The Giving Garden

Laying lava rocks in the fire-pit area!

2011-07-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Gidget, Tucker and Chad for hauling the rocks to our place! Thanks to Lara for making sure we gave the garden some love on Sat. Thanks to Marysia, Ahni, Geoff and Lara for Weeding and laying down the stones. And thanks Natalie for stopping by to say hi and making us smile and to Tony for his approving nods and toast! What a beautiful day!

Looking for free fruit trees?

2010-02-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

What began as the mapping of fruit trees in LA neighborhoods grew into Fallen Fruit, a full-fledged activist art project and collaboration among David Burns, Matias Viegener, and Austin Young. Rooted in the notion that all of us deserve to have access to "public fruit," Fallen Fruit holds a pair of public fruit-tree adoptions, officially launching EATLACMA, the museum's year-long series of food-related talks, performances, exhibitions, and other events on culture, art, politics, and eatables. February 6, TreePeople Los Angeles sponsors the public fruit-tree adoption at Watts Towers, and on February 7, it moves to LACMA. Potential adoptive fruit parents are encouraged to arrive early for the best selection.

When

Sunday Feb 7 (noon)
Where

LACMA

5905 Wilshire Blvd

323-857-6000

Natural remedies for cough and sore throat

2009-12-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

Greetings friends!

The winter season is here! Today the garden is being graced with nourishing rain. I can see her smiling!

A friend sent out these remedies using ingredients that come from the earth. This is where true healing begins:

Since ancient times people have been using ingredients such as thyme, sage, oregano, ginger, honey, golden seal, tea [green and black], olive leaf, onion, garlic, cayenne... etc... for healing cold remedies.

Cacao has been the most effective, for stopping coughing almost immediately after drinking it. It will not cure the cough all together, but when coughing can't stop and have a sore throat, it will soothe it and make the coughing stop for as long as a day...

Cacao recipe:

1 tbsp raw cacao powder [strong - adjust if you like it weeker] to a cup of water, add honey.

Other recipes:

Cough syrup: graded fresh ginger, warm liquid honey, and 1 lemon's juice ~ this one is really yummy and soothing

Teas:

• About 1tsp of: fresh sage, thyme and oregano, green tea, with honey per 1 cup of hot water [you can make tea with each individual herb as well]
• 1 tsp dried oregano per 1 cup of hot water, 1tsp honey ~ interestingly, dried oregano was more effective than fresh.

Gargling a full glass of warm sea salt water ~ this one is pretty effective too when done in the morning and night. Must gargle the whole glass!

When trying these recipes, try using high quality ingredients and organic whenever possible. Most of the herbs should be home or locally grown, the honey & cacao were raw... it isimportant to choose the best ingredients possible to get their best healing abilities, healthy herbs mean strong herbs!

Be well!!

2009-08-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Planting silver sheen with Chris Noell, Christian Rodriguez, Belsie Arevalo and Gidget Granillo.

Thanks to Simone Schulz for digging, planting and sprinkling your fairy dust in our lovely garden!!

Laying fire-pit area and planting drought tolerant plants!

2009-08-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Simone Schulz, Thais Camacho and Gidget Granillo!!

Building our beautiful raised bed!

2009-08-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Thank you to Refugio Mata, Sandra Valencia (and Sofi), Simone Schulz and Gidget Granillo!

More goodness.....

2009-08-18T12:12:00.001-07:00

Planting the nectarine, plum and apricot trees with Chris and Gidget!

Oldies but goodies.....

2009-08-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some old photos of work done in the Giving Garden this Spring (2009).

Thanks to Gidget Granillo and Chris Noell for helping to plant our nectarine, plum and apricot trees!

Thanks to Sara Laimon, Gidget Granillo and Thais Camacho for helping lay mulch in the front garden.

July 11, 2009 - Work/fun day!

2009-08-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Anibal Koliren, Thais Camacho, Robert Kozek, Whakapainiga, Taz the Rockstar, Sandra Valencia and her lovely mom, Marta, for all of their hard work! It was such an incredible day and the garden is still feeling the love!!

Our Wish List!

2009-07-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

Summer has been hot even in lovely Santa Monica! I've been on the look out for a huge truck load of mulch to cover the entire yard. Although, the garden is extremely grateful for the sun, it is currently depleting the soil of water. Mulch will create a protective layer from the sun's daily rays. I'm watering every other night and it's not enough right now. I know that the layer of mulch will do the trick.

Solar panels for the POD

Water barrels (for our rainwater catchments system). The bigger the better.

More plants - vegetables, flowers, drought tolerant/natives.

Natural builders - for cob benches/oven.

Materials for our natural building projects: sand, clay, hay.

Money.....always looking for donations to make all of these projects a reality.

In August, it will be a year since I've moved into the house. We began giving the garden love in September. It was our goal to spend this summer enjoying the fruits of our labor and we have definitely been doing that.

Thank you to everyone for making this dream a reality!

Much love!
Guzel

The Giving Garden - July 2009

2009-07-06T13:22:00.000-07:00

Life has been so full! I apologize for not keeping this blog updated. I had the best intentions but haven't been consistent with uploading the progress.

So, here are some pics of what our lovely garden looks like right now. Thank you SO much to everyone that contributed to making it beautiful!

