GARDEN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
JULY 2010 NEWSLETTER
- UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AT THE GFE
- EVENT: Save the Date, GFE 20th Anniversary
- EVENT: Hayes Valley Film Nite
- EVENT: Dig In Workshop
- EVENT: 'How to Grow a School Garden' Book Release Party
- IN THE NEWS
- YOUTH EDUCATION: Summer Sprouts
- FROM THE BORDER: Art and the Garden In Summer
- TIPS FROM THE COMPOSTER: Eco Hero Status
- VIEW FROM THE GARDEN: Lunch, Herbs and Lavender
THE URBAN APPLE ORCHARD
How to Grow Heirloom Apples; A Walk Through Four Seasons
Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010
Time: 1PM – 3 PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Matthew Sutton, founder Orchard Keepers
Cost: $15 (Only A Few Spots Left!)
Grow heirloom apples in San Francisco! Learn what it takes to grow organic apples trees in San Francisco, old trees or young, one tree or several, in this two-hour workshop. Matthew Sutton, ecological tree care expert and founder of Orchard Keepers, will walk you through four seasons for caring of fruit trees, from planting to irrigation, fertility to pest management, winter pruning to summer pruning, and of course, harvesting delicious fruit! Learn about extraordinary antique apple varieties best suited for San Francisco, such as ‘Anna’, ‘Winter Pearmain’, ‘Yellow BellFlower’ and ‘Pink Pearl’, among others!
This workshop will focus on heirloom apples, though growing pear trees and plum trees will also be discussed.
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.
PRUNING YOUR GARDEN IN SUMMER
Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010
Time: 10AM – 12NOON
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Ann Kaplan, professional Landscaper & Organic Gardening Instructor
Cost: $15
Now that summer is in full force, it’s time to get into the garden and start pruning. Through an understanding of tools and techniques, pruning can help you maintain the health and vigor of your garden. This workshop addresses natural feelings of fear and bewilderment that accompany cutting into plants! Come learn strategies from instructor Ann Kaplan for recognizing different plant types and their appropriate pruning needs as a means of rejuvenating, encouraging or containing growth.
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.
YEAR ROUND FOOD GARDENING with PAM PEIRCE
Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010
Time: 10AM – 12NOON
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Instructor: Pam Peirce, author Golden Gate Gardening
Cost: $15 (Only A Few Spots Left!)
Need a nudge to help get your garden producing something delicious to
eat through the entire year? In this workshop you will learn what you
can grow from midsummer through spring (and how to do it with a minimum of time spent working in the garden when it’s cold or wet). Learn what to do, starting in summer, to keep your garden productive, whether it’s large or just a few containers, sunny or shady, or in winter. Discussion includes less common crops and edible weeds and flowers. The instructor, Pam Peirce, is the author of Golden Gate Gardening, a regional food gardening primer just out in its updated and expanded Third Edition. She will provide useful handouts and will have the new edition available for purchase and signing.
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.
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: 'Botany of Desire' Movie Nite at Hayes Valley Farm
Date: Tue, July 20th, 2010
Time: 7pm
Location: Hayes Valley Farm, 450 Laguna Street (at Fell), San Francisco, CA
"Botany of Desire, is a sensuous and eye-opening exploration into the human relationship with plants, trees and flowers, through the lens of four familiar crops: apples, potatoes, tulips and marijuana." More Information Here.
EVENT: Dig In
Date: Sat, July 24th, 2010
Time: 9:30am - 1:30pm
Location: Visitacion Valley Greenway, San Francisco, CA
This free workshop on sustainable gardening is presented by the San Francisco Parks Trust and Department of Public Works' Street Parks Program. Pre-registation is required. Please contact Julia Brashares at julia@sfpt.org (415) 750-5110. More information here.
EVENT: Book Release Party, How to Grow a School Garden
Date: Thur, July 29th, 2010
Time: 6pm - 8pm
Location: Axis Cafe, 1201 8th Street, San Francisco, CA (Potrero Hill)
In this groundbreaking resource How to grow a School Garden, two school garden pioneers offer parents, teachers, and school administrators everything they need to know to build school gardens and to develop the programs that support them. Come celebrate the book release with SFGSA authors Arden & Rachel. More info on the book How to Grow a School Garden.
