crops…
Transitioning Seasons and Identifying Insects at Micheltorena Elementary School
Micheltorena’s garden has gone through a lot of changes in two months. We had a full-on winter garden, where we grew herbs, celery, carrots and lettuce. Then we had so much water that some of our seeds didn’t sprout, it was a challenging time because we couldn’t get the seeds to germinate due to the…
Micheltorena Composting and Striving Towards Less Waste – BUCKETS AT A TIME
During the beginning of this year, we had some pretty big goals. The first to increase our composting and second to start recycling at the lunch line. I think for a minute everyone agreed we were all crazy for attempting to change the automated culture of disposing our food. Composting in theory is wonderful, but…
Carrot Harvesting with TK and Kinder
Mr. Diaz’s class has been so disciplined throughout our 6 weeks, from being respectful to insects, to planting seeds in their new Kinder garden bed. Today, as a reward for the patience, we harvested carrots! Check out these amazing pictures – starting from Mr. Diaz leading the charge to the kids harvesting. I am so…
Reducing Landfill Waste at Micheltorena
Wheeew, what a week and it’s only Wednesday! We have been hard at work teaching lessons at Micheltorena, and during our down time, working on getting the kids to eat healthy, find homes for perfectly good food and compost what can’t be saved. I’ll start with harvesting, it was lesson 6 in our rotation. Meaning…
Friends and Foes – Insects at Micheltorena
If you know me, you know I love working the soil. When I first started gardening, I was so naive about what makes a successful garden. I thought, “oh it must be the seeds!” As time goes on, I realize so much of the wonder of a productive garden comes from the soil. And so…
New System for School Food Waste Composting at Micheltorena
We rolled out our first day of food collecting during lunch time at Micheltorena. Equipped with a bucket and a compost sign. I set it up at the lunch area. I had lunch with the kids and wanted to see what they were eating and what they were throwing away. The kids who have…
Let’s Talk Dirt @ Micheltorena
It’s so nice to be back in the garden after the long break, only this time I have younger classes and boy has it been an adventure! It’s nice to go from week 1 of “ewwwww” when we see insects to genuine curiosity as to why insects live where they do. We couldn’t have chosen…
Journaling at Micheltorena
A few months ago, I trained under master gardener extraordinaire, Alexys. She brought out a gardening journal that was given to her by a family member and I just fell in love. I’ve been documenting my personal garden on Insta, via texts, in journals, you name it! So, if we’re going to work with kids,…
Upper Classes Presentations @Micheltorena
It’s time for winter break, and although the kids are probably so excited about the time off, it’s a bittersweet time for me as a garden ranger. Week 6 was our last session for this rotation and I couldn’t be more proud of my upper classes. Not only have these kids grown tremendously, but I…
Getting Kids Going with Composting @ Micheltorena
Kids are awesome! No, really, they are! They intuitively get things that take adults years to understand, and they don’t have all of these ingrained barriers. With that said, let’s get dirty. Compost. EWWWWWW right? Not really as it turns out, I only heard one “ew” from my classes and we moved on. I was…
Adjusting Lessons for Autistic and Special Needs Kids @ Micheltorena
One of my biggest challenges has been teaching children on the autism spectrum, not because they are different, but because I had such a limited scope of what these kids are able to accomplish individually. Initially, I believed that the lessons were too complicated for them to grasp, and after seeing how well they adjusted…
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle @ Micheltorena
The kids at Micheltorena had a great time with our reduce, reuse, recycle lesson. Not only were the kids already fairly aware about recycling, but they were ready to get their hands dirty by helping me sort items we use on an everyday basis at home. After reviewing definitions of reduce, reuse, recycle, we laid…
Celery time at Micheltorena! Plus hanging with the animals
Friday April 20th was our last day at the Micheltorena garden for the Spring semester. Although it was sad for everyone to say bye to the animals and plants, we still had a lot of fun! We spent the day doing maintenance, watering and weeding, and hanging out with the bunnies and chickens a lot….
