Nematoad Newz! IN THIS ISSUE: Page 1: Nematoad Newz Cover Page Page 2: Table of Contents Page 3: Organism of the Year 2013: the Nematode!
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A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED
Solano Canyon Community Garden
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A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED
The Tree Made of Dirt, Hanna’s Song Soundtrack
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A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED
Poetry Fresh from the Garden: “Barbaric Yawp!”
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Letters from the Editors
Poetry Fresh from the Garden: “Barbaric Yawp!” CONTINUED
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Poetry Fresh from the Garden: “One Wild and Precious Life”
Letters from the Editors: CONTINUED
Page 9: Poetry Fresh from the Garden: “One Wild and Precious Life” CONTINUED Page 10: Victory Garden Propaganda Poster Page 11: A Day in Descanso Gardens
Nematoad Newz! ORGANISM OF THE YEAR: THE NEMATODE! Nematoad Newz is proud to present the “Organism of the Year”: the Nematode! Nematodes may be classified as “free-living”: factors to the decomposition of organic matter, “predaceous”: harmful to plants, animals, and humans, or “parasitic”: and beneficial to the soil. Beneficial nematodes are known for attacking unwanted insect pests by sterilization, debilitation, or elimination by death. Biologicals, or medicinal repellants made from living organisms, can take many days or even weeks to kill unwanted insects in one area. Nematodes can penetrate insects within 1-2 days; they work with their bacteria. They are also soil, plant and animal/human safe. Nematodes have been awarded “Organism of the Year” for the past four years straight. Nematodes are simple roundworms lacking color and appendages, or additional parts. They are long and narrow and (according to the Greeks) resemble a tiny thread – nema = thread. They can be between 0.4 to 1.5 mm in length and can be seen with a hand lens or microscope. Over 28,000 nematode species have been recorded, however there is an estimate of around 1 million. Over 16,000 are said to be extremely beneficial to the soil. Though nematodes are hard at work, they also rely on the insects to help them reproduce. First, the nematodes track the insect or the “host” and enter inside a natural body opening (such as the mouth, spiracles, or anus). Once inside, the nematodes begin to infect the host by releasing bacteria (such as Xenorhabdus or Photohabdus), which soon and quickly multiplies. The nematodes eat upon the bacteria and the sterilizing insect and begin to mature into adults. Once fully matured, the “Steinernematids” nematodes become either males or females (“Steinernematids” and “Heterorhabditids” are nematode classifications). The “Heterorhabditids”, however, become hermaphrodites/both male and female. In few generations, there are some that develop either male or female. After the “Life Cycle” is complete days later, both the juveniles exit, intrigued for new hosts. Nematodes are adaptable to any ecosystem including soil, desert, polar regions, tropics, and even salt and fresh water. They can also withstand any elevation low or high. Although nematodes are extremely beneficial and can help get rid of unwanted insects, they can also provide much damage to crops and leave farmers very unhappy. The “predaceous” nematodes are known to damage the roots of crops, costing U.S. farmers an estimated total of over $8 billion a year. Nematodes are available for sale online or at your local hardware store such as Home Depot or OSH. Help protect your garden from pestering bugs with the little magic of nematodes!
