Large Apartment available in L.A. Eco-Village

Recent mulch delivery at 4-plex

This is a great opportunity for a household ready to take the big leap to live its dream for participating in the creation of a more sustainable city by example.  Take a look and see if your household qualifies:

Large two bedroom available in transit rich/bicycle friendly permaculture oriented neighborhood (about 3 miles west of downtown and 4 miles south of the Observatory as the crow flies).

The Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT), a non-profit organization committed to securing permanently affordable, environmentally sensitive housing for low to moderate income households, owns a 4-plex in the L.A Eco-Village that it intends to convert from rental units to affordable condominiums in the next 3 years.  BVCLT is currently taking applications for a one-year lease with an option to purchase if the renter’s household meets purchaser qualifications and demonstrates timely rent payments. The building is located on the southeast corner of Bimini and White House Place. Opportunity to become a member of the LAEV Intentional Community. Approximately 1000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, dining room, living room, kitchen, laundry room, shared front and back yards, extra closets.  Rent: $1200 per month plus gas and electric.  No parking. Car-free household or “on your way to car-free.”  Minimum of 2 people, not more than 4 people; families with children encouraged to apply. Length of lease: one year.  No pets. No smokers (residents or guests). Must be aligned with LA Eco-Village core values and BVCLT tenant guidelines

Move-in costs:  $3,000.  Includes 1st and last of  $1200 plus $600 cleaning deposit.

If you are interested, please email Kris Benjamin (140Bimini@gmail.com) to set up a time to view the unit and go over the application. Applications are due as soon as possible, and candidate selection will occur sometime in April.

Income restrictions:
Combined annual income of all people in the household
-Not less than $29,000
and
-Not more than $39,780 for a family of 2
-Not more than $44,760 for a family of 3
-Not more than $49,680 for a family of 4

Credit check and rental application fee:  $25. -4-year rental history check (provide addresses and contact information of previous residences)-Verification of employment and 2 months of pay stubs or comparable

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2/23/13 walk through laev garden part 1

George noted that mango has begun to thrive after josh took over it’s care.

Throughout the walk myrtle was observed encroaching on other plants and the building.
Maybe that’s why Greco-Romans used myrtle as an emblem of love. (wikipedia)

pittosporum in clutches of myrtle The p. flowers are small, white and similar in shape to those of the Orange tree, so it is sometimes called mock orange.

George observed that quince needs pruning.

mexican “sage” one of several plants intruding on public sidewalk.  Prune, maybe re-locate.

peach – branches extend over fence; and lure passers-by into picking fruit and often breaking branches. Recommend prune back fr. fence; remove compost pile next to trunk; think about replacing tree as it’s getting old.

mandarin

pomegranate

background: almond (pink flowers) -not bearing, bark split; foreground – fig.  There’s a smutty  orange tree in there someplace; oranges don’t ripen.

olive tree supports grape vine;

North side 117 bimini

Agave in trash can area overflowing into path.

Myrtle encroaching on apricots, nectarines.

Watering challenge in this area due to run-off.

potential planting space north wall.

more live oaks (& a dead one). Large live oak in background is 8 feet from foundation.

Courtyard

We were getting tired, so just noted that many plantings in need of systematic watering here; plantings in pomegranate area heavily infested with aphids; myrtle needs taming; plum needs re-evaluating – hope it perks up when greywater re-connected; 2 nectarines and apricot aren’t producing; may be able to graft onto apricot as it is very hardy stock. Peach seems to be OK.

The “nightshade tree” is rubbing against the roof tiles.

Many, many thanks to George for generously sharing his time, gardening and landscaping knowledge and familiarity with LAEV gardens.

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potato & red wiggler compost update

Three potato plants in various growth stages that were planted in the first above ground compost site.  The site was ready for planting earlier than expected (6-8 weeks).  Potato seeds were then place at bottom of 9″ deep holes & barely covered with soil.  Lower left – new sprout.  Lower right – dirt filled in to ground level.  Background – hilled up.  For those not familiar with growing potatoes, covering the stem (hilling- up) with soil or organic material as the plant grows provides medium for roots to spread out, spuds to form and protects spuds from sunlight.

Re: composting.  Now that a significant red wiggler population has established itself in each of the above ground compost sites, I’ve begun transplanting some of the wigglers (and their composting allies) into the new compost sites.  Let’s see if that enhances the composting process.

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Great amaranth shakedown

In my opinion, a delicious crop of red amaranth volunteered in “children’s garden”.

During the dry heat last week, I harvested it & set to dry.  A few days later I cut off

some of the dry seed heads & spread them on clean paper to began the great “shakedown”.

