Last Saturday we held a workday to build one of the winning school garden designs from our project Design a School Garden with LAUSD (and We'll Build It). With cooperation from LAUSD's Sustainable Schoolyards group, we were able to build two Four Square Gardens, designed by Jill Desimini, at the 28th Street Elementary School in downtown Los Angeles. More than 100 volunteers, parents, and students spent LAUSD's first annual Martin Luther King day of service hammering together raised beds, painting storage bins bright orange and yellow, refreshing and replanting planters, and picking up every piece of trash on the school's property. Now the school is bright and clean, and the garden is ready to be planted by the students.
Thanks to Starbucks for donating coffee, Homegirl Cafe for breakfast, Mayor Villaraigosa's office for morning snacks and lunch (including a delicious bison sandwich by Large Marge Sustainables), DCM for water, and Home Depot for plants and soil. And we never could have made it through the day if it wasn't for our DJs, Bennett Schimd, Sara T. from Indie 103, and Nicole Cifani. And finally, a huge thanks to L.A. Conservation Corps, Tracy Bartley, Teresa Dahl, Astrid Diehl from Mia Lehrer + Associates, and Mud Baron, who helped make this workday, and this garden, a reality. Check out the photos above and stay tuned for the next garden workday—we have four more designs to build!

















Image artifacts (diffraction spikes and vertical streaks) appearing in a CCD image of a major solar flare due to the excess incident radiation

Ladder leads out of darkness.Photo credit
Woman's reflection in shadow.Photo credit
Young woman frazzled.Photo credit 
A woman looks out on the waterCanva
A couple sits in uncomfortable silenceCanva
Gif of woman saying "I won't be bound to any man." via
Woman working late at nightCanva
Gif of woman saying "Happy. Independent. Feminine." via 
Yonaguni Monument, as seen from the south of the formation. 
