Another surprise from LA. Under just the right circumstances, hipsters and young families and Crocs wearing retirees will happily come together very early on a June Gloom Saturday. The location: the Milagro Allegro community garden, in the rough-around-the-edges neighborhood of Highland Park. Why? To attend a free workshop about composting.
I'll admit it was a bit of an awkwardly diverse scene, but the shared garden nerdiness made it all work. What can I say, there's nothing like the allure of learning about composting(!) to bring different sorts of people together. So we all sat around on hay covered rock walls and camping chairs, enthralled by the flip chart presentation about compost bins, worms, and water wise gardening. We asked questions. We took copious notes. We gladly filled out a survey. We put money into the donation box. And at the end we all scattered around the garden plots to exclaim over extra large sunflowers and propped up pumpkins. How sweet. And all at a time when most of Los Angeles was viciously hungover or asleep.
It was a striking reminder of how urban gardening is really broadening in appeal (thanks Michelle Obama) and more proof of the key lesson for me in LA. There are so many random little events happening at any given time. But a lot of the time you'll end up taking atleast 2 freeways to find the ones that are interesting to you.
