A Garden Grows in Venice
The Learning Garden Story: Putting the Pieces
Together
By Emily
Snider
The story of The Learning
Garden, from its vision and inception to the continual progress being made,
demonstrates a unique collaboration and convergence of resources in
today’s Southern California urban environment.
The garden is located in Venice, CA on
approximately 60,000 square feet of the Venice High School Campus—a plot
of land once envisioned as an operating nursery and then later neglected due to
funding shortages. Though parts of the land have been used for high school
horticulture classes more recently, the years of abandonment and
underutilization of the space essentially left a large eyesore for the
community.
Enter Julie Mann, local
homeopath and mother of two Venice High students. After hearing a lecture in
2001 by acupuncturist, herbalist and author David Crow on creating grassroots
natural medicinal systems, she sought approval from the high school to use the
land for an educational organic medicine and food
garden.
Crow presented the idea to
students and the board at Yo San University for Traditional Chinese Medicine who
were eager to start their own Chinese medicinal herb garden. The proximity (a
few blocks away) captured Yo San’s interest and The Learning Garden was on
its way to becoming a reality.
But
creating a garden, particularly a collaborative garden, is a complex process.
The group must not only have an idea of what they want to plant, but where and
how—they must agree on the principles governing the design and the design
itself.
Now enter Stephen Gates, a
young landscape designer studied in Permaculture, environmental ethics and earth
building as taught by Nader Kahlili at the Cal-Earth Institute in Hesperia,
California. Based on permaculture and sustainability principles, Gates’
primary concern when designing for this urban environment was to use as many
on-site materials as possible for construction while establishing a mode of
plant production requiring minimal natural resources.
After three design proposals in the
summer of 2001, the involved parties agreed on the site plan that includes
raised beds made out of broken concrete, a sunken classroom, a pond and
waterfall, an amphitheater, student farm plots, a raised platform for tai-chi,
and a food forest around the perimeter. The existing greenhouse, lath house and
tool shed remain in the design scheme and will eventually be refurbished.
Following a large community-based
garden clean-up day in November, 2001 and a ground breaking ceremony in March,
2002, grant money allowed for work to begin.
Over the past year the pond and
waterfall have been renovated and the sunken classroom, raised beds and Tai Chi
platform have been built by young artisans and volunteers from Venice High
School, Yo San University and the community. Using seeds donated by High Falls
gardens in New York, Yo San students have been germinating important Chinese
medicinals and transplanting them to the raised beds. Yo San University Botany
and Herbology classes have been held in the sunken classroom and weekly Tai Chi
is practiced on the raised
platform.
While the garden exudes a
general sense of tranquility, being situated on the corner of two busy
streets—Walgrove Ave. and Venice Blvd., has made filtering noise and car
exhaust a priority for the second phase of work. An already existing chainlink
fence around the perimeter will soon become a show of honeysuckle, passion
fruit, codonopsis, wild yams and sweet peas.
In addition to thousands of flowers,
vegetables and herbs, Garden Master and Yo San University Botany Professor David
King has overseen the planting of hundreds of fragrant sweat peas around the
perimeter in time for The Learning Garden May Day Event to be held on Saturday,
May 3rd from 10am-4pm in celebration of spring. Live music, Tai Chi
demonstrations, food, plants, gardening and Traditional Chinese Medicine books
will abound.
The Learning Garden is a
project with multiple layers and a variety of textures, but in the end, like
anything good, it is simple—requiring only a willingness to recognize what
we have available and put the pieces together.
If you are interested in making a
donation, volunteering your time or renting The Learning Garden space for your
events, please contact David King at 310-722-3656.
Emily Snider is a student
at Yo San University and serves as the student volunteer coordinator for The
Learning Garden.
Posted: Thu - May 1, 2003 at 05:45 PM