Summer Night on the Plaza and Our Gardens' Contribution!

Here comes the big annual fundraiser that partially supports Neighborhood Services, the Glendale city department that oversees our gardens and made them possible in the first place.

Our gardens are contributing the centerpieces for the event and we need everybody's help to make it happen.  All you have to do is recycle a jar, bottle, tin can or other decorative object, use plants from your plot to fill it and poof, it's a beautiful centerpiece.  The plants don't have to be flowers. Why not a bouquet of dill or other greens?  Please leave them in either garden's shed no later than sundown on Wednesday, July 27th.  Joan will provide tags so everyone seeing them will know that they're from our community gardens.

Here's the information from the city:

Join Neighborhood Services and the Committee for a Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Glendale (CCBG)  for our 8th annual fundraiser, "Summer Night on the Plaza". We will have delicious food and decadent desserts from some of Glendale's favorite restaurants and bakeries, the sizzling salsa sounds of Orquesta Charangoa , a silent auction featuring unique one-of-a-kind items, and an exhibit of the finalists in the "My Hometown" Photo Contest. All proceeds from ticket sales and silent auction items will continue to fund the Committee for a Clean & Beautiful Glendale’s in-school environmental education, community beautification and graffiti removal programs. See you there!


http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/planning/summer_night.asp

In this season of plenty

Hey everyone

In the last few weeks I've heard a lot of "can you use some kale?" kinds of comments and since I'm also blessed with abundant greens (among other things) now seemed like a good time to mention some other destinations for your plot's productive bounty.  If your harvest is more than you, your family, friends and neighbors can accommodate you're eligible to reap the kharmic rewards of donating your surplus.

My first stop for this exercise is usually my neighborhood fire station.  Firefighters have to pay for and prepare their own food during their 24-hour-long shifts and they always appreciate contributions. They're also some of the nicest people in the world and it feels great to honor and thank them for their generous work.

My friend Vivian, a Glendale librarian, also recommended Meals on Wheels as a donation destination. Their address is 320 W. Windsor Road, Glendale. Their phone number is 818-246-5586.

If you have other places you'd recommend we all consider please leave it/them in a comment.

Thanks!

Hannah

PS The picture above left shows two purple potatoes I put into the ground and the next picture shows maybe half of the magical potato bounty I pulled out of my plot not much later on.  Turns out potatoes are the potato seeds!  Just cut them so at least 2 eyes are on each slice, put 'em in the ground and see what happens.  Important note: Don't eat any potatoes that have green on them or have grown on the surface of the soil, apparently they're a hazard.

Coalition for a Green Glendale News Flash!

We are hosting our very first Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden Workshop that is open to the public!

Join us on June 25th at 10 a.m. with Jeff Spurier on pest management! If you have a vegetable garden at home or plan to have one this will be essential for sharing knowledge among gardeners and hearing some tips from an expert! Jeff Spurrier is a Master Gardener, trained at the University of California Cooperative Extension. Jeff contributes his services to communities, sharing his knowledge and expertise. We are excited to have Jeff back with us to learn more insightful information about our gardens.

When a leaf does not look right, we try to figure out what is wrong, why is it curling, is that rust, is that mildew, as we closely monitor our gardens. Then there are those holes in the leaves, and even worse, what bored the holes into our vegetable? Now we can find out the answers! And, we can learn tips on preventative measures that can be taken! This is very valuable information for those growing vegetable gardens.

Please do RSVP at greenglendale@gmail.com so that we know how many people are attending. An ongoing challenge at our evolving gardens is lack of seating. If you're okay with standing great, but if you need to sit after a while we encourage you bring a folding chair or something to sit on. We hope to resolve this issue once we have proper funding!

Where: 827 Monterey Road, Glendale, CA
When: June 25th, Saturday, at 10 a.m.

Parking: Please park with caution. Crossing Monterey Road can be very dangerous. I recommend parking on Coronado, which is just East of Garden West and sees much less traffic.

Thats it... thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Alek Bartrosouf
Coalition for a Green Glendale
Steering Committee Chair - Monterey Road Eco Community Gardens

818-359-0108

827 Monterey Road, Glendale, CA
Parking: Please park with caution. Crossing Monterey Road can be very dangerous. I recommend parking on Coronado, which is just East of Garden West and sees much less traffic.

