Victory Gardens on Growing a Greener World

November 8, 2010 By mike Leave a Comment

GrowingAGreenerWorld126 300x169 Victory Gardens on Growing a Greener World

Growing A Greener World, Episode 126

Joe Lamp’l and Patti Moreno produce ‘Growing a Greener World‘, a TV program which available on the net and as podcast. Their latest episode features a look back at Victory Gardens. Local Victory Garden Historian (and Master Gardener) is featured in the episode. Also featured is Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsak speaking on the People’ Garden program.

You can watch the whole episode here on ‘Growing a Greener World, Episode 126‘.

This is a great episode, and I encourage you to take a look. If you like it, click the ‘share’ button. You can also subscribe to receive new episodes…

Filed Under: Community Gardens

Starting new school gardens

August 1, 2010 By mike Leave a Comment

Camarillo Community Garden members, staff and parent from La Mariposa School, and the Ventura County Master Gardeners led a huge work party / educational event Saturday July 31st. The school provided materials and eager students to build a dozen new 8′ x 4′ x 1′ raised garden beds. The master Gardeners led the educational portion of the day while we provided guidance to build the beds. A special thanks to Karl for his never-ending enthusiasm and sense of civic duty.

The kids at the school turned out in force. Some of them worked all day and out-lasted their dads. It was a great experience for them to do so much of the work, from digging up sprinkler heads and filling the holes back in, to building the boxes and filling them.

Check out the video of the day’s doings…

Filed Under: Community Gardens, School Gardens

Camarillo Community Garden In the News

July 9, 2010 By mike Leave a Comment

This last week was amazing. We had a very nice piece written about us in the Ventura County Star. Not only were we in the first section on page A-3, but we also got a headline blurb on the Masthead directing people to the article. That is Star treatment! If you missed the article in the paper, you can read the article here: An Idea to Grow On

This was a great article showcasing a number of the gardeners who were interviewed on site. It also kicked off the rest of the week. It led immediately to a surprise call from Ami from KCAL News asking for permission to visit us at the garden. When I arrived, there was a satellite trunk parked in front of the garden, and a reporter and cameraman/video editor working the crowd. They went live at 12:30 and gave us a wonderful segment seen all over California! If you missed the broadcasts (we were on at noon, 2:00 and 4:00) you can see it on-line here: Our Field of Dreams.

The next day I was asked to go on the radio with “Two Moms and a Mic” on KKZZ Radio 1400. Sandy and Kim (the 2 Moms) are rated as #1 in California for “Positive Talk Radio” – a very refreshing change from the negative, inflammatory ‘news’ programs on TV and radio. The ladies were delightful, and interested enough to walk the garden prior to the show. They gave me a chance to talk about our garden, the new garden, and several programs relating to school and community gardens.

In a moment of Kismet, Sandy’s kids attend La Mariposa School here in Camarillo, the same site where the Master Gardeners will be holding a school and community garden building class at the end of July (you can read more about this program on sustainabe-landscaping.net.

Ans one more article featuring us is now on the news stands (that is such an antiquated term) in “805 Living” Magazine. I have not seen it yet (going to get a copy today – go get yours!), but I did a peek at an early draft of the article and it looks like we are the lead off to Billy Goodnick’s article. Check it out!

This exposure has been a boon – we have had a constant stream of inquiries, sign-ups for information and a BUNCH of new gardeners are now on our waiting list. This is good publicity (and much easier to take than Lindsey Lohan’s jail time!).

Filed Under: Community Gardens, Gardening

Free Training for Volunteers

June 16, 2010 By mike Leave a Comment

School / Community Garden Training

Presented by the Ventura County Master Gardeners

The “Community and School Gardening Class” is a new, hands-on training program to train volunteers who are willing to create more community and school gardens. This free course is provided by the Ventura County Master Gardeners. The course will train YOU and other volunteers and give you all the basic knowledge required to successfully start a new community or school garden.

