By Raci Levine
Executive Features Editor
Senior Jordan Karambelas began her sustainable garden project in January of 2022. Karambelas’s goal was to generate a food source that lowers environmental impacts. Nature was always incorporated into Karambelas’s life from her parents Jo Karambelas and John Karambelas, when she had the opportunity to make an environmentally positive impact at Costa K took advantage of it.
“I was inspired to be environmentally aware starting as a child through programs such as Grades of Green.” Karambelas said. “ I have always been interested in nature and the ever present droughts and threats from climate change only spurred my interest farther”
Karambelas started this project in order to achieve a Gold Award for Girl Scouts, which she received on August 19, . Girl Scouts gave Karambelas the confidence and adaptiveness to problem solve, which helped her in the process of manufacturing her garden.
“Girl Scouts has impacted me by giving me the opportunity to work with my community and others starting from a young age.” Karambelas said. “It gave me the skills needed to manage my own projects and talk with businesses and organizations.”
To get materials, Karambelas received donations from local businesses like Aquaflo, Arqlite, Deep Roots, and Atlantic Water Gardens. These companies kindly helped her pursue her goals and were inspired by her environmental passion.
“I have always found [nature] relaxing and beautiful.” Karambelas said. “Animals and plants have always fascinated me and therefore I always want to try to protect them.”
Karambelas’s aquoponic garden works by using fish feces in the water to fertilize the plants. Karambelas has planted bell peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, strawberries, romaine lettuce, butter lettuce, Serrano peppers, habanero peppers, and Swiss chard.
“I use small, recycled plastic pellets called Smart Gravel as a substitute for normal soil.” Karambelas said. “The gravel and plants are placed in grow bins where water is irrigated to the plants via pvc pipes.”
She was able to put the idea to life with Mike Garcia and his team at Enviroscape LA. Garcia is a landscape designer from Redondo Beach who focuses on sustainable native gardens, and according to Karambelas, he helped deeply by making sure the garden worked successfully.
“Garcia and Enviroscape LA helped ensure the aquaponic garden was fully operational.” Karambelas said. “The Permaculture Club also helped in the building as well”
On July 5th, 2022 the LA Times published an article about Karambelas’s celebrating her sustainable success of growing food organically in a small place. In addition, the LA Times recognized Karambelas for coming up with innovative ways to lower the carbon footprint.
“Being featured in the LA times was an incredible opportunity for me and honestly a surprising one, since I never thought my project would get media coverage.” Karambelas said. “It was a great experience and the reporters and staff were very nice, even though I was nervous.”
In college, Karambelas plans to major in biology and sustainability. According to Karambelas, by the time she leaves Costa she hopes to have spread more knowledge throughout campus about sustainable agriculture.
“Hopefully [I] inspire [Costa students] to use these techniques [and] will bring my passion for agriculture to college.” Karambelas said. “I will strive to learn more about sustainable agriculture and new technologies”
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