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G3's Pamela Berstler Leads Mini-Basics Class

On a cold and on-and-off rainy day, a big group turned out at Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capitstrano (inland Orange County) for a mini-OFG Basics Class presented by G3’s Pamela Berstler. Pamela led the group through how to implement OFG principles: CPR, or Conservation, Permeability and Retention. The class marked the launch of the OFG Program for the Surfrider-South Orange County Chapter. The Chapter’s OFG Committee is ramping up to do OFG events like Lawn Patrols. Volunteering with the Com’t is a great way to both learn and act.

TOL's Mike Evans points to rainwater filtering swale

After the class, Tree of Life (TOL) owner, Mike Evans, gave us a tour of the Nursery. Along with their retail and wholesale native plant business, TOL also is growing plants for restoration projects. Mike also showed us a swale (like a dry stream) he created on the property to collect and filter rainwater (pictured at left). You can do this same thing at home. In fact, TOL is offering it’s annual “Remove Your Lawn” series over 4 consecutive Saturday mornings, starting March 19.

Mike also took the group to the edge of the property, which sits at the convergence of several watersheds that eventually flow to the ocean.

TOL's site: watersheds converge upstream from where we surf

The day’s events got some good coverage in the online journal, San Juan Cap Patch, with a short video that includes quick steps from Pamela about steps you can take right now.

Come join us at one of the next Ocean Friendly Gardens Basics Classes offered through a state grant received by Surfrider and West Basin Municipal Water District:

• March 19, 2011 (Saturday), 9am-12noon, in Malibu – Malibu City Hall, 23815 Stuart Ranch Road, Malibu, CA 90265 (map).
• April 7, 2011 (Thursday), 6pm-9pm, in Gardena – Nakaoka Community Center, 1670 W. 162nd St., Gardena, CA 90247 (map).
• May 14, 2011 (Saturday) 10am-1pm, in Redondo Beach – City Library, 303 N. Pacific Coast Highway, Redondo Beach, CA 90277 (map).
• June 4, 2011 (Saturday), 9am-12noon, in Manhattan Beach – Joslyn Center, 1601 North Valley Drive, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 (map).
• June 18, 2011 (Saturday), 10am-1pm, in Lawndale – County Library, 14615 Burin Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260 (map).

These are free. Register online (click “calendar” button) or call Grace with the South Bay Environmental Services Center at 310.371.7222, x206.Refreshments are served (lite breakfast/lunch).

The classes are taught by Green Gardens Group (G3) and are the first step in a program of classes, Hands-On Workshops and barn-raising-type GAP Workdays. The classes are comprehensive and integrate several key components for developing a successful garden, focusing on:

• understanding the watershed we live in
• creating healthy soil
• capturing and utilizing rain water and preventing runoff
• letting leaves land where they fall (why they call them “leaves,” eh)
• utilizing native and climate appropriate plants to restore urban wildlife habitat
• …and, without mowing & blowing & trimming all the time, having a little more time to enjoy the garden

ELLE Magazine and Aveeno have partnered up with Surfrider to sponsor a Garden Assistance Program (GAP) Workday on Saturday, February 26 from 8:30am-12noon as part of the annual Spirit Awards for independent films. The site is Franklin Elementary School at 2400 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA. We got the approval from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to remove the turf and plants from in front of the cafeteria. Additional funding will be provided by the City of Santa Monica through their sustainable landscape rebate program. ELLE/Aveeno will be a treating a group of dedicated Surfrider volunteers to special after-party eats and spa treatment (sorry, but RSVPs are already filled).

Before

Here’s what the site looked like just a week-ago. This will be a great opportunity to both create a demonstration OFG and train the School District staff in how to maintain OFG landscaping – which is where landscaping is headed.

The OFG is being designed by our partners, G3, and they will also be leading the Workday. Tom Stout of Tom Stout Landscaping (and a G3 Certified Professional) is the landscape contractor on the project. Tom’s crew is in the process of prepping the site for the workday. Here’s what it looks like now:

Now

Surfrider has updated it’s website. Please go to its new OFG page to review the OFG Sign Criteria, order a sign and post your garden online at the OFG tracker. Thanks!

As the rain clouds cleared and the sun broke through on Saturday October 30, droves of people showed up to participate in the Hands-On Workshop on Site Evaluation. At last count, we had 55 attendees! It was sponsored by the City of Torrance. We calculated the water use and runoff for the site, what it could be if it were an Ocean Friendly Garden and how to utilize rain water to meet the needs of the new landscape.

Great turnout

We ate some lunch, then the Workshop leaders, G3, helped us turn the data we collected earlier into information that the owners can use to design their garden.

G3's Pamela Berstler

The Garden Assistance Program Workday is planned for Friday, November 26, 10am-4pm. Yup, it’s the day after Thanksgiving, so we’re renaming the day from “Black Friday” to “Green Friday.”

