[Scpg] SB Organic Garden Club: "Bare Root Season" Wed Nov 20

[EWerb at aol.com]

SANTA BARBARA ORGANIC GARDEN CLUB NEWSLETTER
November 2002 
Editor: Linda Buzzell-Saltzman -- lbuzzell at aol.com
web site: www.islandseed.com/sbog.html

Contents:
1) This month's free talk: "PREPARING FOR BARE ROOT SEASON: ROSES, BERRIES, 
FRUIT TREES, RHUBARB, ARTICHOKES AND MORE... with Larry Saltzman, co-founder 
of the Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club Wed, Nov.20, 7pm. Next talk: Thurs, 
January 16, 2003 on  ECOVILLAGES.  
2)  MORE VITAMINS IN ORGANICALLY GROWN VEGGIES, FRUIT
3)  EXCITING NEWS FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT WATERSHEDS!: Friday, Nov 8th and 
Saturday, Nov 9th - lecture, slide show, workshop, field trip
4)  GET ON OUR LIST OF ORGANIC LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS
5)  TIPS OF THE MONTH: a) GIVE YOUR PLANTS THEIR IRON b) GROW YOUR OWN 
OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS! (PURSLANE) 
6)  FUNNY STORY ABOUT LAWN CARE

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

1) PREPARING FOR BARE ROOT SEASON: ROSES, BERRIES, FRUIT TREES, RHUBARB, 
ARTICHOKES...  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

NO DECEMBER MEETING! JANUARY EVENT: Thursday, January 16, 2003: presentation 
on  ECOVILLAGES at 7pm at the Santa Barbara Public Library Faulkner Gallery.

2) MORE VITAMINS IN ORGANIC CROPS:
Average amount of vitamin C found in organic crops compared to conventional 
crops: +27%
Of iron: +21%
Of calcium: +26%

3) EXCITING NEWS FOR THOSE WHO CARE ABOUT WATERSHEDS!

The California Department of Water Resources (www.dwr.water.ca.gov) has 
created new Watershed Coordinator positions, to empower local agencies, 
citizens and grassroots environmental programs to work with state and federal 
partners to restore the ecological health of our watersheds and landscapes.

There are watershed coordinators in each of the Dept of Water Resource 
districts covering the entire state, who will work hand in hand with the 
DWR's Urban Streams Program and the Fish Passage Program to assist locally 
driven restoration and stewardship efforts.

Please join Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, for a special evening with 
Bill Roley, one of the most recently appointed DWR Watershed Coordinators, 
and president of Applied Ecologist Systems, for a lecture and slide show at 
the CEC's South Coast Watershed Resource Center, on Friday, November 8, at 
7pm. For more info, 805/962-2571, or email sbpcnet at silcom.com.

(In addition an all day workshop, "Healthy Watersheds: A Goal of Community 
Stewardship" with a field trip will be sponsored by the Santa Barbara Botanic 
Garden on Sat Nov. 9, from 9-4pm, please call SBBG for reservations at 
805/682-4726 ext.102).

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network presents
Healthy Watersheds: A Permaculture Perspective
with Dr. Bill Roley
Director, Permaculture Institute of So.California
Slide Show & Lecture
Friday Nov. 8, 7pm, Donation $3

Location: CEC's South Coast Watershed Resource Center
Arroyo Burro Beach, 2981 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara

Explore watershed issues applying Permaculture principles and design 
techniques that interconnect your home and backyard to the whole watershed. 
The land around your home is a vital part of the watershed. How that land is 
managed -- one lot at a time-- can have a significant impact on your city's 
flood protection, water supply, air and water quality. Permaculture 
techniques can help control erosion, reduce flooding, minimize water 
pollution, improve groundwater recharge and enhance wildlife habitat. 


