GARDEN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
AUGUST 2010 NEWSLETTER
- UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AT THE GFE
- GCETP APPLICATIONS DUE AUG 7
- Save the Date! GFE's 20th Anniversary!
- EVENT: Levi's Workshop prints poster to benefit GFE
- EVENT: Visit GFE at Outside Lands
- EVENT: Women Changing the Way We Eat
- EVENT: Eat Real Festival
- EVENT: Bay Friendly Landscaping Conference
- IN THE NEWS
- YOUTH EDUCATION: 2010 Growing Greener School Grounds Conference
- FROM THE BORDER: What We're Hungry For
- TIPS FROM THE COMPOSTER: Growing Food For Your Compost Pile
- VIEW FROM THE GARDEN: Flowers for the Compost
URBAN COMPOSTING
Date: Saturday, August 7th, 2010
Time: 10AM – 12NOON
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Cost: Free
Give your summer garden a boost that will guarantee vibrant colors and tasty veggies for the months to follow! Aside from encouraging beneficial soil organisms and conserving a non-renewable resource, composting makes an excellent fertilizer that releases nutrients slowly at a rate which the plants can use them. This fun, hands-on class teaches methods for backyard and worm composting for home and community gardens. Come learn what you can do to improve your garden and prevent organic waste from ending up in the landfill! Rot On!
Register Online Here
For phone or email registration: Please call (415) 731-5627, or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org. Or register in the garden the day of the workshop.
GARDENING FOR THE WATER-WISE
Date: Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Time: 10AM – 12NOON
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Hilary Gordon, GFE's Sustainable Landscape Education Manager
Cost: $15
As the demand for water increases, the preciousness of water hits home hard! With this understanding, it’s important to rethink how we design and grow our gardens to ensure our green spaces are water wise! Join GFE’s Hilary Gordon as we discuss the basics of sustainable, resource efficient garden design. This class will work with foliage color and texture, as well as sequence of bloom. Learn about climate-appropriate plants while exploring ways you can enhance an existing landscape, or plan for a new one.
Register Online Here
For phone or email registration: Please call (415) 731-5627, or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org. Or register in the garden the day of the workshop.
HOE, HOE, HOE: A TOOL MAINTENANCE CLINIC
Date: Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Time: 1PM – 2:30PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Thomas Vogl, GFE's Tool Maintenance Guru
Cost: $5-7
Garden tools, our fellow hard-working friends, need some love and care too. In this hands-on clinic we'll go over some of the most important gardening tools, their uses, and how to clean and sharpen them. The main focus of this workshop will be hands-on learning– so bring your garden tools and Tool Guru Thomas Vogl will take you through the steps of cleaning, sharpening and maintaining them. We'll provide the cleaning and sharpening material. If you don’t have any tools you would like to bring we have plenty in the garden just waiting to be loved. Be prepared to get a little dirty and walk home with a pair of pruners so clean and sharp your neighbors will be green with envy.
Register Online Here
For phone or email registration: Please call (415) 731-5627, or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org. Or register in the garden the day of the workshop.
EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT BERRIES BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK
Date: Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Time: 10AM – 12NOON
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Johanna Silver, Sunset Magazine Test Gardener
Cost: $15
Add some perennial sweetness to your garden with berries. It’s true -- blueberries grow great in our mild climate as long as you’re smart about which variety you choose. Same with raspberries, strawberries, and native huckleberries (plus a few that may be new to you!). Come join instructor Johanna Silver, Sunset magazines’ Test Garden Coordinator and learn everything you need to know, including selection, care, container suitability, design ideas, and more. Plant now; make pie later.
(Photos: Sunset Magazine & Kaitlin Louie)
Register Online Here
For phone or email registration: Please call (415) 731-5627, or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org. Or register in the garden the day of the workshop.
SUMMER PRUNING FOR THE URBAN APPLE ORCHARD
URBAN ORCHARD SERIES
Date: Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Time: 1PM – 3PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Matthew Sutton, founder Orchard Keepers
Cost: $15
Do your apple trees bare less fruit than you would like them to? Have they grown too big for your garden? Summer pruning is essential orchard maintenance and will help ripen fruit, slow down overly vigorous trees, and encourage strong branches for next year’s apples! In this workshop you will learn how to make the right cuts on your fruit trees this summer. Join Matthew Sutton of Orchard Keepers, ecological tree care specialists, and learn to enhance the health and yield of your fruit trees with appropriate Summer Pruning techniques. Stay for informal Summer Pruning practice from 3pm-4pm.