Valley students create The Strand’s first native plants garden
by Eric Michael Stitt – Hermosa Beach News
March 24, 2010

Now that elementary students have given new life to a once-neglected planter box at 22nd Street and The Strand, folks are able to get a small glimpse of what early Hermosa Beach settlers saw when they first walked along the impressive coastline.

“I thought it was a really cool concept and it supports the local ecosystem,” said Elizabeth Riley, co-chair for Grades of Green. “It teaches people to put native landscaping in their own yard.” Students from Hermosa Valley School gathered to create a native plants garden on The Strand.
(photo by Chris Miller)

More than 30 people, including students and their parents, dug dirt, poured water and placed California-born plants into the 400-square-foot planter box March 20. Riley said 65 percent of people’s water usage goes to watering their plants and lawns, but native plants don’t need watering after one year and hardly any maintenance, she said.

Riley got the project idea after attending a Surfrider Foundation event last fall that stressed the importance having more native plants. Then in February, she got approval from the city’s Public Works Commission to have students beautify the garden with plants donated by the city’s landscaping company, True Green.

Also, the students who did the planting will have an informational get-together at 11 a.m. April 24 at 22nd and The Strand to explain how each native plant helps the city.

Click here for the whole article.

The Ocean Friend Gardens (OFG) Program got some great news coverage in the “Santa Cruz Sentinel.” The article is entitled, “Go Green – Put a LID On It” and is written by Ron Duncan, manager for the Soquel Creek Water District, which promotes water conservation.

Ron writes, “The Surfrider Foundation is known for its efforts to protect the ocean. They recognize the benefits of employing LID techniques to prevent one of the main causes of ocean pollution by starting at the “root” of the problem; upstream pollution. I think most landscapes could use a little CPR. Keep your eyes peeled, you may see an Ocean Friendly Garden in your neighborhood.”

Click here to read the article.

PERSONAL LIABILITY WAIVER & PHOTO RELEASE FORM

EVENT NAME(S): _________________________________ (Hands-On Workshops, GAP Workdays or Lawn Patrols)

EVENT LOCATION: ________________________________
DATE(S): ______________________________________

In consideration of the undersigned’s participation in the aforementioned event and intending to be legally bound, the undersigned hereby waives, releases and forever discharges any and all rights and claims which he/she may have against the following – Surfrider Foundation, City of _________, ________ Water District, (the property owner), G3, the Green Gardens Group dba G3LA, LLC, and their officers and employees, representatives, and affiliates – for death, injury, loss and any and all damages which may be sustained and/or suffered in connection with the event and Surfrider Foundation, City of _________, ________ Water District, (the property owner), G3, the Green Gardens Group dba G3LA, LLC’s connection with my participation in the aforementioned event. The undersigned assumes full responsibility, and risk of, bodily injury, death or property loss that can occur due to participation in the aforementioned event and agrees to hold harmless all other parties.

For good consideration, the undersigned hereby releases, discharges, and acquits Surfrider Foundation, City of _________, ________ Water District, (the property owner), G3, the Green Gardens Group dba G3LA, LLC and their officers and employees, representatives, and affiliates from any claim or liability arising from the undersigned’s participation in the aforementioned event.

By participating in this event, I am agreeing that Surfrider Foundation, City of _________, ________ Water District, (the property owner), G3, the Green Gardens Group dba G3LA, LLC may use photographs, videotape footage or likeness thereof for purposes of promoting their programs and that the images become the property of Surfrider Foundation.

Participant’s Signature: ____________________________________________________

Print Name: _____________________________________________________________

Date: ___________________________________________________________________

If participant is under the age of 18, a parent or guardian must sign:

Signature Parent or Guardian: _______________________________________________

Print Name: _____________________________________________________________

Date: ___________________________________________________________________

NATIONAL OFFICE – PO BOX 6010 – SAN CLEMENTE, CA 92674-6010
(949) 492-8170 – FAX (949) 492-8142 – www.surfrider.org – E-MAIL info@surfrider.org

There are lots of good tools to find the native plants for you area. There are also some to not plant because they are invasive (non-native and will out-compete natives, reducing habitat and creating a fire hazard). Go to www.cal-ipc.org for a list. Here are a few of those invasives:

Here are some good options:

Click here for a national plant list provided by Surfrider.

Las Pilitas Nursery’s “Native Plant Finder” – http://www.mynativeplants.com/site. Just enter your zip code.

Las Virgenes Municiapl Water District – Plant information and photos were compiled by LVMWD Public Affairs Associate (and plant expert) Deborah Low and designed by Deborah Peters, the district’s Communications & Media Coordinator. Together they created the catalog which has been produced in both high-quality printed and web-published versions, the latter of which can also be read online in a page-turning “flip book” format, at www.LVMWD.com.

Long Beach Water Department links to this web tool – http://www.sm.watersavingplants.com/sm.php