Victory Gardens San Diego
Connecting San Diego's Local Food Web
17 Organizations, over 500 Members. . . plus you?
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Vol. 7 VGSD Newsletter October 2009
Hi VGSD'ers,
A lot was accomplished in September and a whole LOT more is happening in October. From garden builds and garden education to many upcoming events to support the local food movement, there's something for everyone. Here's a taste of what's happening and what's on tap for October and beyond....
Recent Projects
Weightman Garden installed
September 20 found over 13 VGSD volunteers installing two raised bed gardens at Heather Weightman's home in Ocean Beach. A two-bin compost area was set up as well. Volunteers were done by noon!
We're getting faster! Heather treated the group to both a delicious lunch and acoutic music by her very talented family.
Many thanks to Richard Winkler, our Garden Guide, Kyle Hutmaker for dirt delivery and Dace, Shamsa, Conroy, Julie, Christie, Patti, Sarah, Carolyn, Hayley, Christina, and Yvonne for digging, drilling, pounding, planting and much more! The pictures tell the best story!
Bergman Garden completed
Many thanks to all-around hero Richard Winkler for taking the lead in helping Julie Bergman create a small space garden that will emphasize leafy green and tasty cool season root crops.
Many thanks also to Judy, Conroy, Neva and Ulyana for pitching in. You can see how happy they are with their handiwork!
La Vida Del Mar
Rolling Garden Boxes Delivered
La Vida Del Mar, a senior living center contracted with VGSD to build two rolling garden carts that would be easily accessible by the resident gardeners.
Gardening class coordinator Anglo Vitale will be using the boxes to expand the centers garden club activities.
Hope Garden Harvests Success!
Garden Guide, Joelle Budzynowski's and her gardening group's handiwork can be seen in these pictures. The garden was initially funded by the National Charity League, but needed an instructor. that's where VGSD and MHC connected.
The day I visited, the women harvested man pumpkins from the garden. VGSD will be providing future support to the Hope Garden by providing cool season seeds, a cold frame and a compost bin.
Shakti Rising set to Grow!
Shakti Rising and Victory Gardens are partnering to create a more sustainable lifestyle for the Sunshine House in order to support the Shakti Model of transformation. Garden Guide Marlowe McAneer is working with Shakti Rising to create plans for the property, determine phases & plan some workdays around these. Also, the dates scheduled for our next three workdays are October 17, November 21 & December 19. These are days that the are open to the community. Any VGSD'er wanting to help should contact Sorrel Weiss at 760.458.7593.
Click here to connect to the Shakti Rising website.
To help support this, WE Retreats is looking to collect much needed edible and medicinal vegetation and are reaching out to the community. WE Retreats is hosting the Shakti Graduation Celebration on October 30, 2009 and see this as an opportunity to further support their sustainability by asking for donations of plants that will be used in decorating the event and then can be planted in the garden. So, we are asking you to see if you may have any contacts that might be interested in supporting our efforts.
Donations Needed for Shakti Graduation/Garden
Citrus & Fruit Trees
Edible & Medicinal Plants
Pots/Planters
The Graduation is October 30th from 6 to 9pm at the Jacobs Center in City Heights. Tickets are $35 pp. WE are working on donations from several nurseries for fruit trees to plant around the property & WE will be using these to decorate the event & labeling them with a plaque honoring the sponsors. Please contact Sorrel for details and donations.
VGSD's Second U Garden Class Set to Graduate
Fifteen new University of Gardening enrollees have been gaining gardening knowledge from a variety of experts. Classes have covered siting your garden, tools, lawn removal, water conservation, irrigation, planting considerations, bed prep, pest management and a celebration.
Many thanks to John O'Reilly from High Tech High Media Arts who facilitated the use of an old Commandants's residence garden at Liberty Station for both us and John's class that is studying sustainability this Semester. We've been able to use John's class tools for many lessons.
We've made a lot of progress. Our garden will be donated to John's student's and HTH at the end of our class session. Thanks also to Cindy Jensen Elliott who allowed us to use her home for our grass removal and tool class. Finally a big thank you to the International Rescue Center for allowing us to use the New Roots Community Farm for our past management class. As they say..."it takes a village..."