>> The second Westside Permaculture Gathering will be an "Intro to Permaculture" primer, put together by community permaculturists, as well as a local potluck. All are invited to the free event: Monday, June 23, 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room of the Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. Contact Sean Jennings at swjennings@gmail.com with questions.
>> At the "ReGreen: Green Home Improvement" event, everyone from homeowners to design professionals can find out about the ReGreen program -- "best practice guidelines and targeted educational resources for sustainable residential improvement projects" developed by the American Society of Interior Designers' Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council. The free event happens Tuesday, June 24., from 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. at the Multi-Purpose Room of the Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. RSVP to gbrc@globalgreen.org are appreciated but not required.
>> Hear the authors of the Homegrown Evolution blog, Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen (interviewed here), at an L.A. Eco-Village event titled "The Urban Homestead: A Talk, Slide Show and Book-Signing." The event happens Thursday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles. Suggested donation's $5; RSVP to crsp@igc.org.
>> Join artist Jane Tsong and curator Donna Conwell for a conversation at the Farmlab Public Salon, " 'Everything is Alive' and Other Street Projects." "Everything is Still Alive" is an art project in which native California poppies were planted on patches of exposed earth in the L.A. area: "where the poppies survive, orange blossoms reveal the disparate patterns of land management." The free event takes place Friday, June 27 at noon at Farmlab, 1745 N. Spring Street #4, Los Angeles.
For more eco-themed events happening in the L.A. area, check out the Emerald City green calendar.
Photos courtesy Jane Tsong via Farmlab
 >> The fight over the Expo line, continued. Steve Hymon writes about his chat with Rick Thorpe, chief executive of the Expo Line Construction Authority, who provides a counterpoint to Damien Goodmon's concerns that some at-grade crossings are unsafe. "If the project must build over- or under-crossings, [Thorpe] said the line would likely be delayed at least two years, presuming money could be found to build those structures."
>> The fight over the L.A.-to-S.F. bullet train. Union Pacific railroad says it doesn't want to share its rail lines with the proposed 200-mph bullet train rail line -- about which voters will vote in November. "Critics question why the California High Speed Rail Authority didn't negotiate a deal long ago with Union Pacific."
>> Schwarzenegger proclaimed California is in a drought and "issued an executive order intended to speed transfers of water to areas experiencing the most severe shortages, help local water districts boost conservation efforts, identify risks to the state's water supply and assist farmers." Earlier: LADWP's "Drought Busters" plan.
>> How to plant a green roof. Re-Nest has an illustrated explanation, thanks to a Park Slope resident who showed New Yorkers the process.
>> Organic wines, explained and reviewed by Roz Cummins of Grist -- who ends her article with a yummy recipe for Syllabub, a rich, wine-flavored dessert.
>> Seven endangered California condors got lead poisoning in the last month, which has U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials in "crisis mode." A state ban on hunting with lead bullets in condor habitat goes into effect July 1.
Image courtesy of metro.net
 Enviro-fans of Dwell magazine: You'll be glad to know that the focus for the 3rd Annual Dwell on Design will be sustainability in the L.A. area. The conference and exhibition will showcase and discuss modern design, architecture while examining ways to encourage sustainable living in an increasingly dense city.
And you can check out the exhibition -- with more than 200 exhibitors -- for free! Just use the codes below.
When: Conference on June 5 and 6; Exhibition on June 7 and 8 (exhibition preview for conference attendees on June 6).
Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.
Cost: Exhibition tickets cost $25 online (free with code BDODEC) or $50 at the door; conference registration costs $349 ($50 off with code GRP22SP). Register here.
The exhibition include lots of green panels that examine everything from what L.A.'s new green building codes will mean to new resource and energy efficiency innovations to sustainable interiors. Lots of panel members are also LEED-accredited professionals!
If the conference and tour aren't enough, you can sign up to take a tour of green homes in L.A. And on June 6, you can watch 16 L.A. designers produce 2D sustainable and modular dwellings, rooms and furniture in a tournament-party at MOCA. $50 gets you into the evening event, featuring an open bar and a live DJ.
Green eco-boutiques are springing up all over the Valley. Already, there's greenROHINI in Sherman Oaks and Deborah Lindquist's boutique in North Hollywood. Now, Valley Village is getting its own eco-boutique: Green and Greener.
