Garden City LA is a community coalition facilitating collaboration between people and plants to bring more life into the urban sphere.

Our vision is to help grow Los Angeles into a

GARDEN CITY

using our public lands to regenerate neighborhoods and ecosystems.

imagine…

parks and sidewalks landscaped with fruit-bearing shade trees, native plants, herbs and flowers, free for harvest

a thriving web of urban farms and community gardens offering access to locally grown food

teaching centers offering all-ages environmental education and ecosystem restoration support to help communities adapt

a green-jobs program training a city-wide corps of regenerative gardeners

Get involved!

We’re always looking to expand our coalition of urban stewards.

Drop us a line and let us know your vision for a greener LA!

More about Garden City LA

We are neighborhood gardeners, regenerative landscape practitioners, urban farmers, permaculture designers, academics, community organizers, climate stewards, artists, and environmental non-profits sowing a people-powered movement to make our city a greener place.
We are grounded by several tenets, among them:
– care for the people
– care for the land
– nurturing indigenous life in all forms
– addressing legacies of environmental racism
– favoring open-access solutions
We’ve currently focused our efforts in Elysian Park, which continues to be stewarded by the Gabrielino-Tongva.
Gardens provide an opportunity for connection in many forms, as well as cultivating resilience in our communities and ecosystems. Gardens have been scientifically proven to:
– alleviate anxiety, mood disorders, diabetes, heart disease, and feelings of isolation;
– protect neighborhoods from extreme temperature shifts;
– remediate soil poisoned by heavy metals and toxic chemicals;
– reduce rates of both community and domestic violence;
– protect biodiversity and provide habitat for pollinators/wildlife;
– capture stormwater runoff and recharge aquifers, which increases drought resiliency and decreases
– lessen wildfire exposure;
– improve feelings of self-worth;
– taste delicious;
– look beautiful.
TEACHING CENTERS: Inspired by the Urban Ecology Centers in the greater Milwaukee area, we will anchor our environmental education, green jobs training, and landscape restoration efforts in Garden City Teaching Centers across Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES GARDEN CORPS: We aim to develop a 12-month apprenticeship for aspiring and established landscape practitioners as a means of disseminating best practices for regenerative stewardship, from the home-scale to institutional level.
CITY OF LA FARM BILL: In order to harness incoming federal funding for urban farms, thus increasing Angelenos’ access to healthy, locally-grown food, we propose passing an LA Farm Bill to address antiquated zoning laws and standardize approval processes across city agencies.
PUBLIC LAND STEWARDSHIP PLANS: In order to tackle the widespread establishment of invasive species in our parklands (which are both increasing wildfire exposure and crowding out native plants), we propose working with LA’s Chief Urban Ecologist to develop stewardship plans for all of our parks, which will establish clear guidelines for land/natural resource management, as well as mapping out city-wide green corridors that connect our public land, wildlife, and neighbors to one another.