Soil unit magazine Maya Emma Haley

Along with: Exclusive Soil Unit Trip Experiences An inlook of the history of the Arlington Garden A beautiful Propaganda Poster Exclusive Soil Unit Articles Prestigious Poems

Organism of the Year: Actinobacteria By: Haley, Emma, and Maya At first glance, soil is simply dirt. It’s everywhere! But if you delve deeper, there’s a lot more to soil than just filth.

First off, even a teaspoonful of soil is absolutely teeming full of microscopic creatures such as bacteria. Organisms like these, worms, various fungi, and some bugs all fall into a category called decomposers. They break down the bodies of dead organisms, such as a tree, or a dead fox, into nutrient rich material. This material, or humus, makes the soil a lot more fertile which helps plants to grow better with the excess nutrients. Soon, even more complicated and bigger plants are able to live in the environment, which leads to more of a variety of animals. The more plants there are, the more humus accumulates and more organisms are able to thrive in the ecosystem. As the organisms lived by the resources in their habitat, they are able to give back to the earth and return to the great “circle of life.”

Surprisingly, soil can also help in many other ways, such as water distribution. When it rains, hails, or snows, the moisture can either get soaked into the ground for later use for plants or other soil dwelling creatures, or skim off the surface into local lakes, ponds, rivers, or streams.

This saves the precious water we have left, and makes sure it is put to good use and conserved.

These are just two of the many, many ways that soil aids us in our everyday lives. The piece of paper that you probably printed your homework assignment on is made from wood, and the tree that was made into it was grown in soil. The water you drink when you’re thirsty probably came from your local filtered reservoir, which is partly made up of rain that either fell in directly or skimmed off the surface of soil.

Soil isn’t just the annoying dirty brown stuff that gets everywhere. It’s one of the most essential keys to life on this earth. However, most of what makes it so special are the organisms living in it that benefit the soil. To show our gratitude, we held a contest of organisms to see which one would earn the “Organism of the Year” award, a great honor.

This year’s competition for the most important organism in our soil was a tough race. We had many strong contenders, including large mammals such as moles, to tiny insects like mites and ants, and even a number of decomposing fungus. However, we felt that one competitor stood out above all the others. Dirt magazine is proud to honor Actinobacteria as its most important organism of 2014.

Actinobacteria can be found in fresh water, but they have made a bigger name for themselves over the last several million years as part of many of our backyard soil ecosystems. A few of their many important jobs are promoting growth in plants and animals, decomposing organic matter in the soil, and stopping many viruses that negatively affect the animals and plants in the earth.

However, humans have also been able to use the natural power of actinobacteria in a number of different kinds of medicines. Actinobacteria have also been in antibacterial drugs, antitumor drugs, and make up a number of different compounds that block harmful funguses from killing crops.

For all of these reasons, Actinobacteria have worked hard this last year to help out in many ways in our soil, and without them, our soil wouldn’t be nearly as effective or life-sustaining as it is. Thank you, Actinobacteria! However, despite the efforts of this valiant bacteria, there are still many threats to soil.

Organism of the Year: Actinobacteria: Continued Soil loss is a major global environmental issue. It’s also called soil erosion and it’s when the upper part of the soil is washed or blown away by water or wind. It affects all organisms like bacteria and humans. Soil erosion is the biggest threat to the world’s soils and without soil, organisms like our organism of the year, actinobacteria, and humans, will not be able to live. Many people do not realize how important soil is to everyday life. Just think of the consequences of having the material on which we rely for food, wildlife and other important uses, gradually disappearing until it is unable to produce the necessities for life.

Wind and water are the two main causes for soil loss. Wind erosion occurs mostly in flat or bare areas and anywhere where the soil is dry and loose. Wind erosion damage land and natural vegetation by removing soil from one place and putting it in another.

Water erosion can occur anywhere. Soils can become weakened and eventually disintegrate. As you can see, soil loss is an major problem with severe implications and must be dealt with so we can continue to live.

