South LA’s ‘greening’ is more than gardens, though they help
Francesca Ayala | 1-6-2010 | Comments |

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Urban gardens in South Central Los Angeles, and the monarch butterflies the flowering plants attract, may be one way to eliminate the negative stereotypes ascribed to the neighborhood. Or, as Evie King recently said, “I thought that would be wonderful if South Central could be known for monarchs instead of gangs.”

King, the arts and sciences director of non-profit group Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, started a garden with her students on the parkways of 23rd St. and Bonsallo Ave. just a few months ago. With cuttings from King’s garden and help from others, the once-barren sidewalks are abloom with wildflowers, herbs, fruit trees and vegetables. There is an abundance of milkweed, which King and her students planted to attract monarch butterflies to the neighborhood.

Every weekday at 4 p.m., King’s students come to the 23rd Street building—one of the Esperanza properties—to participate in her after school arts and sciences program. One of the units on the first floor has been converted in to an art room, which overlooks the parkway garden. King’s students, aged 4-14 years, live and go to school in South LA, formerly known as South Central. They spend their afternoons working on arts and crafts or tending to their garden. Many of their art projects, such as mosaics and clay sculptures, are used to decorate the sidewalk garden. Activities like these, according to King, are not offered by most public school curriculums anymore.

“Not only have arts been cut out of the school system, but any kind of hands-on science like botany and biology… it’s all been cut out,” said King.

“We’re learning about these new plants that we’ve never heard of,” said Irene Fernandez, 9. “They don’t teach it in school, but it isn’t so bad because we get to learn it here.”


Produce for family dinner tables

King, who has studied botany and horticulture and worked on organic farms in Northern California, said she believes that tending to the parkway gardens has myriad short and long-term benefits for her students. One of the pros, she said, is that her students can grow their own produce and take them home to their families. This saves them the hassle of having to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables on a budget, in a neighborhood where there are a limited number of groceries or farmer’s markets. So far, the kids have brought home cilantro, chili peppers, mint and tomatoes.

Of course, taking care of an urban garden does not come without setbacks, said King. One concern is that the city of Los Angeles prohibits people to grow produce in residential zones. However, because King’s students are growing fruits, vegetables and herbs for themselves and their families rather than for commercial purposes, the chances of being sanctioned are slim.

A major drawback that King and her students face is that some people around the neighborhood have been taking the fruits and vegetables before they ripen. Sunflower heads have been cut off, melons have been stolen and tomatoes have been plucked and smashed on the street. To respond, King’s students posted signs addressed to the culprits around the sidewalk in English and Spanish. The signs said, “If you will just let everything ripen, then you could eat it. We’d much rather you enjoyed it rather than destroyed it.”

Since the children put the signs up, no one has destroyed any of the plants.

“It’s working,” said Alex Fernandez, 13. “There were five melons [left when we put the signs up] and there are still five now.”

Changing a neighborhood’s image

Now, King’s students are waiting on the fig trees, papaya trees and wildflowers to bloom in their garden across the street. They are also building birdhouses in the hopes of attracting a greater variety of birds to the neighborhood.

“The fact that I have a teenaged boy who’s totally into bringing birds here... That’s not what people think of teenaged boys in South Central,” said King. “I like seeing the stereotype proved wrong.”

King’s dream is to change the face of the community by converting all the parkways around South Central into urban gardens. However, until she can acquire the proper funding and permission to do so, she is content to use the 23rd St. sidewalk gardens as a learning platform for her students.

Knowing about plants and how to care for them, King said, gives her students a leg up in life because it enables them early on with a skill set that is not taught in schools. The biggest benefit, said King, is cultivating a respect for nature that, these days, is impossible to instill in children who grow up in a city surrounded by concrete. If kids have no exposure to nature, they can’t be expected to care for the environment, she said.

“If you have more respect for animals and plants, you will treat your fellow man better,” said King. “I think that’s going to have broader implications. Call me naive, but you can only hope it works.”

Tags: 23rd street and bonsallo avenue esperanza community housing corporation los angeles unified school district south los angeles urban gardens