Victory Gardens San Diego
Connecting San Diego's Local Food Web
17 Organizations, over 500 Members. . . plus you?
Working hand-in-hand with several San Diego food-movement groups, VGSD encourages and assists in the development of sustainable, healthy, Earth-friendly home, community and school food gardens throughout the San Diego area.
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Vol. 9 VGSD Newsletter February-March 2010
The end of 2009 and the first weeks of 2010 have been a time for reorganization and preparing for the new gardening year. We have made lots of new contacts and are finalizing a schedule for garden builds and garden education classes for the start of the new year. March and April will begin many Earth Day activities and the Cultivating Food Justice Conference at SDSU on April 24 and 25. We look forward to adding to our ever-growing list of Victory Gardeners in 2010 at all these events. Here's to a productive, bountiful new year!
Gerson Garden planting
On Monday, January 11, VGSD'ers Bob and Julie met at Charlotte Gerson's home to replant her raised, enclosed garden bed. Mrs. Gerson is the founder of The Gerson Institute which is dedicated to teaching and promoting the Gerson Therapy..." that has helped thousands recover from "so-called" incurable diseases such as cancer." Mrs. Gerson is the daughter of Dr. Max Gerson, the developer of the Gerson therapy which has an emphasis on raw foods.
Julie and Bob planted a variety of greens, onions, radishes and other vegetables suitable for salads. They also set up sonic gopher stakes to discourage the local gopher population and tuned the drip irrigation system to water the veggie starts. Mrs. Gerson treated Julie and Bob to signed copies of her husband's books in appreciation. It was a wonderful day as the pictures attest.
New Roots Community Farm Garden Ed Classes
VGSD is teaching its third garden education series entirely in Spanish! Classes began on the 23rd of January and will run through February. Salvador Tinajero and Yael Zaidman are teaching the Hispanic farmers/gardeners at the New Roots Community Farm how to increase their yields of organic produce.
Our second class began clearing and leveling plots. They were taught how to double dig and began revamping their gardens. Spirits were high as the students saw how much was getting done as they worked together. Once we're past the rains (hallelujah!) we'll focus on effective irrigation, plant propagation, planting and integrated pest management using organic principles.
Each class ends with a pot luck and the series will conclude with a celebratory pot luck. Thanks to our Garden Education Coordinator, Shelly Stewart for her outstanding organization and to Jaime Garza, our IRC liaison, for his communication link to the class.
Thanks also to Lowe's Mission Valley for their generous tool discounts and Red Worm Organic Compost for delivering 20 cubic yards of their excellent compost to enrich the NRCF garden plots.
Action Team Meeting
Our next VGSD Action Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 17 from 6-8 PM. We'll be calendaring projects for the year and enhancing our organizational structure to increase our project and education class capacity. If you'd like to become a more actively involved VGSD participant, the Action Committee is a great place to start. Email bob at bob@victorygardenssandiego.com for meeting location and other details.
What's coming up
VGSD First Anniversary
Spring Mixer
Wednesday, March 24
5 to 7:30pm
at The Linkery
3794 30th Street, 92104
(at North Park Way in North Park)
Click here for map and directions
Join us while we celebrate the completion of VGSD's fabulous first year of success! Mingle with gardeners, foodies and friends at one of San Diego's finest farm-to-fork restaurants, The Linkery in North Park.
The Linkery will pair several food and drink pairings especially for the VGSD guests. Individual food tastings/tapas will be $5.00 each. Drinks will be $5.00 each. However pre-planned (by Jay) pairings will be $9.
VGSD will receive 20% of the take for the evening from VGSD guests. While the hours are noted, people can obviously stay beyond that, but those are the hours for the food and drink specials.
Raffle
Raffle tickets will be for sale for $5 each for 5 for $20 and sold at the table. Drawing will be held every 30 minutes beginning at 6:00. Winner need not be present to win.
Three fabulous prizes!
- VGSD residential garden build. Winner can give to someone else if they win and can’t use it.
- VGSD mini-garden that will be on site that evening.
- Gift basket being put together by Janet Lancaster with two brand-new bamboo cutting boards, new bamboo salad hands, new food Smarts cards, plus several other items.
Don't miss it!
Join VGSD Online!
Always seeking to expand of gardening community, the VGSD Action Committee took steps to give us a broader E- presence via Google, Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to Cynthia for managing our "Tweets", about upcoming events involving VGSD and/or our partners. Thanks also to Julianna for developing our Facebook page and Erin for creating our Google site. Below are the links to each site. I encourage you to sign up and stay connected with VGSD and our partners. We want to build an interactive San Diego garden community and these sites will allow for questions and discussions regarding garden and food issues. Here are the links to each site:
Tell a friend about VGSD.
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Thanks for your
enthusiasm and support!