Upcoming Events In February and March At The Learning Garden!

A flowering peach at The Learning Garden.  This is only one of several trees in full bloom, but don't be fooled.  This warm weather is only an interlude -we'll be back to cold before we get the 'real thaw' sometime in March.  It is still advisable to dress warmly for all events at the Garden!

13 February 1 PM to 4 PM – We are starting an Ayurvedic Garden in the Learning Garden! The herbs of Ayurveda are from the sub-continent of India and are closely associated with Yoga – they share that common culture. Come out and help put the start of this garden in place and learn about these wonderful plants and their benefits! For more information – contact the Gardenmaster. Free, in the Garden

19 February – 9 AM to about Noon – Westside Produce Exchange holds it's monthly exchange of excess produce. If you have too much of one thing from your garden, Naomi and her crew of volunteers (you can volunteer too!), accept the extra produce, divide it up and return it to the rest of the participants. It's a fabulous idea – you have too many turnips, another one has too many pomegranates (it really happens!), each of you drop off your excess and come back in a couple of hours and viola – there are a few pomegranates for you and a few turnips for them along with all the rest of the shared stuff. Westside Produce has the details.   Simply Brilliant! Free on the Chi Patio.

19 February 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM – The third meeting of SLOLA, the Seed Library of Los Angeles and our 2nd Seed Swap! Working hard to insure a clean, non-GMO, and healthy food supply for all of us, and especially the marginalized communities. $10 to join and participate, the membership is non-expiring (for $10!) and allows you to borrow seeds from the library when it's up and running. You borrow your seeds for free and at the end of the season, you return the same amount to the seed library to be loaned out next year. $10 to become a member, but after that.  SLOLA on the Web  On the Chi Patio

26 February 10 AM – 2 PM - Create Your Own Fruit Trees! A seminar for gardeners on getting new plants without seeds! Get a small piece of a rosemary or a grape and grow your very own plant – taste your neighbor's delicious peach, get a bit of the tree and graft your own fruit tree! You will learn all the ways to make more plants from other plants to enhance your gardening skills and take your gardening to the next level! You can end up with one tree with many different apples or a citrus with different oranges, lemons and limes! You will take home your own grafted tree! $35 plus a $10 materials fee, on the Chi Patio. Prepay via PayPal at www.tlgdaily.blogspot.com. Email the Gardenmaster for more details. Coffee and tea are served -bring your own cup.  

05 March – 9 AM to Noon – Our monthly Growing Food In Southern California! Only a person who has not gardened here can declare that we have no seasons! We do and the plants know it! When do you plant beets, beans, carrots, corn peppers, basil? All this and more is covered in our month by month series of what to do and when to do it! With over 30 years of growing food organically under his belt, metaphorically speaking of course, Gardenmaster David King's lectures are full of information, tidbits and hints that can't be found in any book! (Yet... ) $25 on the Chi Patio – coffee and tea are served -bring your own cup.

david

Calendar of Events: January and The Immediate Future

In a rare moment between the rains, the sun shone on these Detroit Dark Red beets with an intense brilliance begging a photo.  Sadly, the luminosity of the brilliant beet leaves is not transmitted by the photograph.  Stare at them intently and picture something akin to a purple halo on them and you will approximate the sight.

Welcome to 2011 at The Learning Garden!  This promises to be an exciting year for us, if we don't float away; there are many different exciting events on the drawing books!    Herewith is the calendar of the start of 2011: 

January 15^th – (time and other details are TBA); Pruning Workshop for Los Angeles Master Gardeners – Lora Hall, master teacher of all kinds of gardening wonderfulness leads an all-star cast of teaching assistants who will shepherd everyone through the pruning of fruit trees using the actual trees in The Learning Garden. Instead of a book. I know, it's an interesting concept.

January 15^th - 2nd Meeting of the newly formed Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA); a new community based effort to ensure a safe supply of open-pollinated heirloom vegetable varieties, unpatented and unowned by faceless, profit based companies.  Membership is $5 and members can check out seeds (like library books) for free, returning fresh seed to the library at the end of the growing season. A new blog for SLOLA is coming soon!

