TEMPLE-BEAUDRY : Artist’s Hopes for a Garden Bear Fruit

Shortly after the 1992 riots, sculptor Tricia Ward enlisted Highland Park children to turn a garbage-strewn lot into La Tierra de la Culebra, a community park where people play basketball and enjoy flowers, a vegetable garden and murals.

Now she has her eyes on a weedy, vacant half-acre in Temple-Beaudry where she and neighbors this month will plant a garden of fruit trees called the Spiraling Orchard.

The Los Angeles Unified School District will lease the land, at Court and Bixel streets, to Ward in exchange for sprucing up and maintaining the property. The school district plans to build a high school a block from the Spiraling Orchard and had no use for the property, said Lloyd Monserrat, a field deputy for school board member Vickie Castro, who represents the area.

The fruit trees will be pruned to grow flat--a technique developed and used in France and Italy centuries ago-- to make the best use of the small space.

“The spiral represents infinity and the future,” Ward said as she walked through Culebra, securing rocks in a sundial that has been planted with eight colors of alyssum. A nearby ziggurat, formed with adobe, has become the favorite hiding spot for younger children who come to play after school and on weekends.

Ward has met with neighborhood groups near the new garden to explain her views on teaching youngsters about plants and environmental responsibility. So far, her ideas have been well accepted.

Monserrat said: “There’s very little open space there that can be of use for the kids and the adults that’s open to the community.”

Monserrat said Castro and other board members were impressed with the work Ward has done with neighborhood youths, some of whom have turned from vandalizing the park to caring for it and working there every day.

They hope the success at Culebra will be duplicated.

At Culebra, the Spanish word for snake, a serpent has been created out of the rubble that was scattered across the plot. Neighborhood youths have built a pond and a volleyball court, planted flowers, succulents, trees and bushes and painted several murals. They have started a vegetable garden that will help feed the hungry.

“This helped me a lot,” said Erick Barraza, 18, who began hanging out at the park shortly after it was opened. At first, he and friends would not participate in the activities, but slowly they started cleaning up the park, planting and preparing for social events.

Now, Barraza and 17 others have been hired as AmeriCorps workers, earning minimum wage, $4.25 an hour, and a lump sum for college tuition in exchange for working there full time and educating local schoolchildren.

They visit nearby elementary schools and work with students on resolving disputes. They also invite them to the park for after-school activities and recreation.

Barraza said: “We’re teaching them how to get along with kids from other neighborhoods.”