Please join us for Alameda Backyard Growers’ Third Annual Garden Tour. This year, we focus on food production. Margie Siegal has made her large yard into a mini-farm. She raises fruit trees, herbs and lots of different vegetables. Margie will show us the innovative techniques she’s used to solve some gardening challenges, and tell us about what didn’t work. We’ll also focus on her tricks for successfully growing the heat-loving vegetables that can be difficult in Alameda, including melons and eggplant.
About the farm: Caution: Most paths are grass, and the ground is uneven. People with mobility difficulties may not be able to access most areas. Please wear low heeled shoes with good soles. The resident feral cat, who controls rodents in the back yard, is terrified of dogs. Please do not bring your dog.
About the gardener: Margie has been gardening for years, mostly learning through making mistakes and reading books. She finds gardening relaxing and enjoys the low stress manual labor.
Because of the size of the garden, attendance is limited to 25 people. Preregistration is required.
If the event is already full when you try to sign up, please email info@alamedabackyardgrowers.org to be put on the waiting list.
DATE: Saturday, July 13
LOCATION: Ploughshares Nursery, 2701 Main St, Alameda, CA 94501
Join us to learn more about Ploughshares Nursery and help Jeff Bridge and his team with fun projects!
Help Ploughshares weed out and plant the propagation area, transplant fruit trees and seed native plants for next year’s sales. Bring work gloves and clippers, it’s going to be fun!
Directions: From Webster Street, turn West onto Willie Stargell Ave. or Atlantic Avenue (Ralph Appezzato Memorial Parkway). Turn Right onto Main Street. Ploughshares is across the street from Svendsen’s/Bay Ship and Yacht.
Help Save Our Monarchs by Planting Milkweed and Flower Seeds!
Last Thanksgiving, only 28,429 monarchs were counted in their wintering colonies compared to a historic population of about 10 million in the Western Monarch migration. Today monarchs face several challenges, the most intractable being a lack of milkweed (Asclepias spp.), where females typically lay their eggs, as well as a lack of winter blooming nectar plants to feed them along their journey. They are also being decimated by the increased use of glyphosate in agriculture, which kills milkweed and other sources of food for these butterflies.
If you have a sunny, open 4′ x 4′ space where you could plant milkweed and butterfly flowers – you could be part of the solution!
At this special workshop we will talk about how to plant and maintain a butterfly garden, then help you plant California native milkweed (and other flower seeds) so you can create your own butterfly garden. You will leave with milkweed, winter blooming flowers and information on how to help the monarchs!
Join us Saturday, August 10 for a Field Trip and talk on cool season Gardening.
Location: Alameda County Master Gardeners Trials Garden, at the Gardens at Lake Merritt
It’s time for our annual harvest-time potluck! We’ll munch on garden and other delights, and talk about our summer gardens – our triumphs and our woes, our successes and our failures, those nagging problems and our solutions.
Bring food or beverage to share, or just bring yourself. Please bring your own reusable plate and utensils to help us reduce waste. We look forward to seeing you!
October 15, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda
Did you know your head is as heavy as a bowling ball? (your poor neck!) Or that losing 1 pound means 4 pounds of weight off your knees-a 4 to 1 ratio?
Come hear about how ergonomics can make your gardening less painful and extend your time in the garden, both now and in the future. Join The Alameda Backyard Growers on Oct 15 to hear more.
The goals of the presentation include:
- Understand how garden activities affect your body ergonomics and wear and and tear on your joints
- Learn to correct gardening activity for better body mechanics
- Demonstrate best ergonomic practices
Our Speaker, Joan Sarlatte, worked as a nurse practitioner caring for injured workers, many of whose injuries related to repetitive jobs. She became interested in ergonomics as a way to retrain your body toward better working practices. Now retired, Joan graduated in the Master Gardener class of 2018, and is interested in helping gardeners learn to work with less discomfort and fewer injuries.