January 29^th - Essentials of Vegetable Seed Saving, 10-3 (vegetarian lunch included) If you are concerned about GMOs in your food, saving our own seed is the only sure way to fight back.  $40 if prepaid – see article below for more details on this exciting seminar.

February 5^th – What To Do And When To Do It, Growing Food In Southern California, 9-Noon, our monthly checklist and how to gardening class, taught on the patio at The Learning Garden. Coffee and tea are made to keep you warm. Always, the topic is driven by questions in the class, but this is a good time to prune your fruit trees and plant new ones, also, believe it or not, SUMMER is right around the corner – learn the secrets to your best garden ever! $25 'at the gate,' no reservations required.

February 5^th - New Volunteers Orientation on the patio; 1:00 to 2:00 PM. Reserve your space with Sheri Powell-Wolf at her email address: sheri(at)compostteana(dot)com. Free.

Late February will see a Plant Propagation Seminar (along the lines of the Seed Saving Seminar on Jan. 29th) with seed sowing, perennial division, taking cuttings from shrubs and trees (growing plants without seed) and the almost forgotten arts of grafting and budding.

March 5^th - What To Do And When To Do It, Growing Food In Southern California, 9-Noon, our monthly checklist and how to gardening class, taught on the patio at The Learning Garden. Coffee and tea are made to keep you warm. In March, we'll definitely be in summer's flow, tomatoes, peppers, basil, eggplant, beans and all kinds of goodies have to be considered.. . What do YOU want to grow? $25 'at the gate,' no reservations required.

March 5^th - New Volunteers Orientation on the patio; 1:00 to 2:00 PM. Reserve your space with Sheri Powell-Wolf at her email address: sheri(at)compostteana(dot)com. Free.

We anticipate another exciting workshop in March as well. 

Ongoing Events In The Learning Garden

(* All events are 'weather permitting' by which we mean, if you need your tall 'Wellies,' a heavy jacket or a row boat, the weather is NOT permitting.  On the other hand, we are gardeners and a little rain doesn't throw us into paroxysms of anxiety; precipitation under a quarter of an inch is usually met with horticultural stoicism.)

Friday --12:30 PM, The Garden Feast, a potluck with staff and volunteers (and anyone else who show up with a good attitude) at our picnic tables.  The food is always fresh, delicious and abundant.  It is the essence of the SLOW Food Movement, so come prepared  with a tasty bite, a healthy appetite for the bounty of others  and a desire for eclectic conversation.

Saturday – 9 AM Henry Jun Wah Lee hold his Medical Qigong classes – contact Henry for more information at 323-540-4180.

Sunday --10 AM Seth Leon has an informal Harmony Style Qigong practice on our Chi Patio. It is free.

Our webpage is worth a look and you can like us on Facebook! If you like...

Hope we see you in the Garden soon in 2011!

david

Events Upcoming at The Learning Garden

Events upcoming at The Learning Garden - Please mark your calendars!! The picture shows our 'booth' at the recent Homegrown Culver City.  You could have been there; it was a lovely day in the park with a lot of very wonderful people!

13 November – Westside Produce, drop off at 9:00, sorting and repackaging begins at noon with pick up and distribution at 1:00. Excess produce exchange. We are in the quarantine zone for the Mediterranean Fruit Fly – if you live outside of the quarantine area, please do not participate in the exchange to allow the quarantine to be most effective. A quarantine is one of the most ecological ways to deal with destructive pests and The learning Garden fully supports the quarantine.

25 November – Thanksgiving 11:30 AM to whenever we are sufficiently past full. For the 6^th year in a row The Learning Garden extends an invitation to the clients and staff of Program for Torture Victims to enjoy this quintessential American holiday on our patio. We do this potluck style, so please bring whatever dish you feel is the very embodiment of Thanksgiving. We have the turkey lined up as well as mashed potatoes – everything else is open for anyone to bring. You can't have too much of anything on Thanksgiving! In keeping with our ecological policies, please bring your own plates and service ware.

