The Mar Vista Green Tent

Happy New Garden Year Winter greens, beans and peas are featured this coming Sunday (January 2, 2022!) when the UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners   return to the Green Tent . They’re bringing seedlings and seeds to give away free for your winter garden—lettuces, herbs and more… Stop by for freebies and advice from 9 am til 1 p.m. 

PEAS PORRIDGE HOT...            PEAS PORRIDGE COLD It’s a Pea Fest this month at the  Green Tent  as the  LA County Master Gardeners  return with FREE plants and seeds galore! Sunday, Dec. 5 from 9 am to 1 pm. This month you can pick from a variety of garden peas: Sugar Snap peas are crisp and delicious, eaten raw, steamed, blanched for your salads and side dishes…eat the entire pod as well as the peas. These are the chunky peas. Snow peas make a wonderful addition to stir fries, but can also be eaten raw or cooked, pods and all. These are the FLAT, SKINNY peas. And for those who like to do a little work in the spring, there will also be shelling  peas !  You won’t want to eat those pods, but don’t throw them away — use them in your compost  Plus to help you make salads in the winter, they’re bringing mesclun mix lettuces , other mixed lettuces, Swiss Chard and mixed kales ! Top it all off with some edible flowers: Cale...

  Come to the Green Tent this Sunday, November 28, and learn about the work of Citizen's Climate Lobby and their audacious plan to make have CORPORATIONS use their resources on behalf of our precious planet Earth. Citizens’ Climate Lobby Citizens’ Climate Lobby    (CCL) is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization focused on national policies to address climate change. We work to create a broad foundation for climate action across all geographic regions and political inclinations. CCL supports the inclusion of a carbon pricing and dividend  policy in  the  Budget Reconciliation bill. This policy is: Effective Economic  models indicate that this legislation would lead to 30 % less carbon emissions in the next 5 years,  and to net zero  emissions by 2050   Good for People Will improve health and save lives. The  carbon dividend puts money directly into people’s pockets every month to spend as they see fit, helping low and middl...

The UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners  are bringing you plants, seeds and some sugar cane to give away FREE at The Green Tent on Sunday, November 7th, from 9 am to 1 pm. They’ll share knowledge of how to grow your own sugarcane from a cutting.  They’re also bringing seedlings they’ve been growing for you including:  A whole mix of lettuces   Broccoli Raab   aka   rapini. Wondering about the difference between broccoli, broccolini and broccoli raab? How about  THIS  for an explainer? Come get one for your garden. Lovely, crisp, snappy snow peas, just right—cold or hot—for an autumn salad or a stir fry.  Grow your own!  Here’s a tasty side dish you can make as well:  Swiss chard and kale are hearty, healthy, super-green favorites in the autumn and winter. Great in stews, soups or sautéed as a side. See how long these amazing plants can last in the ground or a container! And don’t forget to decorate your holiday plates with the h...

 https://www.ncsa.la/cool_blocks_la Stop by the Green Tent this Sunday, October 10   Learn About the Cool Blocks Program!   9 a.m. - 2 p.m in the heart of the Mar Vista Farmer's Market  @ Grandview and Pacific CALL FOR   LEADERS   Do you know your neighbors well enough to knock on their door and ask for the proverbial “cup of sugar”? Do you wish there was more you could do to have an impact on climate change and conserve resources for the sake of your children or future generations? In an emergency, would your neighbors know what to do to help you? Would you know how to help them? Would you like to make your neighborhood safer and more livable? Want to check out a Cool Block in Palms from our pilot? Watch this video:   The Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance is partnering with the  Climate Emergency Mobilization Office  to bring Cool Blocks to LA and to bring people together to create the neighborhoods we want to live ...

The UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners return to the Green Tent on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, from 9 am to 1 pm. They’re bringing seedlings they’ve lovingly grown for the MV community, and packets of seeds to give away FREE! And they’re available to answer your gardening questions, so bring them all your challenges! This month help your garden grow with: A hardy mix of kales , including Tuscan (lacinato/dinosaur/black), red russian, curly and dwarf. Get out that famous Esalen Kale Salad recipe. You can improvise ingredients, but here's a recipe to start with:  Esalen Kale Salad .  A lovely l ettuce mix , with oak leaf, black seeded Simpson, bibb, arugula, mizuna and tat soi. Make a salad!  Swiss Chard : their stems are bright red and their cute little green heads are ready to stand up tall and leafy! Two varieties of SNOW PEAS (really big now — need to be transplanted!!) These are the flat ones (eat them pods and all) that people love to use in stir fry. And Italian red ...

  Protect Playa Now Join us at the  Green Tent  this Sunday in imagining clean air!  learn about actions you can take to help protect our community.  Protect Playa Now  will have a prototype of an air quality monitor currently in design to detect combustible gases. The monitor is a citizen science effort with plans to create a network throughout the Westside and help keep us safe. Protect Playa Now is a collection of concerned citizens mobilizing to protect Playa del Rey and surrounding communities from the threat posed by the SoCal Gas Natural Gas Storage Facility.  The facility, located south of Culver Blvd and west of Lincoln Blvd, has an unsafe track record and puts our community at risk. When pressure builds and the company needs to release gas, toxic substances such as formaldehyde, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, and n-hexane, (a neurotoxin) are released into the air...the air our community breathes! Cumulative exposures to these chemicals can p...