Self-described as an "eco-living general store and design center," Green and Greener will carry everything from sustainable clothing to clay plaster to gardening supplies. In addition to the products, Green and Greener will showcase eco-living inspired art, as well as offer eco-consulting services. Alegre Ramos, who owns Green and Greener with her husband Sean, is an LEED-certified Accredited Professional as well as a businesswoman, and will continue her work in green interior and landscape design too. In fact, Alegre re-did the Green and Green building itself in eco-fashion; you can see the green transformation the building went through here.
Get there on opening day, June 10 from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., and you'll get 10% off your purchase -- in addition to a free gift with your purchase.
And while getting around the Valley without a car isn't always easy, Green and Greener shoppers will be rewarded for their de-car-ing efforts. Customers get a 10% discount on their purchase any day they get to the store without driving. Green and Greener's put together a handy public transportation map to help you out -- and bike racks are right out front!
Green and Greener. 4838 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village. (866) 337-5602
Photo by Joshua Targownik
Permaculture classes have been going on for years, but many of these are
intensive, multi-week courses for the already-converted. This month,
L.A. county's getting some beginner-level events for the
permaculture-curious.
When I think permaculture -- roughly defined as sustainable design principles that seeks to create human habitats that mimic natural systems -- the first thing that comes to mind is organic and biodynamic, get your hands dirty, old fashioned farming. But since permaculture's not only a portmanteau for permanent and agriculture but also for permanent and culture, its principles -- proponents say -- can be adapted to urban areas and systems too.
Even if you're not ready to dive in with both Birkenstocked feet, you can try dipping your toe into the permaculture pool.
A good beginner's event happens this Friday: "A Taste of Permaculture: Principles, Ethics and Zones," led by Tyrone Fay of Earthcare Design Solutions, a pro-permaculture organization. Stop by to get an overview of permaculture this Friday, May 16, 7 pm, at the L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles. The cost of the workshop's $100 (sliding scale) and reservations are required; contact (213) 738-1254 or crsp@igc.org.
Those who want to do some hands-on permaculture work can sign up for an all-day series of rotating workshops on Saturday, titled "Hands-on: Soils & Gardening, orcharding, seedball"
That happens Saturday, May 17 from 8:30 am - 5 pm, also at the L.A. Eco-Village. The workshop costs $100, and pre-registration's required.
For those on the west side, put the "Santa Monica Community Permaculture Gathering" in your calendar. Intended as the first of a series of monthly meetings, this gathering's hoped "to begin to build a community of local citizens interested in bringing about real sustainable change in the neighborhoods that we live in," according to Sean Jennings, the organizer.
"My hope is that this meeting will be permaculture in action," says Jennings. "That means we will be meeting our neighbors, discussing problems and possible solutions, and identifying action that we can take as a community and actually make it happen."
The gathering happens on May 20 at 7 pm at the Santa Monica Main Library, Community Meeting Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. For more info, email Jennings at swjennings@gmail.com.
Photo of people studying urban permaculture in Santa Cruz by matt bennett via Flickr
Eco-advice columnists are all over the web now. There's Grist's Umbra, Salon's Pablo, Slate's Green Lantern - and even me with my Q&As. But Sierra magazine's Mr. Green -- a.k.a. Bob Schildgen -- is the first of all of these to have his own book out.
Published earlier this year, "Hey Mr. Green" is a compilation of the advice Mr. Green's doled out since Feb. 2005, when his column launched. The Q&As, loosely organized into sections like "At Home" and "Food for Thought," are humorously informational -- not the least because Mr. Green takes on even the oddest and rudest of questions.
Seriously, Sierra magazine appears to attract some strangely angry readers (vegans?) -- many who are unnaturally attached to their air conditioning. (David: "You really ticked me off with your condescending attitude about air-conditioning." Mary: "I'm supposed to sit at home sweating it out? ... Don't make us don sackcloth while our corporate friends wear silk!") Who knew people could get so passionate about AC?
The random questions mean that the columns go anywhere from the big picture -- i.e. changing one's quality of life by spending time to cook healthy meals, instead of spending time "working to pay for processed, instant, plasticized food" -- to the almost inconsequential -- i.e. paper or plastic? Mixed in there is a passionate argument pro eating meat -- in condiment-style moderation, of course -- as well as recipes for yummy chili and salsa, and a number of money-and-energy saving tips.
Mr. Green even gets poetic sometimes -- especially when talking about lawns, which he seems to have a mild obsession with. "Lawns make the landscape look bleak, like a cemetery without tombstones," he says, then adds in another column:
Lawns are a type of death denial, in that they're replicas of cemeteries where the owner glides on the mower, godlike and immortal, over the pristine green, enjoying the illusion of immunity from burial and decay below.