Nematoad Newz! Go Exp loring: Solano Canyon Community Garden! There are more than 90 community gardens across Los Angeles County. Many were unoccupied, vacant lots that were all waiting to be restored back to beauty. Communities from all over have come together to build natural and organic gardens, but also to build friendship and bonds with one another. The benefits to a community garden are organic fruits and vegetables that are not imported from 1,500 miles away, and no high prices from grocery stores! One community garden that Nematode News found very intriguing was the Solano Canyon Community Garden, located in Downtown Los Angeles. Downtown LA is very urban, with many people vacant in the tall skyscrapers and buildings. A community garden seemed to be just what the Downtown LA community needed! The Solano Canyon Community Garden used to be the former site of Solano Avenue Elementary School. The school was torn down in 1935, after the building of the Pasadena 110 Freeway. The lost was empty for about 63 years, until the community residents established the Solano Canyon Community Garden in 1998. The 110 freeway runs along side and under the garden; part of the garden is located the tunnel of the northbound lane of the freeway (going east towards Pasadena). The garden is home to many vegetables and beds of flowers to emphasize the mosaiccovered walls. The garden is five acres in size; two thirds of the garden is home to an orchard and planting beds on the hill for the community to partake in. The remaining one third has common areas such as benches and thirty individual garden plots. The Solano Community Garden is located at: 545 Solano Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90012 -Alexandra
Nematoad Newz! The Tree of Dirt by Alia
For my individual article I chose to make a work of art inspired by the soil unit, and I immediately thought to myself, ‘now how to make a beautiful work of art inspired by dirt. And even though we had learned an incredible amount facts about the earthy brown stuff, I couldn’t think of any good ideas. Then it occurred to me that I could make the art out of actual dirt, I decided to make a tree on a hill and I went out receive supplies. I used an old wo0den Christmas sign for the base and collected different shades of dirt for the picture, though I couldn’t find sand or a light colored dirt for the sky as I had hoped, the picture actually turned out pretty great despite me having to paint the sky. The thing I am most proud of about my work of art is that almost all of it will eventually biodegrade (save the hot glue) and that way it will return to the earth, like we eventually all will.
For interest in Hanna’s custom song track about soil, please visit our website: http://www.nematoadnewz.com/
Nematoad Newz! P oet r y Fresh from the Garden: “ B a r b a r i c Ya w p ! ” The flowers I see compare to violence, dragging and twisting itself to the beat. The grass churns with the sixth sense of sound, making the chord, 1, 3, 5 of life. The bugs join in and chirp their melodies compacted and stressed with the power to make me sway along with the melancholy trees, which provide the bass line. Their consistent thumps and bumps. And just like that, I am pulled into this dance of life. The soil beneath my tough, calloused feet gives them the youth that they always longed for. My feet start to move. Not listening to my brain, which is saying No! You can’t dance!, my feet turn and twist me
I meandered through mist looking for the stream. It bubbled alongside forests and poured its depth to the mother. Shadows were with me; the mother had resurrected in green. It is a life-giving stream. I stroke a tree of concrete bark. The ruling oak tree of the heavens is reflected beneath the solid ground; I stand over it.
‘round like the thrashing flowers, my hands sway as if
The sun is shining through, penetrating the infamous mist,
they are the melancholy trees, and my hips travel along
I am on solid ground.
the lines on 1, 3, 5. Every other note. The chord. And as I dance to the beat of life, I add my own instrument to this song. My voice.
What will become of my existence? Will I be a reflection?
lovers are trampled my feet of genocide, I sing the
My awarded present, wrapped in a silver bow, has been opened; we must give ourselves.
crickets way of seeing me. I sing the tree’s joys of the
And you will do so.
