Local Poets to Support The Learning Garden!

Three Los Angeles-Based Poets Will Read Verses on Love and Nature to Benefit 

The Learning Garden

 A Haven for Students and Community Members Alike

Jill Lurie

Just in time to fund a final winter harvest, free community classes and a highly anticipated spring planting, three local poets – Jill Lurie, Orchid Black and Tatiana Sulovska – are coming together to read their own words to raise funds for The Learning Garden at Venice High School. 

The one-acre site – a secret garden just off Venice Boulevard – is home to a myriad of fruit and flowering trees; fruits and vegetables; demonstration gardens, water conservation gardens; composting facilities and two greenhouses that shelter seedlings grown for local school gardens and community members.

Orchid Black

The Learning Garden on the Campus of Venice High School is an inspirational garden, a refuge in the concreted world of today. Students from Venice High and the community come to the garden to learn how to grow their own food and to share in a community. The Garden has been pivotal in the creation of many other school gardens and shows how the community can help support our schools in this time of budget cuts.

Tatiana Sulovska

The poets will read love and nature-inspired verses for this Valentine’s Day-themed event. For a $15 suggested donation, guests will enjoy the beautiful garden setting, delicious treats and refreshments and a signed copy of Jill Lurie’s book of poems entitled “Ginger Roots: Plantings of a Future Dreamer.” 

Master Gardener David King will also lead a tour of the garden after the reading.

For more information on The Learning Garden at Venice High School, and this event, please contact The Learning Garden.

FEBRUARY 12th, 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM

Suggested donation, $15 

Hot coffee and tea will be served

Some yummy 'baked goods' too.

Our January 2012 Schedule

Venice High School Students' lettuces!

Under the 'better-late-than-never' heading, here is the schedule for this month at The Learning Garden:  

WHAT TO DO,  WHEN TO DO IT; GROWING FOOD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

 January 7, 2012 Saturday

10:00am - Noon

On the Garden Patio

Learn the secrets of experienced gardeners to grow your best garden yet!  David King, with about 50 years of experience, will take you through the things you need to do to get your garden started this year. $25.00 at the Gate and discounts for prepaying for multiple  classes. Dress warm, bring a cup if you want hot coffee or hot tea! We go on rain or shine...

LESSONS FROM THE LEARNING GARDEN WEBCAST

 January 11, 2012  Wednesday  

 6pm

 On the internets 

Free with this invitation!

Have you ever wondered how The Learning Garden began?  Or how you can duplicate this project in your own neighborhood?  We invite you to join us on a live MedicineCrow.com webcast where David Crow meets with co-founder Julie Mann, and Gardenmaster, David King to discuss the history of the garden, its importance to our community, and ups, downs, ins and outs of creating a unique garden project. 

As our guests, all you have to do is register at this link, and you will be instructed how to attend - either by phone or online.

GROWING FOOD IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,

 January 12, 2012

 Thursday

 8 PM

Gardenmaster David King presents a growing food workshop as a a part of the series, Analog Living Series at Crash Space,  10526 Venice Blvd, Culver City CA 90232

WESTSIDE PRODUCE EXCHANGE
 January 14, 2012
 Saturday
 9 to 12 Noon
The Learning Garden Patio


The Westside Produce Exchange is a monthly free exchange of fruits, vegetables and edible herbs in the Westside of Los Angeles, California. Contact them to learn how to share your excess vegetables with others.  They also maintain an active Facebook page.

SEED LIBRARY OF LOS ANGELES (SLOLA) Monthly Meeting

 January 14, 2012

 Saturday

 2:30 PM  

Grow from seed, save your own seed.   SLOLA's monthly meetings always include a short course on something to do with seed saving.  This month, David King will help us through our New Year Seed Saving Resolutions!

Also election of our new officers takes place as well as checking out seeds from the Library!

PLANT PROPAGATION FOR GARDENERS

 January 15, 2012

 Sunday 

 1:30 PM 

Offered by UCLA Extension, Plant Propagation is a 10 week fun-filled and exciting course that covers making new plants from seed, cuttings, grafting and every other way you can make new plants! Register through UCLA Extension.

  
SEED SAVING, HOW AND WHY

 January 28, 2012

 11 AM to Noon

 Santa Monica Library, Fairview Branch

Assiduously avoiding the politics of seed saving, for about an hour David King will show us how to save seeds emphasizing the easy ones to save.  

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW VICTORY GARDENERS RE-UNITE!

 January 28, 2012

 1 to 3 PM
 At our picnic tables

Students who have attended any of our Victory Garden classes are invited to return to take stock of progress and get fired up for the new year!  


For those of you interested in Victory Garden courses, in a few weeks we'll be introducing our Spring course list for 2012!  


A final heads up for February:  We will have a trio of exceptionally talented poets on our patio for a poetry reading just before Valentine's Day.  Suggested donation of $15 at the door; warm drinks and cookies will be served... more details as we get them.  

One of our New Years' Resolutions is to get MORE ART in the Garden.  I have always wanted poetry reads, singer-songwriter afternoons and full moon workdays.  If you have ideas or want to help make any of this a reality, drop us a line:  It can't be done alone, but with a little help, we could all have a lovely To Do list!  :-)  Happy New Year everyone!

Hope to see you in the Garden soon...  Join the Occupy The Learning Garden Movement...


david

It's December Already? Really?

