The LA river! Starting May 27th Paddle It! And/or help clean it up May 18th with thousands of fellow awesome people.

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority is excited to announce the launch of the new L.A. River Pilot Recreation Zone. From Memorial Day to Labor Day this summer, for the first time ever, any member of the public will be able to take their kayak down to the L.A. River in Elysian Valley—on a 2.5 mile stretch from Fletcher downstream to Steelhead Park. MRCA rangers will be watching out for safety, and anyone can come on down to that stretch of the river every day during daylight hours to walk, kayak or fish. Find out more at www.lariverrecreation.org.  I paddled the river last year with the Army Corps of Engineers' pilot program and it was just the best thing ever.

And you can volunteer for La Gran Limpieza: The Great LA River Clean Up!

Saturday, May 18, 2013 9am - Noon

More info at http://folar.org/?p=1376

These are all pictures I took at La Gran Limpieza a few years ago. 

The river, she is so beautiful.

We begin again

Hey everybody, great to see most of you at the annual meeting!  Our new steering committee is up and running and soon you'll see email updates with helpful information, what we're up to and easy things all gardeners can do to contribute to bettering our gardens and community.

For now let's look at some pictures of the bugs that have been moving in to garden East--Armstrong's Garden Center sells thousands of ladybugs and praying mantises and if there's a more fun activity than releasing them into your plot I don't know what it is. They control pests in the most organic and cute way possible. Here are some newborn praying mantises moments after their big release.

Got any pictures and/or stories of what's going on in the garden? Please send them to Hannah or anyone else on the steering committee and we'll blog 'em up.  

A few east garden flowers

Poppies!  Popping up all over.

Lavenderland had a visit from this butterfly

And the colors on the poppies are thrilling

Nora's peas reach for the sky

Hope your garden is coming up rainbows too

Sad news

The New Geneva Garden!

It's up, it's running and it's full of plants!

Great job everybody who helped make this magic happen

and welcome new gardeners to the Monterey-Geneva

eco-community garden group!  Glad you're here.

Seed Saving Workshop

Hi Folks!

Another spectacular job by our workshop coordinator Katy Tafoya - thanks so much for organizing Katy! 

Please see the attached flyer for more information.  The Seed Saving workshop will be held on September 8 at 9 a.m.  Reservations required athttp://glendaleseedsaving.eventbrite.com/

Please distribute to your friends/family and anyone else that is interested.  We want these gardens to be accessible to everyone and this is the way we are able to do that.  Hope you can attend!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact Katy Tafoya directly at ktafoya@gmail.com.  Also if you have any suggestions or want to see specific workshops, please let her know.  Thanks!

Best,

Alek Bartrosouf

This morning at the garden

Karen's tomatoes are, as usual, stunning

Bronwyn and Melissa's fennel is hypnotic

I love water droplets on these kinds of leaves

and Joan's turnip sculptures are laughing it up.