Luckily, many people are working to keep everyone informed about soil, its benefits, and its threats. The main way people are trying to prevent erosion is by making people informed and aware of this large problem. Another popular way is to make sure that the soil is maintained, and taken care of properly with the best care. This is because bad farming causes organic matter and soil structure loss. While there are precautionary measures, there are other ways to reduce the effects we have already caused. Terracing, an old tool where sloping land is divided like stairs, is used to avoid cultivation on slopes. There are various ways to prevent and reduce soil erosion and damage. These measures must be taken to ensure life for organisms, and the whole Earth in general.

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A Garden in a City Above me, the branches of an oak tree shield me from the harsh rays of the sun.

The plants look like they have not had water in days.

They droop like the face of an old man.

Closing my eyes, I hear the conversation of birds, Probably discussing our weird classes with rapid tweets.

A lizard does push-ups in the sun.

We watch him get built before our very eyes.

Perhaps he needs some good pictures for his Match.com profile.

A beer bottle reflects brown light onto the gray of the stone wall As the whining weed whackers of the gardeners Bring me back to the reality of the city I live in.

-Emma

Emma 5/21/14 Natural Ingredients I am six years old I am a chef in a restaurant With the biggest skylight Of any place a person could eat Today I am making my signature dish Mud Pies a’a Emma This is my recipe: Start with a cup of bacteria Add a fresh batch of mountains Broken down long ago Place in a pinch of decomposers Earthworms or funguses both work Depending on your taste Next mix in a handful of leaves And the finest flowers of the nearest monocot (or dicot) If it’s a beautiful day, Mix in some of the warm air around you Being sure to oxygenate your ingredients Let bake for 15 minutes in the sun Shape into tightly packed discs Once your preparations are complete Hurl them at your sister as hard as you can…

Nature is a dish best served thrown

Meditative Trance The dreaded scorching sun I cannot escape its burn Twittering bird song fading Farther, farther, farther‌ The soft babble of people’s voices They are unaware I am listening Tires screeching and engines roaring remind me I am not far from home

Many things to see An evergreen Her boughs sing The language of winds Busy little bumblebee All striped gold and ebony Luckily too busy to sting

All around me fresh growing things Smelling sweetly of green hope Rich musty dirt The honey scent of jasmine

Vivid hues in spring joy The intense heat however Scorches the edges to brown

My sensitive fingers grip A dead surface Tan and soaked up with hot sun I am afraid of splinters

Suddenly Louder, Louder, Louder Once again come the engine roars Peace shattered

-Haley

Praise to New Life As we pass on, hand in hand, friend, Thank the cows and chickens who fed you milk and sacrificed their flesh to our ever hungry bodies!

Thank the grass for nourishing you with its sweet green shoots!

Sing praise to the birds, the predators and prey, the bacteria, bugs, and the fungi who relish in our demise.

The apple trees, sunflowers, and cherry blossoms.

But most of all, Be grateful to our gentle Mother.

For she is the one who fed us, housed us, and nurtured us through all of these things.

Saddened and hurt by the poor treatment she cruelly suffers at our hands, Yet still loving.

And someday, we must give back to her, What she has given us.

Watch, my friend.

Our Mother Nature claims our mortal essence.

Wrapping what is no longer our own in a cool embrace; The kind that only mothers can give.

Her children eat away what we no longer need.

While the rise of our Father Sun carries the lasting webs of our humanity on sunshine.

Casting our brilliance over the souls of future generations, To every corner of the earth.

Watch, friend; Your blood sucked greedily into crevices of rock, My bones crushed to dust by unnamed creatures, As we had consumed the Earth when we used to walk it, She claims back what is rightfully hers.

A jolt of realization Dawns on my countenance.

As spring shoots push themselves up from their forefathers, Mushrooms crawl over dead bodies, And the seemingly innocent ground, Is swollen with old blood.

But how sweet the reaped reward is, my friend, oh how sweet.

-Haley

An Ode to Nature As I sit,

Living or alive.

in the rolling green blankets of moss, surrounded by the plein air, shielded by the birds that soar in the sky, my barbaric yawp rings in pure lamprophony.

Sitting in wonder.

As I sit, In the rolling green blankets of moss, and the plein air,

Because like the birds that soar in the sky,

surrounded by the birds above,

and the plein air that surrounds each and every one of us,

I’m surrounded by friends,

just like the rolling green blankets of moss,

and miracles.