04 December – 9:00 AM to Noon – Growing Food in Southern California On our patio, David King, Gardenmaster, will teach growing food in our unique climate – all the up to date information you'll need to enable your garden to the best ever! What do you do in December and January in a climate that doesn't freeze? Here's where to find out and get tips from a successful gardener with over 40 years experience of doing it organically. $25 and the best $25 you can spend on your garden in LA. More information?  Email the Gardenmaster. 

04 December – 1:00 to 2:00 PM - New Volunteers Orientation on the patio. Reserve your space with Sheri Powell-Wolf at her email address: sheri(at)compostteana(dot)com.

04 December – 2:00 to 3:30 PM – The initial planning meeting for the Seed Library of Los Angeles (SLOLA). We will meet on the patio or in a campus room if weather forces us indoors to begin the plan for SLOLA, laying the groundwork for a viable seed source for all of Los Angeles that defies the insidious nature of copyrighted genetic material and keeps food in the hands of people, not corporations. If you have in interest in this, join us in making the seed library the best one in the country for all of us in Los Angeles. More info from the Gardenmaster.

21 December – 6:30 to 9:30 PM Winter Solstice Celebration A stress free celebration in December! It's almost sacrilege, but that's what we have. With Camille Harris as our Mistress of Ceremonies, we say good bye to 2010, letting go of all of it and prepare ourselves to embrace 2011. A free and peaceful, stress free observance of the changing of the seasons with a fire and a bit of ritual affirming our willingness to join with nature.

01 January 2011 – Welcome to the New Year – no Growing Food Class – wait till February!

29 January – 10 AM to 3 PM – Seed Saving Seminar with Gardenmaster David King. With all the interest in avoiding Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms, the only one certain way to do it, is to grow your own and save your own seeds for planting next year – like our forefathers and foremothers did. To be able to sow last year's crop of seed next year, you have to save them. This seminar will cover that as well as breeding plants and why this information is vitally important today. $40 registration if you register before January 22, $45 thereafter. You may register at the door if space allows, however, we do expect this to be a well attended seminar. A simple, yet substantial, vegetarian lunch is included. More information from the Gardenmaster.

david

It's the Bees' Knees

A few of our ladies coming and going from the little hive here at The Learning Garden.  Soon, they will be moved to a home off campus before school starts.

I have tried to adopt swarms of bees several times over the summer - each time a caught swarm and placed them in my hive and each time, they absconded after spending a day to a few weeks in the hive.  They just didn't want to stick around.  After the third attempt had failed, I decided to experiment. 

I put this small five frame hive, often called a 'nuc,' out into the Garden overlooking an African Blue Spice Basil.  The African Blue Spice Basil is a perennial basil and every single plant we have in the Garden is covered with honey bees, which I figured gave my hive a desirable location for a group of bees ("If  you lived here, you'd be home now" kind of advertising campaign.)

Inside of two weeks, I observed bees busily coming and going from the hive.  After two more weeks of observation, I put on my bee suit and opened it up:  bees!  With new comb being drawn and all the signs of a productive hive on my hands.  I opened it up again yesterday and checked on their progress.  They really do have a home there and I find it very exciting.  

School starts on September 13th and the hive will have to be relocated before then.  Here's hoping they make the move intact and once in the new location, they continue to keep house in my little hive!  

david

August Things In The Garden In August!

I am so grateful I was talked out of calling this blog "The Learning Garden Daily..."  even at "Almost Daily" it's tough to justify my lack of posting. I admit to taking a bit of a breather and I haven't done a lot of posting this last month - call it "Ice Cream Burn Out."  We're looking forward to some rock'n'roll times in August and if I don't get this out now, it may never get out, so here goes.

AUGUST

7th - 9-12 - the very best three hour gardening workshop in Los Angeles.  You'll laugh till you cry and come out the other side thinking, 'by golly, I learned a lot!'  The first Saturday of each month I do a class called "What To Do And When To Do It" and it is just like that - what DO you plant in August?  What else do you do in August?  OK, besides go on vacation.  This is the class that answers all your questions about gardening - if you don't get your questions answered, you didn't ask it!  $25 per class - discount if you purchase four at once.  We have coffee and tea - bring your own cup and whatever you put in your coffee or tea.  Dress to get dirty because we go out into the Garden and actually garden! 

