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Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden- Teacher Workshop at Descano Gardens

The workshop is sponsored and presented by University of California Cooperative Extension Common Ground Garden Program. Link to materials for conducting the workshop. The workshops take place at different locations throughout the city, teachers can contact UC Extension's Common Ground Garden Program Manager, Yvonne Savio.

I urge teachers who want to start a school garden to attend as many workshops and meetings as possible before even breaking ground for a school garden. And to write down a detailed strategic plan that includes funding, resource gathering, support, and so on. Poor planning can easily result in a tremendous waste of resources, not just time and money, but a waste of natural resources.

During the workshop it was suggested by several people, myself included, that starting with container gardening is a good idea.

The Harvest Garden at Descanso is a gorgeous example of a well-designed and efficient teaching garden. Each of the raised bed gardens represents a different local school. Raised beds are basically bottemless containers.

Recommended reading for public relations practitioners

"Who governs in an interconnected world?"
Download or purchase a copy at Demos "The think tank for everyday Democracy". All of their publications are available for free download in PDF format.

Networks are the most important organisational form of our time, but are often mis-used and misunderstood. In this collection of essays, leading thinkers show how we can unlock their full potential.

From the Internet to Al Qaeda, the teetering electricity grid to old school ties, we live in a world of networks. A profoundly disruptive shift has occurred in our societies, making networks the most important organisational form of our time and reshaping the activities of families, governments and businesses.

Our public response to these changes has so far been partial and fragmented. Although social, political and technological networks hold our modern world together, we lack the language to apply them to solving our common problems.

But if we can learn more accurately to understand the patterns and impacts of networks, we can begin to tap their full potential for organisation and decision-making, and to make possible new forms of coordination and collective action.

In this collection of essays, Demos seeks to address that challenge. Drawing on some of the world's leading thinkers on networks across a range of disciplines, we seek to distil the most important lessons from the study of networks and address some of the critical questions that our 'network society' presents: from the distribution of power and inequality to the future of civic participation and the impact of new technologies.

Embracing this network logic will help us to change not just our tools of intervention, but our ways of seeing the world.

Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography

The Myth of Continents sheds new light on how our metageographical assumptions grew out of cultural concepts: how the first continental divisions developed from classical times; how the Urals became the division between the so-called continents of Europe and Asia; how countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan recently shifted macroregions in the general consciousness.

About The Authors

Martin W. Lewis is Associate Research Professor of Geography, Duke University, and author of Wagering the Land: Ritual, Capital, and Environmental Degradation in the Cordillera of Northern Luzon, 1900-1986 (California, 1992) and Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Radical Environmentalism (1994). Kären E. Wigen is Associate Professor of History, Duke University, and author of The Making of a Japanese Periphery, 1750-1920 (California, 1995).

Resisting the Temptation of Protocol Journalism: How Public Relations Can Build Media Capacity

There has been growing interest in the ways in which the public relations field can contribute to democratization and civil society. Some scholars see enormous potential for public relations and the information subsidy to help get important social issues on the public agenda (Taylor, 2000, Taylor & Doerfel, 2005). Other scholars have critiqued the practice of public relations in newly formed nations as a form of hegemony that privleges Western ideas, values, and standards of practice (Dutte-Bergman, 2005). The purpose of this paper is to explore how public relations can contribute to civil society development.

Taylor, Maureen. and Kent, Michael. "Resisting the Temptation of Protocol Journalism: How Public Relations Can Build Media Capacity" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, TBA, San Francisco, CA, May 23, 2007 Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2008-06-26 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p171785_index.html>

Net-Map: Goal Oriented Strategic Planning

Net Map

Tool kit tutorial

Net-Map is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes (Net-Map Brochure: 679 KB). By creating Influence Network Maps, individuals and groups can clarify their own view of a situation, foster discussion, and develop a strategic approach to their networking activities. More specifically, Net-Map helps players to determine

• what actors are involved in a given network,
• how they are linked,
• how influential they are, and
• what their goals are.

Determining linkages, levels of influence, and goals allows users to be more strategic about how they act in these complex situations. It helps users to answer questions such as: Do you need to strengthen the links to an influential potential supporter (high influence, same goals)? Do you have to be aware of an influential actor who doesn’t share your goals? Can increased networking help empower your dis-empowered beneficiaries?

The tool is low-tech and low-cost and can be used when working with rural community members with low formal education as well as with policy makers or international development actors.

My work involves dealing with lots of different infrastructures and bureaucracies at the micro and macro levels. I also facilitate connecting various infrastructures. Net-map is precisely what I process in my head as soon as I'm confronted with a new task, visualize a goal, enter a room of strangers for a meeting, planning press kits, strategic plans and so on.

