Home Grown : When the grounds at Westwood Elementary needed a face lift, everyone pitched in. Now, more than flowers and trees are blooming. Families are digging in together, and all involved have a sense of community, the Earth and accomplishment.

The school grounds looked tacky. But iceties like landscaping were out of the question in an already strapped public school system budget.

So during the eight-week winter break, students, parents and teachers at Westwood Elementary School are using their own sweat, resourcefulness, imagination and weekends to completely redo the two-acre campus--which may be what education is supposed to be about after all.

Their efforts have resulted in a free face lift worth $40,000, using volunteer labor and $20,000 worth of plants and materials donated by various companies.

When school resumes next month, a new irrigation system, new trees and shrubs and new grass will be in place, along with raised planters filled with red and gray foliage in a diagonal pattern. Work at the front entrance is nearly complete, and 18 other areas around the school are scheduled for planting in coming months.

Participants say more than flowers are blooming at Westwood. Families are digging in together; Principal Michelle Bennett has temporarily traded her pencil for a shovel, and all involved have developed a sense of community, of connectedness with the earth, of accomplishment--along with sore muscles.

“This project is really a shining example of what can happen when the school community and private sector come together to support their local school,” said Mark Slavkin, the Westside school board member whose district includes Westwood Elementary. “In light of the budget cuts, it’s more important than ever that private companies come forward and help. It’s not always a check (that is needed) but sometimes equipment, supplies and expertise. Hopefully, Westwood’s example will spur other school communities to say, ‘Why don’t we do that too?’ ”

Westwood’s ambitious beautification plan is thought to be unique in the district, although several other schools have launched planting projects. Venice High School, for example, has an agricultural program, and is looking into the possibility of raising orchids for profit to finance its work. Richland Avenue School in West Los Angeles has involved the surrounding community in its environmental center and garden project. The curriculum at The Open School in the Crescent Heights area includes gardening.

Spearheading the Westwood project are Rick Mosbaugh of Statice Landscape and Design, whose 8-year-old son, Ethan, attends Westwood, and school resource specialist Jim DeBiase, who is a special education teacher and a licensed landscape architect. They have worked with a committee of about a dozen parents and teachers to turn the plan into reality. Hundreds of students and parents, including the families of several bused-in students who traveled miles every weekend to help, provided all the labor in all-day Saturday and Sunday work parties.

Mosbaugh, who shepherded similar projects at two nursery schools that Ethan attended, said he was intrigued by the idea of a complete revamping of the school grounds, but knew that amateur gardeners would need professional advice. There were permits to be gotten, environmentally sound decisions to be made.

“Inappropriate plant materials would have been a disaster,” said Mosbaugh, a professional landscaper. “They wanted drought-resistant plants, but those wouldn’t work in areas of intense use--you have to have grass.” The compromise was turf that requires little water and resists wear.

Established trees were not disturbed, but several liquidambar (sweet gum) trees and a mulberry tree were added, along with red flax, gray fescue grass, and lily turf.

No environmental angles escaped scrutiny: Even plant-growth patterns were taken into account, so that fast-growing and spreading specimens were not placed in areas where they would need constant cutting. The result? A reduction in the amount of “green waste” that will have to be hauled away to a landfill.

Planning began nearly a year ago, and the first spadefuls of earth were turned over early last month. Volunteers tore out old plants, many of them sculpted into unnatural shapes and grown woody over the past 40 years. They cultivated the soil, installed an automatic sprinkler system, laid sod and planted. On “Scout Day,” about 100 Cub Scouts and Brownies showed up to glue sprinkler pipes together and dig.

“The kids are really out there sweating,” DeBiase said, adding that because the students are doing the work themselves, they will be less likely to indulge in graffiti and vandalism.

An educational videotape of the project is being prepared.

Mosbaugh is elated to see the youngsters digging in his chosen field. “It’s neat to see them out there with their parents. A lot of Westsiders have gardeners, and the kids never get to touch the soil, to get down to earth. It may even generate a professional interest in this direction.

“This has shown them that there is nothing they can’t do. That they can make a difference.”