I am free and without boundaries.

-Maya My barbaric yawp continues to echo through the mountains.

It travels through school parking lots, reaching the ears of decomposers all around.

It knocks against every unicellular eubacteria as it makes its way into the classroom.

These organisms need to adapt to this unruly yawp in order to survive.

Then I realize, everything is a miracle.

You need to appreciate every yawp that is sounded.

Why did I not realize that I was connected with every creature around me?

Just Another Hazy Day Hazy smelling sky, dust kicked up rises from the ground, into the sleepy air.

Above me, the blue and white speckled sky is a perfect backdrop for the beautiful garland of grasses, and roses.

I can’t tell if the roses are dying or waiting to bloom.

I must have mistaken the shadow of the rose for the shadow of my pencil, as it dashes across the ground.

I reach out my hand to softly graze one of the red petals.

Its delicateness allows me to close my eyes while I’m touching the velvet fabric.

Behind me, big leaves are friends for falling leaves and roses.

The birds are alarms, begging me not to focus not to focus.

I have to strain to hear the faint sound of crunching twigs beneath feet.

A black dot, so far away, so harmless.

It comes closer, and closer.

I flinch at the sight of the yellow blob that buzzes its way across my cheek.

By an accident my hand brushes up against a petite purple flower.

My instinct is to wipe my hand against my skirt, but my curiosity gets the better of me and I lift my hand up to my nose, breathing in deep.

The smell of lavender overcomes me, drowning out the smell of wood that previously surrounded me.

The foggy air smells of dirt.

I’m surprised to see the bee again, who flies across my path from right to left.

One brown leaf in the canopy above me shakes and rumbles, my prediction is correct as it absquatulates from the tree and lands on my lap.

The crisscrossed bench begins to feel uncomfortable, so I flop down and crawl under the bench for shade and protection from the birds who fly above.

It feels like 12:00 in July.

People should be done with lunch by now.

As I am called away from my position under the bench, I come to a realization.

Roses surround me, some have died even before they bloomed, some are competing to be the tallest, healthiest, or prettiest.

However, they are calm, and their constant serenity is not only admirable, but contagious.

After twenty minutes, a new mindset has overcome me.

This is my one wild and precious life, why not live it like a rose?

-Maya

Tomatoes Are Just Like Us

By Emma

CARROTS ARE JUST LIKE US

A Horizon Diagram By: Haley

The History of Arlington Gardens By: Maya The Arlington Garden is located on the corner of Arlington Drive and Pasadena Avenue. The garden was founded there, and it displays just how beautiful and affective a garden can be if watered using the Mediterranean climate we live in. Pasadena needs plant life that does well in our wet winters, hot, dry summers, and temper ate falls and springs. It’s Pasadena’s only garden dedicated to public display. The colors of the plants remain year round. Bright purples, reds, and yellows flourish during all seasons of the year. It’s also home to a labyrinth built by Mayfield Senior School on October 8th 2010. It’s meant to achieve a peaceful state and to enhance positive brain activity and quiet the mind.

Wildflowers at the Arlington Garden

The Arlington Garden is also extremely efficient and runs a low waste system. A low marshy area running the length of Arlington Dr. and a series of raised banks placed throughout the garden, catch and retain thousands of gallons of water after each rain. At least 20 trees in the garden have come from seed, and their annual wildflower display is entirely from seeds produced from last year’s wildflowers. Their orange grove produces hundreds of pounds of delicious oranges, which are made into marmalade that supports the garden.

Community Garden By: Emma Many people do not know it, but there is a community garden right in our back yard. Just a little bit south from us here in Pasadena is the Glassell Park Community Garden, a place where people come together as one to grow plants the natural way.

According to Miguel Luna, a master gardener for the Glassell Park Community Garden, going to the store to buy packaged food is “like wasting money to make yourself sick.� Community gardens let people change the way they eat and change the way that they think about food.

Some of the plants that are grown in the garden include potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, carrots, lettuce, and different kinds of herbs.

People also learn through the community garden how to make dishes made with all vegetables that are healthy and delicious. All ingredients are always fresh and always in season.

