The California Garden Web is another great resource for gardeners. Go here for their advice on growing raspberries.
UC Berkeley’s Botanical Garden has a great website. Features include their calendar and their interactive map.
Check out the slideshow below then click on donate.
[slideshare id=9008425&doc=lcc-slideshow-110825114302-phpapp01]Siamack Sioshansi and his merry band of volunteer gleaners from Urban Farmers has struck again. Lamorinda Weekly reports that over two weekends in August, they harvested nearly 1,000 pounds of pears from private gardens across Lafayette. Siamack said:
70 percent of the weight of a fruit tree is made of carbon that the tree extracted from our polluted atmosphere,” he explains, “after a few years it will feed those who planted it, then it will continue to grow and feed a community. Long after those who planted it are gone, it continues to give plentifully if it is taken care of. Fruit trees are a perfect metaphor for life at its best on our planet.
Read more here.
Check out the video here.
Gleaners!
Wow! Girl Scout Troop 32153 has kicked off our fund raising drive with a super generous donation of $440! This would be a great time to get together with some friends and match this gift. For more information about how to donate, click here.
For more about this remarkable troop, read this at Lamorinda Weekly.
Girl Scout Troop 32153
This morning, KQED had a great story about Dixon Ridge Farms and their organically grown Walnuts.
Russ Lester, the owner of Dixon Ridge Farms, has been leading the charge to get the rules changed. He has gone to extraordinary lengths to shrink the carbon footprint of his organic walnut farm and processing plant in Yolo County.
Read more.
Lafayette Community Garden will also be an education center. Today, some of us traveled to Suison Valley to learn about and pick unbelievable heirloom tomatoes at Wild Boar Farms. Wouldn’t you like to help decide if our garden will be growing Berkeley Tie-Dyes, Black & Brown Boars, Cherokee Greens, Pink Brandywines or one of the other heirlooms bred and grown by this innovative farm? Get involved today! Help us turn a parking lot into a garden plot!
Edible East Bay writes about:
Sharing has made a comeback. East Bay residents are now bartering, trading, exchanging, swapping, or simply giving away an abundance of homegrown produce or homemade food in a variety of creative ways. Of course, gardeners who grow their own veggies have always doled out surplus squash and spinach to neighbors (or as the San Francisco Chronicle recently wisecracked, arugula and cilantro, the Berkeley equivalent of summer’s backyard bounty).
Read more.
In the Contra Costa Times, you can read about:
Alameda County Master Gardeners, through an agreement with the East Bay Regional Park District, are developing a demonstration garden in the Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area in Fremont. We also work in cooperation with the Alameda County Water District.
Although the garden originally was conceived to introduce the community to the use of plants that tolerate our dry summers with little or no additional water, our approach necessarily broadened to creating an environmentally sustainable garden.
Can you say compacted soil? Read the whole thing here.
Contra Costa Master Gardeners’ Fall Garden Event
Date: September 10, 2011
Time: 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Sponsor: Contra Costa Master Gardeners
Location: St. Perpetua’s School, Lafayette
More here.