OUR PROJECTS
Growing Urban Gardens in South Los Angeles
Plant Community is thrilled to partner with Victory Starts Now, an organization which provides housing and treatment for formerly unhoused individuals with serious mental conditions who have been diverted from LA County’s vast jail system.
Victory Starts Now + Plant Community
Victory Starts Now reached out to Plant Community for help planting some raised beds they had constructed at two of their leased properties: Harmony House and Unity House. Both houses are located in South Central Los Angeles, a neighborhood which has been historically underserved and subjected to policies and practices that have left the streets unshaded and the community with far less access to green space than other parts of the city.
Rather than a simple garden, we have developed a dynamic educational series working with the members to implement a sustainable regenerative food forest, replete with shade trees, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs, all interlaced with native plants to support pollinators and help restore the ecology of the area. Our programming involves weekly workshops, visiting guest speakers, field trips to other local urban gardens and natural areas, and more. Topics being covered include phytoremediation, ecology, horticulture, landscape design, rainwater harvesting, composting, and environmental justice.
Support this project now by donating directly through our GOFUNDME.
Soil Remediation
Due to local businesses releasing toxic pollutants in the area for many decades, South LA is known to have higher levels of lead in its soil. Knowing this, we decided to test the soil before we started the planting process. Our results confirmed that there were indeed high levels of lead in the soil. Since part of our project included planting an urban food forest, we wanted to begin soil remediation to avoid growing contaminated fruits and vegetables.
Studies have shown that sunflowers are excellent at safely pulling heavy metals out of contaminated soil. We started planting sunflowers to begin the phytoextraction and have continued sampling the soil. After a year of our soil remediation process, lead levels in the soil have gone down.