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


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) GIVE YOUR PLANTS THEIR IRON! Donna Lynn of Donna Lynn Landscape Design 
(dlynn.design at verizon.net) suggests that if leaves are yellow and chlorotic, 
instead of buying commercial iron supplements, try burying foot-long lengths 
of iron rebar within the drip line of your acid loving plants and tropicals.  
You can recycle scraps of rebar from construction sites or buy foot long 
lengths at Home Depot and hammer them into the ground vertically.  Over time 
the iron will slowly release and you'll never need to add iron supplements 
again!

b) GROW YOUR OWN OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS!  PURSLANE (Portulaca oleracea) is an 
easy, tasty veggie to use as ground cover in your garden, and your doctor 
will be happy when you add it to your salads or sautees.  Medical research 
shows that Americans aren't eating enough Omega-3s so we all need to get 
more.  They're in foods like salmon, specially-fed chickens' eggs, flax seed 
and hemp, but perhaps the easiest and cheapest way to get more omega-3s is to 
"grow your own" in your garden.  Purslane is a smooth low-growing succulent 
plant with reddish stems.  It has small yellow flowers and grows easily - 
some would say too easily, as it can become a "weed" but all you permaculture 
types know that what one person calls a weed is just a plant whose use you 
haven't yet discovered!  Permaculture advises us to look for plants with 
"stacking" possibilities (multi-functional plants) and purslane certainly 
fills that bill: it's tasty, good for you, pretty, and a great ground cover - 
what more can you ask a plant to do???

"I have made a satisfactory dinner off a dish of Purslane which I gathered 
and boiled," said Henry David Thoreau.  But for something more sophisticated, 
try Purslane Ratatouille: 2 c chopped purslane,   cup chopped onion,   bell 
pepper, 2 cups canned or fresh tomatoes,   cup chopped mushrooms, salt, 
garlic powder, soy sauce.  Cook purslane, onion and pepper til tender.  Add 
remaining ingredients and simmer a few minutes.  Rice can be added to the 
mixture if desired. Also, just replace lettuce in any salad with fresh raw 
purslane!

6) FUNNY STORY ABOUT LAWN CARE

Member Joan Calder, a landscape designer and educator, passes along the 
following amusing tale about the follies of traditional lawns:

A conversation between God and St. Francis.

God:
Frank, you know all about gardens and nature, what in the world is going on
down there in the U.S.? What in the world happened to the dandelions,
violets, thistles and the stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect
no-maintenance garden plan.

Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with
abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies,
honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of color
by now. All I see are patches of green.

St. Francis:
It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. They are called the Suburbanites.
They started calling your flowers "weeds" and went to great lengths to kill
them and replace them with grass.

God:
Grass? But it is so boring, it's not colorful. It doesn't attract
butterflies, bees or birds, only grubs and sod worms. It's temperamental
with temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want grass growing there?

St. Francis:
Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it has grown a little, they cut
it....sometimes two times a week.

God:
They cut it? Do they bale it like hay?

St. Francis:
Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

God:
They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

St. Francis:
No, sir. Just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

God:
Now let me get this straight...they fertilize it to make it grow and when it
does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

St. Francis:
Yes, sir.

God:
These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the
rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a
lot of work.

St. Francis:
You aren't going to believe this, Lord, but when the grass stops growing so
fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it so they can
continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

God:
What nonsense! At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer
stroke of genius, if I do say do myself. The trees grow leaves in the
spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn they fall to
the ground and form a natural blanket to keep the moisture in the soil and
protect the trees and bushes. Plus, as they rot, the leaves become compost
to enhance the soil.

It's a natural circle of life.

St. Francis:
You'd better sit down, Lord. As soon as the leaves fall, the Suburbanites
rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

God:
No way! What do they do to protect the shrubs and tree roots in the winter
to keep the soil moist and loose?

St. Francis:
After throwing the leaves away they go out and buy something called mulch.
They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

God:
And where do they get this mulch?

St. Francis:
They cut down the trees and grind them up to make mulch.

God:
Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. Saint Catherine, you're in
charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

St. Catherine:
"Dumb and Dumber," Lord. It's a really stupid movie about....

God:
Never mind--I think I just heard the whole story from Saint Francis!

LAWN CARE FACTS:
Average care and feeding requirements for an average 1/3 acre US lawn:
Pesticides: 10 pounds
Fertilizer: 20 pounds
Water: 170,000 gallons
Mowing labor: 40 hours
Pollution: equivalent to driving a car 14,000 miles
Source of this information: YES! A Journal of Positive Futures, Fall 2002