Just the other day I was talking to a group of friends about my work and without knowing it I was explaining net-map.  Since my work is as a facilitator of processes, events and change in several fields I interact with lots of players and trajectories. I like to think of them as characters (or actors) and narrative arcs it helps me with brainstorming and keeps me sane. When groups of narrative arcs comes together I feel like a great novel has been written.

Even though I have the innate ability to think in terms of net maps and keep those stored in my head. I'm still planning on utilizing net map. I think that when it all feels a bit surreal to me, I can look at it for a reality check.

You can make a net map with very basic arts and crafts materials using the tutorial or download VisuaLyzer™.

"Interactive tool for entering, visualizing and analyzing social network data. Create nodes and links directly in VisuaLyzer, or import data from Edgelist/Edgearray, Excel or GraphML formats."

Art Of Being Tuareg and Desertification

I first learned about desertification from a human point of view when I wrote a food lecture for UCLA Fowler Museum's exhibition, "The Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World".

I used couscous (semolina pasta) as a tool to discuss trans-saharan trade and the former Tuareg Empire. I'm planning on rewriting the lecture into a paper or article for submission. I'll post a link when that happens.

Tuareg are  Berber* people of Northwest Africa living mostly in Niger, Algeria, Libya, Mali, and Burkina Faso

Mohamed Ag Ewangaye, Art expert and historian, contributor to the Expo, chapter in the book "The Art of Being Tuareg" and  Sidi Amar Ag Taoua (Sahara Expedition tours in Niger ) are Tuaregs from Niger. In the center is Farid Zadi, Algerian Shawiya (Chaoui) Berber, family heritage also includes Kabyle, Sahelian and Saharan Berbers)**.

The men who are 3rd, 5th and 6th from the right are musicians from the TIDAWT of Niger***.

*Berbers or Imazighen "Free Men", are the first peoples of Northwest Africa. Famous Berbers include The Carthaginian General Hannibal, Saint Augustine of Hippo and the Franco-Algerian soccer player Zinedine Zidane.

**Identity is also regional in Northwest Africa. It's important to not impose external notions of "ethnicity", culture is contextual not genetic.

***Saudi Aramco World, Muslim Roots, U.S. Blues, interesting article about the possible Islamic roots of American Blues.

Much of California is a Desert

 

Close up shots of the school garden at Stonehurst bear remarkable resemblance to photos of school gardens and family gardens in Tindouf, Algeria. Alice, Mr Bohland and I talked about reciprocal learning benefits between students in California and Northwest Africa.

Standing on a sauna bed of mulch in Sunland, surrounded by dry parcels of land and shrinking plants for a brief moment our little patch of Los Angeles was transported to Africa! Well, it wasn't quite like that. But the specter of California drought cloaked every thought we had about efficient use of resources and conservation.

Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed two "water czars", one in charge of conservation efforts and the other of transferring water. When we flush a toilet, it's easy to forget that a lot of water in California is imported.  Much of our state is a desert and a great deal of the rest are dry lands. Our modern water delivery infrastructure acts as a daily foil in our efforts to conserve water. It's so easy to turn on the tap and forget that the source isn't infinite, that it's more than just pipes.

In the small sense of the word, "czar" can refer to someone in charge of a special activity. Mr. Bohland can be called "soil science czar" at Stonehurst and Alice a "garden czar". He and Alice mentioned terracottem several times as we brainstormed about Project Stonehurst: Soil Science. Alice had read about terracottem on my blog and Dr. Van Cottem's Desertification blog, she  was interested in using it for it's water stocking capabilities.

Mr. Bohland and Alice's concerns are shared by everyone at the California School Garden Network I spoke to,  they're all diligent about efficiency and conservation. We're not just thinking about school gardens here.

California is the largest agricultural state in the United States, we're one of the top ten economies of the world and we're the world's twelfth largest source of carbon dioxide. What happens here has national and international consequences.

California also tends to be a trend setting state in everything from education, technology to legislation. In 2006, we passed the Nation's Toughest Global Warming Bill (Union of Concerned Scientists, UCS).

"With this groundbreaking legislation, California politicians have come together to lead the nation in taking action on global warming," said Dan Kalb, California Policy Coordinator for UCS. "This bill is a valuable template for other states and the federal government."

Clean California Overview from UCS , "California's population size, the strength and diversity of its economy, and its progressive history on environmental issues place it in an ideal leadership position on the issues of global warming and air quality."

Now, California is tackling drought and climate change at the local and state levels.

Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa unveiled a 20 year water plan, “This plan makes a basic promise to our kids: We are going to recycle and conserve enough water to meet 100% of new demand.” His "Green L.A." plan calls for structural and behavioral changes; and literally "greening" key points throughout Los Angeles, "unpaving paradise" includes working with schools to build more parks in their communities.

Working with school gardens through The California Garden Network is a great way to compliment an existing infrastructure. Recycling and water conservation can be taught experientially and children have little green zones right in their schools. Or is that too elegant of a solution and not a radical enough structural change for a bold bullet point? 