Time flies whether you're having fun or not!  But it just seems like 2011 was getting underway and look, it's time to learn how to write 2012 on checks, provided you still use checks.  

Last Month's Thanksgiving Prayer

Last month's events - including our 7th Annual Thanksgiving Potluck - were so awesome, you don't want to miss what goes on at the Garden.  Always more low key than the rest of the hub bub of the city, we are also invariably more community oriented and much more relaxing.  Already we have a poetry reading scheduled with several of LA's best poets on our patio - we'll have our usual schedule of classes with several offerings of The Essentials of Seed Saving, plus the Extension classes and a feast of new classes on gardening, preserving the harvest and other skills of interest. Expect/anticipate a book publishing party some time in the first half of the year!  We are still hoping to have a monthly singer/songwriter showcase - if you want to participate in that - or help schedule it, let the Gardenmaster know!

The Learning Garden has always tried to keep a low profile in December and we don't schedule so much - there are enough parties to go to and some of us aren't huge party fans.  No names please.  Here's our lineup for the month:

03 December 9 to Noon - the Gardenmaster speaks his peace about December gardening and tells you What To Do and When To Do It - days are short and so's time, but what can you do in the Garden?  Lot's as it turns out - throw out all the books from back east that talk about putting the garden 'to bed!'  To bed, indeed, this is one of our most promising growing seasons and if you haven't started yet, you better get busy!  $25 at the gate - dress warmly!  More info?  Leave a response below!  

10 December - Our friends from the Westside Produce Exchange will be on site exchanging your excess produce with others so you get their extras and they get yours - much less goes to waste!  Drop off your goodies at The Learning Garden (we have signs up - enter from Walgrove!) from 9 to noon.  Volunteer (if you can) from noon to 1:00 PM to sort out the produce into the different bags - you can contact them through their page on Facebook and get in on the action.  You can be dubious, but it works! 

22 December - 6:30 PM until the fire goes out - we celebrate the Winter Solstice.  In a season when we make ourselves so crazy to buy gifts, buy cards - mail them in time, prepare fattening food for everyone to eat (and try to not put on weight ourselves) this is a real treat!  No gifts, no cards, no getups to get up into, nothing but the sheer pleasure of reflection by the fire on a time gone past and contemplation of the time that is to come.  Sweetly affirming our humanity in a sea of madness surging in quest of items of dubious value.  Leave it all behind, dress warmly, bring something warm to drink and maybe a baked good... we will have Camille on hand as our guide in our celebration and our keeper of the flames.

07 January - 9 to Noon - guess what?  What To Do is back!  Come on out, support your resolution to have your best garden ever! More later in the month.

NB.  The Gardenmaster will be on a one week writing sabbatical in the month of December.  We'll proclaim the dates as soon as we have it worked out - if you'd like the chance of a lifetime to play a gardenmaster, let us know and we'll schedule you for a 3½ hour shift (AM or PM - as you like it) or for a whole day if you feel the urge!  

Happy Holidays for everyone!  

Hope to see you in the Garden in December!

david

November In The Learning Garden...

Happy 59th Old Boy!

Well, it's a bit late, but better late than never...  We've had several birthdays over these last few days, a lot in late October and earlier.  In the photo on hte left, between raindrops, we celebrated my 59th in the tool shed at the Garden!  A wonderful intimate (small space that tool shed!) gathering for the day.  The lovely lady at the right side of the photo is my sister, Edie Neiman.

But the month isn't over yet and so let's get everyone up to speed:  

19 November, 9-12 - Master Gardener Herb Machelender teams up with Steve Hofendahl of TreePeople to do another one of their fruit tree pruning classes and, as a bonus, The Learning Garden will get our fruit trees pruned!  

19 November, 11:30 Seed Library of Los Angeles Best Practices committee meets on the TLG patio getting ready for the following meeting of the Seed Library as a whole.  1:00PM Executive Committee for SLOLA meets on the patio, then at 2:30 PM the whole of SLOLA meets - Kathryn Brown will do a winter time checklist presentation

24 November 11 to 2:00PM The Learning Garden hosts our Annual Thanksgiving Brunch this coming Thursday (Thanksgiving Day).  We have turkey and mashed potatoes but hope you'll come with other fixins for our brunch; salads, vegetable sides, meatless alternatives; desserts, lots of desserts!  The  Learning Garden community hosts the clients and the staff of Program for Torture Victims in this wonderful community celebration of all that for which we are grateful. Food service starts at noon, but join us at 11 for socialization and meet one another.  Make a new friend or 'remake' an old one.

03 December 9 to noon, our monthly series of What To Do &; When To Do It meets in the Garden for the latest scoop on what to do in December.  It's $25 at the gate and the best deal in town for a garden class.  Not only is it informative, it's fun and you'll get to do a little gardening alongside the Gardenmaster!   

We'll have a Winter Solstice celebration in December as well as the Westside Produce Exchange one Saturday, so keep an eye out for the December list of to do's!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

david

Series of Articles in The Nation

 

 "Just as dramatic is the struggle for the seed. More than 1,000 independent seed companies were swallowed up by multinationals in the past four decades, so today just three—Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta—control about half the proprietary seed market worldwide."  from an essay by Frances Moore Lappé, titled, "The Food Movement: Its Power and Possibilities" from a series of essays featured in The Nation.  Other essays in the series come from Raj Patel, Vandana Shiva, Eric Schlosser, and Michael Pollan and they are all worth a few seconds to read.  

david