The Glassell Park Community Garden also brings people of a neighborhood together to help out on a common goal. People learn who the people are in their community, and everybody feels a little bit better about where they live and how they can make it better.

If you are interested in learning more about the Glassell Park Community Garden, you can plan a visit yourself by visiting 3304 Drew Street, Los Angeles, California, 90065 during daylight hours, or by calling (323) 521-9763.

Experiences From the Arlington Garden By: Emma Recently I had the good fortune to get to walk one block over from the Westridge School for Girls to the Arlington Garden. From the outside, you don’t have any sense of how large the gardens are. As soon as you enter into the gardens themselves however, you are amazed at how much room you have to look and explore.

One of the best parts about the Arlington Garden is that they have a range of plants that are actually native to California. This would be an excellent trip for anyone who wants to learn about the local plant life up close and personal. I personally enjoyed many of the different succulents that the garden had on display, including several kinds of cacti.

If you have never been to a garden like this, I strongly recommend going. The experience of being by oneself and sitting quietly in nature allows a person to really be alone with their thoughts.

Sometimes it is an excellent way to relax or to think about a solution to a problem you might have in your life.

Plants and wildflowers from the Arlington Garden

Arroyo Foothils By: Maya The Worm group of our class was lucky enough to visit the Arroyo Foothills on Thursday May 22. There, we had the opportunity to shovel mulch from a large pile that came from one oak tree and wheelbarrow it up to certain areas on the hill that contained many parasitic plants that act as pests. From there, we thickly spread the mulch over the plants. Mulching first occurred naturally, trees would drop their leaves and shed their bark and it would drop to the ground, covering the plants below it. A layer of mulch on a planting bed helps suppress weeds, retain moisture, and moderate soil temperature.

It was an amazing experience and opportunity for us to get to participate in.

We got to work together as a team, shoveling mulch to each other, pairing up to drag the wheelbarrows full of mulch up the hill and pushing each other down in the wheelbarrows, and spreading the mulch evenly on the plants with pitchforks.

This trip was educational and a teambuilding experience and if you have not done something like this, I strongly recommend you traveling to the Arroyo Foothills and volunteering to make the world a better place (and having fun while doing it).

Juliette, Maya, Elise, Sarah B, and Sarah L after mulching

Emma May 27, 2014 From the editors of Dirt magazine, I have to say that the last two weeks participating in the soil unit was far more interesting than I was expecting it to be. Plants and soil are always a part of our life, but I was shocked how little I knew about so many different parts about agriculture and gardening. Each rotation showed me something new about something I thought was familiar.

One of the more memorable days was when we got hands-on with worms and making compost.

That day, I felt not only connected to the world I lived in and the ground I walked on, but I felt more connected to the community around me and Westridge itself. Just throwing my trash into a compost pile where it would be used by worms made me think a little bit differently about what I thought of as “trash.” It really got me to consider how many other things we might take for granted, or if we might find a better use for other types of plants and items we don’t need any more.

The soil unit showed me many surprising things, including how unnatural a lot of our food is today. One unit showed me the difference between a monocrop and an heirloom crop. Just yesterday, I made some pasta sauce in my kitchen using all natural ingredients: fresh-grown tomatoes, handpicked basil, and oregano that came from just off my porch. All my friends and I could instantly taste the difference. The flavor was incredible, and it made me feel great to know that everything I used was prepared naturally.

I also really appreciated the aspect of guest speakers. I liked getting to know people who really were our neighbors tell us about what they were passionate about and how they were trying to make Los Angeles a better place to live in. In particular, I liked walking around the campus with Leigh and talking about our trees. When she mentioned our water shortage, I was more likely to listen to her and was fascinated by how well she communicated the problems we might face. After just a few hours, I saw how important it was to harvest rainwater and how different plants have different water requirements we should pay attention to.

Overall, I felt that the soil unit was an excellent way to end the year. I liked how all of our classes came together and we could really focus on exploring one concept in-depth. Next year’s class of seventh graders might think that this is a boring idea, but I know that they’ll be just as amazed as I was by how much there is to learn.

