Valley students create The Strand’s first native plants garden
by Eric Michael Stitt - Hermosa Beach News
March 24, 2010
Now that elementary students have given new life to a once-neglected planter box at 22nd Street and The Strand, folks are able to get a small glimpse of what early Hermosa Beach settlers saw when they first walked along the impressive coastline.
“I thought it was a really cool concept and it supports the local ecosystem,” said Elizabeth Riley, co-chair for Grades of Green. “It teaches people to put native landscaping in their own yard.” Students from Hermosa Valley School gathered to create a native plants garden on The Strand.
(photo by Chris Miller)
More than 30 people, including students and their parents, dug dirt, poured water and placed California-born plants into the 400-square-foot planter box March 20. Riley said 65 percent of people’s water usage goes to watering their plants and lawns, but native plants don’t need watering after one year and hardly any maintenance, she said.
Riley got the project idea after attending a Surfrider Foundation event last fall that stressed the importance having more native plants. Then in February, she got approval from the city’s Public Works Commission to have students beautify the garden with plants donated by the city’s landscaping company, True Green.
Also, the students who did the planting will have an informational get-together at 11 a.m. April 24 at 22nd and The Strand to explain how each native plant helps the city.
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