Students Plant Seeds of Success in Garden

Smack dab in the middle of Van Nuys, Mulholland Middle School students and teachers have created their own one-acre garden of Eden.

Under the guidance of social worker Alison Ingebrigtsen-Siewert, who works at the school part time, special education students have planted roses, herbs, a grape arbor, peppers and pumpkins. The taupe walls of buildings are now covered with murals of forests and flowers.

Two years ago, the land was barren and all but abandoned.

“It looked like the face of the moon,” she recounted. “The area was all rocks. Everything was dead.”

Now geraniums spill out of colorful plastic planters and lush asparagus ferns thrive, even though many of the more than 20 students had never gardened before.

While the students weed and work the earth, they learn a trade and bolster their self-esteem, Ingebrigtsen-Siewert said.

Gardening “is the best part of the day,” said student Judy Michel, 15.

Added classmate Lucille Kingsford, 13, “I like being here because they teach me how to do things--how to seed, how to hoe, how to water.”

Come harvest time, some of the vegetables are sold in the school office. The rest goes home with teachers and students like Donte Walker, 14, who described the fresh onions and oranges as “really good.”

Granted, things aren’t perfect, Ingebrigtsen-Siewert said.

Even with generous grants and a “gardening angel” from the horticulture group Common Ground, there isn’t enough money to buy a rototiller to work the earth.

The wheelbarrow has a flat tire. Some of the shovels have rusted. And some buildings still have exterior walls painted “ugly L.A. Unified mud color,” she joked.

But it’s a place to smell the fertile earth, a place where the birds chatter louder than the passing traffic.

“After a rough day, I just come out here to walk sometimes,” said Principal Alfredo Tarin. “It’s peaceful.”