Lawn removal, March 31

Lawn removal made simple...and cheap

Water guzzling and energy consuming lawns are a thing of the past!
  
Learn the most sustainable way to eliminate your lawn! Pesticides will certainly kill it off in a jiff, but at what cost? Back breaking digging may seem like a necessary evil when you decide to remove your lawn. But there is a better way.  Learn about Sheet Mulching as an organic, sustainable and extremely cost efficient method to use.  

Natalie Cousins-Robledo of Minanda Landscape Design and Beth Edelstein of Beth Edelstein Landscape Design will talk to you about alternatives to lawns, and how to get started. They'll share their step by step check list of all the items to consider before breaking ground. You'll be able to get inside the head of experienced designers as they guide you through the questions they ask their clients. They'll talk about City rebate programs, water catchment systems, plant choices, and design guidelines.     

Discover new and interesting ways to bring drama and beauty to your garden while saving money on water, fertilizers and maintenance. Whether you want a meadow lawn, a dramatic garden, new seating areas or a lawn look alike, Beth and Natalie can point you in the right direction. They will have photos and information on how to get you started on your green path to sustainability. 

Natalie and Beth are two members of the creative team for The Outdoor Room with Jamie Durie.

Master Gardeners, March 24

Spring has officially arrived! 

The weather's warming up. The Master Gardeners are hoping the cute 3-pack tomato pots they've planted for you will be ready by April.

Meantime they'll have seeds and seedlings to give away, including:

• Tom Thumb lettuce -- yes, crisply little mini heads, eat whole! 
• Little Marvel peas, for shelling
• Red Russian Kale still hearty and ready to rock your green smoothie
• Edible Mums
• Mild mustard greens
• Wasabi Arugula to keep things spicy
• Cilantro, perfect for now before the hot weather forces them to bolt (i.e., go to seed)

Bring your gardening questions. The Master Gardeners have answers! Please bring any empty six-pack seedling containers you have as well. The Master Gardeners desperately need more containers for the wonderful seedlings they give away.

Our wonderful Master Gardeners volunteers complete an intensive training program in all aspects of gardening and are a font of information. They give their time teaching others, especially in low-resource communities. They are at the Green Tent the fourth Sunday of every month. 

Master Gardeners 6-packs

Master Gardeners need your help

The Master Gardeners are in desperate need of six-packs. No, not beer bottles or cans: they need the little six-pack plastic plant containers that they use to distribute free plants at the Farmers' Market. 

Help them continue to provide you with heirloom organic seedlings - bring them your empty six packs please!! Just drop them off at the Green Tent the FOURTH SUNDAY of every month. THANKS!

The Wynbrandt Farm, March 17

Beyond Organic
     Beyond Sustainable

Secrets of Backyard Biodynamic Agriculture

We are what our plants eat and our plants are only as nutrient rich as the soil they’re grown in. We avoid processed foods. Why don’t we avoid processed soil and compost?

Dubbed “King Of Compost” by The L.A. Times, Steven Wynbrandt of The Wynbrandt Farm provides L.A. with a distinguished Biodynamic compost unlike anything else available on the market. This product of alchemy is essentially soil and growing directly in it produces unparalleled results!

Learn about simple (yet advanced) techniques for growing unfathomable amounts of the highest quality, healing food as Steven shares the recipe for this remarkably vital, biologically and spiritually alive compost. Be inspired to grow consistent daily feasts (thousands of vegetables in a single bed!) and see screaming examples growing before your eyes. 

Steven’s presentation will captivate the greenhorn and the professional garden guru alike.   

In the highest agricultural circles the world over, Biodynamics is regarded as the most advanced system of farming, producing the most sustainably grown, nutrient rich food on earth. Come find out why!

Farmscape, March 10

You can grow your own food!

Come learn how at the Green Tent

Farmscape is bringing a demonstration garden bed...and a farmer to help you design, plan, and plant your spring garden. Come learn how to plant starts with the farmer. You'll can also test out Agrisaurus, a  new app with powerful online gardening tools.  

Farmscape is bringing the farm back into the city one yard at a time. They've installed over 300 gardens across Los Angeles and weekly farm 150 of those plots. 

