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Indybay Feature

Watsonville Community Garden established in solidarity with South Central Farm

by Teachers For Class War! (operationopal [at] riseup.net)
A recently established community garden at an elementary school in Watsonville is requesting your support!
scf.gif

Teachers and students are starting a community garden on an unused parcel of land on the otherwise barren Radcliff Elementary School campus in downtown Watsonville, CA. Beds have ben dug, and the garden is almost ready to be planted, once a sufficient amount of resources have been gathered. While school administrators have been consulted about the garden, it has yet to receive any official financial assistance. Organizers who have been following the recent tragic eviction of the South Central Farm in Los Angeles see the establishment of this new garden as a continuation of a common effort towards community self-reliance and getting back in touch with the land beneath our feet. In light of this weekend's call for action in solidarity with the South Central Farmers facing eviction (July 7-10), we are making this request for donations of tools, soil, seeds, and other supplies to assist in the creation of this valuable community resource. There may also be a work-party organized on Monday, July 12th.

List of supplies needed:

- rich soil
- aged, ready-to-use compost
- seeds and plant seedlings
- 15 to 30 trowels
- shovels
- gloves
- watering cans
- seeds
- planters, and wood to construct planters
- hay bales
- a hose
- pickaxe
- compost bin
- a picnic table
- a lockable storage shed or cabinet
- cash money!

Email us if you want to donate any supplies or money, or if you'd like to join in on a work party in the future. Thanks!

operationopal@riseup.net

Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by Solid A
This is a very awe-inspiring project. I like the proactive approach to your solidarity! I'll **try** and make it down to Watsonville to help on Monday.
by living_off_the_excess
Suggestion: make watering cans from recycled plastic large liquid laundry detergent bottles that have been well-rinsed. Drill small holes in the cap and you've got an easy-to-use watering bottle. Another benefit is that it is easier for kids to use since it doesn't easily spill.
by check
You had best see who owns the land. If the whole South Central Farm has taught folks anything, it is that you should make sure you CAN use the land before you simply do so.
by danielsan
150px-donotfeedtroll.svg.png
From wikipedia.org:
In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who comes into an established community such as an online discussion forum, and posts inflammatory, rude, repetitive or offensive messages designed intentionally to annoy and antagonize the existing members or disrupt the flow of discussion.

521463 has been busy, commenting on the South Central Farm Solidarity actions, police spying scandal, 4th of July banner hangs, and Cuba blockade runners...

by United Teachers for Safe Spaces
Thank you Watsonville! The teachers from the SCF teaching collective appreciate your vision of reconnecting our youth to the earth under our feet. Let us know if you need any of the surviving seeds from SCF.

In response to the comment about learning from SCF and "make sure you CAN use the land before you simply do so". Remember this land was given to this community after the LA Uprising as a way to revitalize the community. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony and everything. The city sold this public land as "surplus" land to a private developer without and public comment or townhall meeting. That the issue, its not about property rights but how he got those property rights.

Peace from outside the garden gates, looking at the last remaining few trees. Your solidarity fuels our passion to continue.
by Jackal
July 12th is a Wednesday, Monday is July 10th. When is the workday happening?

While this so-called "check" may be an internet troll, I think it's vitally important to learn from South Central. Obviously, it's teachers and students at a school that are creating this garden, with (I would assume) the school administration's "permission" or even "support." When the land is "owned" by a corporation (be it the city, the school district, or an NGO), there is always the risk that they will betray/backstab/abandon the actual gardeners, especially if they act with any degree of autonomy. The same thing recently happened to a garden at the SC Boys and Girls Club that me and a group of teenagers tended for six months, but was just brutally taken "back" by the Boys and Girls Club. The Homeless Garden Project however, owns the land it works, and therefore is far more effective in furthering the goals of self-sustainability and autonomy.

Nonetheless, I totally am in solidarity with this project, and will be helping out with whatever I can (both time and material donations).
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