Fresh Baked Plans For Los Angeles Rainwater Harvesting Project
Posted on 09. May, 2012 by pamela in G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Education, G3 Partners, Generation Water, Green Infrastructure, Homeowner, HOWs, Los Angeles Rainwater Harvesting Project, Los Angeles/South Bay, Neighborhood Walks, Watershed Notes
G3's Marianne Simon Joins Team At LARWHP Kick Off
G3 Associate, Marianne Simon joined Pamela Berstler and The River Project Executive Director, Melanie Winter, in kicking off an official pie eating contest in Studio City….
Melanie Winter at LARWHP Kick Off
Wait a second…That’s not what happened at Dupar’s in Studio City. Determined environmental advocate, Melanie Winter, officially kicked off the Los Angeles Rainwater Harvesting Project, after more than three years in the baking. Guy Stivers of Stivers And Associates Landscape Architecture will lead the design team for developing a homeowner-friendly model approach to using rainwater as a resource. Other team members include Marcus Castain of Generation Water providing irrigation auditing and retrofits, Mark Hanna of Geosyntec providing technical modeling, investigations, and monitoring, and Leigh Jerrard of Greywater Corps educating and advocating for residential graywater. G3 will provide Hands-on classes, coaching, and Site Evaluations to help people use their properties as healthy functioning watersheds that will gather rainwater as a resource.
Voila! Ventura Lawn Vanishes!
Posted on 09. May, 2012 by pamela in G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Education, G3 In The News, G3 Media, G3 Partners, Homeowner, HOWs, Ocean Friendly Gardens, Rain Gardens, Surfrider Foundation, Ventura County, Watershed Notes
Surfrider Ventura GAP Workday Site
The lawn at 1538 San Nicholas St. in Ventura vanished last week in anticipation of the Ventura Surfrider Ocean Friendly Gardens Garden Assistance Party Workday on May 12. The GAP Workday is the fourth and final event in the creation of an Ocean Friendly Demonstration Garden through a California Coastal Commission Whale Tail Grant for the County of Ventura. Since March, the grant has enabled more than 35 people to attend a Watershed Basics Class and Hands-on Workshop: Site Evaluation, as well as subsidizing a professional training Core Concepts Workshop. People who received scholarships to the Core Concepts Workshop are paying it forward by assisting G3′s Pamela Berstler and Renee Roth (Ventura/Santa Barbara G3 Regional Coordinator) in fulfilling the mission of the grant: to build an Ocean Friendly Garden in a highly visible residential site through neighborhood involvement, sparking change within a community. Learn more about what’s happening by reading the OFG Article Ventura Breeze 5.2.12 contributed by John Burke, a.k.a. LAJOHNNY, licensed landscape architect and recent CCW Ventura survivor.
Dan Long's Lawn Before GAP Workday
Since the grass on this property was mostly kikuyu and warm-season bermuda, a sod cutter was employed to remove the bulk of the organic matter on top. In preparation for the Workday, homeowner and environmental advocate, Dan Long, will be tackling some hand removal of the largest clumps of remaining grass roots and stolons. Dan also is arranging delivery of the materials: plants, compost, mulch, paper for sheet composting, and downspout redirecting supplies. Oh, and food too! Sign up for the event so we have enough pizza.
May Is Mulberry Heaven
Posted on 04. May, 2012 by pamela in G3 Blog, Nature Lessons, Watershed Notes
It is a brief moment. Don’t blink or the season is over. Don’t stare or the birds will discover the tree. Eat them immediately. They don’t keep. They are the ultimate local, fresh produce that seduces even the most jaded Von’s shopper. Mulberries (Morus nigra) have appeared on the tiny weeping tree in the driveway. Every day I walk by without noticing; I’ve been so busy with Hands-on Workshops, Generation Water, and Core Concepts that I didn’t even notice the first white–then pink–now deep black fruit hanging tenuously on slender green stems. There are now so many that some have jumped off the tree on to the ground. No matter. They are gently rescued from the container and the ground, amidst leaves and debris; and unless completely gross, they are consumed — eyes closed — tastebuds popping — memories flooding.
I remember my German-American grandmother, who made the most amazing mulberry preserve (all mulberries and very little sugar). I remember mulberry cobbler straight from the oven, and a scoop of Breyer’s vanilla ice cream. That was a once-a-year Sunday dinner surprise somehow connected in my brain with the final days of the school year.
Bowl of Mulberries
I vividly remember the huge mulberry bush that defined the border of the side yard. May or June in Pennsylvania came, and suddenly fruit appeared, along with the myriad of finches and sparrows, and other more exotic birds that are in my memory but precede my understanding of birds. As a child I sang “ring around the mulberry tree” and caused great sorrow on washing day with my indelibly purple-stained smocks. As a young adult, I practiced driving to the old homestead jonesing for the berries. Mulberries are full of the promise of glorious summer produce straight from the victory garden. Mulberries in May. Heaven.
