Imperial Courts Unity Garden

We worked on this garden in partnership with Marveon Mabon, a resident of Watt’s Imperial Courts housing project who’s vision for a Unity Garden inspired us. Together with Housing Authority for the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) we re-envisioned and renovated a neglected, run-down 2,500 sq. ft. parcel of garden located next to the playground in the center of the Imperial Courts housing project. The space was originally conceived of as a community vegetable garden, but over time it fell into disrepair due to inadequate irrigation, poor plant selection, and lack of a community-based maintenance plan. We have re-envisioned the garden to address these issues with an updated modern irrigation system; a new design that replaces some vegetable boxes with fruit trees, adds pollinators and groundcover beds to abate weeds, and adds key established shade trees; and we have created a maintenance strategy that employs a community-based garden team to maintain the garden on a weekly basis. 

Check out our progress photos:

Jordan Downs Center Unity Garden

In partnership with Children Mending Hearts, a nonprofit that runs the Jordan Downs Center in Watts, we are creating a unity container garden. This playground garden features 3 large garden boxes of vegetables and herbs, native plants and pollinators, butterfly plants and succulents. The site is also be home to a small “fruit forest” of 10 containers with a variety of small fruit trees, including lemons, apples, and guavas. This Unity Garden also serves as a learning lab for our GreenSpacesLA Youth Nature Club at Jordan Downs.