children climbing its body of wood. I sing out all of my
-Alexandra
I sing the flowers’ pain as their backs ache from thrashing and twisting, I sing the grass’s pain as their
pains and worries, and then I retreat to the ground, resting my head on the soil that let me see. The soil that let me see the music in life. -Hanna
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Nematoad Newz! P oet r y Fresh from the Garden: “ B a r b a r i c Ya w p ! ” C O N T I N U E D I stare in wonder at the Nature around me and Wonder how you the timeless invisible listener Views this small moment in time. You are infinite and have seen all Nothing is new to you I shout at the forest. Around me lay the remains of various forest creatures Slowly joining with their brethren in the earth. I reminisce how I have spent the few years of my life How many days had I spent like this? How many days have I sat idle, knowing perfectly well that, My body will eventually become The sustenance of some farmer’s tomatoes. The worms tunnel through the dirt around me Churning the remains of my forgotten ancestors. How can we just sit here, Wasting our lives away until joining our forgotten families in the earth, fungi and bacteria dissolving our all too mortal faces into dirt and dust. We have such short lives, So little time before we too are used as fertilizer. We must live our lives to the fullest, And who knows maybe in the future, I’ll grow a poppy! -Alia
Artwork by Hanna with keyboard symbols
Nematoad Newz! P oet r y Fresh from the Garden: “One Wild and Precious Life” A gust of wind rattles the tree above me Sending numerous leaves spiraling and pinwheeling To the leaf-speckled earthy ground below. Far in the distance a mountain rises from the earth Strain to touch the untouchable heavens. The air is crisp and clean Complemented by the smell of fresh flowers. Around me echo the faraway, excited calls of some invisible bird The smell of a leaf that has descended into my lap Reminds me of a grassy meadow of the past. I dig my fingers through the gritty earth Feeling the dirt get stuck in my fingernails. A cloud of dust wraps around me The indeterminable scent invading my nostrils. Above me floats a lazy monarch Indifferent to how the world is changing. On my right stand tall telephone poles The only indicator that I am not In the famed Garden of Eden. My hand reaches out, Massaging the waxy surface of the green flora Whose vibrant flowers can sum up the entire garden. I abandon my wooden throne And realize that for the first time All is silent. A burst of laughter breaks the precious silence And brings me back from my Garden of Eden Well, The end is always a new beginning. -Alia
Above me, a butterfly with wings of triumphant blackened orange glides through a lonely blue sky. Beyond blossoming green youngsters are moving vehicles, locked outside the garden’s grand shut door. Hidden bumblebees hum their way through a labyrinth of flowers covered in sun’s shadows. I am comforted over warm soil, allotted with my pink and yellow flowering friends; my thighs pressed against it fringe over the stimulating prickliness of uneven rocks. Cool wind strains between aromatic blossoms; I am blanketed with remnants of fruit, soil, and jasmine. My face spreads like wildfire; the neighboring pink and yellow blossoms bounce to the occasion as the wind and I vie softly for their attention. I have the key to blossom. -Alexandra
Artwork by Hanna with keyboard symbols
Nematoad Newz! P oet r y Fresh from the Garden: “One Wild and Precious Life” Above me I hear the rumbling of my confinement. All I see is white. The white surrounds my confinement and it almost feels as if I am touching the sky. Almost. I hear my persistent monster of a sibling rambling about a dumb sword. Over and over again. It’s like the creature will never stop. Chitchat that is barely audible surrounds and kidnaps my ears. “Water?” “Here is…” “Excuse me” and other disturbances mutilate my peace, tearing it apart bit by bit. The intoxicating smell of life wafts through and my brain is reacting like a dog taking bath. Get out! My brain is not stopping, making me feel nauseous. But I’m strapped in, listing to Frank Sinatra and stuck for long hours. The feeling of this pencil reminds of the tree it used to be. How many others came from the life form that used to live happily, giving shade and fruit. Although the stick is small, it carries the capacity to paint pictures with words. To my right, I see the intolerable squid watching his flashing picture’s. At least not singing anymore. Too soon. This is not your typical garden. It’s not even a garden at all… The specs on a man’s head show him the world. His own garden. If I looked though his specs, I would see his garden. I only like my garden. I slouch over and feel the light interfere with my face. This garden does not please me. This confinement, this garden, is all fraud. So I close my eyes and wait . I wait for my garden, my peace, my sanctuary. My garden. My home. -Hanna
Nematoad Newz!
During the Soil Unit, we created our Victory Garden Propaganda Poster. Our motto, “Grow your children a healthy future.” recalls the upside to community gardening in urban areas. Victory gardens saved many from the infamous Great Depression. We should all pick up our hoes and “Do the hoe-down!”
Nematoad Newz! A Day in Descanso Gardens: “Flowers made the experience, not the trip.� - Hanna Nematoad Newz included some gorgeous pictures from the beautiful Descanso Gardens in La Canada. Hanna, the master photographer, took these beautiful photos. Many of the flowers in these photos seem to tower above you!
