Soil unit magazine katrina ronni carina

MULCH MAGAZINE AND hilarious

Featuring...

Organism of the Year!

Mr. Mighty Mole

Beautiful Poems, History of the wonderful Arlington Garden, Info about Community gardens, and MORE!

jokes and mind bedding riddles!

MULCH MAGAZINE Organism of the Year—Mighty Mole Mighty Mole is just one mole who represents his whole species - those many mighty moles. He has offered to accept this award of Organism of the Year on behalf of him and all of his fellow underground friends. In an exclusive interview with him, he stated, “Yes well, I just don’t think us moles get the recognition and respect we deserve.

A lot of people think we are dirty, disgusting little creatures that create holes and ditches in the ground, but really, we have important jobs too! And without us, you humans, and many other organisms, would not be able to survive!”

He does have a very valid point. Moles, along with multiple other organisms, dig around in the soil, helping oxygen get into the soil. And, as if that wasn’t enough, moles also eat harmful insects, that might try to eat or destroy plants.

Moles are kind of like the superheroes of the soil world, as they are almost completely blind. They live underground and can find their way through the tunnels they create by a sense of smell alone. They create these tunnels by using their front foot to push the soil upward out of their way while using their back foot to brace themselves by pushing their hind legs into the walls and ground around them. We can all agree that moles are the superheroes of the soil world, but why is that important? Why is soil so important? I mean, it’s just dirt. What could be so important about dirt?

Well, soil is probably the most important and essential thing for human life, because without soil we would all be dead. Soil is the building blocks and foundation of all human life. Soil absorbs rainwater and releases it later, thus preventing floods and drought. It is also used to grow food, make oxygen, and create a sheltered habitat for many animals, including humans. “Without soil, we moles would be dead within the first generation of our species because we would have no home, and we would have no purpose to live because everything that we help now, wouldn’t exist!” says Mighty Mole. He couldn’t be more right. Without soil, there would be no plants. With no plants, there would be no food or oxygen. Without food or oxygen, there would be no humans or animals. Without humans or animals, well, there wouldn’t be anything.

Now, there is lots of soil around us now a days. Just go outside and look around you. There is probably dirt less than five feet away from you, if you’re not standing on top of it. But, what if that was all gone? What if one day, there

Soil loss, or soil erosion, is a very serious problem. A problem that may one day amount to be as big of a crisis as the water issue. With no new soil being created, the human population will suffer greatly.

In just America we are losing soil about 10% faster than it can be made again. And we’re not even the worst. In other countries, the soil loss is even higher.

In China and India, they are losing soil 30% - 40% faster than they can replenish, which is becoming an extremely dangerous situation. Soil, all around the world, is being swept and washed away because as the human population has grown over millenniums, more and more land is being cleared for agriculture and other activities that make the chance of soil erosion much higher. And this is not only bad for the environment, but also the economy who ends up paying $400 billion dollars each year worldwide to repair the impacted damage of soil erosion. Although this problem at the moment, is slow and insidious, we need to start solving this problem as soon as possible. Many organizations, such as World Wildlife, are protecting environments and different sections of land from being turned into agricultural territory. They are also managing how people are treating soil, to help prevent the chance of soil erosion to increase. But, how does all of this relate to our Organism of the Year?

Well, the mighty moles are helping protect soil erosion by helping protect the soil. Moles help keep soil, and the soil plants are growing in, healthy and “clean” (as in keeping little harmful insects out and away from the plants). This keeps the soil healthy and fertile for new plants to grow in, and new insects and animals to be safe in. We really do have moles to thank, because without them, none of us would be here. So that is why, out of all the organisms we could have chosen, we thought the Mighty Moles best deserved the award from Mulch Magazine, for Organism of the Year.

MULCH MAGAZINE Propaganda Poster

MULCH MAGAZINE Poems from the Editors What I see

While It Lasts

I see a burning ball of fire I see Plants longing for water I see water drifting in the sky I hear birds talking about their day I smell artificial orange I see a bird land on the chair I see a brown bird on the chair I see a swallow on the chair I see kids chattering with purple tongues Where am I - Katrina

As I weave through the trees I think about life Why am I here?

What should I try?

I look up above me I see the birds flying free Without a worry In the world

As I look closely At those li le pink flowers I wonder

I touch the bark On a knobby Jacaranda tree It makes me feel content Like it’s just me and the tree

I close my eyes And listen Far, far away I can hear a helicopter flying It reminds me of the birds I saw earlier

Then I think This world is so beau ful Why not enjoy it Because you know It will pass

Deep Sea High above me is the endless blue sea, And trees, shaking their branches, Trying to stay afloat.

In the distance, I hear the never stopping rumble Of wheels tumbling over and over and over again.

The popsicle is blue, A meal fit for a king, But only if the sun is willing.

