Day 40: Growing Local Gardens

Today was a beautiful day, it was nearly 80 degrees here in the South Bay and it felt like spring. I know that it is only February 9, and we do need more rain, but, I do love my southern California sunshine. And, it was a perfect day to have a meeting to discuss the creation of school gardens.

Yep, today I had a meeting with my "boss" from Torrance Memorial, the Director of Health Education. I write/edit the ADVANTAGE newsletter for her and as I wrote about last month, I have been doing it for almost 6 years now.

She is also the awesome woman who let me try out my Senior Gardening Program at the hospital and who is always willing to try something that can help the community since one of her main responsibilities is community benefits.

So, I met her along with the woman who runs the "Kids N Fitness" Program to talk about helping them set up school gardens at 4 schools in the Torrance Unified School District. I am happy to say that she seemed very interested in doing it, and says the schools have already expressed an interest, and that the Food Services Director is on board, and even wants to use some of the food that will be grown in the gardens.

There is also a possibility to get gardens at more schools if they are interested. I am putting together a brief survey for them to bring to the big PTA Council meeting next month. We are hoping that they will want to start in the fall and I will be working on putting it together starting in April, perfect timing since my book will be done then.

I am very excited at the possibilities that this brings, especially my idea of incorporating inter-generational gardening with some of my senior gardeners going to the schools. But, it is way too early for me to be planning things, there are many things that have to be decided, on, including my level of involvement. But, the idea of growing more gardens is very exciting and it sure beats my former career, being stuck at a cubicle all day.