Sharing a Common Vision at Aveson

Every Spring Common Vision's Fruit Tree Tour travels the length of California in the world's largest veggie-oil powered caravan planting thousands of fruit trees at urban schools from San Diego to Sacramento. Common Vision's 25 Earth educators teach students through a daylong program that includes tree planting, West African agricultural drumming and earth-conscious hip-hop. Over 10,000 students benefit from Fruit Tree Tour each year. An average of twenty trees are planted at each school including pear, peach, fig, avocado, guava, apricot, nectarine, citrus and apple.

Aveson's day was Tuesday, March 4, 2008. Through performance, story telling and hands on workshops the unique program introduced key concepts of health, ecology, and interconnectedness. The Fruit Tree Tour helps Aveson educators integrate sustainability into school curricula and landscapes.

Fruit Tree Facts:

* Only 11% of California's school aged children eat the recommended 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

* One healthy apple or pear tree can produce 1,000 pounds of fruit a year.

* 80% of the students participating in Fruit Tree Tour are part of the free or reduced school lunch program.

* Urban trees reduce city noise and glare, reduce storm water runoff, improve air quality and can reduce the temperatures of “urban heat islands” by 5 degrees or more.

* By using vegetable oil as fuel, the Fruit Tree Tour Fleet has saved over 6,000 gallons of petroleum.


Common Vision's mission is to cultivate ecological awareness and respect for the Earth while generating social and environmental change towards sustainable ways of life. They integrate concepts of ecology with the traditions, music and art of cultures that live or have lived in harmony with the Earth. Common Vision is a solution-focused nonprofit organization. Since its inception in 1999, Common Vision has hosted educational workshops and tours about permaculture, biofuels, community, art, culture, and ecology.

www.commonvision.org

Garden Update Part II

TODAY:

Ninth graders sported safety goggles and gloves while they connected a grid of irrigation pipes with plumbing glue. Thanks to Matt Baer for laying the foundation for our watering system!

A host of kinder, first and second graders sampled fresh parsley and red chard from our two thriving raised beds - plantings courtesy of team member Chris Wrasse - before digging in with hands, shovels and weeding instruments to uproot a host of weeds. Every child - without exception - begged for more time to work! Elizabeth Jebef will return next week, during recess, to allow emerging green thumbs to weed and dig in the dirt during playtime.


COMING UP:

In March, Phil will be working with ninth graders to construct a split rail fence and entryway which will separate the playground from the orchard and garden space - a safety requirement.

Full speed ahead!

Garden Update

Common Vision will be pulling into Aveson the first week of March to help us dedicate several fruit trees to our campus orchard. See www.commonvision.org for more details regarding their vision and interactive school curriculum.

The garden irrigation project is well underway thanks to Phil and a group of dedicated parents. Many thanks.

The upper "garden" - or the raised area above the garden designated by a concrete wall - has been designed to host a lovely array of drought tolerant and mostly native plants designed to repeat in a simple pattern the length of the garden, courtesy of landscape visionary Caroline Andres.

Weather permitting. Tomorrow, for K-2's Advisory Friday, children will visit the garden in rotating groups of five to help weed new groundlings that have cropped up with the season's showers.

Our budget. The garden was fortunate to be included in the list of early recipients for the CDE grant which provided our initiative with $5,000 in August.
Sadly, due to recent budget cuts, outstanding grants may not be distributed. In anticipation of next year, we are seeking volunteer grant writers.

Bringing the garden home... The City of Pasadena will be selling the Garden Gourmet Compost Bin this weekend in Victory Park at half it's retail value. If you've been dreaming of a home compost but haven't taken the plunge, this Saturday's sale is a good opportunity.

Garden Team Meeting - 10 January 2008

Our small gathering last Thursday focused on the much needed implementation of the garden's irrigation system and the garden's curriculum.

Third grade parent Matt is collaborating with Plant Manger Phill to outline next steps for bringing water to our expectant raised beds.

After exploring infinite intersections of science, math and art that could be introduced to our students through the garden, we agreed to "keep it simple" and adapt Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard & Ecoliteracy Programs as we get started - largely focusing on growing, journaling and cooking in the garden and Aveson kitchen.

To learn more about these tried and true programs click here: Edible Schoolyard and the Center for Ecoliteracy

Our long term vision includes a designated Garden Teacher or Manger to collaborate with our Aveson Teaching Team to integrate California standards into our learning garden, coordinate parent and community volunteers, pursue funding and guide our students' outdoor learning experience.

TO DO NOW:

We need volunteers interested in donating time or resources to erect our shaded learning arbor and lay down hardware cloth in our remaining beds, if you are interested please telephone Elizabeth - 626.824.3726!

Homegrown Revolution

PATH TO FREEDOM 'HOMEGROWN REVOLUTION™' FILM SHORT
featured @

SUSTAINABLE LA @ Farmlab/Under Spring
Curated by Echo Park Film Center
Saturday, December 8 @ 7 pm
FREE EVENT! EVERYONE WELCOME!
Evening begins with a potluck dinner so please bring food to share.
Approximate Program Times:
Sustainable LA Shorts: 8:30
More info: www.farmlab.org


Sustainable LA is a celebration of Angelinos engaged in the green revolution. The one-hour program consists of short films on a variety of topics including urban gardening, environmental awareness and community activism. In keeping with the grassroots nature of many of these organizations, emphasis is on issues awareness, practical information exchange and hands-on participation.

Many Thanks

Thanks again to first grade parents Chris & Tina who generously donated the garden's first truckload of rich soil and mulch!

All Hands Work Day 1 December 2007

Today's groundbreaking workday rewarded months of patience and several hours of sweat equity this afternoon courtesy of dedicated Aveson students and parents.

15 Orcaboard raised beds were assembled by adults and children alike - literally in a snap! Hay bales were arranged in a learning circle and most remarkably, the entire upper terrace was weeded with great discipline to reveal several rosemary plants and a blank canvas for our future drought tolerant, native plantings.

Giant lizards, curious ivy roots and metal treasures were uncovered.

Next week we will be laying down plastic to prevent the regrowth of weeds until the native design is complete. We still need to level and weed part of the lower garden space and we are also collecting newspapers to serve as the second layer of our beds - in between the hardware cloth and the soil/mulch mix. So bring in your used dailies in the coming week.

Thank you to all of the families who donated their Saturday morning and afternoon to help realize Aveson's vision of a dynamic learning garden for our K-12th graders.

Full speed ahead!