Updates:

OFG meets the 4th Tuesday of every month.

All of our blog posts are now done through our Surfrider chapter website at
http://sandiego.surfrider.org/programs/ocean-friendly-gardens You can also visit our Facebook page at 'Ocean Friendly Gardens - San Diego'






Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Lawn Patrol announced for La Jolla on November 7th!

SurfriderSD is excited to announce our first Lawn Patrol is coming up on November 7th, where we'll take a walk around a neighborhood and check out who's got the right plants, the right design to capture run-off and/or rain-water, and good soil quality.

Meet at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters (5627 La Jolla Blvd., La Jolla 92037-7524) at 9:45am on Sunday November 7th so you can sign in, get a cup of locally roasted organic coffee or tea, and we can get started close to 10am. The walk will take about 90 minutes, include many stops and there is a slight elevation change in a few areas but nothing steep. The overall route is about 1/2 mile and will finish up back at Bird Rock Coffee. Any questions? Please email ofg@surfriderSD.org

Monday, October 18, 2010

Post Plant Sale Sale!!


Bush Poppy
  50% OFF ALL NATIVE PLANTS!!

There are lots of leftover native plants from Saturday's annual CNPS plant sale and they are all available for HALF price before tomorrow's CNPS chapter meeting at Balboa Park!!


Canyon Prince Wild Rye

From 5pm tomorrow until dark there will be a half price plant sale on the lawn in front of the Casa del Prado patio.  There are some great species left at a great price like native Bush Poppies, native Grasses, and Manzanitas (see photos)!  Checks only will be accepted.

Manzanita flowers



Visit the CNPSSD website for more info.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Kill Your Lawn!

Another great reason to Kill Your Lawn and put in an OFG!

Olivenhain Municipal Water District is offering a $1/square foot rebate for all of their customers who remove their lawns in favor of drought tolerant gardens!   The rebate is only good until December 1st so don't delay!

For more info and to fill out the application click here or visit the Olivenhain MWD Homepage and follow the turf removal link under their Headlines section.

Applicable Service Areas:
Olivenhain Municipal Water District (OMWD) includes portions of the cities of Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Diego, Solana Beach and San Marcos, as well as the communities of Olivenhain, Leucadia, Elfin Forest, Rancho Santa Fe, Fairbanks Ranch, Santa Fe Valley and 4S Ranch.

Friday, October 8, 2010

Collaberation!

Working together often makes the sum greater than the individual parts and Surfrider always looks to team up with community partners when possible. Here's a recent press release from OMWD highlighting that....

Mira Costa College Landscape Architecture Students and Surfrider Foundation Partner with OMWD on Sustainable Garden Project. Innovative program launches to provide job training, promote water conservation and save tax dollars

Encinitas, CA– Olivenhain Municipal Water District kicked off the design phase of its sustainable landscape demonstration garden Tuesday afternoon by welcoming Mira Costa College landscape architecture students and the Surfrider Foundation. In a unique partnership, students will spend the fall semester designing a sustainable landscape demonstration garden at OMWD’s headquarters. This garden will provide an example of how public agencies can work together with local colleges to provide valuable hands-on experience that students need to thrive in their future careers while simultaneously offering a public service to the community and saving tax dollars.

Megan Fairleigh, a Mira Costa horticulture instructor, recognized OMWD’s plans to construct a sustainable landscape demonstration garden as a partnership opportunity, allowing for service to the community while providing her landscape design students with real-world experience. OMWD began joint efforts with Mira Costa in May, noting the benefit of procuring a quality design at nearly no cost to its ratepayers while also helping to instill the values of water-efficient landscape techniques in the next generation of local landscape architects and designers. The Surfrider Foundation, which has partnered with OMWD in promoting the former’s Ocean-Friendly Garden program by which to minimize urban runoff flows to the ocean, supports the project due to the Ocean-Friendly principles being integrated into the garden’s ultimate design.

Mira Costa’s Horticulture 230 course session at OMWD headquarters provided the class with its first opportunity to analyze the location at which the garden’s ultimate design will be constructed and to interact with OMWD staff to clarify the vision for the garden. Ms. Fairleigh stated, “I am very much looking forward to partnering with OMWD on their sustainable landscape demonstration garden. This project is a perfect microcosm of the current issues in sustainable landscape design and will prove to be an excellent learning opportunity for my students. This project perfectly fits with our mission at California's community colleges, and career and technical education programs in particular, which is to get our students jobs. A real project for a high-profile municipal client that will actually be built is an ideal portfolio piece and will show future employers that Mira Costa students have hands-on experience and real-world knowledge.” Mira Costa student Meghan Blair expressed excitement at the opportunity, noting that “It is such a great opportunity to get away from the typical residential yard and out into the community to do something positive for the greater good."

In the midst of major construction at its campus, located at 1966 Olivenhain Road in Encinitas, OMWD began planning earlier in the year to transform its current landscape into an interpretive garden showcasing sustainable principles that can be recreated in a residential setting. OMWD was required to update landscaping at its campus as a permit condition with the City of Carlsbad. Upon completion, the sustainable landscape demonstration garden will cover approximately 7,000 square feet at OMWD’s campus. Construction of the sustainable landscape demonstration garden is expected to begin in early 2011 with completion projected for later that summer.

Design concepts, sustainable landscape principles and guidelines, and up-to-date information about the sustainable landscape demonstration garden project will be available on the project’s webpage at www.olivenhain.com.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

New Gardening Blog

As we all know one of the main concepts behind the Ocean Friendly Gardens program is using climate appropriate plants that are low water and provide habitat for local wildlife.  Well nothing matches that description more than our native plants that evolved here!

The San Diego Chapter of the California Native Plant Society has a new gardening committee that is dedicated to all aspects of native gardening, from design to maintenance and now they have a new blog where they will be sharing all of their ideas and knowledge!

Check it out here and be sure to follow along with them as well as here at the San Diego OFG Blog to keep updated on the latest news and ideas for creating a drought tolerant and Ocean Friendly Garden!