Ladybugs, baby

 Got 1500+ of 'em at Armstrongs!  Gosh they're cute.  Here are four of our favorites.

 We released them into the wild of our garden

 So friendly, spotty and unassuming.

Here are two enthusiasts.  Fun on tiny buggy feet.

Coalition for a Green Glendale News Flash!

I wanted to point out various events that are just around the corner and are really important. Earth Day is coming and everyone is organizing so please bear with me with this list. We are trying to be as active as possible so you'll see The Coalition for a Green Glendale at events whose titles are highlighted like this. If you have any questions about the events mentioned here, please let me know and I am happy to help by answering or referring you to the appropriate contact. Thanks, and have a great sunny day!

1. Safe & Healthy Streets Plan Presentation to Glendale City Council
04/19/2011 at 600 p.m.
613 E. Broadway, City Council Chambers

Colin Bogart will be presenting to council the Safe and Healthy Streets Plan and he'll need your support! Join us if you can!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=161852253871443

2. Earth Day at the Recycling Center's Sorting Facility
04/23/2011 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
540 W. Chevy Chase Dr.
Glendale, CA 91204

Join Glendale’s Recycling Guru Tom Brady at the Waste Management Center to check out the new advanced sorting facility that separates mixed recyclables into separate materials! Public Works will be giving away free tote bags and other promotional materials. A children’s bike will also be given away to the person who guesses closest to how many crushed cans are in a bale (on display at the event).

3. Earth Day at Glendale Community College
04/26/2011 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

1500 N. Verdugo Road

Glendale, CA

There will be a live band (Masxs), a food truck (The Gastro Bus www.thegastrobus.com), environmental groups, and one of Chevrolet's new 100% electric cars, the Volt. Come out and be engaged with students and help start a dialogue with youth!

4. Greener Glendale Open House
04/27/2011 from 5 to 7 p.m.
633 E. Broadway, MSB Room 106
Glendale CA 91206

Come find out with the City of Glendale is doing to conserve resources and the environment. Share your ideas about how we can improve!

5. Professor Michael Reed Presentation: The State of the Earth
Glendale Community College

04/28/2011 from 12:20-1:30 in CS 177

6. Glendale Bikeway Master Plan Community Meeting
04/28/2011 from 6 to 9 p.m.
Glendale Central Library
222 E. Harvard St.
Glendale, CA

This will be the first community meeting for the bike plan update, sharing with you specific maps that will show street designations for future bike infrastructure like bike lanes, sharrows, bike parking, etc.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=145252588874210

7. Verdugo Mountains 10k Trail Run and Hike
05/1/2011 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Brand Park
1601 W. Mountain St
Glendale, CA

The 1st Annual Verdugo Run is sponsored by Glendale Parks and the Glendale Open Space and Parks Foundation. Registration goes towards the non-profit foundation. Run or hike - all at your own pace. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=210334882315539

8. 23^rd Annual Great American Clean Up Day

05/21/2011 Check-in begins at 830 a.m.

Glendale, CA

Over 600 residents took part last year by volunteering their time to help beautify various locations throughout the city. Volunteers were teamed up with city staff to work on a variety of beautification projects including litter and trash pick up, weed abatement at abandoned properties, park trail projects, and more. After helping keep the city clean and beautiful, our dedicated volunteers return to the kick-off site for a community barbecue, entertainment, and prizes! All volunteers receive a free commemorative event t-shirt.

Go here for more information and sign up! http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/planning/gac_form.asp

Again, don't hesitate to contact us with questions/comments/suggestions. Thanks again!

Best,

Alek Bartrosouf

Coalition for a Green Glendale

www.green-glendale.org

Check us out in the LA Times!

Reclaimed water helps Monterey Road community garden grow

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April 13, 2011 |  7:57 am

Photo: Adam Henry waters his plot. Credit: Ann SummaWatering at the Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden (East) in Glendale is slightly more complicated than at most gardens, requiring the use of a key kept locked away in a shed. It is the first community garden in the state to be entirely reliant upon reclaimed water and although triple-filtered, the H2O is still not considered potable, safe for drinking. The key makes sure that nobody but the gardeners -- all “water certified” by Glendale Water and Power -- can open the spigot. And unlike in the rest of Glendale, there are no watering restrictions here for when to water. The garden’s monthly water bill is about $15 a month, leaving membership fees for other needs.