Four Leaf Clover Hunt
Before Spring Break, I decided to have a festive St. Patrick’s Day-themed lesson at Micheltorena, because we have a few clover patches that were ripe for weeding. I love our clover patches. They are pleasing to the eye, and so green and soft, even though they’re considered a weed. They’re also a wonderful cover for…
Herbs and Spices Guessing Game
We had a lot of fun Friday at Micheltorena, even though it was quite cold and windy outside. Instead of having an outdoor lesson, I went from room to room for a warm and cozy indoor lesson. It was so fun to see the students in their own environment. I had a great lesson planned…
A Chrysalis at Micheltorena!
We had a wonderful day in the garden last week over at Micheltorena Elementary. Two weeks ago, I noticed a caterpillar on one of our fennel plants. It was beautiful, and at the end of every class I pointed it out to my students so they could also bask in its prettiness. If that was…
Our Micheltorena Pumpkin
With October almost over (!!!) I wanted to do something festive with the Micheltorena classes for Halloween/fall. Luckily, our garden had one perfectly orange, round pumpkin in the patch that was ready to harvest. I decided to make my lesson of the week language arts-related. It was the first time I had my students write…
Bee Sanctuary, Kumquat and more at Micheltorena
I have the special opportunity to work at Micheltorena Elementary School this year! The school’s garden has a really cool origin story. The garden space used to be an additional school parking lot until some Micheltorena neighborhood community members decided to rip out all that concrete and make it a community garden! That was over…
Recess time at Micheltorena Garden
Boy, the kids love the garden! Today during their recess time, the students poured into the garden and worked/played with a big pile of beautiful oak mulch delivered for free to the garden by J&T Tree Co. The kids were pure physical activity as they mounted the pile, shoveled mulch into wheelbarrows and distributed the…
Heart of LA (HOLA) after school Arts program visits Micheltorena
The kids that attend HOLA ‘s Art after school program and their teachers Nara and Patricia visited Micheltorena Garden yesterday. They were very interested in knowing how to grow food in an urban setting, composting and warm farming, be water wise, solar energy and community involvement in the garden. After a quick talk and…
Micheltorena garden shed gets a makeover
Micheltorena garden shed gets a makeover just in time for this Saturday’s Halloween Big Pumpkin Festival. 10/29/2011 from 10-5
Solar Panels atop Micheltorena Garden Shed
Today, led by volunteer extraordinaire Aaron Murphy (from the Echo Park Time Bank) we installed the solar panels (which connect to batteries and converters) atop the garden shed we built last week. The shed will hold garden tools, collect rain water into barrels and garner the sun’s rays to power the irrigation timer, lights, music,…
Micheltorena Garden new shed doubles as rain catching demo
Today we installed a gutter and downspout into DWP provided trash can turned rain barrel. We’ll be able to use some rain water for the garden but most importantly, the whole neighborhood will be able to see how easy it is to implement and try it at home. Stay tuned for the upcoming triple threat…
A new Shed for Micheltorena Garden
Community members came together in stellar fashion to build a garden shed for Micheltorena. We had school parent Peter Healy, Teacher Lisa Lewis’ husband Burnie Neal, Silver Lake neighbors Bill Mahoney, Sergio Scabuzzo and Allison Behrstock, and heading the effort Echo Park Time Bank Members Aaron Murphy and Troy Gilbert form Troy Construction a great…
Micheltorena Garden thrives thanks to community involvement
It takes a village… point in case at the Micheltorena School and Community Garden. All through the summer the garden stayed open on Wednesdays and Saturdays although the school was out on vacation. More and more community members, attracted by the garden beauty and warmth, come in and contribute = Pickling classes, garden maintenance, composting,…
LAWeekly visits Micheltorena Garden and blogs about it and EnrichLA
LAWeekly’s Kathy A. MacDonald visited the garden and blogged about us. Here is an excerpt, for the whole article visit LAWeekly’s Blog. “Chalk one up to green. Overlooking traffic-heavy Sunset Boulevard in the heart of Silver Lake, community activists have transformed a former school parking lot into vegetable, herb and flower filled garden at L.A.U.S.D’s…
How to Repurpose Avocado Shells for Seed Planting (Micheltorena Garden Project)
LOS ANGELES — When in California, eat avocados! As a result of my California avocado binge, I’m left with a heap of empty avocado shells. Instead of sending them to the compost, I decided to take them last Saturday to the Micheltorena Elementary School garden for a fun garden project. Avocado Shell Seed Trays By planting seeds in avocado shells instead of plastic trays, the seedlings can be transplanted directly… Read more»
Brother blog URBAN FOOD AMERICA writes about Micheltorena and EnrichLA
Here is an excerpt, for the full article visit Urban Food America. “Before Micheltorena Elementary School built its community garden, the majority of the schoolgrounds was a vast, empty parking lot adjacent to the noisy West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Thanks to a few committed neighborhood volunteers, this public school is now…
Micheltorena School & Community Garden: Reforming Education from the Ground Up
LOS ANGELES — Before Micheltorena Elementary School built its community garden, the majority of the schoolgrounds was a vast, empty parking lot adjacent to the noisy West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Thanks to a few committed neighborhood volunteers, this public school is now the prideful home of a beautiful and productive community garden. The Micheltorena garden is a real-world testing… Read more»
Pickles!
