Soil unit magazine zara audrey zellie

Inside:

Drawn by Audrey

-Exclusive new Barbaric yawp poems -The organism of the Year award -And all new facts about soil!

Newest issue of Zaz! New posters to keep!

Exclusive new song just off the charts!

Zaz Inc. Organism of the Year

This issue of Zaz Inc. is dedicated to: Theodore Alvin “Ted” Simone

Zaz Inc.

Organism of the Year: Earthworm MAY 28TH, 2014

ZARA, AUDREY, ZELLIE

The Earthworm Our organism of the year this year is… the earthworm!

This awesome and fascinating creature’s scientific name is Lumbricus terrestis, which means it’s in the Lumbricus genus and the terrestis species. The earthworm can be 9 to 30 centimeters in length and can live from anywhere from 3 to 6 years. If you were to hold an earthworm it would fit in your hand.

There are about 300 per square meter and there are several in each shovel of soil.

The night crawler is the largest species not native to America. Earthworms have no teeth and eat dead organic matter without them. When earthworms burrow, they swallow the soil. If you gathered the amount of worms

that were the equivalent in size to a football field could eat 4 tons of earth in a year.

Earthworms are important for the earth because they eat dead organic matter.

What that means is they eat dead things that wouldn’t normally go anywhere and they get rid of them for us.

Worms also make humus, which is the top layer of soil that is crucial and important in soil beds. The worms also create burrows, as mentioned before, that create holes for water and carbon dioxide for the soil.

Worms also incorporate the organic matter into the soil. We chose the earthworm because it plays a huge role in todays world as upstanders. The earth-

Points of this issue:

worm helps with the farmers crops and it helps fertilize the soil. We chose the earthworm for the organism of the year award also because it is not only a decomposer and a producer of humus, but it also eats our waste, that needs to be taken care of. So in part, the earthworms are helping us save the planet. Pretty good for a little worm, right?

Soil is important to life on earth because it grows plants that we eat, it creates oxygen for us to breathe, it establishes huge forests and it also is the base for buildings like the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State building. (contd. On page 8)

The History of Arlington Gardens The site started out as one of the most elegant homes around in 1885. In 1902, a man named John Durand bought 10 acres of land which was called Arlington Heights. The elegant mansion that had once sat on the property was removed when he bought the land and for three years, men worked to build Mr. Durand the mansion he wanted that resembled a chateau in France. Almost all the wood in the castle was hand carved and all the wood was polished with

gold accents. The house had 17,000 square feet of floor space, 50 rooms and three stories. 600 feet of the property was given for a tropical paradise on the land, with palms, cacti and century plants besides hundreds of varieties of flowering bushes, including roses and chrysanthemums that were placed in front of the mansion. The land remained under the rule of John M. Durand III, until his death in 1960. In 1961, the art and furniture in his home was sold in auction,

♦ Earthworms and Night Crawlers ♦ Poems from and about soil ♦ Arlington Gardens ♦ Plants ♦ Many new photos! ♦ Letters from the Editors

Inside this issue:

and the house was demolished. The land was taken by the government and made into a garden, and now a community garden, which is now three acres of the original 10.

-Zellie

The Earthworm

1

Arlington Gardens

1

Arlington Garden Poems 2 Barbaric Yawp Poems

3

Trees and Photos

4

Letters from the Editors

5

Continued Articles

6

Arlington Garden Poems

ORGANISM OF THE YEAR: EARTHWORM

Page 4

I...

I see green leaves, purple flowers with bumble bees swarming by, and brown trees I see words I see sculptures telling stories to one another I see a beautiful garden surrounded by concrete jungles I hear cars and trucks zooming past, people getting on with their lives

“And I think to myself, What were we placed on this earth to do?”

I hear cheesy ice cream music which makes kids happy

“ One

I hear children in the garden talking I hear a song “What a Wonderful World” sung by Zellie I hear the birds chirping to their beat If I listen closely, I could hear the sculptures speaking their language It is delicate like a flower, but strong enough to tell a story

Wild and Precious Life”

By Audrey A vibrant green vine with tiny white blossoms

The lingering scent of peppercorns

They glow like a thousand baby suns

Surrounds me

Little birds chirp a beautiful symphony

Arches delicately above my head

Next to me is a single rose

In the distance the faded silhouette of a great mountain looms

A deep wine red

A giant shadow The dry woodsy smell of the dirt

Its petals like smooth velvet As I stand, a beam of light shines onto a wall of petite yellow flowers

In the distance is the loud roar of a motor It almost brings me away from this wonderland Almost

Le Jardin de la Vie I hear sirens and cars, the reality of I see luscious, green plants that I see a white statue that holds our world a crystal, orange and floating blossom with every light to the sky I smell jasmine and the sweet I feel the air pool around me, smell of contentedness I don’t know what to make of the pollen dusts away it I see bees latch onto a green plant I hear a cheesy line from Zara I watch Zara frustrate herself beside me I see broken, brown mosaic on a with bees that swarm about large, round table that felt soft at “I see skies of blue, red roses the touch And I think to myself too” I see a chipped, green chair with an identical partner beside it

I hear Zara speak to herself, and ponder the world around her

What were we placed on this earth to do?

