Community members gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Toluca Lake Elementary School on May 20 to celebrate garden improvements made possible by the support of local organizations, including a $5,000 grant from the Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council (GTLNC) to EnrichLA, the nonprofit dedicated to creating and caring for an organic regenerative garden in every L.A. schoolyard. The event drew about 60 guests, including school principal Jeff Daniel; PTA representatives; students and neighbors; EnrichLA executive director Tomas O’Grady, lead garden ranger Alex Aleshire and Toluca Lake Elementary garden ranger Shelley Zbornak; and members of the GTLNC and the Toluca Lake Garden Club. Attendees enjoyed hyperlocal refreshments — bruschetta with tomatoes, basil and garlic grown in the garden and bread toasted in a solar-powered oven provided by EnrichLA, plus a cake courtesy of the GTLNC.
Toluca Lake Elementary has had a thriving garden for the past 11 years or so, but it was due for some improvements, O’Grady notes. For example, “we needed a garden kiosk for both storage of learning materials and garden tools that had to be completely critter-proof. Like it or not, we have many visitors to our garden, and as our garden is organic we do not use any kind of chemicals to repel these critters. We live with the squirrels and the gophers and the insects, but we can’t have them eating our instructional materials.” Making the upgrades a reality was challenging, he adds, but “everybody pulled together — the school, the Neighborhood Council and the community.”
The GTLNC grant plus generous donations from the PTA and Garden Club supported the addition of the critter-proof teaching and storage station, as well as seven redwood picnic tables for class work and parties, an extra-large shade sail for the table area, a sensory digging station for younger students, a self-watering covered seedling station, in-ground worm composting bins and vermiculture supplies and tools, and a garden reading library stocked with nature books students can keep. Furthermore, “we pressure-washed and sealed all treated wood, added new organic ground cover throughout the entire garden and added a beautiful hand-engraved welcome sign that not only welcomes all who enter, but also thanks all groups that have contributed to this garden’s success,” Zbornak says.
As the school’s garden ranger, Zbornak — a longtime Garden Club member — provides weekly hands-on farm-to-table gardening lessons. Students in second through fifth grades “prepare the soil for planting, plant seeds in the seedling station, plant seedlings in one of the eight raised planters, prune and clean the plant beds, hand-water where needed, harvest any fruits or vegetables ready to be eaten and then learn about the nutrition and health benefits of what they are eating.” With pre-K and first-grade students, Zbornak encourages mindful nature appreciation, reads or tells garden-related stories and then helps the children dig for seeds in the sensory station and plant them in the seed station. “The students will then monitor their seeds weekly until they are ready for transplanting and eventually harvesting and eating,” she explains.
The new improvements ensure that the garden can remain both a classroom and a refuge for its young caretakers. “This magical garden provides a happy, safe space for all the students,” Zbornak shares. “When not in class, they can unplug and unwind at one of the picnic tables, one of three redwood reading benches or one of five leveled-out tree stumps. Our classes do more than just teach children how to grow plants; we teach them why organic gardening is so very important to the earth, our bodies and our community. I am so blessed to be part of this project.”
