New Horizon School Pasadena is currently in the process of restoring the parkway that exists on the perimeter of the school by building a native habitat garden where the campus interfaces with Orange Grove Blvd and Cypress Ave.
“Our hope is that by restoring the land that our school is on we will improve our relationships with our living environment and offer a more beautiful and healthy space for neighbors, visitors, and our school community,” the school said.
On Dec. 18, a garden workshop led by the school’s naturalist will see participants planting native trees and learning about how birds relate to native plants and our landscape, especially our urban landscape.
The event also includes activities for kids.
Levi Brewster, Learning Naturalist at New Horizon, said this Garden Workshop – Nature Restoration Project is the third workshop for the habitat restoration project, which started with them building hugel mounds – adding logs, wood chips and other organic things that absorb water – to change the dynamics of the landscape so that it captures rainwater, instead of having it run off into the street., and to improve soil health.
“This upcoming one is more plant focused,” Brewster said. “We’ve finished most of the groundwork at this point. So we’ll actually be putting plants in the ground. That’s the biggest part of the day coming up on Sunday.”
The day begins with an educational portion where Pasadena Audubon presents the work that they do for the urban landscape. Lola Salgado, an Environmental Documentarian who’s currently working on a documentary on the Amazon Rainforest, will do a presentation on native bees and the variety of native bees and how they relate to plants. There will be coffee and baked goods from New Horizon families at this portion of the event, Brewster said.
“And then we’ll go out and actually do the work,” he said. “There’s kids craft activities. We always have that available for the little ones that may get bored easily with the planting or maybe they’re just too young to have that attention. And then there’s anywhere from light garden work all the way up to more heavy lifting.”
Everyone is welcome to this free event. Participants are advised to bring your reusable water bottles, work gloves, hats, and closed-toe shoes.
Brewster said the most important thing about New Horizon School’s community workshops and classes is that people actually have hands-on experience, getting their hands in the soil up close and seeing what’s actually out there.
“One of the most satisfying things about leading these workshops for me is there’s always things in the garden and out in the world that we don’t expect,” he said. “So we come at it by trying to teach a specific idea, talking about plants and their wildlife relationships. But when you actually get out there, there’s also worms in the soil, there’s rolly pollies, we’ve been finding alligator lizards that are living out there. So there’s lots of surprises out there when you get your hands actually in it and your body in it.”
To register for the event, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/garden-workshop-nature-restoration-project-tickets-473559177247.
New Horizon School is located at 651 Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena.