I’m not exactly sure why I’m eating it.

Possibly and probably because of the relentless heat, Or maybe, perhaps, because you chose to eat it too.

The sun is glaring down upon us all, Causing most animals to seek shelter.

Occasionally, A cool breeze with grant us all relief, But just for a moment.

The leaves have stopped shaking, And flowers, that once prettily graced the boughs of the trees, Have been crushed underfoot.

The cars are still roaring, though.

And the sea is still, The popsicle dead.

- Carina

MULCH MAGAZINE Poems from the Editors Who Am I to You?

The Land of Us

Circle of Life

The pretty flowers that we admire

The dirt, I now realize, is everywhere.

Underneath my nails, Below my feet, In the air, Everywhere.

When he died We all cried Thought it was a curse As his body soaked into the earth

Turn into the ground that we stand on I am beneath you Watching all of you walk all over me But you don’t know how important I am to you Without me You wouldn’t have Trees Which means you wouldn’t have Oxygen, paper, and more I know you probably have never thought of me Of something you need But little do you know that I am everything -Katrina

The dirt, I have found, is the foundation for everything.

Every plant, was born from Gaea, Every person, brought up and raised from the earth.

The land, under us, is everything.

This land, this earth that I stand upon, The land that thousands of others have stood upon, The land that many other will live upon, This is the land of life.

I am of the dirt.

We all are, though many are unaware.

Without the soil beneath us, We are nothing.

- Carina

As the body was laid down In the soft dirt The mourners tears Were soaked up in the earth The animals could hear The mourners tearsSoaked up by the ground What a deathly sound The soul still remains Of the man who died And new life is born A small deer Chomping on the grass The circle of life is an amazing thing We are all connected All family

- Ronni

MULCH MAGAZINE History of Arlington Garden As you drive down Arlington Drive, you may notice a small area, filled with a large assortment of plants. Home to 350 trees and thousands of plants native to California, the Arlington garden makes a great place for rest and relaxation Another great thing about the Arlington garden is it’s rich history. Way back in 1904, the garden was home to the Durand estate. Then, in 1964, the 17,000 square foot mansion was bought

by Caltrans, the state agency responsible for highway, bridge, and rail transportation planning, construction, and maintenance, to store heavy equipment. Only in 2002 did someone decide to do something about the eyesore that used to be a grand property.

District 6 Councilmember Steve Madison was that person.

In 2003, with the brainpower of a neighboring couple, Steve was able to get Caltrans to sign a lease, and the City Council to agree to their garden plans.

Very many people were involved in the creation of the garden.

• “The City and Pasadena Water & Power provided startup and continuing funding.

• Marco Barrantes and his La Loma Development Company gave the garden its bones of graceful urbanite walls, entrances • Neighbors and friends donated money, rocks, and the amphitheater. plants, trees, benches, pots, bird baths and more.

• The West Pasadena Residents’ Association donated a solar-powered water fountain.

• Ken Colburn handmade Adirondack furniture, raised herb beds and umbrella stand/planters.

• An eighth grader, his dad and granddad helped build the split-rail fence, and three Eagle Scout projects created our water-retaining berms and swales.

• Rob Miller and friends of lifelong Pasadena Sabra Clark provided funding, Ray Cirino constructed the amphitheater cap, and Janet and Rafael Calvo created the beautiful stained glass pomegranate that adorns the cap.

• Thomas Juhasz provided horticultural advice, and Finch Tree provided us with fine mulch every season.

• Albino Alarcon and his family provided great gardening skills, as well as hours of back-breaking weeding, mulching and planting.

• Armstrong, Bellefontaine and Lincoln Avenue nurseries supported our effort to plant climate-appropriate plants.” -http:// cityofpasadena.net/District6/Arlington_Garden/ The Arlington gardens are now a great place to go, for no charge at all, open from dawn to dusk, with plenty of things for you to do, such as, walking through the more-than-5,00-year-old labyrinth pattern, or hang a wish on the wishing trees. The Arlington garden has brought much joy to many people, and will (hopefully) continue to do so for many years forward.

- Carina

MULCH MAGAZINE Arlington Garden Collage I had a great time at the Gardens! I love taking pictures and that made it really fun.

I chose these pictures because they all represent different flowers and parts of nature that I saw.

- Katrina

MULCH MAGAZINE Community Gardens, Urban Farming, and Farmers Markets The idea of community gardens and urban farming was a really striking idea to me because I thought it was a great way to help solve the global catastrophes caused by us humans, such as food contamination due to the long miles it travels and the chemicals some farmers use to grow food, but also a great way to bring our community together. This day in age, social media and the internet is really decreasing the level of physical communication between people and their unity to work as one (I mean, people order their groceries online and have them delivered to their house, which is just lazy and also is making their food travel even more miles to get from the store to their house), so I thought having a community garden and interacting with other people in order to get the food you need was a win-win situation in terms of either buying your food, versus going to a farmers market or community garden.

