School Garden Design for LAUSD and GOOD
A few weeks ago I entered a contest to design a small school garden for the Los Angeles Unified School District. I have been selected as one of the winners. For phase 2 of the project, we will work with Mud Baron, Green Policy Director for LAUSD, to select a Los Angeles school to work with. There will also be a workshop with Landscape Architect Mia Lehrer. Ultimately, at least one (but hopefully all) of the purposed gardens will be built and GOOD(website) will produce a downloadable guide for designing school gardens.
My garden was designed to teach and inspire. A circular path was designed so that every planter has wheelchair access, while maintaining as much planting space as possible. Planters are built of either 2 inch or 4 inch pieces of reclaimed redwood which interlock to create a continuous landscape around the garden. A shed takes a prominent position in this design to give the garden visual identity within the school grounds, but also to collect rainwater. A composting bin helps provide nutrient-rich soil and a section of native California plants teaches kids about their local climate and habitat.
Landscape Architect Mia Lehrer’s website
RSS
Follow on Twitter
Contact Info
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by RickMunday. RickMunday said: School Garden Design for LAUSD and GOOD http://ff.im/-n9dcg [...]
This is a nice design, but it seems to me that school gardens have a fundamental flaw- who will tend them from school lets out until fall and how do you plan for such an interrupted harvest?
I love the design, great work! Summer is an issue but you can harvest early crops in June. I encourage custodial staff to harvest what they would like through the summer as they are the only people in the school in July. If this garden was located outside the school it could be maintained by volunteers.
[...] This is the neatest little garden cabin… Best part, I can see applying a lot of these little tricks as additions to our house plan. [...]