Long Beach Community Action Partnership is launching the second phase of the Green Jobs-Green Initiatives project with drought tolerant demonstration gardens and small scale row farming for the hungry. The first task is to update the landscaping on the perimeter of the campus and parking lot. The interns are receiving instruction on topics such as: repairing and caring for the existing trees, replacing the irrigation, soil prep and plant selection.
The photos above show the flat, hard ground – 180 feet of it surrounds the parking lot. The sidewalks are relatively new, but the contractors brushed the gravel and left over concrete bits in to the planting beds and topped it with a few inches of soil. Not a great foundation for any type of landscape. The first step is just breaking up the ground, chipping past the hard pan layer and bringing life back in to the soil. There have been many yards of dirt, compost, and chicken manure added to the ground, during soil prep. Water will activate the nutrients and begin to build healthy soil structure. The extensive ground prep enables the plant material to have a safe landing and the lively soil makes the nutrients available to the plants for good root development and overall healthy plants!
This took many, many hours of hard shovel work by a contingent of Green Jobs Interns, Hire a Youth staff and Conservation Corps labor. Thank goodness there was only one week in the 90’s!