I'll never look at a grassy lawn the same way again.
Of course, there were times in the book when I laughed at, not with, Mr. Green. One avid knitter wrote complaining that her daughter refuses to wear the handknit acrylic sweaters, the girl's argument being that acrylic's bad for the environment. Mr. Green dutifully points out that acrylic yarn may not be any worse than conventional cotton or wool (he neglects to mention there are organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, and eco-wool yarns) -- never considering that the reason this poor girl doesn't wanna wear her mama's handiwork probably has nothing to do with the environment at all....
Photo by Adam Drewes via Flickr
 If $3 a lb. for heirloom tomatoes at the farmers market is more than you can afford, why not make it your Earth Day resolution to grow your own veggies? In the latest New York Times Magazine, author of "An Omnivore's Dilemma" Michael Pollan waxes lyrical about growing your own edible garden:
It’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do — to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
Feel daunted by the prospect of creating your own edible estate? Then give the girls at Heart Beet Gardening a call. Run by three Marlborough School alumnae -- Megan Bomba, Sara Carnochan, and Kathleen Redmond -- Heart Beet Gardening is a little local company that'll help you set up your own private, organic edible landscape.
 According to Megan, the organic gardening biz is booming, especially with the popularity of the local food movement. "People are looking at where they're getting things from," Megan says. "A lot of people are realizing they want their kids to grow up with a home gardening experience, even if they didn't."
I met Megan and Sara (right) at a native-and-edible garden Heart Beet recently set up for Megan's parents (below). This 1,000-square-foot garden was planted just a few weeks ago with mostly native, drought-resistant plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Right now, the garden looks rather bare, but according to Megan and Sara, each plant will expand out about a foot, prettying up the landscape. Once the plants are set, very little water or grooming will be needed. After all, these are perennial plants that don't require replanting.
In addition, the garden has an edible component. Three fruit trees -- pomegranate, fig, persimmon -- are each surrounded by a number of herbs and edible plants, including artichokes, lemongrass, fennel, chives, blackberries and grapes. These edible areas will of course require more water and care, but will also produce local, organic food at a very low cost.
Cost to set this up: A little under $5,000, including the recycled concrete walkway. $5 a square foot doesn't sound too bad, considering the fact that the yard will save water while providing food for years to come.
Most of Heart Beet's work, however, isn't large yards but smaller vegetable gardens and edible landscapes. Want Heart Beet to help set up yours? Call them, and you could have your own garden in just a week. The cost for a 100-square-foot garden with a raised bed runs between $1,500 to $2,500 for set-up, depending on the condition of the soil, the type of irrigation system desired, and other factors particular to your garden.
Once you have the garden set up, Heart Beet can help you maintain it for $75 a month, which includes weekly visits to your garden. Of course, a vegetable garden really needs to be looked at more than once a week, and Heart Beet's overall goal is to get more people gardening themselves. Says Megan: "It's not rocket science."
Heart Beet Gardening. (310) 460-9365.
Earlier: Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, Apartment gardens and auto sprinklers
Top photo courtesy of Heart Beet Gardening; other photos by Siel
>> The Bluest Big Blue Bus. Steven Leigh Morris overhears one memorable convo on the #3: "'What you go to jail for?' the driver asks. 'Attempted murder.' Three of the passengers who had been plugged into various listening devices now discreetly remove their headphones."
>> Big Blue Bus #10 triumphs over Metro 439. Will Campbell of la.metblogs races against Bustard of The Bus Bench, twittering and flickring along the way. The BBB made it from Santa Monica to Olive and 7th, downtown L.A., in just 40 minutes -- which again has me wondering why so many people on the westside decide to fight traffic and pay for parking by driving to downtown....
>> In case you missed it: Lots of fun Earth Day stuff's happening around town this weekend. Get dirty, have fun, and turn your kids into little environmentalists.
>> And if you take your camera to those events, share your photos on Your Scene, which has an Earth Day album all set up for you.
>> Conserve water by watering your lawns one day fewer a week, says the Metropolital Water District -- which plans to preach voluntary water conservation via a 13-week advertising campaign to drill that message in. (via LAist)
>> Which reminds me: Late last year, after seeing that voluntary water conservation efforts weren't working, Mayor Villaraigosa said something about instituting mandatory water restrictions. I guess he decided to stick with the voluntary thing....
