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UCCE Advisor Visits White House Garden
Rose leads a statewide initiative for sustainable food systems and has a passionate interest in promoting community and victory gardens. It is no surprise that she won a Twitter contest prize invitation to the tour by expressing within the website's 140 character limit format why she wanted to visit the White House garden.
This was Rose's second visit to the White House gardens. After the tour, the group spent several hours with White House staff learning more about the administration's food and health initiatives. The stay included touring urban garden projects in Washington D.C. with UC ANR advisor Rachel Surls from the UC Los Angeles extension office.
The social is a part of the Fall Garden Tours in October where invitees and members of the public can view the kitchen garden, Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, Rose Garden and South Lawn of the White House.
For more information, please follow the links to view the brochure or check out the White House Blog.
Community Gardens
Community gardens are popping up all over Ventura County. This is wonderful news as community gardens have many benefits!
These benefits include:
- Increased food security
- Bridge social, ethnic, class, age and cultural differences
- Improve nutrition
- Teach youth about science
- Reduce health care costs
- Regenerate the economy – every dollar not spent on food can be spent elsewhere
- Preserve natural resources
- Build resilient communities
- Nourish future generations
Our office regularly receives calls and emails requesting information about community gardens. We would love to include your community garden on our garden resource list.
Reading about established community gardens can be a source of great inspiration for others. Please take a few minutes and let us know a little about how your garden is making your community a better place, or if you are in need of support.
Gardening Resources and Support are Available
In our county it is possible to grow food year round. A wealth of information is available to the public in an effort to encourage people to begin or expand their gardens.
Locally those looking for help can find resources at their local library, community gardens, and of course your local Cooperative Extension office! Further information can be found through statewide and national resources.
Local
- Ventura County Master Gardeners have gardening information on their website. They also provide advice through the Master Gardener Helpline from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This service can be accessed by email, by phone at 645-1455 or in person at 669 County Square Drive, Suite 100; Ventura, CA 93003.
- The Ventura County Cooperative Extension office has a wide assortment of resources and information for home and community gardeners. These resources can be found online, by phone 645-1451, or in person (see address above).
- Community Roots Garden is one of Ventura County’s community gardens. They wish to share their knowledge to help empower others to grow food. They can be reached through their website or by phone 616-2326.
Statewide
- UC Agriculture and Natural Resource’s Backyard Orchard website is full of helpful, practical advice for those who grow or would like to grow fruit trees at home.
- UC Agriculture and Natural Resource’s Garden web is full of a wide variety of gardening advice.
- UC Davis’ Vegetable Research and Information Center has information for home vegetable gardeners.
- UC Integrated Pest Management (IPM) website provides information to assist gardeners in pest management. The goal of IPM is to use the least toxic approach while providing effective pest management.
National
- Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) is an organization that strives towards a future “in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice.
- USDA’s People’s Garden Initiative is designed to educate and encourage people and communities to grow healthy food.
- National extension service provides a wealth of information from experts across the country on a wide variety of subjects, including gardening.
A Garden of Words
Designed for elementary and after-school gardening programs, UC ANR’s A Garden of Words/Un jardin de palabras: A Bilingual Gardening Dictionary will help verbal communication in any bilingual garden.
The author of this publication is Susan Spector, a Master Gardener volunteer from Santa Barbara County. The vocabulary is quite extensive and includes the following word categories
- Tools
- Measurements
- Gardening vocabulary
- Gardening phrases
- Plants
- Vegetables
- Herbs
- Fruits
- Garden helpers
- Garden pests
This resource can be accessed by clicking here.
Youth with vegetables harvested from school garden.
Photo by Suzanne Paisley.
Veterans’ Home Garden
Beautiful gardens are brimming with color and life at the Veterans’ Home in Ventura. These gardens have been planned, planted and cared for by a group of UCCE Master Gardeners and many people in the community.
Flowers and ornamental trees provide color, shade and permanence. Raised garden beds are filled with a wide assortment of vegetables to enhance nutrition and dinner salads of residents. An orchard of donated fruit trees has taken root on the west side of the building. Garden lectures provide enrichment for the mind.
A native garden is well under way. This garden has been created with the guidance of the U.S. Department of Fish and Game to provide a habitat for migrating birds, bees and butterflies. A Memorial Rose Garden, designed in the shape of encircled hearts, has been started -- there is much curiosity as to how the design looks from the air.
An additional vegetable garden and succulent garden are planned.
Started shortly after the home opened, the gardens and the activity they generate provide much joy to the Veterans’ who reside at the home. To learn more, or if interested in becoming involved, please contact Barbara Hill.
We are enormously thankful to everyone who has donated materials, talent and time to make this garden possible! We hope the list of donors that follows is complete. If we have missed your name, please let us know so we can add you. Lisa Wickenden, Tina Van Coops, Sharon McGahan, Peggy Black, Jim Abing, Barbara Hill, Carol Piros, Kathleen Diermier, Kaaren Valdez, Diana Borchard, Robin Beers, Diane Bertoy, U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, Nopalito Native Nursery, Jon’s Nursery of Somis, and the real estate community.