7th - 1:00 to 2:30  our first Volunteer Orientation - starting this month, all volunteers will be asked to attend an orientation - this gets everyone on the same page and allows volunteers to get to know one another and we have a system to get everyone online all at once - and everyone gets to know the Garden, its mission and can learn how they can fit in the whole thing.

7th - 4:00 - 8:00 PM - The Spirit of Medicine Festival / Adopt-A-Plant Day Redux designed to display the full scope of Chinese Medical practice in a non-professional setting

Schedule of Events - 4:30 - 5:30 Robert Newman leads a plant walk and explains the therapeutic benefits of various species in the garden. Immediately after Robert's talk, over 30 different species of plants will be available for adoption or by donation. 5:30 - 6:30 Christine Chang lectures on cosmology, cooking and the secret to radiant health. 6:30 - 7:30 Lorraine Wilcox explains the Power of Mugwort Fire and discusses how to make Moxa from Artemisia argyii. Various species of Artemisia will be available for adoption. We will raffle various items by local artisans! 7:30 - 8:00 Qichen Guo demonstrates the vital energy cultivating practice of Chen Style Tai Ji Chuan.  8:00 - Sit by the fire and celebrate a wonderful day! 13th - 8:00 PM Fire Meditation - on the Patio - email or call for more details.   We have more events over this horizon, but I wanted to make sure you had the chance to get these on your calendar!   More later soon! david

Finally! An April Version of Mark Your Calendar for The Learning Garden!

APRIL – all through the month! – summer seedlings on sale – come and see what we have available for you. All our plants are appropriate to be planted now. $1 and up...

April 17^th – 10 AM to 2 PM – The Learning Garden and Venice High School's Culinary Arts and Sustainable Agriculture Academy (CASAA) will have non-disposable bags and vegetable seedlings for sale at the Mar Vista Farmers Market, Grand View and Venice Blvd.

April 17^th – 4-8 PM – Adopt-a-Plant, Acupuncture students who maintain a garden of Chinese Medicinal Herbs have a lot of extra plants to share and are offering plants free to a good home for folks who want to grow some of the healing herbs from the Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacopeia. Live music, a tour of the herb garden and munchies round out the gala event.

April 22^nd – the 40^th Annual Earthday! The Garden and the students of CASAA will host Walgrove Middle School and Beethoven Grade School as they learn about the CASAA program and environmental issues in the world today.

April 25^th – 2 to 6 PM 2^nd Annual Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase – Celebrate the 40^th Earthday with a free self-guided garden tour of drought tolerant gardens, edible gardens, rainwater capture systems and homes transitioning to sustainability! Visit www.marvistagreengardenshowcase.com to plan your very own tour... Stop by The Learning Garden for our plant sale and relax in the shade of our Chi Patio!

April 25^th – 6 – 9 PM Potluck for Gardens of Gratitude Whether you volunteered for this or your garden was one of the new ones installed, or you just want to hang out with the Westside Permies, bring a dish to share, your own plate and tableware and join in the party! http://www.gardensofgratitude.org/howitworks.html 

May 1^st  –  9 AM to Noon The next installment of What To Do and When To Do It  April is THE time to get all our summer garden planted – you won't want to miss this class because if you miss April, you will be behind the rest of the year! Still only $25 for one class, $100 for five... Plants and other things available too! Look for the possibility of a seed swap reappearing at Noon! 

May 2^nd – 10 to 11 AM – The Lost 'n' Found Band (the Garden's own!) on stage at the Westside Farmer's Market's Bandstand playing originals and more! Acoustic guitars and harmony on the Americana homefront andfree!! Get a cup o' joe, your veggies for the week and listen to the tunes - what else are you doing on Sunday morning.  OK, other than that...

Ongoing In The Garden

Friday --12:30 PM, The Garden Feast, a potluck with staff and volunteers (and anyone else who show up with a good attitude) at our picnic tables.  The food is always fresh, delicious and abundant.  It is the essence of the SLOW Food Movement, so come prepared  with a tasty bite, a healthy appetite for the bounty of others  and a desire for eclectic conversation. Be sustainable and bring your own plate, tableware and cup!