  T he  UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners   return to the   Green Tent   on Sunday, September 5, from 9am to 1pm They’re bringing free seedlings, free seeds,   important information and their enthusiasm all to help  you grow your own food, flowers and veggies. This month they'll  have: More succulents (Aloe vera pups) for your drought tolerant garden. Nasturtium seedlings which are both edible (yummy with goat cheese) and attract white flies away from your other plants. Three varieties of sunflowers, large and small, and Butterfly Tithonia. Veggies include  Bunching Onions plus yellow and green bush beans…and   they don’t need to be trellised  because they grow bush-like,  rather than tall and sprawling. Now that  the Governor has asked us to voluntarily reduce water use, and the federal government has  issued a warning about shortages in the Colorado River Basin,   we really need to learn about how to be WATER WI...

  Line Your Street and Fill Your Neighborhood with  FREE TREES Delivered and Planted by the City of Los Angeles !!! Trees     - Combat the greenhouse effect     - Clean the air     - Provide oxygen     - Cool the streets and the city     - Conserve energy     - Save water     - Provide homes for local wildlife Stop by the  Green Tent  this Sunday and learn about the  Bureau of Sanitation ’ s  “ Adopt a Street Tree ”  program.  Street trees improve walk-ability of our neighborhoods while helping reduce the impacts of climate change .   Learn how you can request planting of a tree along your street in the public right of way.  Many different tree varieties are available.  Tree adopters are responsible for the early care and watering of the sapling. We'll have information about different watering options to make ...

  Sunday, August 8 at the Green Tent: The Los Angeles Audubon Society Join us on Sunday, August 8, at the   Mar Vista Green Tent   for o u r guest:  Los Angeles Audubon Society. The Los Angeles Audubon Society has taught local school children about the Ballona Wetlands since 1991. Every year, 2500 students have the opportunity to visit this special place and see the plants and animals that make Ballona their home. As restrictions ease up, they hope to continue their monthly Open Wetlands Days.   Destruction or Restoration? Environmentalists don't always agree!  A plan that is favored by the State of California has been put forth that, if implemented, will see tremendous changes at Ballona.  Although the plan is touted as restoration, other members of the environmental community feel it could spell disaster for some of our local wildlife.  Learn more and make up your own mind!  The Los Angeles Audubon would love to share more inform...

  T he  UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners   return to the Green Tent on Sunday, September 5, from 9am to 1pm They’re bringing free seedlings, free seeds,   important information and their enthusiasm all to help  you grow your own food, flowers and veggies. This month they'll  have: More succulents (Aloe vera pups) for your drought tolerant garden. Nasturtium seedlings which are both edible (yummy with goat cheese) and attract white flies away from your other plants. Three varieties of sunflowers, large and small, and Butterfly Tithonia. Veggies include  Bunching Onions plus yellow and green bush beans…and   they don’t need to be trellised  because they grow bush-like,  rather than tall and sprawling. Now that  the Governor has asked us to voluntarily reduce water use, and the federal government has  issued a warning about shortages in the Colorado River Basin,   we really need to learn about how to be WATER WISE. Did you ...

Free Event :Cardboard City in Santa Monica This summer, reDiscover Center is partnering with the City of Santa Monica, along with many prominent artists and designers to present “Cardboard City,” an innovative, Pop-Up Community Art Center, which will be located at 1231 Third St. Promenade. This fantastical event will be up and running until August 29. Using a free and easily accessible material such as cardboard is a great way to teach children of all ages about sustainability when making and creating.  This free public event takes place in "gigantic" (10,000 sq ft.) space and has an incredible amount to offer: Museum-style exhibitions of large scale cardboard sculptures and architectural models, curated and constantly added to by artists-in-residence Family art activities introducing youth and adults to cardboard crafting techniques and inspiring artmaking using sustainable materials Schedule of fee-based, inexpensive summer classes for youth and adults The “Cardboard Cit...

  Sunday, July 11 at the Mar Vista Farmers Market Master Gardeners Oregano And — THEY’RE BACK!!! The UC/CE LA COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS are returning to the Mar Vista Farmers Market!! They’ll be there from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on SUNDAY, JULY 11. Beginning next month, AUGUST 1st, they will be a regular guest at The Green Tent on the   FIRST SUNDAY OF EVERY MONTH !!! Tomato Seedlings As usual, they’ll have seeds (VERY LIMITED, only one packet per family) and SEEDLINGS to give away FREE!  This month they’re heavy on herbs (basil, spearmint, oregano) but there are some bell peppers and tomatoes and a couple of mystery plants they couldn’t identify.  And they’re available to answer your garden questions!  MGs offer help even when they’re not at the market;   email   mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu   with a description of your concern or question. Attaching photos will help the Master Gardener diagnose the problem. OR, you can phone in your concern or quest...