In Sacramento, Garden Mosaics was implemented through a high school summer program. Ann Marie, a science teacher at Grant Union High School, and Daniela, a graduate student in Landscape Architecture worked with 12 youth from Grant's Environmental Organization to conduct Garden Mosaics activities with gardeners at the Food For All community garden.

See the results of our garden research in a PowerPoint presentation.

The Food For All Garden
In 1994, community members and a local organization founded the Food For All garden on the grounds of the Morey Avenue Elementary school. Roughly 200 families garden at the site.

The youth met a number of gardeners, among them Lu, Mai, Lee, See, Na, and Xiong. These gardeners grow mostly vegetables for eating. The most commonly found vegetables in the garden are: corn, cabbage, pumpkins, beans, peppers, sugar cane, bitter melon, amaranth, greens, eggplants, and tomatoes. Although amaranth is often grown for the grain, the gardeners cook the young, nutrient-rich leaves in a stir-fry. They also grow herbs such as cilantro, basil, and lemongrass. Lemongrass is a perennial herb that has long grass-like leaves. The gardeners use these leaves to flavor chicken dishes. The table below lists some of the plants, in Hmong and English, that the gardeners grow.

The gardeners grow some plants that are unique to Southeast Asia and do not have an English translation. For example, Tshuaj laum plab is a plant cooked with an egg to help stomach illness. Pam boom is an herb used in papaya salad or with rice noodles. Choua che kai is an herb used in chicken soup.

They also grow some plants, such as sugar cane and castor bean, that are not commonly found in vegetable gardens in North America. Despite its name, the Castor bean is not a bean plant and the seeds and pods are very poisonous. Although it is a beautiful plant, sometimes found in ornamental gardens, no part of the plant should be eaten. The gardeners use the leaves of the castor bean externally on the stomach for medicinal purposes.

The gardeners use a range of techniques to grow their plants. To save space, they grow many of the vining plants on trellises. They add grass clippings and artificial fertilizers to add nutrients to the soil. The grass clippings also help keep the soil moist and act as mulch. In order to water the plants at their roots, the gardeners have canals around the beds and add the water to these small ditches. This practice keeps certain plants such as cucumber vines from rotting because the water does not get on the plants leaves. When the gardeners have pest problems with their plants, as they did with insects eating their cucumbers, they sometimes use pesticides.

The growing season in Sacramento is nearly year round because of the mild climate. The gardeners generally plant an array of vegetables in the early spring. They are able to have successive plantings, that is, they can grow more than one crop in the same space during the season. For example, they plant a corn crop in the spring and a second corn crop in late summer. When the corn is ready, some gardeners have a traditional corn harvest ceremony. During the fall, they plant greens, such as mustard, that will grow well during the cooler winter months. The gardeners share their produce with family and friends. Although the garden is hard work, they find that it keeps them busy and healthy.

The youth in the GEO program visited the Food For All garden not only to learn from the gardeners, but also to apply their experience in the garden and with the gardeners to create a design for a new community garden at their school. At Grant Union High School, the GEO youth have a school garden. They would like to expand their garden to include a community garden for members of the neighborhood. Daniela and Ann Marie helped the youth learn and apply landscape design techniques in order to use their experience in the Food For All garden to help them with their own community garden design. For example, the youth spent time observing the layout at Food For All and sketching plants and structures (see one of the plant sketches). Daniela and Ann Marie gave them an assignment to take certain types of photographs in their school garden and at Food For All. Everyone then presented and compared their photos. These preliminary activities, in addition to interviews with the gardeners, helped them draft their own designs for an ideal community garden. The students will share these designs and hope to use them to create a new community garden.