ZARA, AUDREY, ZELLIE

Page 5

Barbaric Yawp

Nature

By Zara The clouds’ tears fall Shattering as they touch life Green life burst through the soil I scream “EEEEWWWW, NATURE” The sun peaks through the gray sky Providing comfort from the otherwise cold day Nature

Not me

Maybe the nature is beautiful

It feels like four legged creatures climbing on your skin

It leaves a sent so lovely to the nose

Leaving traces on your soul The yellow mustard tells a story About how it got here I walk up and grab the black cloth And fill it with the story of life

Some say it is beautiful

It is a bright yellow Catching the attention of the insects and people But still being pulled away from its roots Nature is not to bad You take in the beauty of life And a trace on your skin that you don’t want to leave

the dirt,

Always

By Audrey

Even after I am

I stand in the sea of green

Gone

Dewdrops shining on my toes

After the decay

I feel the moist dirt

The fungus the worms

Underneath me

I will be the dirt

The dirt that is a part of me

I will be the earth

Will always be with me

Always

I will be the earth, Always”

Ode a la Nature

By Zellie Owen

but I knew they were there

I despised the idea of pulling weeds

I saw the humus, the top layer of dirt

Of pulling mustard plant weeds

It was spread out and very light when I took it in my hand

And even though I worked and worked I still had the feeling of loathing

I stood in the mud and I smelled the mustard I saw no bacteria or paramecium

“I will be

To escape the dust

And I felt it A sense of belonging And I realized I didn’t feel hate

Then a girl slid down the slope on the side of the hill And she spewed smoke towards my eyes I ran to the top of the hill

So what did I feel?

ORGANISM OF THE YEAR: EARTHWORM

Page 6

Profile of a Westridge Tree: The Eucalyptus

By Audrey The eucalyptus tree is known as one of the tallest trees on the planet. There are more than 700 species of eucalyptus that belong to the family Myrtaceae. Most species of eucalyptus are evergreen, though some shed their leaves during dry season. The eucalyptus is a very important plant because there are many uses for its wood and oil. Most species of eucalyptus trees are native to Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. It is adapted to be able to survive in places that have extreme heat or forest fires, which is usual for places

like Australia. However the eucalyptus now grows in India, Africa and America. Many species of eucalyptus shed their bark once a year. The bark of a eucalyptus is usually brown. However the Rainbow Eucalyptus sheds its bark many times a year and has multicolored inner bark. The lifespan of a eucalyptus depends on the species, but most species can live up to 250 years in the wild.

Photo Montage by Zara

Picking mustard plants in Altadena.

Time for a group photo at the Altadena Canyons Zellie working on her Arlington Garden poem.

I chose this picture because it shows the hard work we put into this project.

A beautiful flower at the Arlington Gardens.

I chose this because it shows the true beauty the soil can create.

I chose this photo to show the all the fun we had during the field trip while picking weeds.

I chose this because it shows the group having fun while picking the mustard plants.

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Sawing through a pole to make a food compost.

I chose this picture because it shows the processes of helping make more fertile soil.

ZARA, AUDREY, ZELLIE

Page 7 “The eucalyptus tree is known as one of the

Letter from the Editor-Zara Dearest reader, The past two weeks have been absolutely amazing. I learned so much about the soil and how much it affects us. I never thought that soil would be such an important resource on Earth. We got our hands dirty and really learned about the Earth. There were some challenges on the way, but we got everything under control and was able to finish the projects. At the Arlington Gardens we learned of new ways to relax and center ourselves and wrote poems. The class and I learned about the history of a labyrinth and how it helps release stress. We were not allowed

to make eye contact to each other or talk. It was a challenge for me at first because I am a chatter box and it is very hard for me to relax. After every one finished the labyrinth we went to a tree and did tree pose. I then moved to the next group which was with Mr. Cross. We were told to sit down and observe the surroundings and write descriptions down that we could later turn into a poem about the nature surrounding our lives that we do not take the time to look at and appreciate. A few days later we learned how to write a barbaric yawp poem. The assignment was to make a yawp poem

