Out of a Garden Grow Hope and Pride : Community: Project sponsored by Common Ground proves a successful educational tool. Several efforts are planned in neglected parts of the city.

Schoolteacher Larry Kirkus knows that pretty flowers and tasty vegetables are not the only benefits gained from having a garden.

Kirkus helped his sixth-graders produce a vegetable garden from a barren plot of land at Stoner Avenue Elementary School in West Los Angeles and watched them apply their classroom lessons to the real world.

“I had no faith in the program when it started,” said Kirkus, “but I have seen the pride that the students take in the school garden and its effectiveness as an educational tool. I’m a believer now.”

And his students are not the only people who seem to take pride in the garden. “We have lots of vandalism and graffiti problems at our school, but the one thing that has never been touched is the school garden,” Kirkus noted.

On Thursday morning, Kirkus and his students gathered with Common Ground--the organization responsible for his school’s garden--amid the flowers and vegetables of the 22nd Street community garden in South Los Angeles to plant a few more seeds of hope.

With seeds, soil and fertilizer donated by area businesses and the W. Atlee Burpee Co., Common Ground will sponsor a series of community gardens in historically neglected areas of Los Angeles.

“By planting vegetables and flowers, we can work to create something beautiful that will help heal the wounds in our community,” said Brenda Funches, managing adviser for Common Ground.

Already in its 16th year, Common Ground has helped construct more than 100 community gardens in the Los Angeles area that have produced $4 million worth of produce for families and neighborhood organizations.

Common Ground coordinator Sherl Hopkins said interested families or groups are given a plot in a community garden on a first-come, first-served basis and are free to grow whatever they wish, with the help of volunteers from the organization.

Common Ground is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but its work has been made easier by the largess of private companies. In addition to more than $1 million worth of flower and vegetable seeds donated by the Burpee Co., Common Ground has also received 9,000 bags of organic soil from Kellog Supply Inc. and a year’s worth of fertilizer from Miracle-Gro.

Funches added that Common Ground hopes to begin construction soon on the Uhura Garden Project in Watts, a 2.5-acre garden that, in addition to providing food for 1,800 families in the Jordan Downs public housing project, will also provide job training for inner-city youth pursuing careers in agriculture-related industries.