Saturday – - 10AM Henry Jun Wah Lee, L.Ac. Medical Qigong Classes Return Saturday Mornings in the Garden; Henry, a long time Qigong instructor, will be starting a new set of classes in the Learning Garden starting mid April. Weekly Saturday classes will start May 1.  9-10am for beginners and 10-11am for more advanced practices. $10 per class. Half of all fees will be donated to the Learning Garden. Please contact Henry to RSVP if you plan to attend either the introductory class or the weekly ongoing class.  Phone: 323-540-4180. Email: info@HenryJunWahLee.com. Web: http://www.HenryJunWahLee.com

Sunday --10 AM Seth Leon has an informal Harmony Style Qigong practice on our Chi Patio. It is free.

www.thelearninggarden.org

www.tlgdaily.blogspot.com

310.722.3656

13000 Venice Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90066

david

The Man Who Found Myrna Loy

The refurbished statue of Myrna Loy hidden under her veil, waits for her unveiling in front of Venice High School.  

Back in 2004, when a Los Angeles Times reporter and photographer showed up at the Venice High School campus in a search for the missing statue of Myrna Loy, the newshounds started their search in the VHS front office, asking probing questions of the staff on duty.  It was summer, so perhaps the staff wasn't all up to snuff because when asked, "Where is the statue of Myrna Loy?"  the front office person shrugged her shoulders and said, "David King has her," an answer about as off the wall as anyone could have possibly been!  At that very moment, I had never even heard of Myrna Loy let alone 'have' her!  But that was to change.

The Times reporter, sleuthfully, sought out The Learning Garden and banged on our faculty parking lot gate asking for David King.  He told me I "had Myrna Loy" and he wanted to see her.  This is almost like being told I had been nominated to pilot the next craft to Mars!  He must have known something was a tad amiss when I had to be told Myrna Loy was a film star and her statue had been in front of Venice High School for a number of years and that  he was looking for that statue.  

In our conversation, I realized that this statue wouldn't be a little thing, and in an effort to clear my name, I asked him to look around the garden with me; he would see no Myrna and that would be the end of my involvement with this hair-brained scenario and I could go back to work.  

Out behind my office, I glanced over to a building material yard adjacent to the Garden.  There on the ground in a tattered tarp appeared to be a cylindrically shaped bit of concrete.  Pointing to that, with a bit of bravado (afterall, it could have been a hunk of sewer pipe in the canvass), I said, "There's your Myrna!"  It was NOT 'in the garden' as subsequently reported, but garden-adjacent.  The Plant Manager had to be called to let him into that yard and, it was, in fact, the statue of Myrna Loy.

She had been found and I had made my first appearance (and so far only) on the front page of LA Times as "The Man Who Found Myrna Loy." 

My autograph is still for sale at very reasonable prices.  

Just ask.

david

Pssst... Wanna Play Gardenmaster for An Hour or Two?

	Saturday	Sunday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
March	20	21	23	24	25	26	27	28
10:00:00 AM		Vidya		Vidya	Vera	Julie	Vidya
11:00:00 AM		Vidya		Vidya	Vera	Julie	Vidya
Noon					Vera	Julie		Julie
01:00:00 PM				Emi	Emi	Vera		Julie
02:00:00 PM				Emi	Emi	Vera		Julie
03:00:00 PM				Emi	Emi	Vera		Julie
04:00:00 PM								Julie
Top of each cell represents the start of each hour listed. If you are only able to be there for a portion of an hour, draw a line and indicated. At the beginning of each 'shift' please check the seedlings in the greenhouse for adequate water. Check the pond for adequate water daily as well.

This is our coverage schedule for the days David is on vacation.  See those blank squares?  Those need to have names - your name would look good here.  Get in touch with the Gardenmaster (learninggardenmaster(at)yahoo.com)  if you would like to get to play Gardenmaster for a couple of hours!

david

Neither Rain Nor Sleet...

