[Scpg] Wed Oct 16 GROWING ANTIQUE APPLE TREES ORGANICALLY

Wed Oct 9 11:02:49 PDT 2002

SANTA BARBARA ORGANIC GARDEN CLUB NEWSLETTER
Oct 2002 
Editor: Linda Buzzell-Saltzman -- lbuzzell at aol.com

Contents:
1) This month's free talk: "GROWING ANTIQUE APPLE TREES ORGANICALLY" with 
Neil Collins, owner of Trees of Antiquity in Paso Robles, Wed, Oct 16, 7 pm. 
Next month: "PREPARING FOR BARE ROOT SEASON: ROSES, BERRIES, FRUIT TREES, 
RHUBARB, ARTICHOKES AND MORE!"
2)  HOLLY-LEAF CHERRY - NATIVE SHRUB, CHUMASH FAVORITE
3)  NEWS: Check out GARDENS FOR PEACE at www.gardensforpeace.org
4)  GET ON OUR LIST OF ORGANIC LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS
5)  TIPS OF THE MONTH: a) DON'T CONFUSE PINEAPPLE GUAVAS WITH STRAWBERRY 
GUAVAS!  b) WHERE TO GET YOUR BENEFICIAL INSECTS  (Send us your best tips 
too.) 
6)  FACTS ABOUT LAWN CARE from member Mardena Waller

(*If you'd like to be removed from our e-newsletter list, just e-mail us back 
with your request.)

1) October event: GROWING ANTIQUE APPLE TREES ORGANICALLY. Neil Collins, 
owner of Trees of Antiquity in Paso Robles (formerly Sonoma Antique Apple 
Nursery) will teach us how to choose varieties for our climate, how to order 
and plant bare root stock, and how to care for young apple trees throughout 
the year. Neil is at (805) 467-9909. FREE APPLE TASTING!!!
Date/Time: Wednesday, October 16, 2002, 7pm
Location: Community Environmental Council, 930 Miramonte Drive, Santa Barbara
Fee: FREE
Call for info: (805) 563-2089
Reservations: Not necessary

November event: PREPARING FOR BARE ROOT SEASON: ROSES, BERRIES, FRUIT TREES, 
RHUBARB, ARTICHOKES AND MORE!  Larry Saltzman, co-founder of the Santa 
Barbara Organic Garden Club, leads a discussion of best varieties for Santa 
Barbara, where to get them, how to prepare for planting. Date/Time: 
Wednesday, November 20, 2002, 7pm
Location: Community Environmental Council, 930 Miramonte Drive, Santa Barbara
Fee: FREE
Call for info: (805) 563-2089
Reservations: Not necessary

2) HOLLY-LEAF CHERRY IS A NATIVE SHRUB whose fruit was loved by the Chumash. 
Prunus ilicifolia is also called Islay or Evergreen Cherry and is a chaparral 
plant that loves full sun, good drainage and dry hillsides.  It is covered 
with creamy flowers in spring and then berries that are loved by people 
(although they are a little tart with more skin and seed than pith), birds 
and other wildlife.  The plant is slow growing to 25 feet, and is native to 
the coast ranges.

3) NEWS: Peace is on a lot of our minds these days, and it's nice to know 
that GARDENS FOR PEACE (www.gardensforpeace.org) exists "to identify and link 
established gardens throughout the world where contemplation and meditation 
by individuals and communities will foster respect for the environment and a 
climate for peace among all peoples." 

Gardens for Peace has gardens on four continents with educational programs 
for elementary through college students drawing on the concepts of 
ecopsychology.

The SADAKO PEACE GARDEN AT CASA DE MARIA IN SANTA BARBARA was dedicated as an 
official "Garden of Peace" on June 30, 2002 by Arun Gandhi, the 63 year old 
grandson of the great peacemaker and head of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for 
Peace.

OTHER OFFICIAL 'GARDENS FOR PEACE' are in Tacoma, Atlanta, Decatur, Madrid, 
Nairobi and the Republic of Georgia, among other locations  Obviously we need 
more!  Besides the Sadako Peace Garden, only one of these gardens, the 
10-acre estate Lakewold Gardens in Tacoma, Washington, is on the West Coast.

"Throughout history, the garden has symbolized the ideals of spiritual 
harmony and quiet contemplation -places of peace - as reflected in 
literature, art, philosophy and religion. The work of Gardens for Peace is to 
promote publicly a worldview that focuses on meditation, and to affirm and 
link efforts to create individual and world peace and environmental 
responsibility. The organization connects gardens across the world, as well 
as the people who share in the peace and harmony of those gardens, bringing 
places and people of the world closer together.
Gardens for Peace is nonprofit, nondenominational organization based in 
Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1984, Gardens for Peace was created to promote 
the concept of the garden as a place of meditation and peace and to identify 
and designate existing gardens around the world as symbols of peace."

