It's hard to imagine now, but over a century ago at the corner of 7th Street and Wilson downtown was one of city's first public schools and ground zero for Los Angeles' school garden movement. more ›

Today the USDA implemented new nutritional standards for school lunches, including allowing the two tablespoons of tomato paste on frozen pizza to count as a serving of vegetables. Yep, according to our government, pizza is a vegetable. more ›

One California farm industry group has awarded $1,000 grants to 100 preschools and day care centers in the state so that they may build and grow edible school gardens. more ›

L.A. schools are getting garden-friendly these days and King Middle School is the most recent campus to benefit from some green thumb goodness with the planting of 26 fruit trees, according to the Echo Park Patch. The trees were planted on Friday by volunteers from Friends of King Middle School, TreePeople and Disney VoluntEARS. Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge was even on hand to celebrate the planting and pose for tree-education photos. In addition to the new trees added to school grounds, 100 fruit tree saplings were given away to school families. LAUSD just approved King Middle School for an environmental studies magnet program that will focus on sustainability and environmental education which is slated to start this Fall. more ›

The Irvine City Council has approved a lease with a local farmer that will see to it 114 acres of Great Park be developed as an urban community farm. This is the first time farming will be taking place on the land that is Great Park since wealthy rancher James Irvine sold the land he used to farm lima beans to the US Government for them to use as the Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. more ›

Up until Monday, the portion of the yard at Saturn Street Elementary school marked as the garden was still asphalt. It's taken much hard work by the staff, students, parents, and local community, but today marked the launch of their school garden. To get things started, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made Saturn his first stop today as part of his Mayor's Day of Service. more ›

There's not a lot of good news out of the LAUSD very often these days, but there is some hope growing, and it smells a little bit like fresh dirt. That's because today Board Members Monica Garcia and Marguerite La Motte and the Mayor's Day of Service staff are teaming up with the LAUSD Green Program to give away 50,000 organic vegetable, herb and ornamental seedlings to school garden groups in the area. more ›

"Touchy touchy," begins a rebuttal of a rebuttal by Rob Eshman of the Jewish Journal's Foodaism blog. Indeed, Eshman touched some nerves when he issued his somewhat negative take on Saveur mag's Los Angeles issue, when he pointed out 10 things Saveur had wrong. But it wasn't really Saveur's fault, it's LA that's doing itself a disservice when it comes to food, and now Eshman says he's ready to "do what any good child psychologist would have suggested [he] do first: use positive language." more ›

Legendary Bay Area restaurateur, chef, cookbook author, and educational garden advocate Alice Waters is in town today to take part in the launch of the first Los Angeles branch of her Chez Panisse Foundation's Edible Schoolyard. more ›

On Tuesday May 12th, the Environmental Media Association, along with Yes to Carrots launched their new partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District to sponsor educational gardening in several of their schools. At an event held in the new garden at Helen Bernstein High School in Hollywood, many of the EMA's celeb board members were on hand to lend a hand and to share their interest in organic gardening and its role in both education and the Los Angeles community. more ›

This week, the Environmental Media Association's Young Hollywood Board is putting on the gloves and digging deep in support of organic gardening in Los Angeles-area schools. Celebs on the Board, including Nicole Richie, Lance Bass, Rosario Dawson, members of Maroon 5, Amy Smart, Matthew Rhys, Emily VanCamp and Emmanuelle Chriqui, will each adopt an area school, help with the planting, and check in with their gardens during the school year, explains People. more ›

The gardening trend is, without a doubt (and pardon the pun) growing. more ›

During World War II they were called "Victory Gardens"--home-tended sections of land yielding money-saving produce for folks without much money to spare. While "Victory Gardens" might call to mind PBS programming an older relative might enjoy, the impulse to plant and grown has taken root once again nationwide. Now we call them "Recession Gardens" but by any other name the rose--or tomato plant--will still smell as sweet:

Industry surveys show double-digit growth in the number of home gardeners this year, and mail-order companies report such a tremendous demand that some have run out of seeds for basic vegetables such as onions, tomatoes and peppers. (Daily News)