Skid Row Gardening: September 2010

Welcome to Skid Row Gardening!

Gardening, Civil Rights, and Community Organizing

Skid Row is a fifty square-block area nestled on the eastern flank of downtown Los Angeles, and is home to over 11,000 homeless and extremely low-income people. The population includes single individuals and families with children, chronically homeless people, people with a mental illness and/or a substance abuse problem, veterans, people with other disabilities and chronic health conditions.

Recently, Skid Row has come under increasing attack by politicians, city planners, and criminal justice officials who refuse to acknowledge Skid Row as a “real” community. Much of this has to do with a recent wave of redevelopment and gentrification that makes Skid Row’s land highly valued. This has led to widespread violations of community residents’ civil and human rights on a massive scale. The Los Angeles Community Action Network (LACAN) is an outspoken opponent of these city efforts (for more detailed information on LACAN campaigns, visit www.cangress.org). Like many of the prominent civil rights organizations coming before them, LACAN sees civil rights as inseparable from food justice and equality.

In the summer of 2010 LACAN launched its own community garden located on a rooftop on Main Street. Stay tuned to this blog and watch the garden grow. We aim for democratic control where residents can work together to produce the healthy food that this neighborhood deserves.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Seed planting workshop planned

In our bi-weekly Team Food meeting today, we began the first steps toward expanding our garden in a significant way. Our partners in the Master Gardener program have volunteered to conduct a seed planting workshop in two weeks, on Thursday September 16th at 9am. We will be covering everything from containers to sunlight, to soil issues. Please join us if you're interested in growing your own seedlings. All you need is some sunlight and some patience!

We are going to be trying out produce that is best suited for the fall season, from Cauliflower to Lettuce, Chard, and Herbs.

The seeds we will be using come from Italy. The region that they come from has a climate that is very similar to that found in sunny Southern California.