Do you dream of sustainable urban landscapes when you sleep? Then I hope you don’t live in Orange County, which is just waking up to the fact that maybe mandating gas-guzzling lawns isn’t the best idea when we’ve got water shortages. Other SoCal cities are more water-wise, however, and want your help to get wiser yet. So enter the City of Santa Monica Landscape Design Contest and turn your dream into reality!

The city wants to install 3 new demonstration gardens at 3200 Airport Ave., across from Airport Park — and is crowdsourcing the design. According to the city press release:

These landscape designs must be simple to recreate, yet sustainable water-efficient garden design templates. Participating designers are encouraged to base their layouts on local neighborhood communities in Santa Monica, i.e., Ocean Park, Sunset, North of Montana, and incorporate outdoor living room features, elements from Mediterranean and shade gardens, climate appropriate plants, as well as permeable paving options. Recommendations for scaling up or down the garden design template to match appropriate neighborhood lot sizes should also be included.

Get your design in by Mon., March 15 for a chance to see your dream grow — literally.

Don’t feel confident enough to tackle a landscape design challenge? Maybe you will, after a couple free gardening classes — both happening next week before the contest deadline:

>> Take a FREE Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Garden Class and learn about sustainable landscaping practices that will curb urban runoff and ocean pollution. The class — featuring light snacks — happens Wed., March 10 from 6 pm – 9 pm at Hostelling International Santa Monica, 1436 Second St., Santa Monica. RSVP required; contact oceanfriendlygardens@surfriderwlam.org or 310.694.8351 with first and last name, phone number and email address.

>> Co-opportunity’s also having a Free Gardening Event featuring Darren Butler and Margaret Oakley that will teach you about techniques for sustainable and edible gardening. Be there on Thurs., March 11 from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at the Santa Monica Main Public Library’s Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

Gardening goodness doesn’t end there. Put these yummy events into your calendar for the Spring:

>> Learn from a free seminar, Secrets of Growing Delicious Heirloom Tomatoes, in time for the tomato season. The free class happens Sun., March 21 from 9 am – 10 am at the Ocean View Farms Community Garden’s’ 6th Annual Tomato-bration in West L.A. on S. Centinela at Rose Ave.

>> Take the 100 Gardens Challenge and pledge to plant your own edible garden during the weekend of April 24 and 25! I took this challenge last year — and I’m proud to say that my year-old chard plants are still going strong (though the basil died really fast and the lettuce barely grew). Help transform L.A. into an edible oasis over just one weekend by planting that garden — or get involved now with the Westside Permaculture Group, the organization behind this challenge, and help organize the big event.

>> Then head over to the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase and take a self-guided tour on foot or by bike to see pretty, eco-friendly gardens that save water — and money on utility bills. The free event happens on Sun., April 25 and is open to all; a map will be posted closer to date.

Earlier:
>> Book Review: Fresh Food From Small Spaces – Balcony gardens, simplified
>> Urban lawn garden in Santa Monica

Photo by Anika Malone

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>> No yard or balcony? You can still grow your lemon tree indoors, provided you’ve got a sunny window. Maria Finn shows you how at Re-Nest.

>> Expect eco-friendlier organic beef, now that the USDA’s set tough new pasture rules for organic certified beef.

>> HuffPost’s invites you to join its week-long experiment — The Week Of Eating In — starting Mon., Feb. 22. The idea’s to cook your own food, with the help of “awesome commentary and how-to’s on everything from how to not waste food to great winter recipes” from HuffPost.

>> Math’s no longer hard for Barbie, but adding may be too tough for dieters. In Slate, Sarah Elizabeth Richards writes about a new study that shows “people had a harder time adhering to diets that seemed complicated” — which hints that posted fast food calorie counts — soon to become de rigueur in California — may not help people eat better. Earlier: Fast food and frozen dinners often have more calories than stated and How eco-foodies are losing weight.

