May 13th Field Trip to Sylmar High School — Members Only!

Sylmar High School Agricultural Department head, Steve List has invited us for a tour of their amazing facility. The growing areas were built up from an empty lot by students over many years and are now a magnificent, multi-zoned field replete with ponds, farm animals, compost pits, and a worm farm.  There are multiple fruit trees and vegetable beds, hot houses, chickens, desert plants, and more, all fortified by the school’s own blend of enriched potting soil.

 There will be garden tours and information on fruit tree growing.  Steve teaches urban agriculture, nutrition, and edible landscaping to hundreds of students daily.  They learn to love gardening!   Steve is a great and knowledgeable speaker.   This is a remarkable garden.  Hope to see you there!

Address, time and other details in newsletter you should have received.  If you haven’t, please Contact Us,

Yes, our field trip today is on!

Mark Abraham, our host at Will Rogers Learning Garden, says short of a downpour we are welcome to come visit.  It is still vaguely drizzling but we are a hardy bunch.  Who doesn’t remember our field trip to Paradise Nursery in Chatsworth in the midst of the fires that surrounded it?  Sometimes the more difficult trips are the most memorable.  See you there!

Field Trip to Will Rogers Elementary will be contingent on weather

Per Mark Abraham, our host: “It’s predicted dry for a few days before Saturday, so if the morning is dry I am GAME ON and would think the site would be perfect for people to access – but if it rains we will have to cancel.”

If we do have to cancel, we will definitely reschedule this spring.  Be aware that volunteer days at the orchard are every third Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm and all you fruit-growers would be very welcome.

Field Trip to the Will Rogers Learning Community on January 14th @ 10 am

This is from member Mark Abraham who runs garden at The Will Rogers Learning Community:
“The Will Rogers Learning Community is an elementary school in the SMMUSD that today boasts a very large school garden. The nascent 2+ year garden is set up with 19 double reach rows for intensive crop production, composting bays, fruit trees, and more, to teach 500+ elementary school children who visit the garden each week the connection to good food, care for one another and care for the planet. Classroom time in the farm is interactive in nature and the students learn about regenerative agriculture, plant horticulture, propagation, insect identification, decomposers and fungal allies, and more. The garden is supported by a weekly crew of volunteers from the community who come to garden, share, learn and have fun every weekend to advance the mission of the school’s garden, to complement the work being done by the students each week and to help build out the infrastructure.
My intention among many others is to see to it that the site serves as a repository for important, endemic and/or rare germplasm – so that it can function as a lending library of sorts for the community when the time comes. I am grateful to the chapter for their interest in what we are doing; we have a lot of work ahead of us and it is my hope that as we grow the space we can learn from experienced horticulturalists like yourselves, and develop the connections and the necessary resources for our future fruit hunters. We are very excited to host you for the first event of the New Year – see you in 2023!
Garden is located at the corner of Maple and 16th Street in Santa Monica, 90405. Parking and water fountains on site. Bathrooms across the street at John Adams Middle School.”
Definitely a can’t-miss tour and certainly a focus for chapter volunteering.

LaVerne/Everde Nursery trip rescheduled! 10-22-22 @ 9 am

Obviously not our traditional Second Saturday meeting day (or meeting time for that matter), but we are just so grateful to Dan Nelson for finding another slot for us — after draconian weather forecasts led him and us to cancel the trip in early September.

Temperatures should be much more comfortable for all concerned so make sure to get this onto your calendar pronto.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a plant availability/price list yet but will get it to chapter members as soon as we do.

LaVerne/Everde Nursery trip rescheduled! 10-22-22 @ 9 am

Obviously not our traditional Second Saturday meeting day (or meeting time for that matter), but we are just so grateful to Dan Nelson for finding another slot for us — after draconian weather forecasts led him and us to cancel the trip in early September.

Temperatures should be much more comfortable for all concerned so make sure to get this onto your calendar pronto.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a plant availability/price list yet but will get it to chapter members as soon as we do.

LaVerne/Everde Nursery trip rescheduled! 10-22-22 @ 9 am

Obviously not our traditional Second Saturday meeting day (or meeting time for that matter), but we are just so grateful to Dan Nelson for finding another slot for us — after draconian weather forecasts led him and us to cancel the trip in early September.

Temperatures should be much more comfortable for all concerned so make sure to get this onto your calendar pronto.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a plant availability/price list yet but will get it to chapter members as soon as we do.

LaVerne/Everde field trip Saturday 9/10@ 9 am Last Minute Details

By now all chapter members should have received the address and plant price list for our field trip on the 10th.  If you haven’t, please let us know!  Because we are going to be allowed to park on the grounds this year, there will also be an updated address in your meeting reminder later this week.

Please, please, please email the list of your wants to us by Wednesday so we can get them to Laverne in time for them to pull the plants.  They will be waiting for us at the end of the tour.   They have to be paid for in CASH.

If you need more information on the size of the plants, this is a more detailed .pdf.  The dates listed are when the plants, mostly described last week  as SS or substandard, are expected to be up to snuff.  Some of the dates will have already passed by the time we get to Piru and therefore those plants should be full size.  Other dates are as soon as 10/1 but some are not until next year.  Please keep that in mind when making your selections.  You can also see the number of plants available for each size. and their actual dimensions.

Many of you have been startled by how much more expensive the plants are this year than in the past.  We are assuming the skyrocketing prices of gas and water have much to do with that.  Out of curiosity, I stopped by my local Armstrong’s Garden Center today where 5 gallon citrus trees are $59.99 and 5 gallon avocados are $69.99.  Obviously the prices we are being offered are much better than that.

Anyhow, plant acquisitions aside, this is always one of my favorite tours.  Our host, Director of Nursery Operations Dan Nelson, is both knowledgeable and charming and it is always fascinating to see how the pros propagate and grow up some of our most loved plants.

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