Venice High Students Offer Herbs from the Learning Garden

This Sunday, the MVCC Green Committee space will be turned over to a group of ambitious students from Venice High School. They will be selling herbs grown in their very own Learning Garden. Proceeds from the sale fund a program for high school interns interested in gardening. These enthusiastic, committed students devote their summer hours to learning about urban agriculture. They master all aspects, from planting seeds to cultivating and nurturing young plants, harvesting and, finally, selling the "produce."

David King, Gardenmaster of
The Learning Garden at Venice High School

Sunday November 3, 2013
9AM - 2PM

Catching and Harvesting a Precious Resource: Rainwater!

Come learn many simple ways to help yourself and the planet by "harvesting" the rain (collecting it or redirecting it, for example). You can:


Rain barrels make great “green” gifts for the person who has everything!

Find out more at http://www.rainbarrelsintl.com/products.asp.

• save water for future use
• replenish and improve our groundwater
• protect wildlife, wetlands, and the ocean
• reduce our negative impact on Northern California and Colorado River import areas
• reduce pollution and energy use (oil and electric)
• lower your water bill

Denise "Deni" Friese, owner of Eco-Friendly Custom Landscapes and ecologist since the 1970's, is a trainer for the LA County Master Gardener program and president of the Culver City/Westside Garden Club. She teaches  and consults on many aspects of landscaping and low-water irrigation.

Newly-planted rain garden from

2012 Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase

Master Gardeners, Oct. 27

It's time to plant your fall garden

The Master Gardeners can help

CALLING ALL SIX PACKS! 
(of the plastic, not beer, variety) 

Don't throw away those six-pack plastic plant containers! Your faithful Master Gardeners need them to bring more seedlings to the market for you! Please drop them off at the Green Tent on Sunday, Oct. 27, between 9 am and 1 pm.

What they're bringing to market to give away

Fava beans which you can eat or use as cover crop; they fix nitrogen in the soil, ask them how. The snap peas they planted are doing nicely, so is the bok choy. You'll have lettuce through winter with their mesclun mix, plus shelling peas, some swiss chard and a couple of leeks to choose from. And a special bonus: strawberries!

Plus, they'll finally have some fall seeds to give away. Stop by, ask questions, get your garden going!

What to plant now

Fall is a great time to start a garden! Two weeks after replenishing beds with compost and manure, plant seeds and transplants for the veggies that will keep you eating well through the spring. Get some flowers too! (P.S.: The Master Gardeners' helpline is just a call (626- 586-1988) or email (mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu) away.

Veggies for Overwintering

Sow fava beans, celery, chard, chives, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce (especially romaine types and small-heading bibb and buttercrunch types, which overwinter well), green and long-day bulb onions (which will mature during the lengthening days of next spring and early summer), parsley, peas, radishes, spinach (especially savoy types for more frost resistance), and shallots.

Encouraging Bigger Strawberries

Locate strawberry beds away from where potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers have grown within the last 3-5 years to help prevent verticillum wilt infection, or chose strawberry varieties that are resistant to or tolerant of this disease. Incorporate compost, cottonseed meal, and other nutrients based on a soil test. Water well. After two to four weeks transplant strawberries 1 foot apart so the crown is just above the soil level. Strong roots will develop over the winter, and spring warmth will encourage fast growth and large berries.

Food Forward, Oct. 20

PUTTING OUR SURPLUS FOOD TO USE

Come learn about the Food Forward Backyard Harvesting Program, Farmer's Market Recovery Program, and other ways to help make an impact in Southern California by getting fresh fruits and vegetables to those needing them most. 

Food Forward rescues fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste, (called “gleaning”), connecting this abundance with people in need, and inspiring others to do the same. They convene at Farmers Markets, backyards, and  properties they're invited to and harvest excess fruits and vegetables. They donate 100% of the gleaned produce to local food pantries across southern California. 

