Fieldwork
For one of the assignments, you are asked to participate in an Urban Ag project of some sort, and write it up using the guidelines in the little writeup here.
Here are some places to start–feel free to ask me about more or different examples…
Food Forward—http://foodforward.org/
Based in the Valley, Food Forward organizes “picks,” or meetups where you harvest the fruit from someone’s yard or property, and it is re-distributed to food banks and other venues throughout the LA area. You can reserve a spot on line–they often fill up fast, so look ahead of time. Lots of activities in Hollywood and the SGV too.
Garden School Foundation–events listed here.
A worm bench in the garden. Source: http://www.gardenschoolfoundation.org/
The Garden School Foundation is located at an elementary school in West Adams. They have monthly workdays at their amazingly landscaped space, which has lots of little spaces within it for walking, sitting, meeting. You will probably run into a lot of kids and families if you stop by. Next workday is March 9.
Grow Good–blog here.
In Bell, planting a garden @ the largest shelter in LA County–in fact, west of the Mississippi. There is a workshop on drip irrigation Feb 23. I’m going, and you can go as my guest, if interested–let me know. 9-2, Saturday Feb 23. Description:
GrowGood, a 501(c)3 organization dedicated to using urban agriculture to transform at-risk communities in Los Angeles will be hosting a 2-part irrigation installation seminar at its 1-acre urban farm site at the Salvation Army-Bell Shelter. The Bell Shelter is the largest homeless shelter west of the Mississippi, and many of its clients are veterans. Our program seeks to provide therapeutic opportunities for the Shelter’s residents and supply the Shelter’s kitchen with fresh fruits and vegetables. We are hoping to grow fresh vegetables for the kitchen to feed the 350 clients daily. There are currently 14 raised beds that are currently watered by hand. Our goal is to install a drip irrigation system and provide instruction to maintain the existing Bell Shelter Garden.
The consecutive workshops, taught by Master Gardener Mel Crudge and Netafim District Manager Bill Millward, are scheduled for Feb 23 and March 2. These sessions will provide an A-Z how-to guide for constructing and maintaining a drip irrigation system from start to finish. Topics include installing a main line and a drip irrigation system for the raised beds and fruit trees.
The two scheduled meetings are hands-on workshops to instruct MGs that are not familiar with installing or repairing their irrigation system at their own garden. The first session will cover trenching and installing a 1 1/2 PVC line for the garden and fruit trees. The second workshop will include installing valves and drip system for the fruit trees and raised beds. After the irrigation system is installed, we are hoping to have another workshop involved planting fruit trees and vegetables in the garden. Spaces are limited.”
LA Green Grounds—lagreengrounds.org
Green Grounds is based in S LA, composed of residents, relatives of residents, Natural History Museum folks, people who work nearby, and other interested and often artsy and urban-sustainability-minded people. They (we, I am a member) work with a homeowner to plan, take out, and replant their yard. We try for front yards, as they are more visible, and neighbors tend to get interested, and then converted (we hope!). We hold “dig-ins” about once a month; we have done 15 so far. The next one is on Feb 9–please join, get your hands dirty, learn and get some fresh air!
poster for GG dig-in–you’ll need to RSVP to get the address.
Learning Garden–Venice High School
This is a one-acre space on the grounds of Venice High, at Venice and Walgrove. In addition to housing many mini-gardens within (for the high-school students, by Occupy Venice, etc.), the garden is a meeting place for many organizations. One of these is SLOLA, the seed library of LA. The garden, and its mini-gardens, have various workdays. One coming up Feb 22 will focus on putting in a “natural arts” garden, meaning the plant materials that are used in textiles and fiber arts–indigo, for example. The workday is 9-1, and you can just show up.
Proyecto Jardin–Facebook page here.
In Boyle Heights, hosts workday every Saturday in February from 12-2. Working toward a food collective. They have a healing garden and a very cool shed. I know their plug person, so let me know if you are heading out!
urban agriculture @ UCLA 