The programs will be given in a live situation – you will work with the Master Gardeners and create new garden plots at La Mariposa School. At the end of the day, there should be a cadre of trained volunteers who will continue to build more gardens in more schools and neighborhoods. This school was chosen because of it’s HUGE commitment to teaching about food, and for their dedication of food plots to aid the hungry.

Our first training class will be held on July 31st, starting at 9:30 at La Mariposa School in Camarillo, 4800 Corte Olivas, Camarillo; a map to the training site is below.

Watch this video to learn more about the training. Then enter your name and e-mail in the box at the Sustainable-Landscaping.net to join the training session. Make sure to enter your e-mail correctly as reminders and information regarding the course will be sent there.

Go to Sustainable-Landscaping.net to sign-up for this free, ‘hands-on’ course. Information, schedules, maps and news will be sent to this address. Until then, here is the map to the garden training site! Be sure to add your name to the list!

You can do this! Sign up here for this free class!

4800 Corte Olivas

Filed Under: Community Gardens, Gardening Tagged With: community garden, Master Gardeners, school gardens, vegetable garden planting

A home-grown food distribution network

August 26, 2009 By mike Leave a Comment

Nonprofit Delivers Local Produce to Schools, Restaurants Around Charlottesville – washingtonpost.com.

Here’s an interesting approach to food distribution – community gardens and other small producers to band together and become a force… Whether we gather it all together for sale or charity, there will be a lot of excess coming from our gardens.

Dick Proutt is a small farmer, read the article to see how he and the others like him are the answer to feeding a county’s hungry multitude. How do you think we could be benefit to the community?

Filed Under: Community Gardens, Fresh Organic Produce, Gardening Tagged With: organic food distribution

Victory Gardens Are Growing Anew

August 20, 2009 By mike Leave a Comment

There is an intersting article the AARP online issue regarding the ‘new’ Victory Garden craze…

Victory Gardens Are Growing Anew

via Americans Turn to Vegetable Gardening to Save on Food Costs – AARP Bulletin Today.

It seems the Camarillo Community Gardeners are not the only ‘newbies’ to take up gardening recently.

“I’ve never dug a hole in my life,” Helen Mayberry confessed. Frankly, I never really had my hand in dirt.” But that didn’t stop Helen and her friends from planting their first Victory Garden in a rented plot.

The numbers are impressive. This year, some 43 million U.S. households will grow vegetables, fruit or herbs—an increase of 7 million, or 19 percent from 2008, according to a study released in March by the National Gardening Association. And an estimated 21 percent of food gardeners will be first-timers like Mayberry.

AARP says you get $25 of produce from $1 worth of seed… What do you think? Can you even find a $1 packet of seeds?

You c an read the whole article here, and leave your comments below…

Filed Under: Community Gardens Tagged With: community garden, Victory Garden

Learning by Doing

August 2, 2009 By mike Leave a Comment

Why We call it ‘Coaching’, not ‘Teaching’

We will coach you to help you learn how to garden. We are coaches, not teachers. The following picture shows the way people learn and why we coach instead of teach (click image to enlarge).

If I give you a lecture, studies have shown you will only retain 5% of the information, and if you read about it, you may retain up to 10% of the material. However, by the time you get a hands-on demonstration, you will retain 75%.

The best retention comes from hands-on work that you immediately put into action yourself. This is the basis of coaching – to give you the best information in the way that lets you learn new concepts easily.

This is what we do. We work together (be ready to get dirty) doing your garden tasks. Experienced gardeners show you the easiest way to accomplish our tasks.

We work with you, show you the techniques, and you will do the task. You will have seen and practiced the best ways to handle your problem, and the knowledge will be yours to keep and pass on to others. We use this technique – working hand-in-hand with you as we show you- in our gardens and in our class room demonstrations.

Filed Under: Community Gardens Tagged With: community garden, planning a vegetable garden