OUR PROJECTS
Lemonade Berry Learning Gardens
Plant Community LA recognizes the urgent need for redesigning the campuses of our schools to adapt to the increasing effects of climate change in our communities. Asphalt-laden campuses, depleted of shade and healthy air, are harsh places for our children to try to learn. Today, rising temperatures and water shortages are forcing us to rethink our infrastructure and how we live our lives.
A host of new models are available to regenerate healthy landscapes, ecosystems and environments for our students to learn, grow and play in. Parents leading the conversation in their communities are seeking guidance and expertise to implement these changes, and Plant Community LA has been honored to partner with local schools and PTAs on a number of projects in which we work with the students, parents, teachers, and administrators to design, grow, and maintain educational native plant gardens.
Hamilton Elementary
“Grow a Rainbow Garden”
The PTA of Hamilton Elementary reached out to us looking for help and advice with potential garden projects at the school. After touring the campus with parents and administrators, we identified an appropriate location for a pilot project. Located on a busy intersection on Del Mar Blvd. in Pasadena, an unsightly chain link fence separates the school’s playground from the street. An area had been left uncovered by asphalt just inside the school. The parents and principal lamented the lack of privacy and greenery.
We engaged students, faculty, and PTA volunteers in every stage of implementation—from soil preparation to planting and mulching—ensuring the project was a participatory and educational experience.
First, we provided a design for a pollinator garden that included a large hugel and swale, tall evergreen shrubs along the fence line that would quickly grow and provide privacy. The Catalina Island Morning Glory was planted to weave itself through the chain link. The garden also features stunning drought-tolerant flowering perennials and shrubs like multiple varieties of native Buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.), Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), aromatic Sages (Salvia spp.), and the ever-blooming Bladderpod (Peritoma arborea), which provides striking yellow flowers throughout the year.
Don Benito Elementary Pollinator Garden
The 2nd Grade Teacher at Don Benito Elementary asked for our help creating a privacy screen between her classroom’s patio and the traffic on the street above it, so we jumped into action and donated some local Coastal Morning Glory, which establishes quickly even in the summer months, and despite being planted in June, was already crawling up the fence line by the time students returned in August. We also designed a pollinator garden for a planter that was previously sitting empty.
In October, the teachers and students with neighboring classrooms requested additional plants for their own areas. We have since provided 6 additional native Morning glory vines to provide additional privacy, greenery, flowers, and habitat for local pollinators.