>> How to really avoid watering your lawn: Go cactus shopping! Faboomama of la.metblogs visits the California Cactus Center and declares it heaven. "One of the first things I did as a homeowner was get some succulents. Not just because of my obsession, but also because of the water shortage thing. Oh and I’m lazy…I don’t like watering and can’t figure out the automatic timer. That works well with the succulents since they only need water about once a week, if that."
>> TIME magazine goes green,
literally, swapping out its red border for a green one. My odd question
about the cover story: Why does the URL read 2007? (via grist)
Make jam, not war -- by stopping by at the Museum of Contemporary Art this Saturday and joining the attack against the water-guzzling grassy front lawn!
To celebrate architect and artist Fritz Haeg's new book, "Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn" -- as well as the debut of Haeg's new serial project, Animal Estates, at the 2008 Whitney Biennial -- MOCA's throwing a book signing party -- complete with a Public Jam, aka a fruit jam-making session led by the Fallen Fruit collective.
When: Sat., March 29, 3 pm
Where: Art Catalogues, MOCA Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Ave., G102, West Hollywood
What: Come ready to jam. Feel free to bring fruit to jam with.
First, the Fallen Fruit collective will collaborate with you in a communal jam-making session -- then the talk with Fritz Haeg and book contributors Lesley Stern and Michael Foti will begin. There'll be drinks and appetizers too.
Fritz Haeg's the founder of Edible Estates -- a series of projects aimed at turning stagnant front lawns into luscious edible gardens that are "responsive to culture, climate, context and people." According to MOCA's description:
These projects reconcile issues of global food production and urbanized land use with the modest gesture of a small domestic garden. Edible Estates is a practical food-producing initiative, a place-responsive landscape design proposal, a scientific horticultural experiment, a conceptual land-art project, a defiant political statement, a community out-reach program and an act of radical gardening.
For more de-lawning fun, check out Heather Flores' "Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood Into a Community." Or join the Fallen Fruit collective people to forage for free urban fruit and make more jam.
Earlier: Apartment gardens and Q&A: A new green front yard
Last month, green building advocates got a boost when two L.A. city council committees voted to require that large developments meet eco-friendly standards. Now, L.A. County's considering its own Green Building Program, and holding seven public meetings (six remaining) this month to discuss draft Green Building Ordinances.
These ordinances cover new construction, expansions and remodels in L.A. County unincorporated areas. Among the requirements are high energy efficiency, drought-tolerant landscaping and low impact development standards.
If you're an L.A. county resident in an unincorporated area, read the draft ordinances here (PDF), then attend one of the meetings (PDF) to support green building and to get your comments in:
- 1st District - Gloria Molina: Tues., March 25, 6 pm - 8 pm, East Los Angeles County Library, 4837 3rd St., Los Angeles
- 2nd S District - Yvonne B. Burke: Thurs., March 27, 6 pm - 8 pm, A.C. Bilbrew County Library, 150 E. El Segundo, Los Angeles
- 4th District - Don Knabe: Mon., March 31, 6 pm - 8 pm, Adventure County Park, 10130 S. Gunn Ave., Whittier
- 5th District - Michael Antonovich (3 meetings): Wed., March 19, 6 pm - 8 pm, Altadena Senior Center, 560 E. Mariposa Rd., Altadena; Mon., March 24, 6 pm - 8 pm, Santa Clarita Sports Complex, 20880 Centre Point Pkwy., Santa Clarita; Sat., March 29, 3 pm - 5 pm, Larry Chimbole Community Center, 38350 Sierra Highway, Palmdale
Unfortunately, The 3rd District meeting already happened last week. However, you can attend any of the other meetings, or get your comments in by calling (213) 974-6432, emailing zoup@planning.lacounty.gov, or writing Department of Regional Planning, Ordinance Studies Section, 320 W. Temple St., 13th Fl. Los Angeles, CA 90012.
The freeway is the new park?! Maybe, if the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gets its way. The group's proposing a freeway park deck, running from Bronson Avenue to Wilton Place above the 101 Freeway. The project's name: Hollywood Freeway Central Park. (via groovy green)
Why a park there? For one, it'd mean "24 acres of new green space in Hollywood, directly adjacent to a high school currently under construction." The 101 runs below street level in that area, so the park deck would create "a brief tunnel for vehicular traffic while affording a street-level park for pedestrians." Plus, of course, there'd be environmental benefits:
In addition to the many obvious benefits of creating new park space, by placing a “cap” over one of the world’s most congested freeway system, the necessary ventilation system would be required to clean the air before re-circulating it back into the environment - creating a positive improvement in the air quality in Los Angeles.