Mayor Villaraigosa worked with Los Angeles Community Garden Council to build a community garden in South Los Angeles. He could also work with another existing infrastructure,
University of California Agricultural Resources and Natural Resources, Common Ground Garden Program with the added benefit that they're also connected to the California School Garden Network with regional chapters working with local representatives. They're also an existing link to community gardens in terms of education and outreach.

Governor Schwarzenegger proclaimed drought earlier this month and called for immediate action to conserve water. There isn't anything immediately apparent in the Governor's plan  specifically about drip irrigation, water retaining mulch, or water stocking soil conditioners; although they could be implemented under one or more of the bullet points.

Mayor Villaraigosa is considered a political trailblazer on many issues, he's a Californian after all. He also made a promise to our kids for a greener Los Angeles. He could blaze a trail right to soil science czar Mr. Bohland and garden czar Alice, educators who are already conducting research and field work at the micro level of day to day contact with children, where conservation education and efforts can have the biggest impact.

Governor Schwarzenegger's proclamation of drought was an "urgent call"  for a $12 billion bond proposal for radical structural changes and upgrades to California's water infrastructure; more canals, more reservoirs, and more water transferring. So far, recycling and conservation efforts are attached like accessories, a pair of clip-on earrings.

Recycling is nice, but we can also use better materials from the start. The current generation of "eco" packaging commonly uses food crops such as corn and potato starch as components of biodegradable resins.

Eco is such a friendly word, "organic" has a similar halo effect, what's they're not to love? But there's no post-petroleum magic green bullet nor is there a meta-answer to growing plants or anything else for that matter.

Figuring out different ways of consuming, throwing away and extending the life of disposables are good things. We have to start somewhere and there's no need to throw out the good in search of the perfect.

New technologies in biodegradables and biofuels (made from non food crops), convenient and efficient collection of recyclables, transportation, processing, fabricating new products involves a long chain of events and players.

On an individual level each of us can ask, "why so many containers?".  I'm not proposing a crash diet from consumerism, just less of it. There was a time in America when we weren't attached to water bottles like clip on pacifiers, we drank water from fountains and water coolers. Taking a few steps backwards can help us move forward with larger conservation goals.

At the school community level there are people like Mr. Bohland and Alice, czars in the small sense of the word; who are trying to conserve resources, using them more efficiently, and fulfilling promises to our kids, instead of just making them.

 

Connecting Resource Infrastructures: Project Stonehurst

Project Stonehurst is the brainchild of Mr. Bohland at Stonehurst Elementary. He connects to The California School Garden Network through Alice Debbaudt, a garden specialist for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Garden Specialists visit schools to share their expertise and experience. They also manage resources: redistributing things like seeds, seedlings, soil and mulch to other schools.

I met Alice when I attended a California School Garden meeting. I offered seedlings and we exchanged contact information. As part of Alice's professional and personal interests, she wants to involve communities in school gardens. The local community of residents, the school community of parents, teachers and students, and the educational community of schools.

Alice, Mr. Bohland and the California School Garden Network want children to grow with the garden program. The benefits of experiential learning are well documented.

How can a school garden provide a continuum for experiential learning? Maintaining it at the same school as children progress through the grades is one thing. Connecting local elementary feeder schools to Mount Gleason Middle School is a more complicated undertaking, one that can have bureaucratic repercussions that are out of scale with the simple things that need to be done.  That's one reason Alice was instrumental in creating Farming's Future, she wants children to grow with gardens, to reap as many experiential learning benefits as they can from them. Farming's Future was created to supplement existing programs, to fill in gaps within and between infrastructures.

What exactly is this experiential learning I keep talking about? It's learning by doing, rather than memorization or theory. As soon as I told Mr Bohland about World Food Corps Seedbank I could see that he was thinking about it and processing it from an educator's point of view. He had that look in his eyes of shuffling and sorting, he immediately came up with a list of subjects and disciplines that WFCS could have relevance for, "art, social sciences, history, economics, geography" and so on. Students could transfer knowledge gained through hands-on learning to other subjects and to real life.

Mr Bohland, Alice and I had a brainstorming session. These are my notes from the session, ideas we threw around and tried to help each other resolve. I'm sharing these notes as an open source of information on how things develop, how things work, they are not official statements or official plans of action. My primary interest for this blog is to share information with my professional network. It saves me a lot of time playing catch up when we meet and it's a way of sharing ideas with them and framing information into narratives. It really is not a general interest blog.

Mr. Bohland's school garden is used as an experimental lab for testing seeds and plants. It's also a seedling prep and dispatch point. He has more resources than most school gardens and he wants them to be used efficiently. We know that it's Alice's job to facilitate communication and resource sharing between schools; they work together on a schedule.