Plant List For City of Pasadena’s First Public Sponge Garden
Posted on 03. May, 2012 by pamela in G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Design Studio, Los Angeles/South Bay, Pasadena Sponge Garden, Plants, Rain Gardens, Resources, Watershed Notes
Pasadena Sponge Garden Gals
It all started in August 2011, when the Pasadena Planning Dept.’s Cultural Arts Division teamed up with Pasadena Power & Water and the Public Works Dept. to consider building a garden through community participation. Nancy Long from Power & Water called G3 to meet a site that was going to host a public art installation, and the artist was keen to have a “rain garden” surrounding the art. Although this first site didn’t gel, eight months later, the Pasadena Sponge Garden at the corners of Union and Catalina Aves. became a reality. Here’s a Plant List: G3 Design Studio Pasadena Rain Garden Plants and Planting Plan: Pasadena Sponge Garden Design 042812 for the garden. Additionally, we’ve included a Hydrozone List: Hydrozones Pasadena Sponge Garden for the plant selection. For more great information about lots of Water Conservation topics, check out Pasadena Power & Water’s website. G3′s looking forward to the next collaboration with the amazing team from the City of Pasadena.
Pasadena Residents Learn HOW To Sponge Up The Rain Garden
Posted on 01. May, 2012 by pamela in City of Pasadena, G3 Blog, G3 Community, G3 Design Studio, G3 Education, G3 In The News, G3 Media, G3 Partners, HOWs, Los Angeles/South Bay, Pasadena Sponge Garden, Rain Gardens, Watershed Notes
Christie Beniston's Topairies At Pasadena Sponge Garden
A collaboration on the part of Pasadena’s Public Works Dept. and Power & Water, along with Pasadena Planning Department’s Cultural Arts Division and G3 led to the installation of an amazing Sponge Garden at the intersection of Union and Catalina St. through an all-day G3 Hands-on Workshop. The Sponge Garden (a.k.a. Rain Garden) was designed to complement artist Christie Beniston’s Topiaries sculpture, which, when placed in an urban setting, symbolizes the human drive to influence nature in all types of environments. Topiaries is one of several art installations on display throughout Pasadena as part of the Rotating Public Art Program, funded by Pasadena City Council in July 2010.
The Sponge Garden accompanying Topiaries is another manifestation of the human drive to influence nature. 25 Pasadena residents gathered first to learn about and then to implement the techniques of Conservation, Permeability, and Retention (from Surfrider Foundation’s principles of C.P.R.) and build a landscape that is friendly to people desiring a slice of nature as well as to nature herself. It is truly an Ocean Friendly Garden, despite being so far from the ocean.
Topiaries In Completed Garden
The new decomposed granite pathways wind through the garden, shaded by mature CA live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), which are nurturing a whole legion of smaller kin at their roots. Intersecting the pathways and seating areas is a dry creek bed, reminiscent of the nearby Arroyo Seco. No soil was removed from or imported to the site, so the contouring of the land was a result of excavating the paths and creek bed. Plants that thrive in the Pasadena climate, and are mostly native to the local ecosystem were placed atop berms comprised of the native silty loam (if they were dry-adapted) and within the creek bed (if they were comfortable with more water in winter). In the morning, residents learned how to figure out their grade change using a bunyip and how to determine their soil type and compaction profile. Although the turf already had been hand removed from the site, a demonstration of sheet mulching was conducted so everyone could envision how turf might be removed without chemicals.
After a delicious boxed lunch from Lovebirds Cafe, courtesy of Nancy Long at Pasadena Power & Water, the reinvigorated crew undertook to plant the more than 100 one gallon and four-inch container plants using the G3 Planting Technique of watering 5 times! That took a lot longer than everyone thought it would, but everything looked super perky when completed. After planting, a demonstration of installing on-line drip irrigation was conducted, and the site was thoroughly mulched 3″ – 4″ with natural woodchip mulch, courtesy of superwoman Karen Balchunas of Pasadena Public Works, and watered in.
G3′s Pamela Berstler conceived of the original site plan, which was taken by Pasadena Public Works Dept. and turned into the beautiful garden constructed during the HOW. Patrick Healy, Regional Manager of Merchants Landscape Services, Inc., a C-27 landscape contractor, installed the project and picked up any loose ends at the completion of the HOW. Now it’s up to Pasadena residents to add their personal experiences to the garden and enjoy it all year long. Read the City of Pasadena Website Article.