Combined, their numerous distribution partners provide food to over 40,000 clients a month across Southern California. Since forming in 2009, they have harvested over 1,680,000 lbs. of produce. They couldn’t do it without the help of local volunteers who are passionate and active in their efforts to harvest food, fight hunger and build community.

Food Forward not only battles hunger in Southern California, but also battles the environmental issue of food waste. An article published in the journal PLOS in 2009 calculated that food grown and then thrown away accounts for almost one-quarter of all America’s freshwater use. Food dumped in a landfill rots and creates methane gas, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than CO2. In the EPA’s Food Recovery Heirarchy, donating surplus food to the hungry is the second most important step to solving the food waste problem - even more important than composting!

Pedestrian Celebration, Oct. 13

"Walktober" is here! 

Sunday, October 13, at The Green Tent, Crossing Guard Ryan will share with you how to get involved in Walk to School Day and how to stay safe when walking in Los Angeles. 

National Walk to School Day is October 9th and LADOT has partnered with the LAUSD to promote the first ever citywide Walk to School Day events. Schools throughout Los Angeles are registering to participate and celebrate the joys of walking. Events are being held throughout the month of October and include incentive giveaways, student assemblies, walking school buses, and other fun activities. 

 

Do you have a connection at a school that is not registered for Walk to School Day? Are you interested in being an event organizer or know someone who is? It's not too late to sign up! Talk to your principal about the event and register online at http://www.walktoschoolday-la.org. The website has the resources and guides you will need to help create a successful event.

Need more information about Walk to School Day? Call the hotline at 213-478-0475, extension 101, or email WTSDLA@altaplanning.com.

Environmental Sculpturing, Oct. 6

Ponds, Pools, Sustainable Water Usage

Environmental Sculpturing is coming to the Green Tent on October 6th! They specialize in biological swimming ponds, an up and coming sustainable pool system. This system utilizes the elements that occur naturally within our ecosystem yielding clean, fresh water.  The nitrogen cycle utilized in the biological filter is one that is required by every living thing on earth. Each element incorporated into the bio-filter used by Environmental Sculpturing plays a part in this cycle. They also deal with grey water treatment and rain water catchment systems.

The nitrogen cycle in this biological process changes ammonia (NH3) to nitrite (NO2), and then to nitrate (NO3). This application of nature’s way can be applied to a koi pond or used as a swimming pond. It can also simply clean an existing pool!

Environmental Sculpturing will be bringing a miniature water garden to display the application of natural water treatment. They are there to assist the evolution the commonly practiced methodology regarding, not only the treatment of koi ponds and swimming pools, but sustainable water usage in general.

Mar VIsta Public Library, Sept. 29

REDUCE – REUSE – RECYCLE

Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday and connect with your local reference librarian! 

There'll be story times for kids. You can checkout the library’s color-coded service map and pick up brochures and bookmarks featuring old and new library services available to all. 

No library card? You can pick up an application. Wondering what the Mar Vista Library's hours are? Come find out.

Learn why the Mar Vista Branch of the Los Angeles City library system is an important stop on your “living green” journey.

What better place:

• To reduce your spending than to use the library to pick up books, movies, magazines, newspapers, music CDs and audiobooks without spending a dime!
• To reuse the daily newspaper one section at a time without having to buy the entire paper when all you really need or want is the sports section!
• To recycle your books, music CDs and audiobooks that have outgrown their usefulness in your home library than to bring them to the library to share with others at the book sale!

And the best part is libraries are free. You can sit in a quiet corner all to yourself or attend programs and workshops: musical performances, face painting and crafts, slideshow presentations, lectures.

Master Gardeners, Sept. 22

FREE Seeds and Seedlings

The UC/Cooperative Extension LA County Master Gardeners are back on the 22nd this month (it's the fourth Sunday, really!) and they're bringing seeds and seedlings to give away, along with information about gardening. Bring your questions; they'll have answers!