Intrepid students pause with their instructor, the Gardenmaster, in the morning lesson this last Saturday in the What To Do & When To Do It series in the Garden.  

Class started at 9:00 and the rain started at 10.  We moved to the small protected area in the greenhouse and kept right on keeping on!  It didn't rain long, but we kept right on and the weather cleared for the rest of the weekend.  Sunday's class (and potluck!) was in cool, but dry conditions.  

Since then, it's been windy, cool (sometimes cold) and dry.  Time to water again even though we were running and ducking from rain just a few days ago!

Looky Here! New Pages!

Blogger (AKA Blogspot) has a new feature!  They now allow 'pages' in addition to the blog.  You can see what that means in very real terms at the top of this page.  There you see "Home," "About The Learning Garden" and "Calendar at The Learning Garden ."  "Home" refers to this page, the page with the blog on it.  "About..." is a quick introduction to The Learning Garden and the "Calendar..." is our Google based calendar of events.  The Google calendar doesn't allow for a lot of room for event descriptions, but you can check back here - leave a post comment even - to see what we've said about upcoming events.  Once we get The Learning Garden's website completely functional again, these pages should be incorporated there as well.

In the meantime, if you have some idea that would help The Learning Garden communicate better with you, leave us a comment!  

david 

Quick Mark Your Calendars!

Upcoming In The Garden

February 6^th – 1:00 to 3:00 PM – First Annual Seed Swap, in conjunction with Environmental Change Makers, The Learning Garden will host a seeds swap!

Swap out those seeds you didn’t use last year for something new and different! The Learning Garden will sponsor our first seed swap on our patio February 6th. Email the Gardenmaster, greenteach@gmail.com, if you have questions.

February 6^th (again!) - 2:00 to 3:00 PM – Introduction to New Volunteers with David King, Gardenmaster. Tour the Garden, learn some about gardening and get on board with The Learning Garden events and happenings! We need volunteers all the time, your service will be rewarded! Free.

February 13^th – 9 AM to Noon The new year's first What To Do and When To Do It comes along just in time to help you plan your summer garden. Want the best ever tomato that wins the taste test on your block? Come on down and we'll get you started. (The Gardenmaster grew the first and second place tomatoes at a Tomato Tasting this last year, he knows what he's doing with tomatoes!) Still only $25 for one class, $100 for five...  (Note that this is a week later than our usual class meeting due to scheduling conflicts - in March, we'll be back on the first Saturday of the month!)

February 13^th – 1:00 to 2:30 – At Ocean View Farms, the Gardenmaster will speak about The Beautiful Food Garden to members of that community garden, the public is invited as well. Free.

February 27^th – 9:00 to 4:30 PM, Small Space Gardening Think you can’t grow your own veggies, fruit and herbs because of lack of space? Think again! In this class designed specifically for apartment, condominium, and other urban dwellers without land, gardening expert Darren Butler will demonstrate how easy it is to grow edibles in spaces as big as a porch or as small as a windowsill. Contact Darren Butler at butlercdarren@gmail.com for registration information.

Ongoing In The Garden

Friday --12:30 PM, The Garden Feast, a potluck with staff and volunteers (and anyone else who show up with a good attitude) at our picnic tables.  The food is always fresh, delicious and abundant.  It is the essence of the SLOW Food Movement, so come prepared  with a tasty bite, a healthy appetite for the bounty of others  and a desire for eclectic conversation. And yes, we continue to meet throughout the season - unless the weather doesn't permit, which means, if you have to put on a coat, the weather isn't permitting that day!

Sunday --10 AM Seth Leon has an informal Harmony Style Qigong practice on our Chi Patio. It is free.

david

Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase!

The Learning Garden's patio is quiet on Thanksgiving morning getting ready for our annual feast.  Another sunny Thanksgiving and we are thankful for so many things - one of them is our neighbors here in Mar Vista - one of the most forward looking communities on the Westside.  And here, in the weeks just following Thanksgiving, we have even more reasons for our gratitude!

Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase is showcasing The Learning Garden this week.  You can hop on over there and see a photo from this year's pesto festival of the Gardenmaster making pesto! 

david

Every Monday Matters (And So Does Thursday!)

