Surfrider's Ocean Friendly Garden's program is getting ready to host our Garden Assistance Program (GAP) workday, the big finale of our Fall 2011 series in South Oceanside on December 3rd (weather permitting)!
The Ocean Friendly Gardens (OFG) program is part of Surfrider's larger efforts to address water quality and conserve our water resources. The program aims to educate and assist people in applying CPR -Conservation, Permeability and Retention - to improve the health of our watersheds and oceans.
The OFG series consist of three main parts: A basics class, a Hands on Workshop (HOW), and the Garden Assistance Program (GAP). Previous OFG series have been held in La Jolla and Encinitas, with the La Jolla installation just recently receiving a national award!
In 2011, our basics class was held on September 15 at the Buena Vista Nature Center in Oceanside. The 3 hour class was taught by Pamela Berstler of the Green Gardens Group and provided attendees with information on a variety of topics such as watershed awareness, how to promote healthy soil, selecting climate-appropriate plants, and proper irrigation techniques. Did you know that a single sprinkler head can discharge about as much water as a showerhead? Multiply that by how many sprinkler heads it takes to water a lawn, and thats a lot of water! This is just one of the many eye opening facts that attendees learned during the basics class.
The second part of our series, the Hands on Workshop (HOW), was held on October 2nd in South Oceanside at the home that will be the site of our GAP in December. During the HOW, we performed a site evaluation and determined the home had1330 sq feet of warm season turf, which requires almost 24,000 gallons of water per year to stay green. By switching to native and drought tolerant landscaping, the water usage will drop to around 9,800 gallons. Thats a savings of almost 14,000 gallons of water a year! We also calculated that there is approximately 17,000 gallons of rainwater that drains off this home's roof a year (assuming our average 11" of rainfall), which is more than enough to help sustain this soon to be OFG!
The GAP, the third and final part of our 2011 series, will be held on December 3rd from 9:30am to 3:30pm in South Oceanside. We will be getting our hands dirty and planting a beautiful OFG designed by one of our own OFG committee members, who is a certified Sustainable Landscape Professional! If you would like to join in the fun and learn cool gardening techniques that you can use at your own home or commerical property, please RSVP to ofg@surfridersd.org. You are welcome even if you missed the beginning parts of the series. Lunch will be provided!
If you missed out on the first two parts of the OFG series, we are planning on starting a new series in early 2012, hopefully in the Point Loma area. Please join our mailing list to stay informed on future dates, or "like" our Facebook page "Ocean Friendly Gardens - San Diego".
Hope to see you on December 3rd!