"The philosophy of the organization finds its roots in history, where the 
garden has long stood as a symbol of spiritual harmony and quiet 
contemplation. Many of the world's religions and mythologies include gardens 
as symbols of innocence, peace and spiritual equilibrium. Artists, 
philosophers, poets and other literary figures from all ages and cultures 
have long recognized and used the symbol of the garden in their works. 
Throughout these works, gardens have been represented as refuges where people 
can be at peace and in spiritual harmony with themselves, their world and 
nature."

"Taking this philosophy to a more tangible level, Gardens for Peace has 
established criteria for selecting and designating national and international 
gardens, as well as gardens on college campuses and in corporate settings, 
that best exemplify ideal sites for meditation, and development of a sense of 
harmony between man and nature. The designated gardens may be publicly or 
privately owned, but one criterion for designation is that the public have 
access to the garden so that the organization's message can reach the largest 
possible audience."

WANT TO CREATE A GARDEN FOR PEACE? "Any garden considered for designation as 
a member of the international network of Gardens for Peace must meet certain, 
general criteria. For example, the garden must have a feeling of peace and 
tranquility, as well as a sense of safety and refuge. It must provide a sense 
of enclosure and offer visual stimuli in terms of line, form, color and 
texture, as well as non-visual stimuli, such as running water or fragrant 
scents. In addition, while some gardens may charge an admission fee to ensure 
proper upkeep, each garden in the network must be open to the public.
Other factors include:
· Coherence: a unified setting with repeating elements, textures and 
structural factors; 
· Legibility: familiar patterns which bring an ease to making sense of the 
scene; 
· Complexity: variety or diversity to ensure interest and keep viewers 
occupied; 
· Mystery: the degree by which more information can be obtained by proceeding 
further into the scene"

WANT TO NOMINATE A LOCAL GARDEN TO BECOME AN OFFICIAL "GARDEN OF PEACE?" "The 
Board of Directors and the members of Gardens for Peace are continually 
reviewing and evaluating gardens for inclusion in the network. There may be 
one in your area. If you would like to nominate a garden for consideration, 
you can download our nomination form and send it to us! Please include 
photographs. If the garden you are designing as a Garden For Peace is 
approved an official garden marker will be purchased for your garden site."

4) ARE YOU AN ORGANIC LANDSCAPER?  We're getting quite a few requests for 
referrals to folks who will design and build organic gardens.  If you'd like 
to be on our list, please send us a brief paragraph about what you do and how 
you'd like clients to contact you. And of course we recommend certified 
"Green Gardeners" (www.greengardener.org) for ongoing maintenance.

5) TIPS: 

a)For us, October is PINEAPPLE GUAVA (or, more properly, feijoa sellowiana) 
month.  Our godson starts begging us for guavas in August and there is great 
celebration when they finally arrive in late Sept and early October!  The 
feijoa is easy to grow in pot or ground, and rewards us with luscious, sweet, 
egg-shaped fruit. And the secret is that the spring flower petals are 
absolutely delicious as candy, and taste great out of hand or in a salad. But 
don't make the mistake of substituting the Strawberry Guava (Psidium 
cattleianum or littorale), a quite different fruit.

b) WHERE TO GET YOUR BENEFICIAL INSECTS:
Ron Whitehurst
Marketing Manager

Rincon-Vitova Insectaries,
Biological Solutions for Pest Management
P.O. Box 1555, Ventura, CA 93002-1555
805-643-5407 800-248-2847 (BUGS) fax 805-643-6267

e-mail: bugnet at rinconvitova.com
web: http://www.rinconvitova.com

6) Member Mardena Waller has passed along some interesting statistics that 
support the notion of edible landscaping vs. traditional lawncare: 

Here are national annual average expenses of
home gardening:

lawncare $220
landscaping 174
tree care 97
flower gardening 88
Insect control 60
vegetable gardening 58
flower bulbs 40
indoor houseplants 40

It's probably cheaper to do edible landscaping and flowers, than to do a 
lawn, and they can be easier to care for. Your water bill could be about the 
same or less (depending on what you plant), but you have something to eat 
from it, and it's very appealing visually. (Note from Linda: we're currently 
saving thousands of dollars a year from our fruit trees and backyard veggies 
vs. what they would cost at either the Farmers Market or Lazy Acres)

Wildflowers are great and I will investigate costs of wildflowers to see 
if that vs rose gardening or other flower gardening would cut costs even 
more. 

Deleting harmful chemicals for "insect control" is another cost cutter over 
time, and if you put in attractive plants, water and shelter, our 
ever-faithful working birds will do your bug extermination."

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
sbpcnet at silcom.com 

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to
grow." - Anonymous  
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