Micheltorena Elementary School 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 mulch  through the garden paths. Ah, did I mention that the slightly acidic oak mulch is really great for our very alkaline southern California soils?

We also experimented with using a pot filled with water (olla)  to slowly water, though the small holes at the bottom of the pot,  the tree planted inside the red bag donated by Project Food LA. We also mulched the tree base to help preserve soil humidity.

Micheltorena garden shed gets a makeover just in time for this Saturday’s Halloween Big Pumpkin Festival. 10/29/2011 from 10-5

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 = the shed roof will hold solar panels too!

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, potlucks, plumbing made easy, solar shed construction, worm tea making, soil building, crop sharing and more.

Micheltorena School and Community Garden is open to all on Saturdays 10-2 and through summer on Wednesdays 6-8 PM

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 the prideful home of a beautiful and productive community garden.

The Micheltorena garden is a real-world testing ground for students to apply ideas and values learned in the classroom, and a cherished community space that brings the neighborhood together…

The workdays are organized by Leonardo Chalupowicz, who has led the garden project throughout its one-year existence. The experience inspired him and others to co-found EnrichLA, a non-profit organization whose mission is, “A Garden in Every School.”

The group manages 11 school gardens at various stages in the Los Angeles area.”

Thank you Chris Cano volunteer and blogger extraordinaire!

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 of consuming manufactured non nutritional foods.

As we are making more and more salads from garden produce, what a timely gift! THANK YOU JENNIE!

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 grown in the garden, and shared it. It took a year, and a village.

Saturdays 10-2 and Wednesday 6-8 PM  at the Micheltorena garden through summer, see you there!

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) and planted many native varieties while removing some invasives.

The volunteers also applied heaps of mulch to all the beds using tools provided by LAUSD and planted giant pumpkin seedlings in the garden: 200 lb pumpkins coming soon!

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 questions.

Some loved it and knew all about eating salad from home, others were doubtful but decided to taste it anyway, some looked like they had never had fresh greens… But the reviews were unanimous = DELICIOUS!

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 of being stung.

The lesson included the importance of bees in the pollination process, the respect for beneficial insects, the relationship of bees and people,  the different kind of bees, how they make honey, why honey is a better sweetener than refined sugar, and why to wear a veil and gloves when working with the bees.

This elementary school kids showed an amazing understanding of all of the above, some of them sounding like poets, some as scientists, some made drawings of the bees like great artists. They all  had a chance to taste delicious mesquite desert honey. It was also very satisfying to find out that a few of the kids had beehives at home.

“This was an excellent opportunity to plant the seed of beekeeping in this young ones” said Kirk.