To the right: Leigh, a professional Master Gardener who taught us about the water crisis and which plants can help with it.

To the left: kids at work planting new herbs for the Westridge Commons, with help from some special guests.

Dear Readers of Dirt. Magazine, I, like others, have had the amazing opportunity to participate in a unique learning experience called the Soil Unit. During these past two weeks I have had to grapple with new concepts and really open my eyes to the world around me, and beneath me. The earth beneath my feet morphed into something that started out as just dirt, but changed into a living space for various organisms, a regulation for the flow of water, can affect the rate of climate change, and many more. Not only did I learn why soil matters to humans and to other organisms, but I also learned how it is formed, and how to put myself into nature, clear my mind, and see things I never would have noticed before. So with this newfound knowledge of soil, we were taught how to use the dirt to improve our environments and communities through community gardens, and making healthy choices. Along with learning all of these new concepts and new information, we were required to write nightly reflections. These first started out as a drag, having to say what was challenging, or something surprising, but in the end, I found myself looking forward to the nightly reflecting as a way of calming down and looking back on my day.

Interesting facts that I learned include that the oil poison oak produces in suntan lotion for if the plant sprouts in a sunny area, and that poison oak is only an allergen to humans, so it’s not a good idea to get rid of a food source for many other organisms. Another tip we learned was more relevant to our lives.

I used to think that foods like carrots and whole wheat breads were inevitably healthy, but I was surprised to discover that there are many ingredients in whole wheat bread, and carrots are generally sprayed with pesticides. A solution to this we discovered was to eat organically, and to spread the word about farms that use pesticides and hormones as preservatives.

We also had the unique experience of two offsite field trips to the Arlington Gardens, and to the Arroyo. At the Arlington Gardens we rotated between walking a labyrinth, letting ourselves sink into nature, and collecting samples and growing our own bacteria! We also had just as useful onsite opportunities where we worked with rain gardens, worm bins, trees, seed balls and more. This was extremely interesting because it was just in our own ‘backyard’. We come to school everyday and I had never even realized there were so many components that went into maintaining everything.

In conclusion dear readers of Dirt. Magazine, the soil unit was an educational experience that was very unique and I think I can speak for everyone who participated in the unit that we took a lot of information that will help our lives in a long term effect. If you ever have the chance to do something like this, I highly recommend it.

Your editor, Maya

Students walking in the Arlington Garden Labyrinth in a meditative state

Maya and Isabel mulching

Haley 5/28/14 From the Editors of Dirt Magazine, On the very first day of the soil unit, I had no idea what to expect. I mean, come on!

Dirt is just dirt, right? However, I had no idea how wrong I was going to be.

When the lesson started, I was shocked. I mean, I knew a little bit about decomposers and whatnot, but this was incredible! I didn’t even know that soil could play such an important part in our lives, not just indirectly, but directly as well. I learned how soil was formed, by erosion breaking rock into small pieces, then the small plants growing in it being able to decompose into humus which allows even more organisms to flourish. However, I didn’t only learn raw facts that day. When we went on the trip to the Arlington Garden, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but that first trip opened my eyes to the beauty of nature.

It was so tranquil and pristine there. I had an excellent time pulling my thoughts together and meditating. This made it quite simple to pour my peace out into the poem I wrote that day, of which I was pretty proud.

Days two and three were much the same, but still very fascinating. We learned about Victory Gardens, and healthy eating, both in which soil plays a big part. On the fourth day however, we took another trip to do some mulching at the Arroyo. We learned about different native plants in California and how mulch could actually stop weeds from growing. Some of us were laboriously pushing wheelbarrows laden with heaping piles of mulch up a hill. The rest of us dumped it onto areas where a weedlike grass was growing and smothered it so it wouldn’t take up any more resources for the other plants. It was very tiring, and took a long time, but we worked very hard, which I was extremely proud of. In fact, it was rather fun.

A few members of the Worm group hard at work shoveling and carting wheelbarrows full of mulch to spread on the hill.

All in all, the soil unit was an educational and entertaining experience that I enjoyed immensely. It opened my eyes up to the crisis on our planet, and ensured that I will be doing whatever I can to play my part in our Earth’s survival.