Employing a group of neighborhood children and teenagers, I planted gardens on two separate vacant lots on the east side of Los Angeles. Previously, these lots were derelict, overgrown and filled with trash. The most recent garden was a combined vegetable and California native plant garden on a 5000 square foot hillside lot. Due to a low level lead contamination in the soil, we replaced the contaminated soil in the vegetable beds with clean soil and compost. The garden yielded a variety of vegetables for me and my neighbors including tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, beets, radish, chard, lettuces, arugula, cabbage, broccoli, artichokes, parsley, oregano, basil, rosemary, peas, fava beans, green beans, lima beans and summer squash. The earlier garden was made up exclusively of California native flowers including California Poppy, California Bluebells, Sky Lupen, Arroyo Lupen, and a variety of endangered native grasses.