With this idea in mind, I wanted to contribute an article about some local urban farms, community gardens, and farmers markets to get people in LA more aware of this brilliant and healthy way to boost our community. So I researched some local community gardens in LA and found some really interesting things that caught my eye. There is an organization in LA called the Los Angeles Community Garden Council whose main focus is to connect people with community gardens in their neighborhoods. It is a non-profit organization run by a group of community gardeners who are trying to fix local problems involving food transportation and are trying to bring communities together with the simplistic idea of healthy, organic food.

There are currently about 70 community gardens that are being grown in the Los Angeles County, which are feeding and sustaining approximately 3,900 families. This reduces poverty, mollifies global warming, and brings communities together to build self-reliant neighborhoods. It also benefits the LA River and Ballona Creek watersheds which benefits everybody getting water from those water banks. There are many Community Gardens in the Los Angeles area, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start your own Community garden in your own neighborhood! If you want to build a community garden for your neighborhood, the LA Community Garden Council will help you do so. Just visit their website and contact them to get started. You can also look on their website for more about their organization, to find community gardens near you, and/or to get involved with this amazing movement. (lagardencouncil.org) Urban farming is a lot like community gardens and people usually relate the terms, or use them as synonyms. Urban farming, as you can probably get from the name, is farming in urban places. Lots of people think that they can’t grow their own food because they live in an apartment surrounded by skyscrapers and busy streets filled with hustling people and loud cars, but really, that is not the case at all. Urban farming movements have really helped urban communities become healthier in their food choices and have shown them how to help the environment while also helping themselves. Michelle Obama, the first lady, is known for her amazing community service work and leadership to try to make America a healthier place for everyone, especially kids. She is involved with an organization called “Let’s Move” whose motto is “America’s move to raise a healthier generation of kids”. Michelle Obama helped jump start this organization by planting the first vegetable garden at the White House, since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden during WW ll.

She’s had help from many children across the country. Most recently she’s had Girl Scout Troops, second graders from Mitchell Elementary School, sixth graders from Stetser Elementary School and third graders from Summer Elementary School come and help her plant new seeds in the garden. But those are only the more recent helpers. She’s had many kids from all across the country come and help her plant and harvest fruits and vegetables in this garden. With the garden foods being used in the White House meals, this has greatly promoted the idea of Urban farming and community gardening.

MULCH MAGAZINE Community Gardens, Urban Farming, and Farmers Markets (cont.)

Personally, I love going to farmers markets whether it’s after a long, hard day at school, or to just have fun on the weekends with my friends and families. In the Los Angeles County, there are more than 230 farmers markets during the week (Sunday - Saturday). Lots of people don’t like going to farmers markets because they don’t find the concept of organic food important, or they don’t value or appreciate the importance of local gardening, but there are many reasons why local farmers and food at farmers markets are beneficial. First off, the food at the farmers markets are the freshest and the richest tasting fruits and vegetables you will find. The local farmers grow the food in their fields and bring the food directly to you. No overseas or long distance shipping, no chemicals to ripen or try to make the fruit taste better, no processed foods, all natural, healthy, organic foods that are fresh from the farms. Another reason to buy from local farmers markets is to support the family farmers! Small family farmers are having a hard time competing with food in the marketplace business, which really isn’t fair since these farmers are working their hardest to grow the freshest, best tasting foods for you. Support these hard working families, and who knows, even make some new friends. One of the most important reasons to buy food locally grown is to protect the environment. On average, food in the U.S. travels 1,500 miles to get from where it’s grown, to your plate. This abundance of shipping uses many natural resources, like fossil fuels, and contributes to pollution in the air and the water. Food at farmers markets travel much shorter distances and is usually grown with the thought to minimize the deplorable impact on the earth. If you want to partake in the improvement of your food, go to http://projects.latimes.com/farmers-markets/ to find local farmers markets near you.

I hope after reading this article you are more inclined to go to your local farmers markets and join, or even start, local community gardens or urban farms. If you think about all the pros and cons about community gardening, there really are only pros and no cons to partaking in community gardens, urban farming, and supporting local farmers marketers. And, I now have a task for you. From now on, every time you look at the food on your plate, think about it’s story. Where it came from, how it was grown, who it was grown by, how long it had to travel before being fried or steamed or cooked, to now lying on your plate ready to be consumed in just 2 minutes after it’s journey of many months or even years. Think about that and wonder, because everything has a story. Even food.

- Ronni

MULCH MAGAZINE Letter From the Editors I had a really good time during the soil unit! I had a couple challenges: Staying on task most of the time was a little difficult because We had two periods in a row that we had to sit and that was difficult. I learned so much over these two weeks, but not just about soil but about the world around me. I never new How important soil is to us. Also soil can be used for so many things, I was shocked to learn all these things about soil.

