Saying goodbye to a true garden friend

Anyone who has worked in the garden in the last year, probably has had the good fortune of meeting 7th grader, Michael Ferro.  He has been an active member of the Orville Wright Middle School Garden Club, helped build the Emerson Avenue Community Garden 4th of July float and was the impetus and co-constructor of the Little Free Library in the garden.  Throughout the summer, Michael would bike over to the garden to work on building the library box.  He would show up many times on his own to help out on our community workdays.  He had a strong work ethic and commitment to the garden.  Michael and his family are moving to Ohio in December.  The garden sent him off with a cake.

Michael, the garden community wishes you well in your new home in Ohio.  We will greatly miss you!

Building and Growing...

On Saturday, November 15, community members and LMU students helped till, amend and mark off our new pilot plots for the community garden.  While we are pursuing funding for our beautiful garden plan, we will begin to grow food together this winter.

Our interim pilot plots

On our last community workday on November 3, we made some progress building the Outdoor Classroom.  OWMS parent Felix Martinez mentored us in masonry.

The Emerson Avenue Community Garden's First Annual Fall Festival

On Saturday, October 13 in the Community Garden, we had our first Fall Festival.  It was filled with fun, games, pumpkins, and prizes.  Even though it started out slow, as time passed more people came and it was a great turn out.  We had deliciously scary treats, face painting, tattoos, and a craft table.  We had toss games, skill games and walking and jumping games.  We also had a beautiful pumpkin patch with scarecrows.  We had the best ever 1st Annual Fall Festival ever.  I hope I can come next year in 9th grade.
By Dalicia Cheatham
8th Grade OW student

College Days in the Garden

On Saturday, September 22, LMU  freshman came to The Emerson Avenue Community and Student Garden and helped tend and weed the garden.  They learned about the garden project and our school and ways that they could volunteer.

On Tuesday, September 25, UCLA came with nearly 100 freshman students to work in the garden with Orville Wright students and connect them with their greater Los Angeles community.

On Tuesday, October 16, LMU returned to our garden for Greek Week, bringing nearly 300 students to help weed, prepare beds for winter plantings and paint picnic benches.

More Summer News...

The garden was alive with many activities this summer.  

On Saturday, July 21,The Emerson Avenue Garden Club hosted a yard sale to fund raise for building the community garden beds.  Thanks for all of you who came and supported it.  It was a great success.  

 

On Saturday, July 28,  Steve Hofvendahl from Tree People and  Master Gardener Herb Machelder gave a talk on fruit tree care and walked us through what was happening with the trees in our garden.

Meanwhile, Family Gardening continued.  The Garden Family included Adrienne Turner, Greg and Beth Scott and sons, Noah and Colby, Tom Walker, Tiffany Thomas and daughter Yasmine Pemberton, Mark Gauthier and wife Cleo and daughter Presley and Ow Teacher, Paula Cohen.  We ended the summer with a big sign making day so that OW students could "read" the garden and be able to identify what is growing when they return to school.

Then we celebrated the garden's bounty with a Harvest Lunch.

                                                   

Meanwhile, Michael Ferro, OW 7th grader discovered the Little Free Library movement and pitched an idea to the Emerson Avenue Community Garden Club to build one for the garden.  Community member and public artist, Tom Walker joined Michael in a local workshop and together they built the first ever Little Free Library at OW.  It should be installed soon.

Learn more about Little Free Libraries here: http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/

Summer in the Garden

Summer News:
Family Gardening is happening in the student garden on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 8-11.  Families and staff are gardening together.  Come by and join us or just say hello. 

The Emerson Avenue Community Garden Club hosted a float in Westchester's  4th of July Parade.  
Check out our video:

If you happen to see trucks and machinery in the garden, that is LAUSD's finest putting in irrigation for the community garden.  

The garden is now home to a  shipping container that will be used for storage.  There can never be too many tools or wheelbarrows, but it didn't leave much space to move around our tiny storage closet.  

Saturday, July 14 will be our next workday in the garden.  We are putting in pumpkins for the fall, painting the other side of the bungalow in the garden and cleaning up and mulching a corner of the student garden.  

