Sunday, September 19, 2010

Garden Work Day!

Toolshed being built!  By former gardener Thom and garden founder Alek.  Men of steel.

Here they are at work.

Here's Elena helping out

Raphael's daisies were there and who can help but photograph them?  Not me.

Julia! She bravely wrangled the Mexican Tree Tobacco out of her plot. Turns out it's a poisonous invasive weed.


Carolyn grows beets the size of footballs. But how does she feel about them?

Pretty good!


That's a happy gardener.


This preying mantis was loitering in my plot this afternoon


And turned to face me!  It was very exciting, especially with the backlighting going on.

Here's Kimberly and Karen coming to check out Kimberly's zucchinis


Uh oh--Kimberly could whomp someone with one of them

but she probably won't, don't worry.

Karen!  Busy glowing.

Karen took this picture of me hiding in lavender

Chipper shredder at work!  Magic right before your eyes.

Sue (Purple) cut back the big tree so the first few plots can get as much sun as they need.

And here's Carl, one of the nicest people you could meet and a gardener in the new garden across the street.  Wonderful work, everybody!  Thanks for coming!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Part Time Job Opportunity for a Gardener

Hey everybody, Kimberly Greitzer learned of this opportunity and asked that the word be spread among our community.  Contact info is at the end if you're interested.


Job Opportunity

Job Title – School Garden Coordinator Assistant  
Agency –  Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District
Location – District Schools in Santa Monica
Pay Rate – $12.00 hr x 15 hours week

Responsibilities –
  • Assist in management of Santa Monica High School  9 raised beds and one 12’x16’ greenhouse to make it a source of produce, primarily lettuce for school use in organic salads sold at lunchtime.  Coordinate student workers as well as independent work. 
  • Manage Olympic High School vegetable garden to make it a source of produce for the Farmers’ Market Salad Bar Program.  Includes bed preparation, planting and maintenance of garden in cooperation with Science Class.   
  • Provide technical support for all school gardens as required
  • Report harvests to Nutrition Specialist; take pictures whenever possible.
  • Assist in planning workshop at beginning of year for gardening angels, teachers, parents, etc.  Deliver flyers for workshop to teachers and gardening angels promoting attendance.
  • Submit summary of school activities for garden newsletter. Due November 15th, February 1st and May 15th.
  • Coordinate activites with SMMUSD School Garden Coordinator

Required Skills – Proven experience with vegetable production; ability to communicate and work effectively with teachers and high school students. 
Desired Skills – Composting
Application Mode – Submit Resume to Dona Richwine
Application Deadline – September 30th, 2010
Contact for Further Information – Dona Richwine, Nutrition Specialist, SMMUSD, 1651 16th Street, Santa Monica, California 90404, 310-450-8338 ext 70259,drichwine@smmusd.org

Fence destruction noted

Someone has run over and destroyed part of the fence surrounding the West garden, the one that doesn't have any active plots yet.  Joan has asked me to let everyone know that the police have been notified and steps are being taken to resolve the situation.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Chipper-shredder magic + bonus preying mantis


Why is Alek so happy?  
Looks like he has some sort of device that's doing something interesting

It's a magical chipper shredder!  Alek reports that when we chip/shred the dried compost it takes up a third as much space as it does unchipped & unshredded.  Tom Brady from Glendale Waste Management has donated it to us!  What a capital guy.  

Here's Alek's report: "IT DOES MAGIC.  Oh my god.  Its very basic... but wow, it does the trick!  I emptied one of the compost bins entirely, Sue harvested the mature compost, and we put more than a whole wheel barrow's worth of compost into the shredder, and now its only taken less than 1/3 of the compost bin!  The shredder is a hazard and may be dangerous so people shouldn't touch it without someone trained on it being present. We'll use it again on our community service day."

Photos taken by the terrific and colorfully coiffed new gardener Sue Jekarl.  Thanks, Sue!

And now, the bloggy bonus:

Would you look at that preying mantis!  Bronwyn took these pictures of him/her while he/she fiddled around in her okra.  

He or she is huge.

This is probably the one I saw the other day in my plot--as I was staring at it from close range he or she grabbed a bee out of the air and stared eating it while the bee flailed helplessly.  I heard the crunches as the mantis ate it, bite by bite.  Gross!  Ah, nature.