SPRING IS COMING!
The sun gets a little higher every day, and there have been quite a few "gardener sightings" in the last couple of weeks.

• New gardener Claudia is getting going on her plot.


• Lois and Chris helped move in some compost over the weekend.


• We got the cold frames moved in.


• Steve B. trimmed the trees and put in some berry bushes.


• Steve P. trimmed the weeds around the perimiter.


• Kelly B. is helping arrange getting some more chips.

OTHER ANNOUNCMENTS:
-- A work day is planned for Saturday March 27 to put chips around the periphery of the garden.
-- Free seeds are available at the Gardens Project Office, 776 S., State St., Suite 102 B.
-- I really like the signs that Muliplicity put on their plots. Sometimes when I'm out in the garden, I forget which plot is whose. (And I'm too lazy to go over and look at the Plot Map.) I am thinking about making signs for everyone's plot. Let me know what you think.

The Gardens Project is welcoming Spring this year with a county wide gardening volunteer day - the Spring Garden Blitz! The Blitz will take place on March 20th from 9am - 12pm at your local community garden! There will be 14 gardens participating in Ukiah, 1 in Potter Valley, 3 in Willits, and 3 on the Coast. Check out the list below for contact information for gardens that are participating.

Come out and get dirty, help grow some food, and meet some new people!

Ukiah, for all Ukiah gardens, contact The Gardens Project, lneely@ncoinc.org, (707) 462-2596 x 186

Orchard Apartments, 9am-12 pm

• Making an herb bed, installing a garden perimeter of fruit trees and perennials, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 8

Plowshares Peace and Justice Center, 9am-12 pm

• Finishing building a potting shed, double digging garden beds, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 5

Ukiah High School, 9am-12 pm

• Forming garden beds, building compost piles, laying irrigation on the 1 acre hillside, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 10

Talmage State Preschool, 9am-12 pm

• Planting summer crops, double digging beds, pathwork, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 10

North Pine St. Apartments, 9am-12 pm

• Weed removal, build and finish raised beds, move compost, pathwork, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 8

Jack Simpson Senior Apartments, 9am-12pm

• Install drip irrigation, build new raised beds (old folks can't bend very well), build worm bin
• Volunteers needed: 5

Fort Bragg

Fort Bragg Learning Garden, 12-4 pm

• Prepare and plant beds
• Number of volunteers needed: 8
• Contact: Noyo Food Forest, (707) 964-0218

Fort Bragg Head Start Preschool, 12-4pm

• Make new beds (digging and protecting from gophers), begin mural on tool shed, finish shelving in interior of tool shed, planting. Carpenters welcome! All welcome!
• Number of volunteers needed needed: 6
• Contact: Kim, 357-1529

Potter Valley

Potter Valley Youth and Community Center, 9am-12pm

• Number of volunteers needed: 8
• Help start this garden! Preparing garden beds, weeding, moving compost, planting, painting signs
• Contact: Maria, 743 1789, pvhealthystart@gmail.com

Willits, for all Willits Gardens, contact Mason at The Gardens Project, mgiem@gmail.com, (707) 841-0464

Brookside Farm, 10am-12pm

• Weeding, planting, tilling, greenhouse construction, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 10

Willits Integrated Service Center Garden, 10am-12pm

• Cultivate soil, build a berm and rain swails, start work on a tool shed, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 10

Willits Head Start Preschool, 10am-12pm

• Install irrigation, build beds, plant herbs, grasses, and perennials, install garden sinks, pathwork, painting signs
• Number of volunteers needed: 5

You're invited to "Sharing The Bounty"- The Gardens Project first ever fundraiser dinner at Patrona Restaurant and Lounge! Come out and support local gardens, local food, and local people! Tickets include full meal and wine, good conversation, and good company.

Tickets are limited. Call 462-2596 X 185 or email kburwell@ncoinc.org to reserve your tickets today!

