Lopez School Garden

This was a super inspirational morning at Lopez Elementary in Pomona on Saturday, December 14th. 

Over 150 students and parents putting in work to clear a two-acre vacant lot next to the school; pulling out rocks, tearing out weeds, and flattening with shovels and rakes.  Young people running around with pitchforks and wheelbarrows, throwing rocks in piles, and no one got hurt!  These parents know what they are doing, and their children know how to work!!

The garden will include a section for parents to garden, so the students will be able to see their adult role models caring for this beautiful space.  It will be an oasis in a sea of chain link fences.  The garden already boasts three avocado trees and soon will include an orchard, a vineyard, and, of course, a centrally located compost pile.

The Lopez Elementary community is modeling a regenerative, community-based future!! 

This is the first graders getting ready to seed a large meadow with wildflowers.

New beginnings!! And there's always more work to do in the garden...

Aquaponic vs. Hydroponic vs. Soil

This is an experiment at the Lyle Center comparing an aquaponic system (tilapia in the water tanks, whose poop fertilizes the vegetable plants), hydroponic system (using only water and complete fertilizer), and good old-fashioned plants growing in the dirt fertilized with compost.  A few days in to the project, the soil seems to be winning...

Stay tuned!

Juan's going to make a drum out of this huge gourd!!

Greenhouse!

Here's the new greenhouse we built at the Lyle Center!  We are planning on demonstrating the increase of efficiency of growing vegetables using hydroponics as opposed to growing in soil, a good fit for growing in the city.