Photo by StefanB

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>> Don’t forget to go to the Big Blue Bus’ last winter community meeting, happening tonight, Tues., Feb. 2 from 6 pm – 8 pm at the Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

>> Live, work, or play in Long Beach? Learn about Long Beach’s efforts to improve biking and walking conditions to the Long Beach Metro Blue Line Stations at the Long Beach Bicycle Audit Summary Meeting, happening Wed., Feb. 3 beginning 7:17 pm at Jax Bicycle Shop, 3000 N. Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach.

>> Support the Expo Light Rail by speaking up for it at the next Exposition Construction Authority Board of Directors meeting, when the board’s scheduled to vote on and approve the final plan to bring the rail line to Santa Monica. Community group Friends 4 Expo has details on why you should support the Recommended Preferred Alternative option for the Expo line. The meeting happens on Thurs., Feb. 4 from 2 pm – 4 pm at the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room on the 3rd Floor of Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, 500 W. Temple St., Los Angeles.

>> The next westside L.A. Green Drinks happens will feature Tom Bowman, who’ll speak on “The Big Surprise: Cutting Carbon & Saving Money” this Thurs., Feb. 4 from 7 pm – 10 pm at eco-friendly hair and nail salon Shades, 144 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills. Cost: $5. Earlier: Green Drinks FAQ.

>> Combine running with gardening by signing up for the Seed Bomb (Bar) Crawl. Organized by Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardening, the event invites stealthy gardeners to put on their running shoes for an evening of active green fun. Running begins Fri., Feb. 5, at 6:30pm to proceed along the Metro Red Line while collecting more gardeners at each stop. Check out the website to find out when to meet up at your nearest stop, then RSVP to rolypoly@laguerrillagardening.org.

>> The next Green Business Networking happens, Feb. 9 from 6 pm – 9 pm at The Ambrose Hotel, 1255 20th St., Santa Monica. Meet greet and shmooze over organic food and drinks — and note that the admission price has gone up from $10 to $15. Earlier: About GBN.

Image via Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardening

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My balcony garden makes me proud though all it produces is chard, since I’ve managed to serial kill all the herbs. The sunny Socal weather has my chard plants — which I planted in May for the 100 Garden Challenge — feeding me through the winter, but I have a problem: I want more chard!

This is what I have now (extra puny because I just harvested):

And this is what I want (except with mostly chard):

That’s why I decided to pick up Fresh Food From Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener’s Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting after reading a glowing review in Grist. Unlike most gardening books, this slim volume from R. J. Ruppenthal’s written with the city-dwelling organic balcony gardener in mind. Right now, I’m growing enough chard to make a decent side dish about once a month — but Fresh Food says I could be getting 10 – 20% of all the produce I need from my balcony!

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Tomorrow promises to be a yummy Saturday. Plan now to take advantage of the fruit tree giveaway and FungiFest!

First, the fruity news: Echo Park residents (yes, you must be an Echo Park resident) get free fruit trees tomorrow! According to Eric Garcetti’s blog, apple, peach, plum, apricot, nectarine and orange trees will be given out between 2 pm – 5 pm at Delilah Bakery, 1665 Echo Park Ave.

Reserve a tree now by emailing  EPIAmail@yahoo.com or by calling 323.882.4835 with your name, phone number, and desired tree type — or just show up and hope unreserved trees are left for your taking.

Second: Fungi news! Mushroom lovers can head over to the Machine Project for the kickoff event for FungiFest 2010, whose fun activities and yummies include:

Mushroom collecting tutorial, screening of mushroom-themed short films, mushroom flavored gelato from Scoops, chanterelle schnapps, slime mold racing and more!

The event begins at 8 pm at the Machine Project, 1200 D N. Alvarado, Los Angeles. I just called the Machine Project to confirm that reservations aren’t necessary, though would-be fungi eaters are advised to arrive early as seats will very likely run out.

FungiFest events will continue all week, with mushroom dancing, mushroom music, mushroom films, mushroom walks, mushroom mystery guests, and more happening across the city. At all events you’re welcome, but not required, to bring foraged mushrooms. Get more details at the Machine Project’s FungiFest page.

And don’t forget about all the other fun green events happening this weekend!

Photo via the Machine Project

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Can a fabby gay couple from the city become fabby biodynamic farmers? Apparently yes, at least in a new Planet Green show dubbed The Fabulous Beekman Boys. Those boys are Josh Kilmer-Purcell and Brent Ridge, two out and proud urban men who decide to try homesteading at an upstate New York farm, a.k.a. Beekman 1802.

Here’s a show I wish was airing now, while all the Prop 8 shenanigans are going on in California. “Who says gays can’t raise kids?” say the couple — while bottle-feeding a baby goat!

The Fabulous Beekman Boys doesn’t begin airing until June, but I got to see a few clips at the Television Critics Association Cable Tour Panel earlier today. What I learned: Urbanites look funny when they try to farm. We see Josh and Brent buy a pair of cute piglets — that nimbly escape and tear across the farm, with the would-be farmers chasing after them in wide-eyed panic.

Luckily, the guys have the help of one Farmer John, who loves his goats so much he tears up while talking about them. On a panel at the TCA event, Josh and Brent talked about how the milk from Farmer John’s 80 goats got them making yogurt and cheese — then crafting goat milk soap (“It really was the best soap that we’d ever used”) — then starting a small soap business — then getting into arguments about all the work this eco-friendly endeavor entails. Because Josh is still works full time in the city while Brent plans big events and projects at the farm, the couple ends up bickering fairly often on the show about how they spend their weekends.

Organic farming may not always be idyllic, but from what I’ve seen, The Fabulous Beekman Boys promises to be entertaining, often hilarious, and hopefully full of tasty organic, homegrown food. I’m told we’ll get to taste some food from the Beekman farm at a reception tonight; I’ll report back with a taste test!

Photos by Chris Ramirez and Joao Canziani for Planet Green

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I have good, bad, and hopeful news for gardeners. The good: Santa Monica’s offering The Green Garden Academy — a year-long class with once-a-month Saturday meetings on sustainable gardening — FREE!

Put together by the Santa Monica Public Library and the Santa Monica Office of Sustainability and the Environment and taught by ecological landscape designer and water resource conservation expert Russell Ackerman, these classes cover everything from edible landscapes to composting to water-wise irrigation — and even show participants how to get money from the landscape grant program. FREE!

The bad: The classes are already totally full.

Why’d the class fill up so fast? “In retrospect, we would have liked to have booked a larger room,” says Russell, who quickly learned that demand for the eco-friendly classes far exceeded the 45-person capacity of the Santa Monica Library’s Multipurpose Room. Unfortunately, bigger rooms at the library were already booked on certain class days. “It just tells us we need to open it up more next year.”

The hopeful: You might be able to get into the class by getting on the wait list! Russell says would-be gardeners can email him at russell.ackerman@smgov.net to get on the email list — and to get invitations to off-site class sessions that can accommodate more people.

Not feeling hopeful about making it to the top of the waiting list? If an edible garden’s what you’re interested in, check out these other organic gardening series — which aren’t free, but still quite a bargain:

>> Basic Organic Gardening 101. Taught by Christy Wilhelmi is the driving force behind Gardenerd.com. Her obsession with gardening began in 1996 on the balcony of her Los Angeles, California apartment., a.k.a. the Gardenerd who created the Tetris-inspired garden at Marrakesh House, this class at Santa Monica College covers “the basics of sensible organic gardening” in four, 2-hour sessions meeting on Sundays starting Feb. 28. Cost: $79 plus $10 materials fee.

>> Rudy’s Garden Club. Taught by the women behind local eco-gardening company Heart Beet Gardening, the “Club” is a series of 7 workshops that promises to cover “everything the aspiring victory gardener/urban homesteader/locavore needs to know to begin, maintain and enjoy an organic home vegetable garden.” Classes begin in April, with exact dates, times and locations to be determined. Cost: $190 for the series. Call 310.460.9365 or email info@heartbeetgardening.com to sign up.

Earlier:
>> Urban lawn garden in Santa Monica
>> Book review: Gaia’s Garden — Less weeding, more Eden
>> 100 Garden Challenge: I’ve signed up my balcony garden
>> 12 Signs of a sustainable food revolution in Los Angeles

Photo by Anika Malone

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>> Rolling Stone’s put together a list of “The Climate Killers: 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” First up, profiteer Warren Buffett.

