Franklin Elementary School, Santa Monica, CA

Description

Designer - Pamela Berstler with G3/The Green Gardens Group.
Installation - community Hands-On Workshop (HOW), led by G3, and co-sponsored by Aveeno and ELLE Magazine as part of the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The garden also qualified for funds through the City of Santa Monica's landscape retrofit program.

This highly visible landscape presents an example of replacing rarely-used turf grass with climate-appropriate gardening for every parent, child, or neighborhood resident who passes by throughout the day. The turf grass used at least 32,000 gallons of water a year. This reduces water use by 35-50%. Local native plants invite birds, butterflies, and people to explore the soft, mulched pathways and smell the fragrant flowers and foliage. The colors of the blooms match the colors on the mural backdrop: from red, yellow, and white to blue.
For every inch of rain, more than 2,500 gallons of water would run off the roof of the adjacent auditorium and flow right into the street or alley, where it would pick up pollutants and speeds to the beach, creating a polluted mess for at least 72 hours after every storm. The new garden has directed the two main downspouts from the roof into the garden, allowing the rain to take a detour through the planting beds and garden paths; slowing down, spreading out, and sinking back into the soil for plants to utilize. We used a rain barrel on one of the downspouts to demonstrate how a person could capture water at their own home and then allow the overflow to go into their landscape. New low-flow drip irrigation controlled by a weather-based irrigation controller was installed to further reduce the amount of water used by the landscape (by approximately 20%). A separate meter for the garden was installed to measure how much water is used.
The concrete used to mark the pathway has been recycled from a driveway that was demolished recently. All of the woodchips used in mulching the garden were brought from a local tree trimmer, effectively removing the chips from the waste cycle. All of the old grass and soil that was excavated making the pathways has been kept on site, eliminating the need to haul away materials. Sheet mulching was used to remove the existing grass, so no toxic chemicals were required. Fertilizers and pesticides have been eliminated because the garden is being fed with worm castings and compost tea.
At the end of the HOW, participants were treated to spa treatments, provided by Aveeno at the Miramar Hotel & Bungalows.
See attached pictures of:
- what site used to look like;
- sheet mulching during the HOW and G3 rep consulting with professionals who volunteered that day;
- Surfrider volunteer Rebecca Correa leading a class garden exercise on urban runoff;
- a maintenance day led by Surfrider volunteer Tom Rau (a landscape architect) with the School's Beautification Committee;
- an "after" photo taken 15 months later;
- the garden design and plant list.