to the inaugural edition of the Calm-Post, the newsletter of the Walgrove Green Garden!

Our first edition coincides with the exciting news that Walgrove Elementary School has been certified an official wildlife habitat from the National Wildlife Federation. Walgrove Elementary Schools grounds have everything required for this important certification: a beautiful tree canopy that provides shelter and homes for wildlife families, a green garden that includes composting and a steady water supply, and plants that provide for food and shelter for wildlife. A beautiful plaque is ready to hang, and a terrific magazine about wildlife habitats is available in the library. Why are wildlife habitats, especially in our urban areas, so essential? How can we maintain our welcome place for birds, bugs and all living things? How can YOU create a wildlife habitat in YOUR home? Read all about it at: http://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/OutdoorActivities/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx

Welcome

Whats all the stink about?

Several school kids running by the green garden were heard yelling, the garden smells awful! just a few days agobut luckily that will soon change to the sweet fragrance of budding plants like lavender and wildflowers. With the addition of compost, our raised beds are ready for planting.

This week Walgrove garden wizard Michael Stenger and parent Todd Kuwata loaded up Michaels truck with a full load of hot, stinky, steaming organic compost, courtesy of our local treasure, community garden Ocean View Farms. The compost was mixed in with the soil 6 to 12 deep in the raised beds. Walgroves garden is organic, raising vegetables and plants by skipping out on synthetic chemical fertilizers or pesticides and using natures methods to grow and harvest plants! Compost is simply broken down organic matter that returns nutrition to plants by adding nutrients to the soil. The organic material in the earth is then consumed by living organisms in the soiltheir waste products make the soil healthy. Compost also loosens soil for better water storage, and aerates the soilmeaning it is light and fluffyso the plant roots can thrive. Walgroves composting program is an important and integral part of our gardening cultureand a habit that can also be integrated at home. Do you know that just putting your fruit and vegetable scraps (nothing with fat!) in your green bin is composting? Youll reduce waste, trash, and your scraps will be turned into rich compost by the city of Los Angeles. Consider keeping a container by the sink to dispose of peelingsand just dump it in the green bin.

Its stinky work but someones gotta do it...

This Saturday, December 3rd is Community Day!

Please come starting at 9 a.m.
- it is important that we make a showing for each teacher and we are also doing up the walls in the library with graphics if you can help with that as well. If you can help for one hour or all three that would be great! Bring the kids and bring snacks. It's a great way to spend the day with the family and teach them to take care of OUR school, as we have very limited janitorial staff to really make Walgrove shine. Questions? Contact: Francine Nellis (francine.nellis@me.com). Please let me know if you are coming so we can make sure to have a good parent showing.

You can help clean up classrooms, organize for our teachers, work in the library or in the garden. Thanks, Lisa (Kate M's Mom) 310 422 7981

A fun trip to the LAUSD Monarch Way Station San Pedro Science Center Under Construction in Gus, my 5-year-old in Mr. Ziffs class, and I recently Walgroves K-Yard visited Mud Baronyes, thats his name-- and John
Zavalney at the San Pedro Science Facility. The first Saturday of every month is plug day and volunteers such as Gus and I from LAUSD gardens show up and are treated to a unique experience. In addition to the 3 plus acre garden and pomegranate orchard, there are also animals. Kinder"gardeners" in all K classes are beginning a new tradition. The Kinder kids and families will nurture and care for special plants that will eventually become a Way Station for Monarch Butterflies. Monarch Butterflies are very picky. They will only lay their eggs on Milkweed plants. The little baby caterpillars will only eat Milkweed plants. Already there are mature Milkweed plants in the big garden, whose leaves have been graced with a few eggs. A few mature Monarch Butterflies have also been seen delicately floating above the vegetables there. Each year as the plants in the K yard become bigger and more robust, more butterflies will build their homes there. And eventually the K-yard will become a living classroom in which our smallest kids can experience the cycle of the life in a beautiful dirty hands on kind of way. The kids have also planted vegetable gardens and have begun a worm compost project! Red wigglies love your garden compost, so if you are the kind to save green scraps, there is a home for them!

My son found out where bacon comes from and wasnt so sure he liked his discovery. In addition to Ophelia, the 500-pound pig, there are also goats, a Shetland pony and other barnyard animals. After our zoo tour we got back on task and our mission to pick up plugs of all varieties, from vegetables to flowers, for Walgrove and the 12 other gardens supplied by the distribution center at Mark Twain middle school. Master Gardner Marianne Brown oversees the garden at Mark Twain (and Walgrove and Venice High), an incredible gift to our community. Well profile Marianne in an upcoming edition of the Calm-Post. Mud is a character, to say the least! He is also a volunteer and is helping all of us in facilitating our gardening efforts. John and Mud should be applauded in their efforts to help children experience science and agriculture in this treasure trove of discovery. If you get the opportunity, its well worth a visit.

All Kinder families are welcome to care for the garden, as there is always weeding, raking, watering and general care http://4lakidsnews.blogspot.com/2008/07/san-pedro-sciand maintenance that needs to be done. Thanks to all the ence-center-faded-but-not.html parents and volunteers who have already helped! Please contact Clare or Martin for any questions or ideas. http://thegreenschoolhouseseries.wordpress.com/2011/03/ 10/san-pedro-science-center-on-track-to-be-future-green- Worm bin in-progress and a newly planted Milkweed in the K-Yard schoolhouse-series-site/

Corn-tribute

Calling all gardening enthusiasts! Please submit your garden-relevant articles to the Calm-Post. Let the community know about your garden successes and adventures, and how your child is participating. Kid articles welcome! Send your submissions to: ruthhandel1@mac.com

Some of the plants growing in our garden

Beets Broccoli Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Kale Lettuce Spinach Swiss Chard Onions Strawberries Radishes Dill Rosemary Thyme Sage Lavender Oregano Milkweed Wild flowers Mandarin Tree Tangerine Tree Strawberry Guava Tree Wisteria Vine Blackberries

The Gardening Committee:

Denise Bell Marianne Brown Clare Carey Julie Dair Ruth Handel Laura Groppe Martin Gueulette Emiko Kuwata Michael Stenger Melissa Lavabre

STOP THE PRESS! Its official! We will be on the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase 2012 tour! More about this in the next issue...