From what I can tell so far, the project has broad-based support. Mayor Villaraigosa -- as well as all four are neighborhood councils -- are behind the plan. Anyone have objections to it? Whether you're for it or against it, you can weigh in at the Community-Wide Hollywood Central Park Meeting tomorrow:
When: Saturday, Jan. 26th, 9 am - 1 pm.
Where: Selma Elementary School - Auditorium, 6611 Selma Avenue, Los Angeles
RSVP: email rsvp@hfcp.org
Villaraigosa, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Tom LaBonge, and Assemblymember Mike Feuer are all expected to represent. Oh, and there'll be free refreshments and lunch.
For more details about the plan, check out Militant Angeleno's posts; he's been following the park progress since June last year.
Image courtesy of hollywoodfreewaycentralpark.org
One great thing about the rain: Auto-watering of my balcony garden! By balcony garden, I mean my basil plant. My tomato plant and mint are officially dead, partly because I forgot to water them and partly because squirrels keep jumping off my roof onto my balcony, sometimes landing directly on the plants, other times knocking them over. Miraculously, the basil clings on....
Which is to say I'm very jealous of my friend Summer's balcony garden, which grows everything from lettuce to lemons. Yes, these pictures are of her garden, not mine. She even has strawberries -- or more accurately, one strawberry, the birds having eaten the rest of them.
I ate that last one in the picture. I love the idea of growing my own stuff, but I really suck at it. Other apartment dwellers seem to have little trouble though. Jenn and Nat, neighbors of mine, even convinced their landlord to let them turn the front lawn into an edible garden. It's been a while since I've seen the garden, but belows a pic of Jen with the garden back in June last year.
Got an edible garden of your own? Link to pictures of it in the comments and inspire us all! More later on how I'm gonna jump start my new balcony garden in this new year --
Photos by Siel
 Not too long ago I asked: "Are we so idiotic that we won't actually start conserving water until it starts gouging our wallets?" There I dissed L.A.'s voluntary water use reduction efforts -- put forward by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who himself is a major water guzzler.
Now it looks like voluntary might turn to mandatory AND prices might go up. The latest in SoCal water news:
>> Two L.A. reservoirs have to be drained. Because of a weird chemical reaction that tainted the Silver Lake and Elysian reservoirs with the suspected carcinogen bromate, 600 million gallons of water must be dumped during this ongoing drought.
>> SoCal's water imports are going to get cut to save near-extinct fishies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
>> Mandatory water use restrictions may be coming early next year, because Villaraigosa's plea to voluntarily curb water use hasn't worked. Long Beach, in contrast, has done quite well.
Photo by Esther Perez via Flickr
 Your eco-questions answered:
Question: The Militant here. Since you seem to be the Eco-Maven of SoCal, wonder if you can answer this question:
The Militant's mama has recently gotten into composting for her garden; she seems to be fond of using used banana peels. Anyway, the Militant would like to get her a nice compost container for a Christmas gift, where can one be bought locally and how much do they cost? Thanks, MA
 Answer: Since the Militant's an Angeleno, my recommendation's that you take advantage of the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation's bin sales. City residents can choose from 3 different composters, all sold at a cut rate -- the most expensive being $45.
And lucky you -- there's one more city bin sale event happening before Christmas; lace up your combat boots and get thee to the Griffith Park Composting Education Facility on Dec. 14, between 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. Have proof of L.A. residency in hand. This way, you can be both thoughtful and economical (aka cheap).
The $20 Earth Machine Composter model (above) is the one that seems to be most popular, judging from what I've seen in people's backyards. But make sure you get some specifics from your mama about what she wants before you go. How does she feel about wriggly worms, for example? Wormies creep some out; other people love them as little pets.
Plus, for all we know, your mama might even want to do indoor composting -- in which case none of these composters will be appropriate and you'll need to ask me for new -- and more expensive -- recommendations.
On the off chance that your mama's composting interest is a brand new one and even she doesn't know what kind of composter she wants, you might take her to a free home composting workshop, which happens on the fourth Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Griffith Park Composting Education Facility (check the schedule before you go; sometimes they get canceled). Bins are sold at the workshops, so maybe you could take the class with her and buy her the bin she chooses, making composting a good mama-Militant son activity, perhaps.
Kudos to the Militant's mama for giving her banana peels new life.
Got a question? Ask me: greenlagirl@gmail.com.