about nature and talking about what soil is to you and how your are connected to the soil. It was challenging to me because I do not play in the dirt for fun. I would rather stay inside and sit with a screen. To me soil was just a thing, not something I could connect to. It took me a while to be able to connect. The soil is one with the humans. One of my favorite memories from the soil unit would be going to Altadena to weed the Mustard plants from the mountain. At first I was very hesitant about weeding the flowers, but after a while my friends persuaded me to get my hands in the nature and weed instead of putting the flowers into the trash bag. That day was so fun. While working a group of friends and I would be joking around making each other laugh until we could not take it any more. After a while Bailey started to take many pictures, but that turned into a photo shoot… Overall this experience was the best. I learned about the story of the Mustard plant and I got to know people who I did not get to know this year.

-Zara

Letter from the Editor-Audrey Dear Reader,

ton Gardens where we composed poems inspired by the garden My name is Audrey. around us. Later on we learned Over the course of two weeks my about the differences between class has been a part of the Soil labyrinths and mazes. We also Unit. We have learned so much tested the surrounding area for information about soil, and we bacteria by getting samples of the have experienced many interesting nature around us and putting the and different soil related activities. samples in a petri dish filled with agar gel.

On the first day of the Soil Unit, we went to the Arling-

The next day we learned about Victory Gardens, which is when you grow food producing plants in your own backyard. Planting a Victory Garden is beneficial because you are able to control what goes into your food. We also learned about the layers of soil and humus, and how soil is good for our survival. A few examples are, plants need soil to grow, and we get oxygen from plants, therefore if there was no soil, we wouldn’t be able to live very easily.

On the third day learned about planting without chemicals, or planting organically. We also learned about commodity corn and heirloom tomatoes, and the differences of how and where they are grown.

Continued on page 8

Letter from the Editor-Zellie Dear reader, I want to thank you for reading our magazine! We had lots of fun on the way, and we learned lots of things. Some of the most fun moments were when we sat down with the soil and wrote poems about the soil and about our experiences with the soil. I had a fun time climbing up the rocks of a hill to pull mustard plant weeds!

Some of the challenges in this project were when we had to collaborate and work together on the propaganda poster, although it

turned out great and I think we did pretty well together! Another fun and exciting part of the Soil Unit was when we made pots from newspaper with Ted from the arboretum! We also made little seed balls that we could put anywhere. With a little water, they would later grow into poppy seeds. We learned a lot this unit, and I personally didn’t know a lot about soil to begin with. I thought it was just some dirt that grew plants, but it’s a lot more than that. A huge part of soil also

contributes to our buildings because it keeps them grounded. It gives us food by growing the plants, it reduces our carbon footprint, which keeps our atmosphere a lot cooler, it is a habitat for bugs and things that are decomposers, and it does a whole lot more. Being that I didn’t really have any experience with soil or dirt, I have learned quite a lot in less than two weeks. It’s been awesome to not only help our campus be greener, have more gardens, and have more plants in general, but also to help the ecosystem in general by lowering our carbon footprint. Although what we did isn’t going to stop or prevent global warming and the greenhouse gasses, we’ve helped by getting people educated about these issues and about what they can do! Another thing that was awesome about this unit was that it was pretty much all hands on. Normally in class we would read from the textbook and take a test on soil, with not very many hands on activities. It was awesome to get a chance to do that!

Thanks again!-Zellie

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We bring Continued Articles The Earthworm soil info Letter from the Editor In our environment, there has The fourth day of our Soil Unit we were able to have to you! been a serious issue of soil loss.

Soil Unit was quite an interesting professionals come to our school one. The class was split up into two groups and were driven to different location. My group went to a rocky mountainside that had an overgrowth of mustard plants.

Mustard plants are not good for the environment in southern California, since they require a lot of water. Therefore we weeded the mountainside, climbing cliffs until there was barely and mustard plants left. It was such a great sight, seeing a gigantic pile of trash bags filled with mustard and the mountain basically mustard free.

We got our petri dishes filled with nature back on the fifth day. We were able to observe how much bacteria there really is on wildlife and other assorted items. We also worked on propaganda posters, telling people to grow green.

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On the sixth day of the

to teach us about a variety of things, including, working on the rain gardens, identifying trees, planting a herb garden, making a worm compost bin, and making seed balls.

I was able to learn and experience so much different things during this Soil Unit and it has been such a fun time. I was able to expand my knowledge about soil so much.

Sincerely,

We have lost a lot of top soil that is the soil we see every day and we have lessened our humus, which is the most fertile layer of soil. When that happens, we can’t plant as many plants so we do not have as much CO² and oxygen in our system. Eventually if we sontinued to lose all our top soil/ humus, we would all die out.