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July 2008 Community Garden News from SFGRO
1. Community Challenge Grants Now Available APPLY ASAP!
The Community Challenge Grant Program (CCG) provides matching grants to local residents, businesses, non-profits, and other community groups to make physical improvements to their neighborhoods. The CCG focuses on projects that directly engage residents and businesses in working together to create green spaces, gathering places, public art, and other neighborhood amenities. The program provides an important tool for enabling communities to take the lead in conducting small-scale improvements in their own communities.
Grants are available in amounts for $10,000 to $25,000 with a community match requirement of 25% to 50% depending on the size of the grant and other factors.
This is a great opportunity for civic organizations and local non-profits to help beautify our neighborhoods by directly engaging residents in the process.
The deadline for application is Wednesday July 9 at 4 p.m.
For more information and to download a grant application go to www.sfccgp.org
2. New Bulletin Boards in SF Community Gardens
Check out the new bulletin boards appearing in community gardens near you. The SF Recreation & Parks Dept. has installed a pilot Bulletin Board at Treat Commons Community Garden in Parque Ninos Unidos on 23rd St./Treat Avenue in the Mission. Other installations are in progress at White Crane Springs, Arlington and Michaelangelo Playground Community Gardens. Check out a great photo of the new Bulletin Board and get more information on RPD’s Community Garden Program website at www.parks.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=27048.
3. A Victory Garden at City Hall
Slow Food Nation and Victory Gardens 2008+ (a project of Garden for the
Environment) are creating an ornamental edible garden at the San Francisco
Civic Center from July through September 2008. The Civic Center Victory Garden
will be a living quilt of plants and people, a garden of communities. Featuring a wide variety of heritage organic vegetables suited to the Bay Area microclimate, the garden will demonstrate the diversity of urban food production practices.
Join them for the events below. For more information on how to participate and support this interesting project, check out the website at www.slowfoodnation.org or email victorygarden@slowfoodnation.org.
Project Timeline
July 1: Groundbreaking
July 1- 11: Garden Installation
July 12: Community Planting Day
July 12 – Aug 29: Garden Operation, stay tuned for workshop schedule!
Aug 29 – September 1: Slow Food Nation Event, 1st Harvest September 21: Community Harvest Day, Food Donated to those in need
4. Come Volunteer for SFGRO
SFGRO is looking for volunteers to help with a couple of new projects
supporting the creation of new community gardens in San Francisco. Positions
include data gathering (collecting local and national community garden
information) and leadership roles for experienced community gardeners/activists who are interested in helping start new community gardens. Time commitment is a couple of hours per week plus monthly meetings with other SFGRO volunteers.
Interested folks should contact Andrea Jadwin, andrea@sfgro.org or 415-559-0263. Personally speaking, I’d very much recommend it, if you want to get involved.
5. State of California Announces No Moth Spraying Over Urban Areas
“The Calif Dept. of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) announced this afternoon that they will not be conducting aerial spraying of pheromones for the light brown apple moth over urban areas. DFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura said that a sterile male moth insect release program has been developed ahead of schedule, and this will be used as the primary tool for urban areas. CDFA will still use other techniques such as pheromone twist ties, microbial pesticides, and 'bait & kill" sprays (spots of permethrin mixture on utility poles) in selected heavily infested areas (to be determined).”
“In this technique, male moths are reared (in Albany), sterilized, and released en masse. The releases, by the way, will either be by air or by ground release. If properly implemented, female moths will mate with the released males and fail to reproduce. So instead of confused males, there will simply be frustrated females. Kawamura continued to emphasize the importance of controlling invasive species, but added a new criteria to his choice of tools:
"least intrusive."
“Sec. Kawamura also highlighted the importance of early detection and interdiction of new introduced species. He specifically noted that there are now 40 open agricultural inspection positions in San Francisco that have remained unfilled for 2 years, which increases the risk of future introductions.”
Plant of the Month: Strawberries
One of my friends works as the pastry chef in one of San Francisco’s swankier restaurants, and when I told her that I had a plot in a community garden, she immediately asked if I could grow ‘mara des bois’, a type of strawberry.
Though not strictly berries (they’re an accessory fruit), strawberries thrive well in the bay area, and if you’re cute about it, you can take the runners off and have more plants for the next year! Again, here are some links on varieties (http://www.rootstock.com/variety.html), growing and eating (http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/growingStrawberries.html). Myself, I like them with black pepper or basil.
If you have questions for fellow community gardeners about plants, plots or garden politics, write to us at SFGRO and we’ll post your questions and comments. Address your email to Damian at growwithus@sfgro.org
If you forward this newsletter to friends or know community gardeners who might want to subscribe to the SFGRO newsletter, just send an email to growwithus@sfgro.org and we’ll take care of the rest.
Finally, here are links to some of our friends, have a read of what they’re saying, and what’s going on with them this month.
www.communitygarden.org (American Community Garden Association) www.gardenfortheenvironment.org (Garden for the Environment)
www.freefarmstand.org (Tree’s Farm Mission District Farm Stand)
Have a great month of July, and remember to cover the back of your neck (personal experience here…) if you’re weeding in the sun!
Happy 4th of July, see you next month.
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