This Saturday at the Micheltorena Garden, lead by neighbor and volunteer Jason Jones, we pickled some of the garden veggies. About 10 volunteers brought jars and got together for the experiment, part of exploring different ways of using the garden bounty. It started about noon after a couple of hours of tending the garden =…
Micheltorena receives gift from Jennie Cook
Micheltorena Garden received a set of bowls and knives plus a sharpener from Jennie Cook, the tireless crusader for better food in schools. Jennie is a great chef and caterer, and a big supporter of school edible gardens. She sees the gardens as the portal to healthy eating habits and breaking with the vicious circle…
Just one more Saturday at the Micheltorena Garden
This Saturday we had a lot of new people coming to the garden. I taught a class, Urban Beekeeping 101, on all I learned from being a member of Backwards Beekeepers. A few folk from the Echo Park Time Bank showed up to it, and stayed for a garden produce salad from the bounty the…
The garden salad that took a year to make
It started with a dream, perseverance, attracting like minded folk, designing, raising funds, making a reality the replacing of asphalt by a garden, building, planting, watering, weeding, mulching, composting, loving, meeting more new friends, making music, enjoying the hard work, learning, discovering… and tonight the community got together and created the first salad with veggies…
A mural grows at Micheltorena Elementary
Inspired by the success of the garden, parents have been getting together for the last couple of weeks to continue the school beautification. Designed by comics artist -and parent- Jordan Crane, the mural in progress at the kindergarten yard is looking awesome! Stay tuned for the final result…
Enrich LA + Gilt City Volunteer Day
The Enrich LA / Gilt City volunteer day on Sat 6/25 was a big success. Gilt raised $2000 for Micheltorena and the food by Chego was excellent. Lisa Novick from Theodore Payne Foundation was at hand to teach the volunteers the benefits of native plant gardens (minimal water needs and food for native birds and insects)…
“Garden, Grub and Give Back”
This Saturday, June 25th, Micheltorena garden will be participating in a “Gilt City” event. Attendees will be experiencing a day of giving back to the community, great music, and good eats provided by the Pop-up Chego test-kitchen. Chego is the latest endeavor from chef Roy Choi, the brilliant man who brought you Kogi BBQ and…
Fresh, seasonal, organic veggies make a great salad @ Micheltorena garden
The time came and the Micheltorena garden is ready for the kids to harvest veggies, make a salad and learn all about eating fresh seasonal unprocessed foods. The picking was fun, the prepping as well, and all were very open to considering having fresh foods over processed, understood the reasons why and asked lots of…
More Bees and a Well-Deserved Meal
Today at Micheltorena, Leonardo continued the bee demonstration with the observation hive so that every class had a chance to learn about the nature of bees and the art of beekeeping. Leonardo talked about the structure of honeycomb (hexagonal cells), about the different types of bees that make up a colony (worker,…
Bees visit Micheltorena
The Micheltorena Garden had today a visit by Kirk Anderson of Backwards Beekeepers, a Los Angeles Urban Beekeeping group dedicated to natural organic beekeeping. Kirk brought an observation hive and some beekeeping gear and equipment. The kids were fascinated about being able to observe the bees at work an get real close to them without danger…