Photo by Ashour Rehana via Flickr
Your eco-questions answered:
Question: I live in Long Beach, Calif., and am looking to design a new frontyard -- on a budget and 'green.' I want to conserve water, xeriscape and use hardscape at the same time. Do you have any recommendations on where to go for information or for reputable landscapers? Thanks! Connie
Answer: Being an apartment-dweller, I'm lucky I don't have to worry about this stuff -- but I like to dream big about what I'd do with a front lawn if I had one. Current fantasy: plant fruit trees close to the sidewalk, with a little sign that says "help yourself" so passersby can pick a fresh orange to go.
Anyway, let me start with the most out-there options first, then move closer to what you asked about. :)
 First -- What about an edible frontyard? My neighbors Jenn and Nat have done it (right). This way, you green your frontyard, you make it useful -- and you get to eat the fruits of your labors!
To make that edible garden even more eco, consider installing a gray water system that will let you reuse water from sinks and washing machines to water your garden or lawn.
Too radical? Let's turn to xeriscaping then: landscaping in a way that doesn't require additional irrigation. For inspiration, see Garden/Garden -- a project in Santa Monica that pits side by side a California-weather-friendly garden (left) and a traditional water-intensive one.
 As expected, "The native garden is using seven times less water and costs 50% less to maintain than the traditional garden." This California Friendly Garden Guide makes it easy for you to find pretty plants that will also conserve water so you can do likewise.
As for hardscape -- I wasn't quite sure whether you meant that you'd like to find alternatives for hardscape -- which are paved areas like streets and sidewalks -- or if you're dead set on retaining this hardscape while greening the other parts of your frontyard. I'm hoping the former, mainly because having more permeable surfaces will help us prevent urban runoff, which both wastes our water and pollutes our oceans. The city of Santa Monica has put together a handy sheet comparing permeable paving products (PDF) to get you started.
Low Impact Living, a Web portal of sorts that helps people eco-up their homes, has many more tips on greening your lawn and garden. There is also "The Gardener's Guide to Global Warming" (PDF) from the National Wildlife Federation, which says “solutions to global warming are in gardeners’ hands.” Read it to find out what actions you can take in your garden, in your community and with your elected officials.
If all that sounds daunting, first go for the low-hanging fruit: getting a rain barrel, for example, or using a bucket to collect the cold water while you wait for the shower to warm up, and using that to water your frontyard.
And help is easy to find. To find a green landscape designer, just plug in your ZIP Code here.
Got a question? Ask me: greenlagirl@gmail.com.
Top photo by Siel; bottom photo courtesy of city of Santa Monica
You've likely seen the Million Trees LA ads about town, at bus stops and billboards and, more controversially, on Shrek posters. Yes, Villaraigosa's pushing Los Angeles to plant a million more trees in our city as part of his environmental initiatives, and we're already 110,000 trees closer to meeting this proud goal -- except we're counting trees that aren't planted!
As David Zahniser's article today points out, the city's giving away little trees and counting them as planted -- and freebie-loving treehuggers are snapping these up, some with no intention of planting them.
Worse, I've inadvertently become one of these treehugging tree killers!
It started innocently enough. On my way out from a pre-emmys party a couple weeks ago, I saw a bunch of little seedlings for the taking and nabbed one for myself. I'm not quite sure what I thought it was -- a house plant, I guess.
Turns out, this seedling's a would-be tree! If I'd known this at the time, I wouldn't have taken one -- but in my defense, I didn't even know these were little trees -- though perhaps I should have asked -- and I certainly didn't have to had to fill out a "pledge to plant" form like a woman quoted in the article did.
On the upside, I've lavished a lot of attention on this cute seedling, keeping it on the ledge above my kitchen sink and watering it daily. However, I noticed a couple days ago that it seems to be drying up, its top leaves curling into itself.
I guess trees don't like being confined to 1-inch plastic cube. After reading the article this morning and realizing what I have is a tree, I replanted it -- into a slightly larger container on my balcony. Okay -- I realize this isn't the ideal situation, but I live in a small apartment in Santa Monica without a plot of land to call my own.
What to do? I'm now desperately seeking a tree adopter, but the prognosis is dire -- Larry Smith of North East Trees is quoted saying only 1 in 4 seedlings are expected to survive -- which is why more hardcore environmental and tree activists like TreePeople advise a more slow and steady, less numbers-driven approach to tree planting.
Anyone else get a freebie tree from the city at one of the 187 tree adoption events? What's happened to your tree since?
Photos by Siel
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