Spring Garden News from our Chinatown Living Library & Think Park

By Celine Laubsch, Chinatown A.L.L. Instructor

At last, sunny days are here! Birds are singing, bees are buzzing, and the flowers are bursting with color! Our gardens are looking lush and green, thanks to all the hard work that our students have been doing all fall and spring. Students have been busy learning about sprouting seeds, making healthy soil, laying stepping stones, building fences, painting signs, watering, drawing, and appreciating our garden friends- the earthworms, ladybugs, roly poly bugs and butterflies.

We have a wonderful new accomplishment to celebrate! We are now able to harvest rainwater to use in the gardens during the dry months with our new Rainwater Collection System. The newly planted Riparian California native plant zone (for water loving plants) drinks some of the water harvested, and the rest is stored in a new Redwood Bench in the GJL lower yard. On the wall is a beautiful mural of the blue sky that explains the Rainwater Harvesting Demonstrations in poetic and mathematical prose in three languages (Chinese, Spanish, and English)!

As summer approaches, students have been making lemonade with fresh mint from the garden, and enjoying colorful garden salads of lettuces, mustard greens, fava greens and beans, and edible flowers like calendula, roses, and nasturtiums.

We are watching the first mulberries and baby fruits appear in the fruit orchard, the purple cabbage growing fat, and busily planting lots of yummy vegetables for the summer such as the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash), giant sunflowers, cherry tomatoes, and more…

Come visit and enjoy the garden with us! A Living Library (A.L.L.) classes take place every Tuesday and Friday in the playground yards. A.L.L. welcomes parents and community members to get involved.