Every Monday Matters volunteers showed up (on a Thursday!) and worked very hard in the Garden.  These hardworking volunteers are clowning around with an unplanted bulb of garlic.

Such volunteers bless and uplift our project and many others through their light hearted humor and joyful hard work.  The work they did in The Learning Garden this morning would have take the Gardenmaster about a week to have finished.  Gosh!  

Thanks, 
david

Solar Oven Building Workshop, Cook Off And Party!!

Saturday, August 22
POWERDOWN DAY
at the Learning Garden at Venice High School
corner of Venice Boulevard at Walgrove Avenue (Zip code is 90066)
(Enter Garden on Walgrove)

Build a Solar Cooker
9:00am–noon
Make a portable solar cooker with cardboard and foil with Joanne Poyourow of Environmental Changemakers. Please RSVP (learninggardenmaster@yahoo.com) if you would like to make a cooker. There are only 20 places available, with a $15 materials fee. You are welcome to watch or help someone else. Written instructions will be provided so you can make your own at home.

Use Your Solar Cooker
NOON–3:00pm
Various seasoned solar chefs will present the art and science of cooking a meal with the sun. It is amazing how many dishes you can make using this slow cooking method.
While the food is cooking we will do some karma yoga in the garden or you can learn how to can, pickle or preserve some of the excess produce from the garden with David, the Gardenmaster. Take home a jar of your favorite pickles. (There will be a small materials charge if you choose this option.)

Celebrate Vidya's Birthday
5:00pm til dark
The real party starts! A solar-cooked feast! Feel free to join us at this time and bring a contribution to the vegetarian potluck meal. Music provided by The Lost and Found on their powered-down instruments. No gifts! Bring a story to share about what is was like in the '50s when Vidya was a little girl. We will continue until dark or until the candles run out.

Please RSVP
310-822-9642

Harvest Basket

Red and yellow tomatoes co-mingle with green, yellow and orange peppers that is just a glimpse of our harvest right now! An awesome year of production with tomatoes getting hauled out of the Garden every day! In addition, I have been collecting the yellow banana peppers getting ready to learn how to pickle them this coming Saturday. There are few red jalapenos that I'm going to slice up and dry and the tomatoes, we're just going to eat. There are a bunch more in the Garden that are better for preserving and those will be the ones we roast and freeze (more on that in another post) and make sauce from.

Oddly enough, this has been a lousy year for tomatoes for a lot of nearby gardeners. I'm not sure why that should be so, but we haven't had as good a harvest as this since I started working here in 2002!

My paste tomatoes (San Marino) are being eaten by a mammal. As the remains are being left on the vine, I doubt it is the human mammal, more like squirrels, racoons or something along that line. One portion of corn near the tomatoes has been smashed down, and the corn stalks are all splayed out in all directions. It looks to me like a great fight or some mating took place in the middle of my corn. No dead critters, so I'm thinking the latter. Just don't tell school administration!

david

Summer Lettuce Experiment

Lettuce is a fickle summer crop, usually refusing to grow into a decent sized plant before turning bitter and sending up a seed stalk. Seed catalogs always list a few lettuce varieties they describe as being 'heat resistant.' I always think, "yeah, 'heat-resistant' in northern Maine, but Southern California's heat is probably a different critter."

To satisfy my curiosity, I started five different types of lettuce offered by Pine Tree Seeds (of Maine) for a trial. Three of the five are in this photo, Red Sails, Red Fire and Bughatti. The other two, Summertime and Jericho haven't been transplanted like these three into one per cell six packs. We sowed each lettuce, initially five per cell, which should net us 30 seedlings. Summertime's germination was so lousy, we won't even get five. Jericho's germination was sufficient, but slower than these three.

Bughatti is the very (very) dark lettuce in the upper left, with Red Sails the smallest lettuce in the upper right. The bottom two six packs are filled with the vigorous Red Fire.

But the main criteria will be that they perform well enough to grow an edible head that is not bitter even in Los Angeles heat.

We'll have further updates as they mature.

david