Getting Dirty in Public // LA Urban Gardening

Before

I've decided to claim this little patch of dry, uninviting soil near my apartment. The weeds have died away, which means there's probably not a lot of nutrition in the soil right now considering how much rain we had the week before I took these pictures. That's going to change. I'm starting by putting my vegetable peels and trimmings in the ground. Sure, I could attempt to maintain a real compost heap and then amend the soil with that, but the energy expenditure it takes just doesn't make sense with limited space, time, and raw material I have. And I figure that the moisture from the raw vegetation will be good for the soil, anyway. 

First trench

After receiving a bounty of vegetable trimmings to add to my own healthy supply (which I keep in the fridge in marked containers to prevent strange and terrible odors from accumulating in the kitchen), I took to the streets. To this corner. I dug a couple of trenches with my favorite gardening tool, spread out the veg, and buried the goods.

LGBTQ Youth of Color Events This Weekend

Last night I went to the opening of Barangay's Tulay event. The work of fellow TWSSter, heart-friend, and talented artist Allison Santos is featured in the art exhibit, and she'll be speaking tomorrow on a panel of community leaders from 2-5pm. 

Two of the most memorable performances of last night's opening were Kay Barrett's exuberant spoken word and Dom Magwili's performance art piece, in which Dom sat on a sofa surrounded by brightly colored tsinelas and conversed one-on-one with people as an older, Filipino-accented man whose daughter had just come out to him, trying to understand queerness.

Get Free Mulch! // LA Urban Gardening

Do you garden? Do you want to start one but find that your soil is mostly clay and dries up and cracks? Mulch is the answer. 

And you can get it for free in ten different locations in LA on Fridays! AND you can get free compost on Thursdays. 

The City of Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau runs a program that's Closing The Loop, taking green waste and turning it into mulch and compost which can be picked up at these locations: