with Jonathan Draper, Alameda County Master Gardener
While some insects attack our vegetables, others are a great help in the garden. Come find out how to get and keep the insects you want. Alameda County Master Gardener Jonathan Draper will introduce us to beneficial insects and their use in organic gardening. He will cover a variety of his favorite “good-guy” insects and some of the “bad guys” that they eat or attack. Learn what plants you can integrate into your garden to bring in the good guys and what you can do to keep them around.
Soil, with Dolores Morrison, Alameda County Master Gardener
The next FREE Plant Exchange is Saturday, March 25th from 11am to 4pm at 4500 Lincoln Ave. in Oakland. Join us for this fun free semi-annual event where gardeners, landscapers, urban farmers, and beginners come to exchange plants, tools, equipment and information about ways to make our urban environment more sustainable, aesthetic, and healthy. The event will feature a live band, food trucks, gardening demos, advice from The Alameda County Master Gardeners, raffle prizes, and more. This year’s events will have additional special activities planned as part of our 10 Year Anniversary!
Join Alameda Backyard Growers and the Alameda Free Library for a free screening of the Award Winning Documentary, ‘The Starfish Throwers’.
When: Sunday, April 2nd at 1:30 PM
Where: Community Meeting Room at the Alameda Free Library, 1550 Oak Street.
We will have light refreshments and information tables with food-oriented community organizations.
About The Starfish Throwers
Worlds apart, a five-star chef, a twelve year-old girl, and a retired schoolteacher discover how their individual efforts to feed the poor ignite a movement in the fight against hunger.
Award-winning chef Narayanan Krishnan, fighting against the caste system in India, quits his job to begin a life of cooking and hand-delivering fresh meals to hundreds of people in his hometown. Katie Stagliano’s planting of a single cabbage seedling when she was nine years old blossoms into Katie’s Krops, a non-profit with 73 gardens dedicated to ending hunger. Retired middle school teacher Mr. Law battles personal health issues as he hand delivers more than a thousand sandwiches nightly to the hungry in Minneapolis.
This documentary tells the tale of these remarkable individuals and the unexpected challenges they face. Despite being constantly reminded that hunger is far too big for one person to solve, they persevere and see their impact ripple further than their individual actions.
You can watch a trailer of the documentary here.
Alameda Backyard Growers will have a booth at this event, and volunteers who can help answer questions about growing your own food!
Join us for the Alameda ‘Living Color’ Garden Tour and Charity Plant Sale.
Saturday, May 6 from 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Alameda Support Foundation sponsors the tour and all proceeds go to the animals at FAAS.
See more than 10 spectacular climate-friendly gardens.
Tickets are $20. Purchase in advance, starting April 17th at:
Friends of the Alameda Animal Shelter
1590 Fortmann Way, Alameda, CA 94501
Tel. 510-337-8565
www.alamedaanimalshelter.org
or via Eventbrite here.
Each ticket lists the fist garden where you’ll receive a map to all the other showplaces as well as the location of the Charity Plant Sale.
Alameda Backyard Growers will have docents at one of the gardens.
Weeds! With our wet winter and spring, many of us have a bumper crop despite our best efforts. This presentation will address why weeds are invading our landscape, tips on identifying your weeds, ways to manage weeds, and how to prevent them with mulches that don’t harm your health or the environment. You’ll also learn how using weeds as indicators of soil conditions can be helpful when fixing problem areas in your landscape.
About our speaker: Sherry Dunn is an Alameda County Master Gardener from the class of 2016. She is currently a backyard gardener with fruit trees and vegetables both in the ground and in containers. She loves sharing what she’s learned about weeds and how to manage them.
Please join ABG for a very special event, the first of our “off site” summer season. Jasmine Tokuda, a very successful Alameda grower of fruit trees and vines, both common and rare, is opening her garden for the evening. Jasmine will describe and demonstrate her technique for propagating fig trees through air-layering. Jasmine will then lead a tour of her garden, giving us a peek into her tips and tricks for growing those varieties that challenge us in Alameda.
We invite attendees to stay for potluck and live music after the demo and tour. Because of the size of the garden, attendance is limited. Preregistration is required at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fig-tree-propagation-demo-and-garden-tour-tickets-34528290045
If the event is already full when you try to sign up, please email alamedabackyardgrowers@gmail.com to be put on the waiting list.
Street parking is extremely difficult, and carpooling is encouraged. If you are disabled or are coming in a carpool of 3 or more, email alamedabackyardgrowers@gmail.org at least three days in advance, and we’ll arrange for nearby parking. owers.
Irene Rakochy, a Founding Board Member of ABG, a great friend, and a dedicated ABG volunteer, died unexpectedly in her sleep in June. She was 69, and leaves two adult sons. We miss her so much. A Celebration of Irene’s Life will be held on Saturday, July 15th at 1 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 2255 Santa Clara Avenue, in Alameda.