[Scpg] loc-act: Free talk on "Food Forests" Wed Apr 17, 7pm

[scpg-admin at arashi.com]

Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club
April 2002 Newsletter

Contents:
1) This month's free talk: "How to Turn Your Backyard into a Food Forest"
with permaculture landscape designer Larry Santoyo, Wed, April 17th, 7pm
2) Enjoying the fava bean harvest
3) Wishing you had more fruit trees?
4) Next month's talk: "Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About
Compost!"  May's topic: "Return of the Green Man Archetype."

1) The Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club will present a free talk on "How to
Turn your Backyard into a Food Forest" on Wednesday, April 17 at 7 p.m. at
the Community Environmental Council Gildea Center at 930 Miramonte Drive in
Santa Barbara.

The featured speaker will be well-known permaculture landscape designer Larry
Santoyo, who will explain how it's possible to turn even a very small piece
of land into an ecologically rich "food forest" landscape, with recycled
natural materials, dwarf or full size fruit trees, useful herbs, perennials
and vegetables. Wes Roe, one of the organizers of the South Coast
Permaculture Guild, will moderate.

The inventor of permaculture Bill Mollison, who was recently declared
"Ecologist of the Century" in Australia, describes permaculture as the
"conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems
which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems"
and "the harmonious integration of landscape and people..."

The Santa Barbara Organic Club had its first meeting on July 12, 2000 and
presents monthly local events and activities on topics of interest to
gardeners weaning themselves from chemical pesticides, herbicides and
fertilizers.

For more information call: (805) 563-2089.

2) A star in our backyard "food forest" at this time of year: Fava beans.
Fava beans are a great crop for our climate.  They fulfill the permaculture
ideal of "stacking" (multiple) functions -  they're easy to grow in our area,
are beautiful (they're about 4' tall, have gorgeous grey leaves and subtle
white and black flowers and can look like unusual delphiniums in your
garden!) I think they're nitrogen fixers too, and we chop up the leaves and
add it to soil and compost once they've produced all the beans they're going
to. And of course they're yummy - Italian cookbooks offer many ways to
prepare them.  We saute them with tomatoes (Muir Glen organic at this time of
year), oregano, fennel, herbs & olives, and we also add them to bean soup.
They taste a little like lima beans with a bit of extra character, if you
haven't tried them yet.  Plant them in fall for harvest in spring.

3) More "food forest" stars: fruit trees.  If you're envying all the
beautiful fruit trees in flower around town at this time of year, it's not
too soon to think about what you'd like to plant next winter when the bare
roots are available again in January (but don't be tempted by the scrawny
leftovers at local box stores - many are already going into leaf - a bad
sign).  Go online to Bay Laurel Nursery, or call them in Atascadero, and
check out in their catalog the list of bare root fruit trees that do well in
low-chill climates like ours.  Plums, nectarines, persimmons, apples,
apricots and more! It's not too early to plan your purchases for next
January!  And if you want something you can plant in the spring, try a few
tropicals which we can plant now - citruses, mangoes, cherimoya, feijoas
(pineapple guava), avocados, even bananas in some places.  No matter how
small your patio or yard, a few dwarf fruit trees in pots or the ground
should yield happy results.

4) "Everything You've Always Wanted to Know About Compost!" will be the topic
of next month's meeting, Wed May 15th, presented by the experts from Island
Seed & Feed in Goleta.  Our Wed June 19th presentation will feature Daniel
Noel, a professor of Celtic Myth from Pacifica Graduate Institute, who will
enlighten us about "The Return of the Green Man Archetype."  You know those
strange ceramic wall hangings of a man's face seemingly emerging from vines
and leaves that appear in many gardens around the world?  Well, that's the
fabled "Green Man," and he seems to be gaining in popularity.