  “We’re told [the water] has a high nitrogen content,” says Hannah Mixamova, the gardeners’ chairwoman. “Some plants just explode while others, the nitrogen producers, hate it. I’ve had problems with my edamame.”

It’s a small price to pay for almost-free water. Her lavender, the first thing she put in back in July 2009, blooms continually. “I tell everyone to cut as much as they want because the more you cut it, the more it comes back. People wash their hands with it.”

Nearly 2 years old, the garden has 20 4-by-24 plots, all in identical raised beds divided in the middle by a graceful arching trellis, following the design of Glendale landscape architect Guillaume Lemoine. A companion garden a block away, Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden (West), is now under construction.

Photo: A nozzle plugs into recycled runoff water from underground street gutters. Credit: Ann Summa

Both gardens represent a collaboration between the city of Glendale and the nonprofit Coalition for a Green Glendale, a group started by Alek Bartrosouf and some of his friends -- all in their early 20s and non-plot holders here. He grew up in Glendale and returned home after graduating from UC Santa Cruz, wanting to do something for the community that would promote sustainable living. He teamed up with high school friend Ana Khachatrian (then at USC) and Garen Nadir (now studying environmental law at Loyola). The city approached the group about developing an odd-shaped, 11,000-square-foot plot of land adjacent to the onramp onto the 134 Freeway west at Cordoba Street. It had been vacant for 50 years, used only for parking city vehicles.

Where trucks parked there is now a bike rack, a dozen compost bins and a drought-tolerant California natives demonstration display -- a stylistic suggestion to the homeowners in the residential neighborhood where every street is tree shaded and every house has a front lawn.

Photo: Ann Summa

The majority of the gardeners here are condo or apartment dwellers and have no similar real estate available to them. They come from around the world:  England, Peru, Trinidad, India, Armenia. And while there are dietary differences-- the Armenians grow lots of cilantro, parsley and dill, for example -- there are international commonalities. Almost everyone has lemongrass, donations from their Peruvian gardener, a multiple cancer survivor.

Adam Henry, a Nickelodeon director, is here on his lunch hour, watering his beets and carrots. “I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat a beet usually. But if I pull it out of the ground, I’ll eat it. Same with the carrots. And the peas? They’re like candy.”

He’s not the only foodie. One late afternoon when she was alone in the garden, Maximova was called over to the chain link fence by a group of guys sporting tattoos and headbands. They wanted to check out the garden. She was hesitant until they said “We’re chefs.”

“They came in and recognized all these plants they’d never seen in the ground. They asked about the workdays, wanting to help. We all eat food but to plant it, grow it, pick it -- most of us don’t get that experience,” she said.

Photo: Hannah Maximova, left, holds her son and chats with Alek Bartrosouf and Garen Nadir, founders of the garden. Credit: Ann Summa

Bartrosouf, who is getting his master's degree in urban planning at UCLA, agrees: “Society is in such a fast-paced mode. We get frustrated if it takes more than 10 seconds for a computer to start. Something so simple as picking weeds can be extremely therapeutic. It’s manual labor and you feel good at the end.”

-- Jeff Spurrier

Here's the agenda for the Steering Committee's next monthly meeting

DATE:  Tuesday, April 12th, 2011, location TBD

Steering Committee Members:  Hannah Maximova, Chair, Ana Khachatrian, Vice Chair, Joan Ziehurt, Garden Manager, 
    Alek Bartrosouf, Treasurer,  Karen Gee, Secretary

Agenda Items:

The Perennial Annual Meeting

Let's plan this year's meeting.

Advances in Nominating

Via Alek, the issue of taking nominations in advance of the meeting.

US Compostal Service, West Garden Edition, Part II

Revisiting the question of dividing compost bins up or keeping all of them communal.

Budget Nuggets

VIa Alek, who would know since he's the treasurer.

Grants for Plants

From Glendale Clean and Beautiful: We spend from our account $800 to buy native plants, and get an $800 gift card for Home Depot in return- caveat is it both have to be purchased by Great American Cleanup Day mid-May.

Phoning It In

Via Alek, the issue of phone calls to invidividual gardeners.

Lead Dread

What's the update on the various testing efforts?

By the Bylaws, Part Next

Finalization and distribution.

Misc:

Other items?