Next Meeting of Pine Valley Community Gardens

 The next meeting of Pine Valley Community Gardens will be Saturday, March 6 after the Pancake Breakfast at the Pine Valley Community Clubhouse (around 10:00 AM)

Come join us to foster community spirit and community vegetables!!  We have some tremendous plans to till together, so come join us to plan and eventually plant!

Hope to see you then!!

Community Garden Network Meeting

Interested in community gardens?

Join fellow gardeners and build a network to sustain community gardens,

create new ones and promote community gardening in San Diego County.

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Community gardens turn empty lots and open spaces into green areas for growing fresh produce and plants. Community gardens encourage understanding and awareness of the environment around us, while rewarding the gardeners with home grown fruits, vegetables and other crops. Most are comprised of manageable sized garden plots that are joint projects created by members of the community and cared for by individuals. As such they also encourage opportunities for social gatherings, beautification, education and recreation.

The next meeting will be on Saturday, February 20, 2010, at 2:00 PM

at the TLC Community Giving Garden

11240 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92124

(Bring a potluck dish to share if you'd like to stay after the meeting)

TO RSVP, click here:  Meeting of Community Gardening Network

Victory Gardens Lecture

Victory Gardens: Join the Garden Revolution! 

Click below for reservations:
Lecture at the San Diego Natural History Museum

Learn about Victory Garden model as part of the overall local food movement. Lecture generously sponsored by the The Heller Foundation of San Diego.

At no point in our lifetimes has the interest in gardening, urban agriculture, and local food systems been so intense. It’s coming from all fronts­economic need, challenges presented by climate change, community-development needs, health and nutrition, food security, reconnecting youth with land, changing understandings of how we use space in urban areas, and a growing desire of Americans for civic engagement and participatory democracy.. The past has the ability to inform the present. Review historical case studies, learn about current national policies and models, and discover the future work needed to sustain the Victory Garden model as part of the overall local food movement. Also, learn about urban agriculture and how the local food-systems movement is addressing a wide range of challenges facing Americans today.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010; 6:30–8 PM

This lecture is part of the Sustainable Planet: Food Lecture Series. Advance registration recommended.

$5 per person

Lecture with Rose Hayden-Smith, Ph.D., Director of University of California’s Cooperative Extension, Ventura County

Composting and with Worms

Information on Composting (and with Worms, too!)
Learn from the experts how to turn your garbage into gold for your garden! You'll discover the different methods of backyard composting, how composting conditions the soil for healthy plants, and how you can save money and water. Visit the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation for workshop locations and to make a reservation, or call the Rotline at (760)436-7986, extension 222.

Master Composter Training Course
Become an expert in composting, meet new people and participate in interesting events, all while serving your community. The Master Composter course provides training in the art and science of composting, soil management and how to teach it to others. Certification requires attendance once a week at the 5 week course and completion of 30 hours of community outreach. People of all ages and abilities are encouraged to apply. A $5 materials fee will be collected at the first class session. For information and to register for the course, visit Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, or call (760) 436-7986, extension 217.

Schedule
Classes are held in the Auditorium of the Environmental Services Department's Ridgehaven "Green Building" at 9601 Ridgehaven Ct., San Diego, CA 92123 from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., plus two field trips. The next course will be held on Tuesday evenings, March 16 - April 13.

Worm composting sites:

 Earth Recycle Compost

Make Your Own Worm Compost System

Composting with Worms

New York Times Worms

Buy Composting Worms

500 worms per pound

Feeding the worms

Have fun!!!!

Gardening as a "Moral Force" (and Delight)

by Judith Dupree, Preliminary Organizer

Greetings, you who are green of thumb . . . and otherwise. Welcome to the beginning of a new adventure in the hills of East San Diego County: Community Gardening.

In today’s world, a garden full of edibles is nearly an anomaly. We are all the poorer for it, as we know. Our small but growing group is convinced that “local is focal,” and that we can help ourselves and others (we will share the “wealth” in an outreach program) to bypass, to some degree, our dependence upon the not-so-supermarket and its imported, largely chemically-grown produce. We believe that the word “organic” applies not only to a growing method, but to a vision for that which is real, unadulterated, functional, and sustainable. Any force of nature that shoves against the mega-mechanized-pesticized practices of the “food chain” is surely a Moral Force. We believe that small and local is beautiful. And do-able and pleasurable and emotionally and physically profitable. As life should be.

We will share the journey on site(s) with any and all who would like to live on the cutting edge of lettuce and dig into the fertile soil of life. In other words, we invite anybody in Pine Valley, Guatay, and environs to come stake your own small territory in the whole of the plot and learn, along with us, all the ins & outs of gardening from those who really KNOW how to make it happen. It is a challenge we consider well worth the sunburn and caterpillars and ravenous rabbits. Bugs Bunny, watch out! No, we will not exterminate him, merely “relocate.” Bugs, non-bunny, are fair game.

We hope the Pine Valley Community Gardens (we have two sites) will become a place to hang out together or alone (sometimes we need one or the other) and work closely with Ma Nature and others in new ways. We hope to do rather well with it, and we recognize that it means that we “grow” along with the radishes or beets. As we will lean hard upon experts in the process, perhaps we can shorten the learning curve. That’s our intent.

Sound interesting? Get in touch with us through Peggy Sargeant at 473-0277 or psargeant619@att.net. We’ll let you know what we’re doing, where we’re doing it, and when. Wish us well— and a good growing season!