On  Saturday, July 21, we will have an awesome yard sale.  If you are cleaning out closets and garages before then, please donate to EACG at https://sites.google.com/site/emersonavecommunitygarden/.  If you find old gardening tools that you no longer need, please donate those to the student garden program.

Stop by and say hi!  Snacks and music make it a fun filled morning!

All that May Brings

Saturday, May 5 was another great Big Sunday Event.  Thank you to all the families and community members that came from all over the city to join us on that day.

Skyler Lima from Boy Scout Troop #50 just completed his Eagle Scout Project in the garden.  He chose as his project to landscape the outlying land around the newly completed seating area installed previously by Boy Scout Troop #915.  Take a stroll back there and have a seat.  Let this corner help you imagine how the garden will continue to keep growing.  Thank you Skylar and your team!

The LAX Chamber of Commerce recognized the Emerson Avenue Community Garden Club for making their contribution to Orville Wright Middle School in the garden.  With their vision and organization, the student garden is thriving and the community continues to gather and build the community garden.  Dorothy Stone and John Tikotsky accepted the award presented at the Annual Eddy Awards.

Hannah and Joanne Poyourow came and mentored Room 54 6th graders in harvesting various crops, especially artichokes.  Thank you Joanne and Hannah for sharing with us your great knowledge.  

             

Room 54 in the Garden

The garden at Orville Wright is growing strong! The crops in our student garden have been harvested, and with them, a sense of accomplishment has filled the spring air. Ms. Cohen’s lucky classes have been stuffing themselves, testing out recipe after recipe- chock full of veggies- grown exclusively in our school garden. After a few weeks of perfecting, we’ve decided to set them out on the world! 

Whether you prefer carrots to potatoes, or artichokes to onions, we have something for everyone. And it gets even better! No animals were harmed in the making of this meal. All of meals are vegetarian, yet they still cater to the most carnivorous man’s (or woman’s) palate.

Our Community Dinner will happen on April 21st. It will take place from 4:00 until 7:00; we can promise that the food will be delectable, the garden will be in bloom, and you’ll have a blast!

by Kaitlyn Bishay  8th grade

Special Thanks to Adrienne Turner, fabulous parent and garden advocate, who helped mentor students for the Community Dinner and United Healthcare  whose generous grant through YSA made the dinner and cookbooks possible.  Wright from the Garden to the Kitchen, our by students, for students cookbook is on its way!

Room 54 Students reading their cookbooks Wright from the Garden to the Kitchen.

The Mayor's Day of Service "Good Food Day"

The day started out drizzly and ended even wetter, but a brave and dedicated crowd of 130 people came to be a part of Westchester's first community garden with plot membership on a school campus. There was music, food, and great people coming together for a great cause. Take a look at the many things happening in  the garden.

                  

Otis Professor and artist, Tom Walker standing with  one of the
 5 trellises he created from student designs.

The Community Garden is official with the unveiling
of  it's new sign  created and painted by artist Steve O'Loughlin.

UCLA volunteers helping break
 ground on the first community plots.

Americorp Vista volunteers clearing space for our new
"living  laboratory" that will house  a compost study area.

Robert Redecker and crew working on the
 flooring of the outdoor classroom/amphitheatre.

And a big daikon radish harvest!

As the garden grows...

March 3, 2012 was another successful Garden Workday with students, parents and community.  Thanks for everyone coming and joining in!

Jeanine Giesregen teaches us about soil testing.

Look who is building the outdoor classroom!

A Day On and In the Garden to Celebrate Dr. King

 

Students and families and staff of Orville Wright alongside community members came out on MLK Day to work in the garden.  Together we prepared many of the beds in the student garden, mulched and ended the day with a big planting.  Throughout the morning, we collected seeds from plants, painted new signs and  learned a new method of planting using triangulation that maximizes how much we can grow.  Jeanine Geisregan, an OW parent and master gardener, demonstrated how to compost for us. It was a joyful, energetic day.  We posted our favorite quotes from Dr. King on ribbons that we hung on the fence for our community to read.  Our next work day is February 4.