The Learning Garden has continued to grow throughout 2022. While our primary goal has been to finalize a long-term agreement with LAUSD, that has not happened due to changes within LAUSD - changes we hope will benefit school gardens in the future.
In the meantime, we have accomplished tons in the development of the soils, gardens, and volunteers.
The Chinese Medicinal Garden continues to thrive. The majority of the beds are full of important herbs and the Sunday workdays have continued to serve as meet up for eager TCM students to learn while caring for the herbs. The beds that were overrun with grass have been cleared and planted with clover to condition the soil before more herbs are planted out. The fragrant and ever popular Artemisia Spiral returned in 2022, always wowing our visitors. We have such gratitude to Ingrid Schneider who not only caretakes the TCM garden but also shares her knowledge with her volunteers.
We welcomed our new Tea Garden - complete with Camellia Sinensis black tea, as well as a variety of herbal tea plants, including hibiscus, rose hips, valerian, chamomile and more. Thank you, Ali Fitzgerald, for all your hard work making this beautiful garden become a reality.
The Native California Garden is expanding so expect a gorgeous display for 2023! More plants have been added this fall and the ones originally planted are growing beautifully. We have more than a hundred different types of native California species already, thanks to Claire Gerard, Joy Tucker, and Beth Crosse, who have designed, planted and maintained this garden. They have also shared their knowledge with the Horticulture classes at VHS, who have included natives in their own gardens.
The Fiber Arts Garden is flourishing and has attracted natural dyers who wish to help develop curriculum for the garden. We are amazed at the colors that these plants bring to fabric, and we are so excited to offer workshops in the future. Thanks to Felicia Adessa and Ed Kennedy, who are the guardians of that beautiful circle complete with cotton, flax, and dye plants.
The Ancient Grain Garden sported beautiful red amaranth this summer and currently has a variety of winter wheats and buckwheat. We are hoping to save seeds from some of these rare grains to plant out yearly until we can make bread from a big harvest. Thank you, Wendy Temple, for your help planting these gardens, and for your future tutoring on bread making.
David King and Jennifer Arrington transformed the 2021 Three Sisters Garden into a Seed Saving Garden this fall, full of unique beans and garbanzos amidst lettuces, chard and kale. The importance of seed saving and having diversity in our plants is imperative to the planet! And special thanks to Lupita Solis and David, The Learning Gardens’ seeds are organized and set for saving seed throughout the garden.
The talk of the town this year is our new Tropical Garden, created by Clara Yokishara. The papaya tree and dragon fruit planted years ago are now both accompanied by bananas, hibiscus, pineapple, kiwi, cassava and more. And our Rose Garden is the perfect place to sit and reflect.
Thank you Jen and David for maintaining and nurturing our heirloom roses.
The long awaited Medicine Wheel Garden is finally beginning to be planted with herbs for all systems of the body.
The garden’s fruit and vegetable harvests have been supplying Nourish LA with weekly fresh food going to families in need. Thanks to Sumire McKean for her continued pickup and delivery.
We are SO READY to bring our unique programs to the school and community. Venice High is using the garden more and more, as teachers embrace outdoor instruction. There was even an outdoor play performed on the patio in October. The garden offers some amazing possibilities for creating college-bound programming with a community college so our students can earn an Associates of Agriculture or Science in horticulture, or plant sciences.
First Goal of 2023:
Create a productive compost program with education component. We want to bring the knowledge of composting to our community while we continue to restore the soil at The Learning Garden. And we need your help! Donate Now and look out for more information as we fundraise towards making this dream a reality at TLG.