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In addition to welcoming the worms, student-grown seedlings of pollinator and insect-friendly plants, like calendula, anise hyssop and phacelia, will be planted on Earth Day.

For example, crimson clover and phacelia are relatively easy to incorporate into the soil.

There were flowers that sound like Harry Potter creatures — bladder pod, brittlebush, lupine — on the coast, and gifts from the occult — desert star, ghost flowers, phacelia — farther inland.

One of the cousins’ fields had been split into two strips, the first left bare after harvest, the second planted with phacelia, rye and radish.

Thanks to Southern California’s wet winter, the Santa Monica Mountains are alive with luminous purple phacelia and bright blue lupine flowers.