Register Online Here
For phone or email registration: Please call (415) 731-5627, or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org. Or register in the garden the day of the workshop.
GCETP APPLICATIONS DUE AUGUST 7th!
LEARN TO GARDEN!
PARTICIPATE IN URBAN AGRICULTURE!
BECOME A GARDENING AND COMPOSTING EDUCATOR!
The Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program ('GCETP') is a 3 month organic gardening certification program offered by Garden for the Environment. In three months you will learn organic gardening practices, urban composting, and be introduced to urban agriculture, sustainable agriculture and food security.
Enrollment in GCETP requires submitting an application. For applications, or for more information, please visit our website at www.gardenfortheenvironment.org
Applications : Available Now, Due August 7th, 2010
SAVE THE DATE: GFE 20th Anniversary Celebration, September 25th!
2010 marks GFE's 20th year teaching organic gardening, sustainable landscaping and urban composting to adults and youth in San Francisco! Please save the date, September 25th, 2010 for a whole day of incredible events!
EVENT: Support GFE & Edible Schoolyard at Levi's Workshops
Date: Fri, Aug 20, 2010
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Location: Levi's Workshops, 580 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA
Local printers at Levi's Workshops have printed posters to benefit the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley and Garden for the Environment! Join us on August 20th, 7pm - 9pm at the Levi's Workshop on Valencia Street in San Francisco! Both printed posters, printed onsite, will be available for purchase to support the Edible Schoolyard and Garden for the Environment!
EVENT: Visit GFE at 2010 Outside Lands Music Festival
Date: Aigist 14 & August 15, 2010
Location: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA
Heading to the Outside Lands Music Festival this year? Find GFE at 'Eco Lands' and sit-in one our mini gardening workshops! Home Composting with Worms and Be a Victory Gardener! What is Eco-Lands? Find out at sfoutsidelands.com
http://www.sfoutsidelands.com/festival/greening.php
Join Outside Lands and SF Surfrider for an Ocean Beach Clean-up, Sat August 14th, 10am
EVENT: Women Changing the Way We Eat & 'Farmer Jane' author Temra Costa
Date: Mon, Aug 16, 2010
Time: 5:30pm Reception, 6pm Program
Location: Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA
Women (including First Lady Michelle Obama) are using their unique leadership skills to play a critical role in the sustainable food movement. Join Farmer Jane author Temra Costa to learn how women are working diligently and effectively to change the way Americans eat and farm. More information and tickets here.
EVENT: Eat Real Festival 2010
Date: August 27, 28, 29, 2010
Location: Jack London Square, Oakland, CA
The Eat Real Festival, the country’s first celebration of street food and craft foods featuring sustainably produced products, will take place at Jack London Square in Oakland, August 27-29. By focusing on fresh and local ingredients - and their amazing flavors - Eat Real shows how easy it is to support a regional food system by bringing farmers, food producers and eaters together. YUM! Eatrealfest.com
EVENT: Bay Friendly Landscaping Conference 2010
Date: September 17th, 2010 (Register by Sept. 1)
Time: 8am - 5pm
Location: St. Mary's Event Center, San Francisco, CA
Build your skills and knowledge of sustainable landscaping or work toward becoming a Qualified Bay Friendly Landscape Professional! This year's Bay-Friendly Conference and Marketplace will be in San Francisco! Conference Theme: Transforming Urban Landscapes to Protect Our Water Resources.
For registration, pre-conference tour, and info visit http://www.bayfriendlycoalition.org/2010Conference
Register by September 1st.
Sweet Honey on the Block
NY Times, Hugh Raffles
July 6, 2010
"For the first time in more than a decade, New York’s beekeepers are claiming their summer perches on the city’s rooftops. Bowing to a citywide campaign, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently removed honeybees from the Health Code’s register of “venomous insects” and other prohibited animals...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/opinion/07Raffles.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=urban%20bees&st=cse
It's a Truck! It's a Farm! (And Now, It's Going To Be a Movie.)
PlanetGreen, Virginia Sole-Smith
June 11, 2010
"...when I moved to New York City two years ago, it didn't take long to realize I didn't have any place to grow food. Setting my sights on the 5' x 8' bed of my Granddad's old pickup, Truck Farm was born. I borrowed green roof technology to facilitate good drainage and hold the soil in place, planted a few rows of heirloom seeds and watched the garden grow!"