November 19, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Avenue, Alameda
We see the winter holidays as a time of abundance, family, and sharing. Unfortunately, when it comes to food, this season is also the most wasteful. The average American household throws out 25% of the food they purchase, equivalent to about $1,600 a year for the average family of four. Wasting food has broad implications, but reducing wasted food is one of the easiest ways to impact climate change. By preventing food waste from being generated in the first place, you are eliminating the green house gasses associated with disposal of that wasted food.
ABG has invited Maricelle Cardenas of StopWaste to share what she has learned about the problem of wasted food and simple ways to change how we shop, prepare, store, and serve food this holiday season and all year round. Learn how to save money and reduce the amount of food we throw away in our homes.
For more information, tools, and tips, visit StopFoodWaste.org.
Our Speaker
Maricelle Cardenas is a community educator with a background in waste, environmental, and social issues. She has supported various projects at StopWaste and is currently working on an exciting campaign focused on helping residents of Alameda County reduce wasted food.
On Monday, January 13, ABG will present a movie night at Rhythmix, 2513 Blanding Ave. in the city of Alameda , co-hosted by StopWaste! Free popcorn!
Please bring your own container for water to reduce waste.
Trevor Probert of StopWaste will lead a Carbon Farming discussion after the movie.
Our movie, ‘Symphony of the Soil‘ is an artistic exploration of the miraculous “living skin of the earth.” By understanding the elaborate relationships between soil, water, the atmosphere, plants and animals, we come to appreciate the complex and dynamic nature of this precious resource. The film examines our human relationship with soil, the use and misuse of soil in agriculture, deforestation and development, and the latest scientific research on soil’s key role in ameliorating the most challenging environmental problems of our time, including climate change. Filmed on four continents and featuring esteemed scientists and working farmers and ranchers, Symphony of the Soil is an intriguing presentation that highlights possibilities of healthy soil creating healthy plants creating healthy humans living on a healthy planet.
Trevor Probert is a Program Services Specialist at StopWaste and resident of Alameda.
Trevor Probert is a Program Services Specialist at StopWaste and resident of Alameda. He teaches StopWaste’s public workshops on composting, gardening for soil health, and carbon farming. Trevor works with urban farms and community gardens to set up on-site composting systems. He has worked as an elementary school garden teacher, classroom teacher, and landscape contractor, and has bachelor degrees in Geography and Environmental Science and a master’s degree in Education.
Join Alameda Backyard Growers speaker Birgitt Evans for an informative and hands-on seed starting workshop.
About this Event
Starting vegetables from seed can save money and will give you access to thousands of vegetable varieties not available as transplants. We discuss which seeds are best planted directly in the ground and how and when to start them. We will move on to seed that are best started indoors and how to plant them and considerations such as the importance of cleanliness, seed starting mixes, which containers you can use, how many seeds to plant and how deeply, seed viability and hybrid vs. open pollinated seeds, watering, fertilizing, providing light and heat for your seedlings and hardening off seedlings before transplanting them out into the garden. Students will then plant several 6-packs of seeds to take home with them. Resource lists will be provided to attendees.
About the Speaker: Birgitt Evans has grown her own food on a large scale for the past 30 years and created a successful garden and nursery business. She is passionate about growing and raising food and seeks to encourage and educate others so they can also share the benefits of fresh, healthy, homegrown food. She grows vegetables in four different Alameda County gardens and starts 90% of her plants from seed. She has been an Alameda County Master Gardener since 1999 and was on the advisory board for 14 years, including three terms as president. She has been on the board of Alameda Backyard Growers since its inception and is currently the Treasurer.
Space is limited for this event. Tickets available here.
Photo by Lori Eanes. Birgitt Evans demonstrates the delicate work of transplanting fall crops from the six packs where they germinate into larger containers or garden beds.
ABG regrets to announce that the March 17, 7PM meeting at Rhythmix is CANCELLED.
In light of the new event restrictions and government mandates about maintaining at least 6ft of distance between event participants, Rhythmix has cancelled all Rhythmix activities, events, meetings and classes through the end of March, including our March 17th meeting.
Alameda Backyard Growers will be in touch regarding future events
Learn about the perils of pesticide use with Andrew Sutherland, SF Bay Area Urban IPM Advisor, University of California (Davis) Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.