Sunday, December 5, 2010

The New Garden Initiative at OWMS


We have all been looking at that sad piece of property on the corner of Emerson Ave. and 80th Place for too long.  It has looked like a scrub land with a junk yard.  Soon it is all going to change.
Fast forward to Fall of 2011...
         You enter the gate on Emerson and to your left, you see a thriving student garden, abundant with nutrient rich foods that will be the source of a salad bar in the student cafeteria.  Classes of students happen daily, led by a sustainable agricultural teacher, where students learn how to grow for maximum productivity using organic principles....
           You turn to the right and before you is an engaging walking spiral and adjacent is an amphitheatre made out of pressed earth where students are having classes during the day and the community is having events on the weekends and evenings...... 
       Right beyond that are a number of garden plots that are tended by people in our community. You may sign up and have your own plot or you may choose to come visit and see what is happening....
      Walk a little further and there is space to enjoy the garden with benches under fruiting trees.  Have a snack on a peach or citrus while you are here....or you can take a stroll on the path that encircles the garden.  It is wide enough for a stroller or wheel chair and there are places to stop along to way to try a different fruits from another tree......


This is the Orville Wright Garden. 

A space for our students to grow...

A space for our community to grow...

Please become a part of making the Orville Wright Garden grow.

Currently we are having design and planning meeting happening with representaitives from the Mayor's Office, Rosendahl's Office, OWMS faculty and principal, WPEF, the Environmental Changemakers, and other community stakeholders.

Join us on Monday, January 17 for A Day of Service for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  This event is in conjunction with the Mayor's Office and LAUSD.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

More props for LACC...

Monday, June 12, the second crew from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps came in and dug further into the beds.  As the week progressed, the weather got hotter and the ground seemed harder (the most compacted clay you can imagine).  But Jillesca. Xzavier, Vladimir, Juan, Francisco, and Norma braved the heat and tenacious clay to dig out and amend our next eight beds.  Orville Wright thanks you and I know our plant roots will thank you,too.  Borrowing from your words: You all leave a wonderful footprint on Los Angeles!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Conservation Corps Arrive at Orville Wright


Welcome the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to OWMS! They arrived on Tuesday, June 30 and are expanding the plots to eight more. These amazing young people are true garden warriors! Much thanks to Jillesa, Alexis, Fernando, Michael, Ernest, Agolinar, Joseph, Dave, Steve, Teague and everyone at the Conservation Corps as well as John Tikotsky (the OWMS guardian angel). Go to http://www.lacorps.org/ to see all of the great stuff that they do.

Team Works in the Garden!


Team Works is our awesome after school mentoring program. One of the last activities together was a garden workday. First we went over to the Holy Nativity's Community garden at 83rd and Dumbarton, where Reverend Hood gave us a tour and and some of us tried eating nasturtium for the first time. The next week, we spent an afternoon transplanting tomatoes, sage, marigolds, etc (all from Mud Baron's generous seedling give aways). We also had a great time mosaicing a bench. Thank you Yesenia for being such a fantastic coordinator! It was great fun for all and lots of Team Work happened!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

April 24 Work day in the OWMS Garden with Gardens of Gratitude


It is starting to look like a garden!
Thank you all for your labor and support on Saturday, April 24.
We had a great showing from the community and many OWMS families, plus two great volunteers from Gardens of Gratitude! We now have four working plots and are ready to install the next row. The names are numerous, but a big shout out to John Tikotsky who with Joanne Poyourow put together our working plan and John spent countless hours and much labor making Saturday happen. He is a great friend to the Orville Wright Middle School Garden. Another workday is coming soon...

Monday, April 5, 2010

Gardens of Gratitude Coming to OWMS!

On Saturday and Sunday, April 24th and 25th, the Westside permies are hosting their weekend of Gardens of Gratitude where volunteers will come together to meet a challenge of installing 100 gardens in West LA. On Saturday, we will host a garden workday to try to finish installing our garden. Come join us at orville Wright Middle School and then keep the challenge going and join other installations! For more information contact Paula at pcohe1@lausd.net or gardensofgratitude.org.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

OUR FIRST WORK DAY


Thank you to all joined us Saturday, March 13:
Aleda LeDuff, Jaida LeDuff, Adam Kliszewski, Julia Singleron,Adrien Soto, Rowena Robles, Mark Gauthier, Priscilla Gauthier, Julian Poyourow, Joanne Poyourow, Marian Mussman, Rebecca Mussman, Ellen Kalven and mom, Kay Yang Stayner, Zachary Stayner, Barbara Montgomery, Jeanette Perez, John Tikotsky, and Paula Cohen, plus all the people in the community who stopped by to learn about what we are doing!

We were able to dig out the first four plots and mix in compost. We are looking forward to our next work day. Stay posted for the dates.

Friday, March 5, 2010

MARCH 13 WORKDAY

Come and join us for our first OWMS Community Workday! Saturday, March 13 from 9-12.We will meet at the back gate on Emerson (between 80th St. and 80th Pl) behind the last bungalow. Look for our banner. Bring tools, gardening gloves, water and sunscreen and all your fabulous gardening energy! Let's work together and get the garden up and running.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Great Garden News!

The Garden just got a grant! We recieved $2000 from the California Community Fund to help with installation. Also we are scheduling a big work day on March 13 to get the garden up and running. LMU students will join us in the effort. Look for more postings on this.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Weekly Garden Meetings

We will have weekly lunch meetings on Thursdays in Room 54. Our last meeting, on Thursday, January 14 was a picnic in the ag area and future site of our garden. We were joined by Ms. Cohen, Mr. Bergher and 5 students and a few lady bugs. Come join us on Thursday, January 21.