We are gearing up for the spring at the Head Start Family Garden in Fort Bragg. We are planting seeds in our new greenhouse! It was generously donated by Dave at DIY Greenhouse Kits. If you are on the coast you check out his greenhouses at Simply Succulent on Airport Road just north of Fort Bragg, or on the web at doityourselfgreenhousekits.com. Thanks Dave!!!




We also planted raspberry bushes this month that should be bearing delicious ripe berries when the next school year starts up in August.




More broccoli and lettuce starts went in last week and we are still harvesting kale, chard and herbs.



And of course our favorite garden friends…the worms! This week they came inside for a classroom visit on a rainy day.



We’ll be having a garden work party on March 20th along with all the other Gardens’ Project gardens for the Spring Garden Blitz. Our focus will be digging three more beds and starting a mural on the tool shed. Many thanks to Rossi’s for donating the paint!

The Noyo Food Forest entertained about 300 guests at the Black Tie Boogie, held at the Redwood Coast Senior Center on February 13th. The Senior Center was transformed into a red, black and silver classy dining room and adjacent jazz lounge, complete with a kids activity room and silent auction. The event had something for everyone and truly brought together people from different generations and pockets of the community.

The Senior Center served 180 meals that featured locally grown and organic food. Everyone was dressed to the nines and enjoyed a beautiful meal by the Senior Center’s Chef and yummy desserts provided by the Montessori del Mar Learning Center.



In the other room the Richard Cooper Trio and Lavender Grace entertained the crowd that mingled at the bar and relaxed at the cocktail tables while sipping local wine and beer. The silent auction was a hit with exciting items generously donated by local businesses and community members. The kids had a great time with activities provided by Sue Magoo and Jenny, Too of the Mendocino Coast Children’s Discovery Mooseum.



Later in the evening the jazz ended and DJ Selector Science played as people young and old boogied down on the dance floor. There was even a special performance by three superstar hula hoopers!

\\

The Food Forest would like to thank everyone who helped make his event possible! We are so grateful for all of our WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS and all the SUPPORT from our GENEROUS COMMUNITY!

Save the date for the Noyo Food Forest’s next fabulous and fun FREE fundraising festival….
Earthday 2010
Be the Change!
Saturday April 24th
at the Learning Garden at Fort Bragg High School.
Live music, food, pedal-powered smoothies, workshops, interactive community art, kids activities and performances, and more!!! For more info or to get involved please contact the NFF office at 964-0218.

USDA Unveils “Food Environment Atlas”

Putting most of its informational eggs together in one basket, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has created and released a new web-based mapping tool called Your Food Environment Atlas. The Atlas presents highly detailed information on local food environments and health outcomes, including grocery store access and disease and obesity prevalence. The tool is intended to help researchers, policy makers, and the public more readily find information about a variety of factors that affect access to healthy and affordable food.

USDA’s Economic Research Service developed the Atlas as a follow-up to First Lady Michelle Obama’s recently-announced Let’s Move! campaign. Let’s Move!, which highlights healthy choices, healthier schools, physical activity, and accessible, affordable and healthy food, “has set an aggressive goal of solving childhood obesity within a generation.”

The Atlas contains county-level information on 90 indicators in three, broad categories: food choices, health and well-being, and community characteristics. The first category offers information on proximity to grocery stores, the number of food stores and restaurants, and data on fast food consumption. The second category includes statistics on food insecurity, obesity, and physical activity levels. Entries in the third category provide information on income and poverty, demographics, and urban-rural demarcations.

To see Your Food Environment Atlas, go to: www.ers.usda.gov/foodatlas. For further details on the Let’s Move! campaign, click on: www.LetsMove.gov.





Terry Nieves

Program Director

Network For A Healthy California

Ukiah Unified School District and

Mendocino County Schools

(707) 462-2561

Saturday proved a huge success at the Willits Head Start garden - 15 volunteers showed up at the head start to get the garden back into shape! Volunteers helped build new beds, remove pesky blackberries and bermuda grass, pulled weeds, and added new hose faucets in the garden. Check out the slide show below to see more pictures from the volunteer day.