Thanks to:
Gidget Granillo - for always saying yes, except for one time
Will Shivers - you were such an inspiration at the inception of this project
Alfie Granillo - for her ability to work more and harder than anyone I've ever met AND for growing plants from seed! This lady can do anything!
Mac Maker - for your support and creative inspiration
Juan Marcial - for your excitement and muscles!
Thais Camacho - for being part of our 2nd mulching and giving us the biggest bad-ass tomato plant in the garden
Laura Shape and Stuart Scanlon - for donating the lovely river rocks that are grace our raised bed and border the bamboo
Simone Schulz - for flying in and doing things when no one is looking
Pamela Huezo - for lugging some rocks and constant words of encouragement, support and love
Sandra and Sofi Valenica-Braver - helping to build the raised bed and loving on the garden
Jessica Viola - for the passion fruit vine, design advice, nursery run and constant support. You are an inspiration
Anna Cummings and Marcus Ericksen - for our beautiful crystal that was the first to grace our fire-pit ring and for the visiting worms
Monica Granados - for showing up on work days and willing to help with anything
Chris Noell - for planting, building, driving and supporting our garden
Feather El - for your yummy treats and your wonderful spirit
Fei and his fellow students and Doug - you guys rock...the bamboo is growing
Todd Steiner - helping us with our fire-pit area
Refugio Mata - helping to build the raised bed
Sara Laimon and Whakpaingia - helping with mulching, donating a tomato plant and thanks for digging those holes W!
Ray Cirino - helping with the fire-pit area, and of course, your endless genius ideas!
George Szabo - helping with the fire-pit area, the POD and of course for your smile
Sam - helping out with the fire-pit area
Vivian Farley - helping out with the fire-pit area, POD help and your wonderfulness
Veronica - helping with the fire-pit area
Eric Anderson - helping with the fire-pit area and your knowledge that you so readily share!
Alex Gorosh - for helping with the fire-pit area and your sense of humor....love playing with you...so much fun!
Antonio G-r - for our black mats. We love playing acro yoga under the tree!
Gabriel Avenna - for helping off load the mulch and your pumpkin, berries, artichoke and mystery plant donations. AND your willingness to answer ALL my gardening questions (even when you don't know the answers)!
and Brighid - your generous donations are flourishing in our beautiful garden!

The Giving Garden Projects

2008-12-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Organic Garden (currently mulching)
Community Garden (currently mulching)
PODS (Ray Cirino's design)
Laying down stone floor around fire pit (in process)
Mural above Organic Garden (scheduled to paint in Mid-January - help us make this a reality)
Greenhouse
Composting station
Cobb Benches
Rocket Stove
Rain Water Catchment System
Grey Water System
Solar Panels
Outdoor Shower
Outdoor Composting Toilet

Currently asking for contributions: plants, fruit trees, gardening tools, solar panels, 50 gallon barrels for rain water collection and carpenters, plumbers and all around jack-of-all-trade types please come and share your knowledge.

We rely on the expertise of our friends. Any input, thoughts, and/or muscle you're willing to share is much appreciated! Please let us know how you would like to contribute.

The Giving Garden

2008-12-04T11:53:00.000-08:00

The Giving Garden is a new project under the Green Ambassdor program.
Our mission is to provide sustainable living education to the community. The Giving Garden provides the community with a hands on approach to learning about growing organic food, permaculture landscaping, cobb building, rainwater system, rocket stove, solar panels and more. Projects are ongoing and free to the public.

Students that work on the garden receive community service hours.

Donate to the Giving Garden for a free tax write off.

We are accepting: seeds, mature fruit trees and plants, gardening tools and gloves, building resources - hay, sand, clay, stones, wood, wire meshing, recycled rubber flooring, landscape fabric, wood window boxes etc.

We accept any materials that you think may benefit our project.

For mural project: paint, brushes, buckets, your hands and creativity to make the project possible.

We also accept money donations. All proceeds go to the Giving Garden Projects.

Removing Ficus trees from the front yard and getting ready for sheet mulching.

2008-09-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

2008-09-08T12:47:00.001-07:00

Took us about 4 hours but the end result was worth it! I was so giddy all day. We had a great time!

2008-09-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

2008-09-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

Laying the wet cardboard down.

Pre-soaking cardboard - Ray Cirino' suggestion. Saving water. Otherwise, we would have to water for 2 hours to throughly saturate the cardboard and the soil.

2008-09-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

Alta sitting on her throne.

Breaking Ground

2008-09-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

Today we began one of the most important steps in any garden...getting the soil ready. We chose a small patch near the side of the house which gets lots of sun. We will grow lots of yummy food just outside the door!

Our preferred method today: Sheet Mulching.

You can build new garden beds full of rich, fertile soil without ever putting a hand on a shovel! Sheet mulching, also known as sheet composting, layers cardboard, compost, and vegetative matter right on top of lawns or weedy areas. Over the course of a few months the mulch and the underlying sod and weeds decompose. Sheet mulching increases the population of beneficial soil microbes and worms, improves soil's capacity to retain nutrients and water, and reduces weeds. But the best thing about sheet mulch is it creates fantastic new garden spaces with only a small amount of effort on your part!

Gidget and I decided to get rid of most of the crab grass roots (that have taken over the yard) so we actually worked way more than we expected, however, it was a blast! Alta, Gidget's mom helped and offered great guidance. She grew up on a farm and is currently growing her own food a few blocks away. Will also helped water, a very important step to the entire process. Most guidelines ask that you water for 2 hours. We've taken Ray Cirino's advice and soaked the cardboard and then watered once all the layers were down, using much less water.