Beating with a stick loosened some seeds, (black), and a lot of other dry plant parts.

Eventually I had to strip the stalks by hand to release the seeds, dehydrate my skin

and expose my hands to the plants’ prickly hairs.

In an hour I got bored and poured the mess onto a winnowing frame, allowing seeds

to drop onto the paper while the breeze carried off some – but not near enough – of the

lighter ”chaff”. (Sounds biblical).

So I shook the frame over another clean paper. Most of the seeds & some chaff fell through.

A grand 1/8 cup of amaranth.  We need to create an efficient – or at least a group -

winnowing process.

I soaked the amaranth seeds and cooked it with some quinoa.  It tasted OK. There are

still many heads left, so help yourself to a grainy treat.  Watch for the next crop of

amaranth volunteers.  The leaves are tasty and nutritious, as the plant’s deep

roots reportedly pull up nutrients not available to more shallow rooted greens.

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Secrets of Seed Saving Workshop

On Saturday, fellow Eco-Villager Nichole and I trekked over to Whittier for the Secrets of Seed Saving workshop. It was held at the Strub Avenue Farm and Garden, a wonderful backyard farm which is part of a network of urban backyard farms called Whittier Backyard Farms.

We were lucky to have horticulturalist David King instruct the workshop (left). He is the garden master of The Learning Garden in Venice, CA, author of the LA Garden Blog, and chair of the Seed Library of Los Angeles, and gave a fun and informative workshop on how to save seeds and the importance of doing so.

David explained the nuts and bolts of how to save seeds for a variety of vegetables. This included how to allow plants to go to seed, and drying, harvesting and storing seeds. He also covered ways to minimize cross pollination between different species of  the same genus by practices such as hand pollination and covering crops with fabric.

The most compelling part of the workshop for me was the why. Why save seeds?

Traditionally, farmers and gardeners would harvest and save seeds for future growing. In the past several decades, there has been a major shift to purchasing seed annually from commercial seed suppliers, and seeds are commonly developed so that the plants you grow from them do not produce seed that will reproduce the same plant. This has dramatically increased the dependency on commercial seed companies.

There has also been a sharp decrease in the variety of seeds over the past century. This handout (right) David gave us shows that there were 408 varieties of tomato seeds available in 1903, and only 79 available in 1983. This is a pattern across many vegetables.  The reason this is dangerous, David explains, is that if we are commercially growing only a few varieties on a large scale, and a pest or disease attacks one variety, then we could  risk major food shortages. He gave the example of the Irish Potato Famine where there were only 2 varieties of potatoes being grown. A wider variety means more diverse traits, such as different vulnerabilities and strengths to different conditions.

After the workshop, the hosts provided a delicious lunch featuring food from the garden. The meal was followed by a seed swap where people shared seeds they either bought or saved. I happily came home with arugula, kale, poppy, calendula, dill and okra seeds.

I am newly inspired to continue to grow food, save seeds and share seeds. Thanks to Megan from Strub Family Farm and Garden for organizing the workshop.

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Bride & Bombs

Good friends and Eco-Village residents Thiago and Nichole asked me to help make seed bombs as wedding favors for their upcoming nuptials. I was excited to get my hands dirty and make these green grenades. Seed bombs are a mixture of clay, compost and seeds, and are an easy and fun way of revegetating empty lots and neglected parkways. I thought it was a great idea for party favors, and one that reflected the awesomeness of the couple.

There are several great online resources, one particularly helpful site, especially for folks in the LA area, is the Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardening site. Many sites recommend mixing 5 parts clay, 3 parts compost and one part seeds. In order to increase the yield, I used the ratio of 5-5-1, using more compost, and it worked fine. You just need to make sure there’s enough clay to hold the balls together. Here’s a list of what I specifically used to make about 250 seed bombs.

Ingredients

10 lbs red clay powder
(approximately 22 cups)

Red clay powder was somewhat
hard to find. I bought this at
Echo Ceramics on Robertson.

 
 
 

22 cups compost

For obvious reasons, I chose
the compost without manure.
This one had a few small
sticks that we picked out as
we rolled the balls.

 
 
 

4 cups wildflower seeds

These were the most expensive item, at over $60.
In hindsight, I would have harvested seeds from my
very abundant California poppies earlier this Summer.
But for over 200 party favors, it’s not bad at all.

 
 
 

Making & Wrapping

After mixing all the ingredients in a 5-gallon bucket with some water, Irma, Aurisha and I rolled jawbreaker sized balls in the palm of our hands and left them out to dry.

The next day, Thiago, Becca and I wrapped the dry seed bombs in antique napkins collected by Nichole’s family, and tied them with string. They were ready to go!