Farmscape is the largest urban farming venture in Southern California. It started in 2009 after a group of recent college graduates saw a need to change the food system, to provide access to quality food across the city and to bring sustainability to landscapes in Los Angeles. 

Join the ReFarm the City movement! Learn how we can work together to implement the vision of urban farms across the city and make Los Angeles the urban farm capital of the US.

Compost Teana, March 3

What's aerated compost tea? 

Come learn when Compost Teana visits the Green Tent on Sunday, March 3.

Compost is your soil's best friend. It's easy to make and it is a gardener's gold. Aerated compost tea is a way to increase and disseminate the beneficial biology found in compost. It's a powerful tool in the organic gardener's toolbox which can reduce compaction and increase fertility in the soil, break up thatch in turf grass, enhance disease suppression on plants and increase fruit production. 

Compost Teana will bring a couple of different consumer model brewers for people to see and compost tea samples for the first 25 people who come by the Tent. 

Compost Teana's Organic Landscapes has a compost tea service, as well as sustainability consultations, landscape design and composting workshops. 

Master Gardeners, Feb. 23

It's time to begin planning and starting your Spring garden

The UCCE/LA County Master Gardeners can help! And they'll have packets of seeds and seedlings to give away including

 "Little Marvel" - shelling peas

Red Russian Kale - it loves the cold weather we've been having.

Wasabi arugula - yep, tastes like the paste! Yummy edible blossoms, too.

Mild mustard greens

Red Salad Bowl Lettuce is easy to grow and has tasty red leaves. Loves this cool weather!

Shungiku edible mums - this is the last of them.

Come by for a free plant, some seeds, some advice and some garden chat!

Our wonderful Master Gardener volunteers complete an intensive training program in all aspects of gardening and are a font of information. They give their time teaching others, especially in low-resource communities.

Energy Upgrade California, Feb. 17

 Rebates and Incentives for Energy Efficient Home Upgrades

Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday, February 17, to learn how you can make your home more energy efficient and lower your utility bills. Program representatives for Energy Upgrade CA in LA County will be on hand to provide information about the rebates and incentives (up to $4,500) available for  homeowners who make energy efficiency upgrades to their home. 

In the City of Los Angeles, Energy Upgrade CA is offered through SoCalGas in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

By working with a specially trained Participating Contractor, program participants can get an assessment of their homes’ energy use and specific recommendations to make their homes more energy efficient. Once the selected upgrades are completed, participants typically reduce their energy use by approximately 10 to 45 percent and earn rebates and incentives that help pay for some of the costs of achieving those savings. In turn, homeowners not only save money, but they also directly reduce their impact on the environment by using less energy and make their homes more comfortable and healthy to live in.

Bike and ride...

Bike and ride...

...they go together - especially when you have a lightweight, collapsible bike like this from Tern

It will be on display when LA Metro visits the Green Tent on Sunday, Feb. 3.

LA Metro, Feb. 3

Metro's route to a greener L.A.

LA Metro is visiting the Green Tent! 


The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority operates the nation’s largest fleet of compressed natural gas buses – 2222 vehicles providing safe, clean, reliable, on-time and courteous service. About 1.4 million passengers board Metro buses and trains every day. 

Stop by the Green Tent and 

• Get information on Metro transit programs as well as bus and rail schedules

• Get answers to your questions about our Expo line

• Find out about Metro's 
Green Construction and Renewable Energy policies

• Learn what Metro's doing to make it easier to park and ride...plug in and ride...and bike and ride

They'll be lots of give-aways, including Metro to Be Green Canvas Bags, Recycled Pens, Pop Up Buses/Trains and Bike Pocket Guides and Maps.

Total pollutant emissions from bus and rail operations decreased 20 percent – that’s 362 tons -- between 2010 and 2011. Over the last decade, as Metro switched from diesel to CNG buses, air toxic pollutants were reduced by more than 92%. LA County residents taking transit offset about a billion passenger car vehicle miles each year; this translates to saving an estimated 420,000 metric tons of CO₂ emissions annually!

The American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials recently recognized Metro for its vision and leadership in the area of sustainability and environment.  Metro's Environmental Institute, developed to better create environmental and sustainability-related awareness, offer energy and resource management training programs, and better manage our hazardous materials and waste, was recently recognized by the National Training Institute as a model program for other transit agencies across the nation.