Milagro Allegro

On Saturday, July 23, 2010, the American Horticultural Society’s    National Youth Garden Symposium participants toured through Milagro Allegro as part of the “garden exploration” portion of the symposium to learn more about our LA Sprouts afterschool program. We received numerous compliments both about the garden and the LA Sprouts program throughout the weekend at the symposium, as well as particular words of recognition from Roger Swain, the symposium’s closing keynote speaker (Alice Waters was the opening keynote) who is best known for hosting a PBC show on victory gardens.

symposium participants listen to LA Sprouts presentation at Milagro

pictured r to l: Rosa Romero, Yvonne Savio, Milli Macen-Moore, Nicole Gatto, Lauren Cook, Matt Mihm

Yvonne Savio (r) and Milli Macen-Moore (l) slice up some watermelon

Thanks to all gardeners and community members who came out despite the heat for our July 18th garden workday!  With everyone’s help, we accomplished a LOT!

FREE “Garden Swap”

Everyone Welcome

Saturday, July 31st 6pm-8pm

at

Milagro Allegro Community Garden

115 S. Avenue 56, Los Angeles, CA 90042

1 block SE of Figueroa, behind the Highland Theater

Early Birds Learning About Worms

We had a great turn-out for our Smart Gardening Workshop on June 26th!  Over 30 folks got up early and traveled to Highland Park (from as far away as Gardena) - for a 9 a.m. Saturday start time, mind you!  We learned about water-wise gardening, composting, worm composting and other fun topics.

We raffled off a standard compost bin as well as a worm compost bin.  All participants were winners, though – they walked away with arms full of giveaways, minds full of information, and hearts set on gardening. 

A BIG THANKS goes out to the Los Angeles County Smart Gardening Program for providing the workshop and for selling the compost and worm compost bins afterward.  Our instructor, Jesus Soto, and his assistant, Sandy Sardo, are the best!!

Hope to see you all at the next workshop!

One block SE of Figueroa, behind the Highland Theater 

Milagro Allegro is honored to announce that we have been awarded a grant by Farmlab, a project of the Metabolic Studio, a direct charitable activity of the Annenberg Foundation under the direction of Artist and Foundation Director Lauren Bon.  Farmlab is dedicated to the preservation and perpetuity of all living things.  Milagro will apply the grant funding to support our education programming as well as to structural improvements at the garden. A huge thank you to Farmlab for their recognition!

Alfresco dining

June 26, 2010. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon to be taking a walk through Highland Park enjoying art, culture and history (old and not-so-old), which is just what 25 people participating in Trekking LA’s first “Walking Expedition” did the last Saturday in June. The “Urban Alfresco” series, which kicked off this summer in Highland Park is the fourth season of Trekking LA, presented by LA Commons, a project of Community Partners.  This year, Trekking LA participants explore LA’s community gardens, street art and homegrown food culture in four of LA”s most culturally rich and under-explored neighborhoods. Each of the curated tours will bring attendees into a new neighborhood (Highland Park , Boyle Heights, MacArthur Park/Koreatown, Leimert Park) to explore local street art and culture and will feature al fresco dining in four of the approximately 75 urban farms and community gardens throughout the city. For more information about upcoming tours, see the Trekking LA Press release.

guest chef, Amanda

The Trekking LA Highland Park tour began at Future Studio with a welcome by artist, Amy Inouye, mother of Chicken Boy. Participants then walked down several of Highland Park’s most beautiful tree-lined streets and well-traveled alleys to see more of the neighborhood’s historic homes, narrated by Highland Park historian, Charlie Fisher, and graffitti art, as explained by Steve Grody, author and expert in graffitti art. Tour participants ended their afternoon at Milagro Allegro and enjoyed a outdoor dinner provided by Las Cazuelas. Dessert was prepared by LA sprouts student and guest chef, Amanda Serna, a graduating 5th grader at Loreto Elementary who made fruit rainbows for a smiling crowd.  Our resident gardener, Milli Macen-Moore, led participants in making seedling cups and Milagro gardener, Nidia Garcia provided a tour of the garden and her plot.

Delores Chavez (l), Amy Inouye (r)

To hear the Trekking LA tour as featured by Shirley Jahad on KPCC 89.3 FM, click here.

For more photos of the afternoon, please see our photo gallery!

Milagro Allegro Community Garden was one of the numerous community groups present at the fifth annual Lummis Day Festival on June 6th held at the Heritage Square Museum this year. The Lummis Day event is known for showcasing the best home-grown Northeast L.A. music, dance, food and community resources.
Milagro shared a table at the festival with the UC Extension Common Ground Program, and provided information about our garden and gardening, gave away free seeds and seedlings and had our garden cookbooks available. It was a beautiful day and we were delighted to participate!

Milagro Allegro table at Lummis Day 2010

More photos of the event may be found at http://www.montecitohts.org/lummis5/ or visit the Lummis Day official website

FREE Composting Workshop at
Milagro Allegro Community Garden
115 S Avenue 56, L.A. 90042
June 26, 2010 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

You are invited to attend a free County of Los Angeles Smart Gardening composting workshop! Learn to reduce yard waste and improve your lawn and garden.  Get step-by-step instructions on how to compost, and learn the benefits of and the science behind the process.

Workshop is about 1.5 hours.  No reservations needed.

What: FREE Composting Workshop
Where: Milagro Allegro Community Garden
115 S Avenue 56, L.A. 90042
When: Saturday, June 26
Time: 9:00 a.m.- 10:30 a.m.

Cost: FREE!!!

COMPOSTING BINS FOR SALE

Backyard Compost Bin: $40 each
Worm Compost Bin: $65 each

Details on composting bins available here

The workshop is brought to you by the County of Los Angeles Smart Gardening Program

Hope to see you at Milagro Allegro for the FREE Composting Workshop on 6/26 at 9 a.m.!

the finished product!

Maybe you’ve walked by the Milagro Allegro Community Garden, attended one of our events, or seen photos of our colorful tool shed at the Northeast end of the garden. Or perhaps you’ve even witnessed our progress as we – along with two local artists, many student volunteers and several of our gardeners – made possible the transformation from its initial lumber and plywood beginings to its current state as a “stone cottage”. Where did our inspiration for this creation originate from, you might ask?

 Well…one of the garden’s founders and Director happened to be enjoying her Sunday morning coffee and reading the New York Times magazine several months ago when the shed was still just a generously donated simple wooden structure built by the Los Angeles Conservation Corps.  She happened upon an article about the work of Richard Woods, a British contemporary artist, and saw a photo of one of his projects, the “Stone Clad Cottage” and thought a similar look would jazz up the garden on a smaller scale (for the full-length article see http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2009/04/19/style/t/index.html#pagewanted=1&pageName=19woodsw&). Woods is famous for covering things up, hiding objects — both large and small — beneath deliberately fake exteriors.  The Cottages are one of his more recent projects in which he covered a set of cottages outside London in loud ‘‘stone cladding’’ not unlike the kind Britons use to transform their homes into their castles. 

Milagro’s version also colorful, fun and similarly transformed our “shed” into a tool palace!!!

stenciling our stones

our excellent volunteers helping paint

colors assigned to stones

painting away!

spiffy finished product!