CPA Executive Director Joy Lyndes is pictured at left during Encinitas Historical Society's recent Raised Beds Build Day.

Lyndes, a Landscape Architect and an EHS Board member, is leading volunteers during the first phase of EHS's educational garden project at The 1883 Schoolhouse, home to the historical society and also a musuem.

EHS will used the raised beds to teach schoolchildren and the community about the history of floriculture and agriculture in Encinitas and profile the types of gardens the students at the 1883 Schoolhouse planted and tended. 

The project is funded by a Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club grant. Thanks to AgriService for donating soil, Hunter Industries for donating irrigation system components, and Farmer D for providing the raised beds at reduced prices. 

Laurel Mehl, owner of Coral Tree Farms, is partnering with CPA to identify heirloom plants for the raised beds. First to be planted? Chandler Strawberries, three kinds of beets (Albino White, Bulls Blood, and Early Wonder), and a pollinator garden to attract pollinators that will help the garden grow.  Photos courtesy of Adrian Spector

Community Parks Alliance believes in creating strong nurturing relationships between the land and people, and that it is fundamental to fostering community health. CPA Executive Director Joy Lyndes is pictured here at right chatting with like-minded volunteer Katherine Blakespear, a member of Encinitas city council, and her family following a recent volunteer work party to clean up the Pacific View Elementary School site.

Encinitas Arts Culture and Ecology Alliance is leading the ongoing cleanups as part of its mission to revitalize the school, closed since 2003, and reopen the campus as a community arts and ecology center.  

Lyndes, a Landscape Architect, provided EACEA with a conceptual site plan for Pacific View's property. The plan, pictured at left, shows the site transformed by perimeter gardens representative of local agriculture history — from natives to fruit groves, flowers fields and hothouses, to the current focus on organic vegetables. See the plan in detail at http://www.eacea.org  Photos courtesy of Steve Barilotti. 

CPA is set to dig in on Encinitas Historical Society’s  raised beds project at the 1883 Schoolhouse grounds in downtown Encinitas.

Joy Lyndes, CPA Executive Director, a Landscape Architect, and an EHS Board member, co-wrote the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club grant that's providing key funding for the project. Lyndes will head up the first phase of the raised beds construction.

"Our focus is on planting heirloom and heritage plants which interpret the history of agriculture and floriculture in Encinitas, and also the plants that the children grew in their schoolhouse garden beds," Lyndes said. 

The Old Schoolhouse is home to the historical society and is also a musuem that attracts vacationers, area residents, and schoolchildren to learn about local history. With the addition of the raised beds, visitors of all ages will learn about the heritage of growing foods and flowers in Encinitas, known for its ideal climate and abundance of knowledge about agriculture and floriculture.

Evelyn Weidner and The San Dieguito Heritage Museum has a sister project that aims to capture the stories and the history of the many growers in the North County area and beyond. Read a Del Mar Times article on the project at http://bit.ly/2jnuzhk

Several organizations have signed on to offer resources and co-sponsor Heritage Garden events at the Pacific View Elementary School property which is adjacent to the Old Schoolhouse, including The San Dieguito Heritage Museum, The Ecology Center, and Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. 

Laurel Mehl, owner of Coral Tree Farms, is partnering with CPA to identify and plant heirloom plants for the raised beds. Thanks to AgriService for donating soil, Hunter Industries for donating irrigation system components, and Farmer D for providing the raised beds at reduced prices. 

“We are excited to be entering the next phase of life for the Old Schoolhouse,” EHS President Carolyn Cope said. Learn more at ​https://encinitashistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

Join us November 19 for Raised Bed Build Day from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.! No tools needed. Questions? Contact Joy Lyndes at jlyndes@coastal-sage.com 

At the second cleanup event at Pacific View School in Encinitas, held September 17, a crew of 29 Encinitas Arts Culture and Ecology Alliance volunteers shoveled, scraped, and hauled dirt in order to install erosion control straw wattles on the northwest corner of the school property. The straw wattles will keep the bare soil surrounding the school in place until drought-tolerant Southern California natives can be planted to enhance Pacific View and the surrounding downtown Encinitas neighborhood. 

EACEA's mission is to revitalize the school and its property, closed since 2003, and reopen the campus as community arts and ecology center. Learn more at http://www.eacea.org

The next volunteer work party is scheduled for October 22. Join us! For more information contact CPA Executive Director Joy Lyndes, who leads EACEA's landscape committee, at joylyndes@cparksalliance.org  Photos courtesy of Steve Barilotti. ​

This week San Diego opened its first wheelchair-accessible hiking trail. Located in the Black Mountain Open Space Park, the flat, wide trail makes a scenic quarter-mile loop. Made of decomposed granite the trail welcomes anyone who may have difficultly negotiating traditional hiking trail terrain.  

CPA Executive Director Joy Lyndes applauds this addition to San Diego's park system. Lyndes, a Landscape Architect, received the Common Ground Award for Innovation in Architecture award for her firm's work on the Feliz Paseos Universal Accessibility Park in Tuscon, Arizona. 

"Intentional design for users of all ages and mobility levels is what makes a healthy lifestyle universally accessible," Lyndes said. 

The trail, officially known as the Jas Arnold Trail For All People, includes four shade structures and interpretive signage. Learn more about Arnold, who posthumouly received the 10News Leadership Award for his key role in the trail's creation, at  http://www.10news.com/lifestyle/leadership 

​Find details on San Diego's new fully ADA accessible trail at www.sandiego.gov/park-and-recreation/parks/trail-for-all-people