Master Gardeners, March 26

Your friendly local LA County Master Gardeners are springing into Spring at the Green Tent on Sunday, March 26 (CicLAvia day) from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. They’ll bring plants and seeds to give away and will answer your gardening questions. 

Here’s what they’ve planted up for you this month:

Ornamental Sunflowers (Royal Flush variety) — includes multicolored flowers from brown to red to yellow 

Birds and Bees Sunflowers  — These will grow to 8 feet high with yellow petals and chocolate discs that follow the sun!

Italian Arugula -- that lovely spicy salad green. And their flowers are a revelation, with a nutty flavor.   

Wine Country Mesclun —  a salad blend straight from Napa Valley

Baby Leaf Lettuce Mix — a mix of Bambino, Simpson Elite, Esmeralda, Red Sail, Bravehart, Red Tide lettuces, just perfect in salads

Heirloom Tuscan Baby Kale — A favorite; healthy, hearty and lovely to look at; sweeter and more delicate than the bigger varieties

Wild Russian Heirloom Kale — lovely frilly edges, great in soups, stews or simply sautéed with oil and garlic 

Snow Peas (Oregon sugar pod) — great in stir fry dishes or raw in salads, eat pods and all.

Sugar Ann Snap Peas — chunkier than snow peas, and delicious sautéed, blanched or raw, pods and all, super sweet  

Broccoli Raab (aka Rapini) — a traditional Italian heirloom that produces an abundance of deep green leaves and tender shoots with tiny bud cluster. Imported from Italy!

Slow Bolt Cilantro — Lovely, bright, pungent — you let it go to seed, you’ll end up with coriander seeds, which you can use whole or grind into powder. For the haters, it’s a key ingredient in Indian cooking and tastes nothing like the leaves. For the lovers, you get both! 

And here’s a great resource for you: http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/Garden_Tips_for_Los_Angeles_County/

As always, please remember to bring your leftover “six packs” so the MGs can continue to grow plants for you each month. 

Los Angeles Waterkeeper, February 25

Do you know what a Marine Protected Area (MPA) is? Did you know there are two MPAs right here in the Santa Monica Bay? Whether you know or not, come by the Green Tent to learn what and how Los Angeles Waterkeeper monitors these precious areas with their fun “What’s the Catch” game. They'll have a few prizes for those who participate!


Los Angeles Waterkeeper safeguards LA’s inland and coastal waters by enforcing laws and empowering communities. They engage with an array of volunteers to monitor and steward Los Angeles waterways so all have access to healthy, living and safe water.

Los Angeles Waterkeeper is a member organization of Waterkeeper Alliance, the world’s fastest growing environmental movement. Along with hundreds other Waterkeeper Organizations, their movement works for swimmable, drinkable and fishable waterways worldwide.

Repair Cafe Preview, March 19

What do you do when you've got something you like but it no longer works? Throw it out and buy a new one? Stick it in the attic, the basement or under the stairs? Pay to get it fixed? Fix it yourself? Chances are you toss it out. Or maybe you store it away until that magical day when you can figure out what to do with it.... right.

There's another solution: bring it to the Westside Repair Cafe happening on April 1 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium Complex Multipurpose Room and Patio (4117 Overland Ave) in Culver City! The Westside Repair Cafe is a volunteer-run, community service dedicated to encouraging the repair and reuse of goods rather than relegating them to landfills. It's an extension of Our Time Bank's Sharing Economy program to further support sustainable living solutions.

How does it work? What can you bring? Do you need to register ahead of time? How can you volunteer? Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday and get all your questions answered.

Transition Mar Vista / Venice, March 12

Are you looking for deeper connections in your community? Interested in local resiliency and working together to make a more sustainable future? Join Transition Mar Vista/Venice this Sunday in the Green Tent and learn what's happening, right here in Mar Vista!

Transition Mar Vista/Venice is a local grassroots group with a vision of guiding our community from oil dependency to local resilience. They raise awareness about the issues of peak oil, climate change and economic contraction, and seek to address these challenges through community-building and other projects.

Chat with TMVV members about upcoming events, such as their monthly Transition Tuesday potlucks, and make an inspirational magnet to take home at the crafting station. 

Transition is where creativity, positivity, and sustainability meet to create community!

Visit the Transition Mar Vista/Venice Facebook page and blogspot for more information.

Food Forward, March 3

SHARING ABUNDANCE WITH THOSE IN NEED

Learn how you can help provide fresh fruits and veggies to the hungry in your community! Food Forward is a Southern California based non-profit that recovers produce from backyard fruit trees, farmers markets and LA's downtown wholesale market and then donates 100% of what is collected to local hunger relief agencies. 

Food Forward not only battles hunger in Southern California but also works to curb the environmental issue of food waste. Recent studies have shown that 40% of the food in the country never makes it to the table and 20% of what goes into municipal landfills is food. Southern California is an abundant land of agriculture and donating surplus food to the 1.28 million food insecure in LA county is a win-win!

Since forming in 2009, Food Forward has collected over 30 million pounds of produce, which has helped to feed 100,000 clients a month through 300 diverse distribution partners across Southern California. 

Sign up to volunteer at https://foodforward.org/volunteer/sign-up-to-volunteer/.

Food Forward hosts 150+ volunteer-powered events per month so, whether you'd like to pick fruit or go to the farmers market with us, there are many opportunities to contribute to our efforts in providing nourishing fruits and veggies food to those most in need.