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/its-a-truck-its-a-farm-and-now-its-going-to-be-a-movie.html
Want to Grow Food on City of Oakland Land? Here's How
The Ethicurean, Stephanie Paige Ogburn
July 21, 2010
"We’ve all seen it: the vacant lot down the street that gets full sun, or the underused city park choked over with weeds. And many of us have thought: I bet that would be a great community garden space, if some enterprising growers could take it over."
http://www.ethicurean.com/2010/07/21/want-to-grow-food-on-city-of-oakland-land-heres-how/
GFE's Youth Educator is currently riding her bicycle across Iowa! Go Nicole!
This month we wanted to let you know that the SF Green Schoolyard Alliance 2010 'Growing Greener School Grounds Confrence' is now accepting registration!
2010 GROWING GREENER SCHOOL GROUNDS CONFERENCE
Date: September 24th & 25th, 2010
Location: San Francisco, CA
The 2010 conference will feature hands-on workshops where you can learn how to use the sun as a teaching resource, understand the basics of organic gardening, build your own planting beds, create colorful mosaics, install irrigation, and more. In addition, many workshops will cover how to connect the outdoor classroom to the education content standards at all grade levels. Visit SFGREENSCHOOLS.ORG for more information.
Questions about Youth at the GFE?
Email Nicole at Nicole@gardenfortheenvironment.org
Each month Hilary Gordon, GFE’s Sustainable Landscape Education Manager, shares her wealth of gardening experience and knowledge in this monthly column From the Border.
WHAT WE'RE HUNGRY FOR
"One fine morning, I was pruning and shaping the flowering shrubs at the GFE, when someone walked by and said, “Why don’t you pull all this out and grow food?" It’s a legitimate question."
Read more of the August "From the Border"
(Photo: Sambucus at GFE)
Growing Food For Your Compost Pile
“For every unit of food we consume, using the conventional agricultural methods employed in the U.S., six times that amount of topsoil is lost.”—Ode Magazine, “The Joy of Dirt”, Larry Gallagher, March 2010.
According to John Jeavons, author of How to Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine, in order to truly create a sustainable garden, be it a backyard garden or a large-scale community garden, you must replenish your garden’s topsoil at the same rate it is used. This does not mean borrowing nutrients and soil amendments generated on other sites. Jeavons is asking each of us to make our own compost onsite using mostly materials grown onsite. In fact, Jeavons recommends small-scale gardeners dedicate 60% of their growing space towards cultivating biomass for your compost pile.
As an urban gardener, you may find yourself challenged by this request and understandably so. Practically speaking, this idea of growing food for your compost pile, occupying the encouraged 60% of your garden, is not appropriate for every space. However, the underlying message is that soil is precious and that part of our work as gardeners is to consider of the value of soil in every action we take in your garden. If you are interested in growing food for your compost pile, consider choosing from some of these crops that are fleshy and full of nitrogen content that will surely get your pile cooking:
- Fava Beans
- Cardoons
- Perennial Buckwheat
ROT ON!
Questions or comments about composting?
Email Suzi at Suzi@gardenfortheenvironment.org
Last Month in the Garden: Flowers for the Compost
Top: GCETP Graduate Sir Lawrence and his wife Genevieve have been making compost at the GFE of unparalleled quality; Middle Top: Potato harvest at GFE by the 'Awesome Farmers'; Middle Bottom: Matthew Sutton teaching 'The Urban Apple Orchard'; Bottom: Pam Peirce teaching 'Yeard-Round Vegetable Gardening' at the GFE.
Visit the GFE Flickr page for more photos from the garden.
(Photos by Blair Randall, 2010)
Garden for the Environment is San Francisco's organic demonstration garden.
Focusing on small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening, low water-use landscaping and urban compost systems, the Garden for the Environment offers free or low-cost public workshops nearly every weekend of the year. The Garden for the Environment is a non-profit project of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council, supported by workshop fees, donations and support from foundations and city agencies.
REGISTER YOUR CITY GARDEN!
http://www.gardenregistry.org/
The San Francisco Victory Garden Registry is an online map and social networking
tool created to connect city gardeners and to locate current or potential food productions zones within the city of San Francisco. By registering your food production zone you are contributing
to an important portrait of land use! Please contribute a photo and information about your surrounding
garden space (used or unused).
Victory Gardens 2010+ is a program of Garden for the Environment funded by the City of San Francisco to support the transition of front yard, back yard and unused land into organic food production areas. For more information, please visit www.sfvictorygardens.org.