Here they are in a lovely basket at the wedding.

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Rain Garden Talk this Friday at LAEV

Creating Rain Gardens Cleo Woelfle-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher

This Friday, September 14, 2012 at 7:30 pm author/activist Cleo Woelfle-Erskine gives a public talk on his new book Creating Rain Gardens. The talk takes place at L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, LA 90004.  There’s a requested admission of $5 to $10, but no one turned away for lack of funds. Reservations recommended,  contact eco-village:  crsp [at] igc.org or 213/738-1254.

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Remembering the 1992 Uprisings and the start of LAEV

How LAEV came to be at Bimini and White House Place

First fruit tree planting on northeast corner of Bimini & White House Place,
Earth Day April 1993. Tree was named “Percy Persimmons.”

It was a Wednesday afternoon. I was sitting in my living room with Lottie Cohen working on the book we were co-authoring: Cooperative Housing Compendium. (Email me if you are interested in getting the on-line link to this book).

I lived in the four-plex across the street from the Bimini Apartments where the White House Place Learning Garden is going. Mine was the lower east unit. My front door was always open, weather permitting, and I didn’t use curtains or shades on the windows, so
there was a clear view out to White House, the intersection and Bimini Place. Lottie and I were sitting at a round glass table in the living room/library/office facing the windows and open door.

I had just returned two days before from Adelaide, Australia where I had been invited as a keynote speaker at the Second International Ecocities Conference and was full of enthusiasm for finishing the book and starting to focus more heavily on ecovillage planning.

There were always pedestrians on Bimini, and there were pedestrians that day. But suddenly, Lottie abruptly interrupted our work: “Lois, there’s rioting out there. We need to leave now. Grab what you need, I’m taking you home with me!”

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Earth Day 2012 at the L.A. Eco-Village

by Michelle Wong, cross posted from White House Gardens @ LA Eco-Village blog:

Bresee kids Astrid, Nichole & their little sisters enjoying Earth Day 2012 @ LAEV

Even though Earth Day is everyday at the LA Eco-Village, villagers celebrated the occasion with an open house last Sunday. Friends & neighbors came out to enjoy the beautiful day that kicked off with Cachao chickens crossing the street and the sounds of Zumba inspiring some fun booty-shaking. In addition to refreshing the Salamander Plaza painting, kids participated in pinata making, face painting/ glitter tattoos, and the Children of Paradise art workshop.

Allies from the Bus Riders Union set up their garage sale and raised funds for their work. And David from the Bresee T.O.K. Street Team sold tomato seedlings raised by Dana C, another long-time Bresee kid. Thanks to Jasmine D. who helped with face painting, and Gabriel who brought his family to help with the Food Lobby.     

  

Extra thanks to Julio  Sr. for leading tours, Lara  for organizing the street painting, Jimmy, Josey & Ianne who master-minded the children’s activities, Yuki for facilitating, and to Lois who organized the yummy organic food that nourish volunteers & visitors alike. We hope to include the White House Place Learning Garden in next years festivities.

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Orchard Mason Bees

I just got some bees in the mail. They’re not honey bees, they’re called Orchard Mason Bees. They don’t live in a hive or make honey, and they very rarely sting people. In the winter they live in cocoons, like these

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Reader Input. One blog to rule them all?

Dear readers:

As some of you might know we also keep a Garden Weblog.  At this point some of the authors of the blog you are reading would like to stop maintaining that site and merge the content with this one.   The expected effect would be to have a single blog with more varied content.  If you are a follower of the garden blog and would like to keep on receiving garden only updates you could check the garden category only or even get the garden RSS feed only.

We recognize there are many types of blog readers and we are a bit undecided about this merger. Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Would you like to see more garden related content around here? Would the merger affect your reading habits? Say hi and tell us what you think.   Thanks!

 

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October Greywater and Composting Toilet Workshops at LAEV

Laura Allen lays it down - Photo: CSMonitor.com

Coming October 2011, Greywater Action are back! They’ll be teaching workshops at L.A. Eco-Village and elsewhere in Southern California. Greywater Action are the great folks formerly known as Greywater Guerillas, then they changed their names after the state of California went and made greywater legal. These are the folks who installed (and taught how to install) my home washing machine greywater system that I wrote about here.

Greywater Action teach an introductory (morning) and advanced (afternoon) greywater workshop at L.A. Eco-Village on Friday October 14th. That evening they give a presentation on humanure (composting toilets) on Friday October 14th at 7pm. There are also similar workshops in Santa Monica on Saturday October 8th and Sunday October 9th. More workshop details below and at Greywater Action website.  

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