This month, pick up some Monarch butterfly attractors, including milkweed plants and borage, a plant with heirloom clusters of sparkling blue edible flowers. You can also steam the stems and leaves for a unique green that tastes a little like cucumbers.

They've planted up some seeds saved by master gardener Dana Morgan, a seed-saving co-founding member of SLOLA (Seed Library of Los Angeles). She shared seeds from her beautiful fava beans, which serve as dinner for both you and your soil. If you wait till the beans grow, you'll have a delicious meal, but if you cut down the stalks just as the plants go to flower, the underground growth will fix nitrogen in your soil. It's compost in the ground!

Dana also provided rainbow chard, those brightly colored red and orange stemmed greens that taste great raw, in salads or in smoothies. And she also contributed lacinato (dinosaur, or tuscan black) kale.

Speaking of kale, the little curly-tipped Vates Dwarf Blue kale will be available, as will bok choy and some edible flowers, calendula (pot marigolds).

PLEASE remember to bring your plastic six packs so the Master Gardeners can plant up another crop for next month's giveaways. 

Bloomers! Schoolyard, Sept. 15

Come plant seeds with the Bloomers!

They’re offering a free gardening activity in the spirit of the Bloomers! Schoolyard program this Sunday at the Green Tent.

Participants will prepare zip lock baggies that they can decorate with Bloomers! stickers and then tape to a sunlit window once they get home to watch their seeds sprout. There will also be Bloomers! sheets for children to color at the booth  or take home to color. The coloring sheets are about the parts of a seed and the parts of a plant.

Every participant will also get a subscription code for Bloomers! Island, an online world that rewards players for going outside. The subscription code is good for a free 6 month membership to the Island and gives them access to the full Bloomers! virtual world."

The Bloomers! mission is to encourage the healthiest people and healthiest planet possible by engaging children in the magical world of gardening and nature. The organization’s education branch, Bloomers! Schoolyard, is a hands-on gardening and healthy eating program designed specifically for early learners.

Research shows...

• Eating habits are formed at an early age
• Children who eat healthy are much more likely to grow into adults who eat healthy
• When children grow their own food, they will eat it!
• Rising cognitive and behavioral issues are linked to lack of time outside and in nature
• Children who spend time in and interacting with nature tend to be more environmentally minded and make environmentally friendly choices
• Environmentally conscious adults are most likely to stem from environmentally conscious children
• Children’s participation in nature-based activities (such as gardening) is positively correlated with participation in nature-based activities in adulthood

Dirt's not a dirty word! Soil contains a special bacterium “Mycobacterium vaccae” that triggers the release of serotonin in the brain. “We want kids to go back outside and get their hands dirty!” is at the core of Bloomers! mission".

Since piloting a handful of programs in 2011, Bloomers! Schoolyard has grown immensely with 58 current programs throughout Los Angeles and Orange County.

Visit the Bloomers! team to learn more and to enjoy a free gardening activity for children.

NOAA FIsheries, September 8

Fish Facts

Ever wonder what seafood is sustainable – or how that is determined? What's the scoop on farmed fish? Are there species you should avoid? How are our fish populations doing?

Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday for answers to these questions and more. A NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries representative will be on hand to talk about how the federal agency works to ensure that commercial and recreational fishing in U.S. waters is sustainable. Learn about FIshWatch, a NOAA Fisheries website that provides easy-to-understand science-based facts to help consumers make smart sustainable seafood choices. 

Through sound science and by working with stakeholders, the Agency implements regulations to keep fish stocks healthy, maintain productive marine ecosystems, support jobs and recreational opportunities, and provide reliable sources of sustainably harvested seafood for U.S. consumers. 

On the west coast, NOAA Fisheries implements management plans for species such as tuna, swordfish, sardine, groundfish, and salmon, and administers the U.S. Dolphin-Safe Tuna Tracking & Verification Program. For more information visit www.nmfs.noaa.gov.