A big thank you to everyone who came out to help at the Willits Head Start garden!

On the morning of Tuesday February 16th, 18 garden coordinators from community-supported gardens around Mendocino County came together in what we called a 'Garden Coordinator Workshop,' but might have more appropriately been called a 'Garden Coordinator Summit.'

Our desired outcomes for the summit were to 1) build the network community by getting to know each other and the gardens, 2) build confidence as a garden organizer and ownership of the coordinator position, and 3) assess needs of individuals and the network and to connect with resources.

The Gardens Project offered skill building sessions on organizing a work-party and connecting to resources, but the most exciting part of the day was the sharing that took place between the garden coordinators throughout the morning and over lunch. These coordinators are not often able to interact with each other, so the reassurance that there are others in the County with whom to learn, share, brainstorm, and grow was invaluable.

Creating a space for community members to empower each other is vital to The Gardens Project mission, and this summit proved how hungry we all are to work together, with revolutionary zeal, towards a healthier food system in Mendocino County.

There will be more events like this in the future, as the feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive.

with love and compost,

Gardens around Mendocino County are abuzz with Spring! As things warm up, it's time to plan and plant your garden. Don't let things you want and need to get in the ground now slip by! Timing does matter (things will still work if you don't time them great. They just won't work as well).

Below are things to do in your garden during the next month. They come from the 'Planting Chart for Mendocino County' in Mendocino County's Local Food Guide, and Peter Huff and Kate Frey's Monthly Planting Calendar for Inland Mendocino, which you can download here at the 'How To - Grow Food' page on The Gardens Project website. It is more straightforward there than us retyping it all below.

HERE ARE THIS MONTH'S GARDEN TIPS AND TASKS:

During February, these are plants you can sow directly outdoors: spinach, radishes, carrots, turnips, beets, peas, asian greens, cilantro, and garlic. In early March, you can plant all those as well as lettuce, broccoli, fennel, potatoes, scallions, amaranth, dill, and parsley.

During Feburary, these are fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers that are good to start from seed indoors: artichokes, cabbage and collards, celery, eggplant, onions, lettuce, brassicas, kale, chard, peas, leeks, Asian greens, fennel, dandelion, shallots, raddichio, mache, hollyhocks, scabiosa, calendula, gaillardia, centaurea, helenium, viola, yarrow, rudbeckia, columbine, agastaches, and lavender.

During March, you can start indoors from seed: artichokes, onions, lettuce, brassicas, chard, kale, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, zucchini, basil, summer squash, and pumpkins.

Flowers and herbs you want to start from seed indoors in March are: Lobella, Alyssum, Limonium, Zinnias, Amaranth, Petunias, Marigolds, Cosmos, Tithonias, Ageratum, Strawflowers, Calliopsis, Cleome, Celosia, Sanvitalia, Morning Glory, Nasturtiums, Dahlia, Heliotrope, Gomphrena, Geraniums, Sunflowers, Impatiens, Nicotiana, Thunbergia

During February, you can transplant the following outdoors: asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, cane berries, grapes, fruit trees

During March, you can transplant: artichokes, kale, brussel sprouts, lettuce, leeks, onions, brassicas, peas, Asian greens, and parsely.

Some garden maintenance tasks you will want to take on in February include: plant bare root fruit trees, plant asparagus, plant new strawberries, add compost to existing strawberries, repair tools, mulch bare soil w/straw or chips, compost and mulch asparagus beds, prune deciduous trees and apply compost, cane berries and grapes, check irrigation systems and repair, etc.

In March, you will want to: repair tools, mulch bare soil w/straw or chips, check irrigation systems and repair, etc

See you out in the garden! Yeehaw!

While getting ready to garden this season it's important to align your personal values to your garden. The Garden Workshop on March 6th , 2010 at the Willits Grange, will help you do just that.