Nematoad Newz! A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED:
Nematoad Newz! A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED
Nematoad Newz! A Day in Descanso Gardens: CONTINUED
Nematoad Newz! L et ter s from the Editor s: Before this outstanding and hands-on Soil Unit experience, I had not known how soil was a necessity for all living things. Without soil, we humans would starve to death and/or suffocate to death. The plants could not grow without the support from the soil. Soil also stores lots of useful water, “groundwater”. It is also a popular ecosystem and is home to billions of species, many microscopic. Soil is also a foundation and a reason for the architecture of our major urban areas. I also learned how clay, silt, and sand are all different types of soils. We as a grade discussed the reasoning, importance, and heart of Victory Gardens, the infamous “Dust Bowl”, fertilizer, and composting/the decomposition of organic matter. The Soil Unit consisted of a lot of interactive lessons, lectures, group work, and fieldtrips. The first day, we learned about Victory Gardens and their helpful impaction during the grueling days of the Great Depression and World Wars I and II. We also focused on the benefits of composting and the different stages of the decomposition of soil. Soil starts off as organic matter, but gradually over time after heavy rainfall and precipitation, it (organic matter) breaks down into soil. In “Math”, we read a story based upon the Fibonacci sequence. We also learned about the Fibonacci sequence with his classic “bunny” problem. I had no idea that there is an actual reasoning connected to nature such as trees and math! We went on many off-campus field trips to assist and go with our Soil Unit experience. For our first off-campus field trip, we walked over to Arlington Gardens, a drought resistant Mediterranean garden in Pasadena. There we took and explored soil samples, practiced yoga, read soil related poetry, strolled around, and channeled our negative and pestering weakness(es) inside ourselves. After learning about Victory Gardens, we were able to experience the beginning of one in our own Pasadena community! We visited and became “assistant gardeners and weeders” in the new constructing of the Pasadena Community Garden. The garden was an empty, vacant lot when it was recently declared a future community garden by the city of Pasadena. During our P.E./Soil Unit “Adventure”, we hiked and later explored Descanso Gardens and the nature there in La Cañada. Later that day after the “Adventure”, staff and gardening experts from the Arboretum in Arcadia placed us in five rotational groups. We explored the trees on campus, started our own compost bin for the school, established a new herb garden for the Commons to use, built and improved the rain gardens by Mudd, and made our own seed balls and planted our own poppy and strawberry plants. For our main project, we combined all of our soil knowledge and experiences into one soil magazine created from Microsoft Publisher. We were assigned groups of 3-4 people and an organism that is beneficial to the soil. That organism would be featured as the main story article: “Organism of the Year!” Beside for me, there was Alia and Hanna in my Soil Magazine group; we were assigned to the “nematode”. Beside for our main story magazine, the three of us would include an article of our choice, our two poems: Barbaric Yawp! and One Wild and Precious Life, as well as other components. I am very thankful for this exclusive soil experience. I have learned so much about our Earth and how it works, biology (in general), and my “inner-gardener” self! It was also great to explore my community even more and get outside into nature. I will never forget this thrilling, hands-on, yet education experience! - Alexandra
Nematoad Newz! Letters from the Editors: CONTINUED: The soil unit so far has been really fun. I missed the first week of it though, because I was in London visiting my dad. Missing a week of a big project is hard, but my group mates were very nice about it. Alex Patzakis sent me an email about everything that I missed, which I greatly appreciated. But the thing that I did see-were totally worth it. When I came back from my trip, everyone rushed to greet me and say hi. After that was done, we split off into two groups. I went with the group that read the story about Fibonacci’s life. When we were given the problem to figure out, it was if the skies cleared up and all was blue in the air. I knew exactly what to do. No confusion or anything. And so did Emma Schou. As we worked together, we both realized that we finally found something we were good at in Math. So when we finished, everyone else was still working on the problem. I felt a sensation that I hadn’t felt in a long time in Math. Pride. After we had lunch, we met up in our mini groups to work on the magazine. Alex and Alia, let me say, had gotten a ton of work done considering that they only had two people. So I did as much as I could. I gave Alex my poems, photo shopped out Nematoad Newz! (Yes, we spelled it like