The story of The Learning Garden demonstrates a unique
collaboration and convergence of resources in today's
Southern California urban environment.
The garden is located in Venice, California on the campus of
Venice High School. Though parts of the land are used for
high school horticulture classes, a majority of the 1.4 acre
plot was neglected and underutilized, leaving a large
eyesore in the community. Until one parent decided it was
time for a change.
Julie Mann, local homeopath and mother of two Venice High students, was inspired to cultivate
  the land after hearing a lecture on grass-roots medicinal systems. The lecture was given by fellow
  Venice resident, David Crow, an author, acupuncturist, and herbalist. Mann asked if he would
  like to collaborate on an educational, organic medicine garden at Venice High. Crow said yes.
  And with the approval of school principal, Jan Davis, the vision for the garden began to take
  shape.
   
  Crow then went to nearby Yo San University for Traditional Chinese Medicine and presented the
  idea of further collaboration to the students and board. Eager to start their own medicinal herb
  garden, they welcomed the project with enthusiasm.
   
  Plans For Sustainability
   
 

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, they must also agree on design principles and the
  design itself.
 

 

Stephen Gates, a young landscape designer took an interest in the project. Gates studied Permaculture,

  environmental ethics and earth building with Nader Kahlili at the Cal-Earth Institute in Hesperia,
  California. At The Learning Garden, Gates was able to put these principles to work. In the design,
  he used as many on-site construction materials as possible and established a mode of plant
  production that required minimal natural resources.
   
 

After three design proposals in the summer of 2001, a site plan was agreed upon. The plan
  included 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 remained in the design scheme
  and, eventually, will 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.
   
  Healthy From the Ground Up
   
 
In the initial phase, volunteer work crews cleared
the southwest corner of the garden and carved
a sunken classroom (12 ft. diameter, 4 ft. deep)
into the ground.
 
In the style of Kahlili's earth architecture, the dug-up
earth was used to fill polypropylene tube bags to form
the classroom seat and stairs. Barbed wire was placed
between layers of bag for tensile strength and the
  completed structure coated in lime-based finish plaster. The steps and floor were then paved with
  purple and jade-colored river rock. A bamboo shade structure will eventually complete the
  classroom and accommodate outdoor botany, herbology, nutritional science and community
  classes.
   
  The in-ground classroom provides a cooler space for learning in Southern California's desert
  climate. Located at the lowest point in the garden, it also serves as the main drainage point
  in heavy rains. Six inches of gravel cover the floor. In the center of the floor is a 4 ft. drainage
  hole filled with gravel to allow water to percolate.
   
  Poor drainage is a significant challenge throughout the garden and is factored into all aspects
  of the design. There is approximately 20 feet of compacted clay before hitting ground water.
  To solve this problem, and to deal with the rampant Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon),
  raised beds were necessary for growing medicinal herbs. An added benefit is that raised beds
  provide homes for insect-eating lizards.
   
  The beds were constructed by hard working volunteers out of 'urbanite' (broken concrete)
  salvaged from other areas of the garden or donated by local renovation projects. The beds
  surround the sunken classroom and are built so that the herbs are at eye level when seated.
  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.
  These plants include Astragalus (Huang Qi), Radix Platycodonis (Jie Geng), Herba Taraxaci
  (Pu Gong Ying), Fructus Lycii (Gou Qi Zi), Artemisia Annua (Qing Hao), Herba Dianthi
  (Qu Mai), Herba Equiseti Hiemalis (Mu Zei), and Flos Chrysanthemi (Ju Hua) among many
  others.
   
  Because of the impoverishing effects of roto-tilling the soil-compacted clay leached of all its
  nutrients requiring fertilizer in the future-The Learning Garden is primarily employing 'no-till'
  farming techniques such as sheet mulching. Cover crops are also being planted in the beds
  (clover and rye) to fix the soil with nitrogen and to protect it from sun sterilization.
   
 
Learning in Tranquility
 
In the southeast corner of the garden, a fully renovated pond with
goldfish, gambusia, water snails and a waterfall creates a tranquil
entryway. The water flows out of a river rock wall and cascades
down a series of ledges planted with medicinal greenery including
lotus, watercress, nutgrass and wild ginger.
   
  Between the pond and the raised bed/classrooms, a barbeque patio has been replaced with a
  platform for Tai Chi and Chi Gong classes and other social and educational activities. The platform
  is approximately 22'x 40.' The perimeter is lined with ' earth-bags,' or sacks filled with rubble
  from the old pond bottom, remaining earth from the sunken classroom, and a 2" layer of sand
  to allow for good drainage. The surface is paved with smooth stone pavers, many engraved with
  donor names.
   
  The garden exudes tranquility. But the location, a busy intersection on a main boulevard, makes
  filtering noise and car exhaust a priority for Phase II of the work. An existing perimeter fence of
  chainlink will soon become a show of honeysuckle, passion fruit, codonopsis, and wild yams.
  A few feet inside the fence (where oleanders once grew) a food forest will be planted. In addition
  to a variety of exotic medicinal trees, an abundance of peaches, apples, pomegranates, Chinese
  dates, walnuts, almonds and plums will provide healthy snacks for hungry students and visitors.
   
  Education & Collaboration
   
  Partial funding for the forest comes from the LEAF Grant (Linking Education, Activity and Food)
  coordinated by Jackie Domac, Chair of the Venice High School Health Department. The grant
  addresses escalating problems with obesity rates in children and the surge in early onset diabetes.
  Under the grant, pilot school sites, like Venice High, are developing and implementing
  coordinated school nutrition and physical activity policies and programs. (For details of the
  LEAF Grant program please visit www.nojunkfood.org) The Learning Garden plays an important
  role, providing many opportunities for greater understanding of the connections between food,
  health, and physical activity.
   
  Horticulture classes provide similar opportunities. Diane Pollock, a gardener and teacher has kept
  Venice High's horticulture program alive and vital for the past seven years. Now she uses the
  interior farm plots to help students grow a spectacular array of vegetables, herbs, berries, and
  flowers.
   
  The garden gates are kept open to the community with the daily assistance of Garden Master
  and Yo San University Botany Lecturer David King. King oversees the seasonal plantings
  throughout the garden, a beautiful variety and abundance of flowers, vegetables and herbs.
   
 
The Learning Garden has multiple layers and a variety of textures,
but in the end, it is simple-requiring only a willingness to recognize
what we have available, putting the pieces together and helping
the garden grow.
 
Phone: 310-722-3656