Growing vegetables and jobs
An L.A. program teaches sustainable strategies to gardeners.
There's a lot of talk about green jobs being the savior for the country's disturbingly high unemployment and underemployment rates. The city of Los Angeles says it is actively working to create some.
In a Feb. 24 ceremony on the third floor of L.A.'s City Hall 23 people were awarded certificates for completing a green gardener training course that is seen as a template for creating jobs that will protect the environment.
"Since last spring, we've been working on this program to train gardeners in managing and maintaining the designs of the 21st century garden in Southern California, which is a garden that uses drought-tolerant plants and that retains and reuses rainwater," said Paula Daniels, the L.A. Board of Public Works commissioner who helped pioneer the program.
Thirty-one gardeners participated in the pilot training program that began late last year, and 89 are expected to be trained soon through the program, which was funded with $250,000 in federal stimulus money, through the city's Community Development Department, and conducted in partnership with the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, an immigrant education group.
The training, which takes 48 hours over six days, educates gardeners in sustainable strategies for making better use of water, such as incorporating drought-tolerant plants, drip irrigation with more advanced controllers, and mulch. The curriculum, developed by the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, also focuses on soil types, sun patterns, microclimates and how to work with clients to educate them in water-saving gardening practices.
Christopher McKinnon, a board member of the Mar Vista Community Council, offered his