Notes from the Underground Market
Washinton Post, Jane Black
June 8, 2010
"like any ambitious food entrepreneur, the founder of ForageSF found a cunning way to get his products to customers: an underground market..."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/to-market-to-market/notes-from-the-underground-mar.html
Agriculture struggles with Lack of Young Farmers
Bakersfield.com, Courtenay Edelhart
June 12, 2010
"Don Davis' grandfather founded his family's northern Kern County farm in the 1930s, but the family legacy will end when he retires..." http://www.bakersfield.com/news/business/economy/x1008891541/Agriculture-struggles-with-lack-of-young-farmers
Eating Green: An Interview with Helge Hellberg About the Rising Food Movement
Huffington Post, Annie Spiegelman
June 15, 2010
"There is fantastic work being done in many places throughout the country when it comes to growing crops and raising awareness about the importance of local food production. However, the synergy of our constellation, of all our partners combined, placed right in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, is unusual and perhaps unprecedented."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/eating-green-an-interview_b_613011.html
Summer Time! After two solid weeks of Summer Sprouts (GFE's youth garden summer program offered in partnership with Urban Sprouts), two weeks of gardening, making organic lunches, fieldtrips and youth empowerment, the Summer Sprouts program has finally come to a close. 
Special thanks to Freewheelin’ Farms for providing delicious CSA shares for youth Organic Lunches, Trips for Kids for taking our youth on an incredible bicycle adventure in Tennessee Valley, Chef Alice Cravens for teaching us to make tortillas from scratch and to NOPA Restaurant for teaching us to eat from local, organic farms. Thanks to all of the organizations and folks who have helped our youth live health lives.
Formal youth programming at GFE will take a break for August but if you are interested in interning with us during our school program in the fall, please contact nicole@gardenfortheenvironment.org!
Of course, youth are always welcome to drop in during our volunteer hours on Wednesdays and Saturdays!
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.
ART AND THE GARDEN IN SUMMER
"A recent visit to the Impressionist exhibit at the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park left me thinking about the similarities between a wonderful canvas and a wonderful garden..."
Read more of the July "From the Border"
(Photo: Matilja poppy GFE)
Eco-Hero Status!
I love compost. So, when I heard the news that the folks over at the White House Kitchen Garden share a similar reverence for compost my heart melted. My friend and colleague, Ashley Rood, shared this video from the Obama Foodarama Blog where Bill Yosses, the White House Executive Pastry Chef, traces the trail of the White House kitchen’s food scraps to the soil it creates. He claims, “Composting is what this garden is really about.” Like I said, I melted.
At the end of the day, their compost pile is no different than yours or mine. In fact, they even have flies swarming around as can happen with decomposing organic matter. However, a compost pile at the White House Kitchen Garden is symbolic of a larger movement. Composting is essential to the sustainability of our planet and the fact that the current leadership gets that and then takes it to the next level by practicing it gives me hope.
Although it’s a little abstract, the compost tip for this month is to get inspired. To take a minute and feel proud of the action you are taking to divert valuable waste from the landfill, to grow your own soil amendment, to learn about the life cycle. Then, once you fully relished in your eco-hero status, share the wonders of composting with someone else potentially using this short video as your hook.
Check out the video here! ( the segment begins 56 seconds in following a brief introduction to the show) (Image: Obama Foodoramam)
ROT ON!
Questions or comments about composting?
Email Suzi at Suzi@gardenfortheenvironment.org
Last Month in the Garden: Lunch, Herbs and Lavender
Top: Students making lunch in the GFE/Urban Sprouts Summer Program; Middle Top: Ali Budner teaching 'Intro to Western Herbalism' at the GFE; Middle Bottom: GFE/Urban Sprouts 2010 Summer Program; Bottom: Lavender and Bumblebee!
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.