>> A Cali eco-hero’s retiring: California Energy Commission member Arthur H. Rosenfeld will retire this week, after decades of helping to enact some of the toughest efficiency standards in the world:

These mandates have yielded about $30 billion annually in energy savings for California consumers. They’ve eliminated air pollution that’s the equivalent of taking 100 million cars off the roads. They have been copied by states and countries worldwide.

>> Fans of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars: Remember how the the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s anti-whaling ship Ady Gil collided with a Japanese whaling ship last week? Ady Gil’s still sinking — but last week Ady Gil, the man who furnished the money to buy the boat named after him, threw a fundraiser — hopefully to buy an Ady Gil II.

>> Want a plot in a community garden in Venice? If you can’t wait to make it to the top of city-owned plots, you can get a plot in a privately-owned lot for $25 a month, according to Tara Tiger Brown at Metblogs LA.

>> Enviro groups oppose parts of Cali’s green building code because its standards are weaker than LEED certification and “rigorous standards adopted by Los Angeles, San Francisco and more than 50 California jurisdictions.”

Cover image via Rolling Stone

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Eco-fashionistas with green thumbs: If you consider your plants to be your green pets, why leave your green best friend alone at home when you go out? Why not tote your plant around in your purse, the way celebs tote their little dogs?

After all, there’s now a purse to meet your plant-toting needs: The Woolly Vagabond. Made by green garden product company The Woolly Pocket, The Vagabond’s a whimsical “living breathing handbag” that also sounds like the perfect date, sort of. According to the company description:

[Woolly Vagabond] gracefully hangs from the ceiling and stands on the table. Best of all, he travels about town. He’s your personal breath of fresh air and will accompany you to the museum, on picnics and out to dinner.

The plant purse is green too, made with breathable “felt” sides made of 100% recycled plastic bottles, a moisture barrier made of 60% recycled plastic bottles, and a reclaimed leather handle. The Wolly Vagabond doesn’t actually come with a plant; you’ll need to pick out your own silent green friend from your balcony garden.

A cute idea — but a realistic one? I love the idea of the Woolly Vagabond as a conversation starter, but I’m not sure where I’d put all my stuff if my purse is filled up with a plant — and I have enough trouble keeping stationary plants alive. The Woolly Vagabond may be, like Kathleen Plate’s recycled glass dresses, one of those eco-designs best fit for the runway than a night out on the town.

Luckily, the Wooly Vagabond does come with an optional hanging system — a circular reclaimed wood base with a groove cut for the purse handle and a brass chain — if you decide to leave your green pet at home. Each purse costs $140 — $155 with hanging system — at The Woolly Pocket’s online store.

Photos courtesy of Woolly Pocket

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>> Eco-foodies dominate the The CHOW 13, CHOW’s list of “13 people who have changed the way we eat and drink, and talk and think about food.” Urban homesteader Novella Carpenter, vegan soul food guy Bryant Terry, Slow Food USA’s Josh Viertel and vegetarian eco-chef Debora Madison all get profiled and interviewed.

>> Ficus or figs?  Jen Boynton at TriplePundit reviews Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture by Darrin Nordahl, “a book that lays out the public policy rationale for landscaping public lands with fruit bearing trees.  Imagine if that shrub was replaced with an apple tree? It’s a pretty neat idea.” Earlier: Jam with Fallen Fruit.

>> San Francisco’s less trashy than Los Angeles, especially now, thanks to the NoCal city’s food composting program:

Today, L.A. diverts 65% of its trash from landfill, well above the state average of 59% and the highest recycling rate of all major U.S. cities, [L.A. solid resources manager Jorge] Santiesteban said.

This is true provided one doesn’t count San Francisco as a major U.S. city, and L.A. doesn’t…. San Francisco, at 72%, has the higher diversion rate from landfills in the country. Its avowed goal is 75% by next year and zero waste by 2020.

So how big does a city have to be to be considered major, exactly?

Earlier:
>> 12 Signs of a sustainable food revolution in Los Angeles
>> Share the harvest: What to do with extra backyard produce.
>> Yard sharing: Grow your own food — on your neighbor’s lawn

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