In The Regenerative Garden with Natalie Sunshine

I had a best tasting fresh salad at my son’s Hanukkah party.  I was wondering which garden produced such tasty dill and Swiss chard.  I was delighted to be corrected that Natalie has not one but many gardens around Venice.  I immediately became best friends with this wonderful gardener who is pioneering the idea of regenerative gardens in the city.  She invited me to come to one of her classes and learn the basics of composting, germinating and planting.  She also told me to bring any compost I have at home.  I would like to share here what I have learned.

The garden at 681 Venice Blvd is supported by the organization Kiss the Ground. 

As you can see in the sign: Venice Arts Plaza Regenerative Garden:

http://www.yovenice.com/2015/04/28/kiss-the-ground-plants-green-future-at-venice-arts-plaza/

Natalie’s smile which is just like sunshine greeted me happily.  I handed her my bag with vegetable and fruit peels and similar trash.  We started by throwing our trash on top of the pile of soil and trash enclosed in a wooden frame.  Then she used a large pitchfork to mix it all and took a handful of the soil to show me how alive it is with healthy bugs necessary for regeneration and growth.

 

 

We moved on to the vermiculture: the compost pile started with red wigglers.

I remember these worms from my childhood.  Every winter right after the rain we used to dig in the ground and find these worms.  Our Science teacher explained how important they are in mixing the soil and accelerating germination and growth.  Natalie showed me that this pile is covered with straw on top.  At the bottom there is a filter and the excrement from the worms is collected.  She gathers it up biweekly and has a container of "tea" that she gives to other gardeners to fertilize their gardens. 
The next lesson was on germination: I used seeds of my choice to plant in pots that we placed in the green house.  My heirloom radishes should be ready in 45 days!  The pots contained seedlings planted by some kids.  We took some of the arugula plants and transferred them to the raised beds in the garden.

Note the yellow butterfly flying happily around the flowers:

I am really excited about this idea of regenerating the soil around the gardens in the city and teaching people to grow their own food.  Natalie told me how she learned some of these ideas from her farming family in Mexico who used sun flowers to regenerate the soil.  Different parts of the plant are used for various purposes.  But what I like best about sunflowers is the pattern of the seeds:

This pattern can be described mathematically by the Fibonacci numbers:

The first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1. Each number after is the sum of the previous two.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, etc.
Fibonacci, called the Golden Ratio at its perfection, occurs beautifully in nature.

These are the things that excite me about science and nature.

Will close with a message about our earth: