FoodSecurity

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ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE-MAKERS

Westchester (Los Angeles)

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Food and Gardens

The Environmental Change-Makers are very active in promoting food and gardening. In part, because food really is the way to people's hearts. But for more sobering and serious reasons as well.
Why You need Edible Landscaping Why Victory Gardens? (doc) What Will We Eat When the Oil Runs Out? (doc) The sobering stuff: The 2010 Food Crisis / peak phosphorus / demographic crisis in farming / climate change impacts on Calif agriculture / peak oil and more

Being a solutions-oriented group, we're rolling up our sleeves and getting down to work. While building the Community Garden at Holy Nativity and all its season-by-season expansions, we gained a lot of attention. Many other organizations have sought us out for education, for inspiration, and for assistance in how to get started growing similar gardens in their neighborhoods. Here are a few of our ongoing projects.

Jump to: Gardens we are nurturing Garden classes in Westchester Community Garden resources

Gardens we are nurturing:

Community Garden at Holy Nativity		Emerson Avenue Community Garden (at Orville Wright Middle School)		Community Garden at Westchester Park (on hold)


		group purchases of bareroot fruit trees, rainwater barrels
Harvest Westchester local fruit harvesting program		(will repeat in Fall 2011)		new garden outreach program (coming soon)


Community Garden Resources
“Community Garden Start Up Guide” from University of California Extension CANH South Australia Excellent page with links to very practical tips about design, security worries, vandalism, etc with an orientation toward growing community Edible Landscaping resources for Los Angeles All our favorite books and resources on layout, Permaculture, container gardening, vegetable selection, and much more
Community Garden books for Children The Garden of Happiness, by Erika Tamar. A heart-warming and colorful tribute to the pride and hope found in multi-cultural neighborhoods all over New York City. The Garden in the City, by Gerda Muller The children share the many seasonal delights a garden offers, as well as the hard work and occasional disappointments experienced by any gardener. City Green, by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan There is a garbage-filled, vacant lot on the street where Marcy lives. Instead of growing flowers in coffee cans like they usually do each spring, she and her friend Miss Rosa decide to plant a garden there. Two Little Gardeners, by Margaret Wise Brown Compost Critters, by Bianca Lavies A reminder (for all ages) of how ALIVE organic garden soil really is. Community Garden books for Teens Grow: A Novel in Verse, by Juanita Havill. When Berneetha decides to create a community garden on a vacant lot, twelve-year-old Kate Sibley’s just got to help make that dream a reality. Seedfolks, by Paul Fleischman. a story of a blighted neighborhood transformed when a young girl plants a few lima beans in an abandoned lot.