There's a big pile of soil in front of Mr. Bohland's classroom, "Project Stonehurst" is born. It will be used as a teaching tool for soil science. Alice will also use extra soil to experiment with different mixtures for a variety of plants for applications at different school gardens.

As Mr. Bohland, Alice and summed up our brainstorming session it was obvious to all of us that a program  that serves as a nexus for humanitarian aid, greening of degraded land, furthering scientific research and education through friendship has enormous pedagogical benefits.

I'm finding that such a program can be so elegantly nested into existing educational objectives that quite a bit of my work as a coordinator is collaborative and feels intuitive.

 

Connecting Professional Infrastructures

I know a lot of chefs and culinary students. Obviously, cooks and chefs handle a lot more food than the average home cook. This club is for professional culinary schools, occupational or technical schools with culinary programs, hospitality management departments at Universities, Chef Associations, etc..

I'll keep you updated about how it grows.

Culinarians for World Food Corps Seedbank (WFCS) are dedicated to reducing waste in the food industry by saving seeds.

Local chapters of WFCS meet bimonthly to collect seeds from members who are culinary school students, line cooks and chefs.

We support the environment by saving water, composting, recycling and implementing green technologies in food preparation and distribution.

We support alleviating hunger and malnutrition by volunteering our services and skills for WFCS activities and fundraisers.

Every year on June 17^th, World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought we reflect on our activities during the past year and strive to do more.

"On this World Day, let us strive to address desertification and climate change in a synergetic fashion, as part of an integrated approach to achieving sustainable development for all."

- Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moo

Connecting Community Infrastructures

This morning I went to a Sri Lankan Buddhist temple in Pasadena to help prepare sandwiches for their "homeless feeding project". Volunteers meet on the third Sunday of each month to prepare sack lunches for distribution in downtown Los Angeles.

Compassion Project Los Angeles for contact information, address and calender. Temple members and volunteers also participate in aid programs for Sri Lanka. If you're interested in any of the temple's activities call Oliver Gamage at 818-231-2024.

The temple is in a converted suburban house on a quiet residential street near the 134, 210 and 110 junction. If you live in the area consider donating some fresh tomatoes, lettuce, sliced bread, etc or donate your time as a way of cultivating community goodwill.

The sack lunches are prepared in the temple basement, it takes about 2 hours. You don't have to be there the entire time, just drop in and help for an hour if you can. It's a small assembly line process, so if like doing this sort of thing, the repetition can be very relaxing. The atmosphere is familial and congenial, all are welcomed, so don't be afraid or shy about knocking on the door to offer help.

They also have a "Recycle for Charity" program, simply drop off your cans and bottles at the temple. Temple members take the recyclables to a center and use the money to buy books and supplies for poor children in Sri Lanka.

I know that school gardens in Los Angeles and surrounding areas grow fruits and vegetables. I think it's a nice idea to have children grow food for the purpose of helping to alleviate hunger and malnutrition in their own communities. The next time I meet with someone from a local school garden program I'll ask about it.

I've heard of school gardens that want to participate in food aid programs, but that can entail additional work that they're not prepared for. So, why not piggyback with another organization that is set up to do another aspect of the production and distribution chain?

I can introduce these ideas but practically speaking it takes interested parties who are already involved with different infrastructures to interact with each other.

Part of my job is having an extensive network and connecting infrastructures. At any point in the chain I will hear, "now that we have this, what do we do with it?" or "we need this, where do we get it?" So I keep a list in my head, on my blog, my notebook and my cellphone.

In a future posts I'll discuss a technology transfer conference in Algeria, drought tolerant farming and linking school gardens in California with school gardens in North Africa. Obviously, this is a big example of connecting infrastructures.

But Susan, We Have Problems at Home Too!

Sure, there are problems at home too, no matter where home is. If you're reading this post that means you are connected to the internet. Do an online search for local programs, many have very simple drop-in volunteer programs, others need infrastructure building assistance.

Generally, I'm interested in infrastructure building aid programs that incorporate grassroots civic action and education. I was raised with the Korean idea that there is an obligation to feed the hungry for the simple purpose of alleviating suffering. Obviously, this is not an exclusively Korean notion.  But the local take on it is probably Buddhist in origin and every Korean my age (38) grew up hearing about widespread starvation during the Korean war. So, for my generation the adage was framed within the context of a hungry person knocking at your door for food and you had to give the person something to eat, even if all you have is a morsel.

So, this morning someone knocked on my door, actually I received an email from Tarek Hobballah of Maghreb Alliance about Compassion Project Los Angeles . Once a month Compassion Project Los Angeles prepares sack lunches and distributes them to homeless people in Downtown Skid Row. The food is prepared at a Buddhist Temple in Pasadena, California. You can volunteer to prepare food, serve it or donate food and packaging supplies. As little or as much as you can do. I'll be there this Sunday morning to help prepare food.