LAUSD signs the dotted line! WHPLG is coming to life
Yes!!! After 3 years of planning and negotiations, and over 18 years since the garden was inspired by dedicated LA Ecovillagers, the White House Place Learning Garden is coming to life. LAUSD signed the joint use agreement last week, and looks forward to working with the Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust to operate the garden and making it accessible to students and families from the 8+ schools in our neighborhood.
The real estate guys, who once talked about bulldozing the land for a parking lot are now excited to see this as a model development of a school- community joint use garden. Thank you to Lara Morrison, Lois Arkin, Kristen Benjamin, Dore Burry, and Irma Garcia who helped move the WHPLG to the next stage.
@ the Garden at Larchmont Charter School
Garden
In our third year, we added a credentialed teacher to create and implement a garden/science curriculum, loosely inspired by Alice Water’s The Edible Schoolyard. Garden studies at LCS are aligned with California State Science Standards. Children keep a garden journal to record data, impressions and reflections on garden activities. Children grow their own vegetables from seeds that they plant, while they learn about the life sciences. The 3rd grade is learning about composting and composting food waste in a donated composter. Our planting focus is on a “salad bar garden” based on a design from Heartbeet Gardening, a group run by graduates of a nearby school, The Marlborough School. The holistic curriculum includes eating healthy lunches and healthy snacks.
We have a Master Gardener who volunteers on a bi-weekly basis to assist with the garden class, along with parent volunteers from the garden committee to assist in the different activities. There are raised beds for every classroom in our school plan, which also includes a native garden, zoo garden, five senses garden, child-scaled sundial, weather station, butterfly reading garden and flower teepee.
LCS is currently writing a green school plan to include:
1) environmental awareness and support
2) edible garden
3) further the use of the garden integrated with science instruction
4) instructional landscaping
5) recycling program
6) service learning
7) utilization of non-polluting cleaning supplies and maintenance of site