that on purpose) a while. Before I knew it, class was over. The next day, I came in as a hiker with my tennis shoes, my water bottle, my camera, and myself. Ready to go on a hike, we made the torturous walk-to the bus. Just kidding, the walk to the bus wasn’t that bad. I rolled (Huffed and puffed) my window down, but my glasses on, stuck my head out, and closed my eyes. When we got the trail, they told us to stay with the pack, but most of us heard nothing. Sort of Charlie Brown style. Wahhh Wahhh Wahh, says the adult. Yes mister, says Charlie. Anyways, Matilde and I raced up the hill to see who would reach the top. Singing random songs about a diamond sword, a kid whose house is on fire, and a song that would be dramatic(if you couldn’t understand it.) we raced up the steep trek. We then reached a truck telling us to turn around because there was poison ivy and rattlesnakes up ahead. We traced our steps back and found the rest of the group huddled in a tight circle. We had gone past the meeting point! Well, some of the teachers were really upset about that one. Then, we walked back down the huge mountain, not to mention falling more than I have fingers and toes. Times two. We were ahead of the group again, so we hung out in a tree. As I drank from my water bottle, I heard a weird noise. It almost sounded as if it was a dolphin, but that would make no sense…. So, I put my water away and tried to look for it. Nada. So I drank some more water. There it was again! I started to get suspicious. That was before I realized the noise was coming from my water bottle!! So we(Matilde and I, in case you forgot) spent the rest of the time annoying people with that. Let me just say that Descanso Gardens was a lot prettier than I thought it would be. All of these flowers and trees… I couldn’t just pick one color to capture. In the end, we chose purple. Although, if you look through my pictures, you will see a lot more than just purple things. I took picture of so many other things. Like the weeping willow I’ve always dreamed of for my backyard (If I had a backyard) or the river flowing between the rocks. There were so many other things to capture than just one color! When we got back from the trip, we went to our B block classes. Then, after lunch, we returned to Mudd, hungry for more. We were sent off to different stations to view and to drink a little more knowledge. I learned that a worm is both a male and a female. And that learning about trees isn’t as boring as I thought it would be. And that my favorite tree is called the Camphor. I didn’t even know the name of my favorite tree! I planted strawberries for me to consume later (if my brother doesn’t get to them first.) and made seed bombs to throw at the ground as if to yell Grow!!! Grow now!!! I planted succulents at the Upper School science building. But the one I am most proud of is when we built the mini garden near the commons. I was just so into it. I kept planting the herbs, putting down the gravel(carrying the gravel in the BIG bags)on the soil around the stepping stones, and water the plants. I think the word I am looking for is important. I felt important. Not important… Important, like I was actually doing something to help the world, instead of destroy it.
Nematoad Newz! Letters from the Editors: CONTINUED Throughout the Soil Unit I have learned many things that I know will stick with me throughout my entire life. I have come to think of soil as much more than ‘dirt’. I would have never guessed that soil was so complex, and that I would actually have fun learning about it. For instance, I never knew that clay, silt, and sand were the three main types of soil and that there are so many microorganisms in the world around us. I learned all about organic matter and how it is made up of all decomposed living material, and about how serious our soil erosion is. I had so much fun making this soil magazine and planting and helping build the numerous gardens we got to visit. I personally love gardening and getting dirty for a great cause, so I especially enjoyed getting to spend time with my friends in the dirt. And while I found some of the activities somewhat repellant (the mold studying and reading Saint Phocas as Fertilizer), I found that after all was said and done, I felt happy and proud of my (mostly) calm attitude and in the process discovered something new about myself, that I would actually like to have a green burial. I’d say that thing part of the soil unit that I loved the most would be when we left campus and went to the gardens, my favorite of which was the Pasadena community garden because I love that it is still being built and that we got to help with turning into a wonderful park for others to enjoy. All of the wonderful experiences and knowledge that I have acquired through the soil unit will be passed on through me to my friends and family and hopefully they will spread the knowlage so that people are aware of how important soil really is and how we are ruining our almost irreplaceable supply, because soil truly is much more than ‘dirt’. -Alia
Artwork by Hanna with keyboard symbols