Something that surprised me? Well a lot of things surprised me. One thing that was the most shocking to me is how much pollution we let into the earth on a daily basis. And also how that affects our world. I heard when we where doing a tree walk that the deserts where once a happy animal filled land but once man came in, they destroyed that. All the building that we build are really bad for the earth because the concrete that we pour into the earth sucks in the water and then the trees don’t get it. Overall I found that the soil unit was a ton of fun!

From, Katrina

MULCH MAGAZINE Letter From the Editors Dear Readers, These past few days have been amazing. Actually, this whole unit has been amazing. Working and learning about soil has really opened my eyes, to many complexities and problems, but also to an astonishing world, that I never really understood or even really knew about before. From walking through the labyrinth at the Arlington garden, to working on propaganda posters, to making seed balls, the whole experience has been truly eye-opening.

Some of the things that really surprised me was how soil, was really much more than some ordinary, everyday thing, that we just walk on. Instead, soil is the foundation of human life. All of the different layers, different uses, and even the creation of soil is really astounding. Working with soil has also helped me feel a bit more connected to the earth. I felt some sort of connection to. . . nature, mostly when I was working with weeding, planting, and just getting my hands dirty. I think one thing that this unit has taught me is that I should learn to be a bit more in touch with my “outside world,” rather than my “inside world,” which pretty much consists of me and technology. We should all learn to find some kind of connection once in a while. Once you really start to think about it, everything is connected, although not always in a visible way.

From, Carina

MULCH MAGAZINE Letter From the Editors Dear Reader, I’m going to be completely honest. When I first heard about the soil unit, I wasn’t really excited and was kind of unsure about it. I thought to myself, “We’re going to be learning about, dirt? You’ve got to be kidding me”. But, this whole unit has been really interesting and very fun. I learned a lot of things about soil that I didn’t know before. For instance I learned about how we are all connected and how everything I do will affect something that happens in a completely different part of the world. I just find that whole relationship incredible and thought provoking. One of the highlights was definitely mulching all morning because I thought it was really fun getting down and dirty and working with my hands, and the tools, and wheelbarrows, and the mulch. It was a really chill morning and it was fun to have a job that had a good impact on that environment. I felt like I had a purpose to be mulching, which was what kind of what drove and motivated me to do a good job. I also had a lot of fun at Arlington Gardens walking around, looking at all the different plants, eating popsicles, and exploring all the different things that were there to be discovered. I also really enjoyed the labyrinth because I thought it was very soothing and calming to just walk around, not having to think about anything (although I tried, I could not persuade all those provoking thoughts to stop nagging at my mind).

One thing I really struggled with during this unit was the poems. I have always struggled with writing poems, and don’t particularly enjoy them, and although I try, I can’t really seem to quite grasp the concept of poem writing. Another thing I struggled with was putting the whole magazine together. I wasn’t really sure how to format it and kept changing the format before I had really tried the format, so I finally just tried something and I think it turned out not awful which, in my perspective, is a win.

I really liked this unit because I learned a lot about my community and the environment and how I, as a single person, can help make this world a healthier place, not only for me, but for everybody and everything. Overall I thought this was a really cool unit, despite my initial thoughts about it, and I really enjoyed being in groups and working with people that I don’t usually work with. I think this unit was informative and relevant to the world as it is now and our everyday lives. I think this unit should be taught to everyone and I think everyone should learn about their environment and how soil is really what is sustaining our life.

Thank you, to the teachers who taught me all about this. I will take this information and remember it everyday for the rest of my life.

From, Ronni

MULCH MAGAZINE Jokes and Riddles 1. Q: Why was the farmer dirt poor?

2. Q: What did the mother soil name her baby?

3. Q: What did the soil do after school?

4. Q: Why was the humus upset?

5. Q: What do rocks say when they agree with one another?

(Copyright from goodreads.com)

6.Why did the tomato turn red?

7.What do you give to a sick lemon?

8.How do trees get on the Internet?

9.What has no fingers, but many rings?

10.What kind of tree can fit into your hand?

11.Why is the mushroom 12.always invited to parties?

Knock knock!

Who's there?

Leaf?

Leaf who?

Leaf me alone!

MULCH MAGAZINE Jokes and Riddles Answers 1.A: He didn’t have any 6.Because it saw the

cent-ipedes in his soil.

2.A: Sandy.

3.A: It had a claydate.

4.A: Because everyone treated him like dirt.

5.A: My sediments exactly.

salad dressing!

7.Lemon aid!

8.They log in!

9.A tree!

10.A palm tree!

11.Because he's a fungi!

MULCH MAGAZINE Pictures and Memories from our experiences