FloCrit Gals Who Garden Project

The hope of the Gals Who Garden project is to design, install, plant, and maintain a permaculture garden and food forest on the Florence Crittenton High School campus, which is integrated into a work-study program. Enrolled students would be exposed to new green career pathways that teach the importance of environmental justice while learning about garden design and landscape architecture, urban agriculture and forestry, and the basics of food production from seed to table. 

**We've broken ground! The fencing and irrigation have gone in. We continue to work on securing funding for the remainder of the garden build-out - see the timeline below. Collaborators are meeting regularly to make progress in bringing this vision to life.Through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this one garden can address multiple issues currently facing Valverde residents and Florence Crittenton student and their children:

- Good green jobs: Gals Who Garden will be a third career pathway on campus, opening the doors to mortgage-paying, meaningful careers to a population currently facing barriers to employment.

- Food security: the garden will provide local fresh and preserved food to residents currently living in a food desert.

- Tree equity: trees and shrubs planted in the food forest will help to combat the dangerously high heat levels currently experienced in the Valverde neighborhood, bringing the neighborhood closer to the city’s goal of 16-20% canopy coverage.

- Water conservation and turf reduction: replacing spray-irrigated turf with drip-irrigated garden beds and using earthworks to direct and harvest rainwater will demonstrate to the community the possibilities of lush, low-water gardens.

- Habitat: bringing a diversity of plants to an area that is currently bare ground and juniper will attract pollinators, providing important habitat for butterflies, bees, and birds.