Where Nature and Humanity Connect
Stop by the Green Tent on Sunday, May 22nd to meet the Master Gardeners of The Learning Garden! They will be happy to teach you all about mulch! Learn about the different kinds of mulch, how to use it and all the benefits mulch brings to your garden!
( Booth volunteers : David King, Clair Gerard, Sarah Harroff, and Joy Tucker)
Join us this Sunday May 8th at the Green Tent in the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market to see TessaGrows! TessaGrows is a Los Angeles based brand founded by Tessa Nathan. Originally from South Africa, Tessa developed a strong passion for gardening and a love for the natural world and our connection to it. She is a teacher by profession and has had years of experience teaching gardening in schools and individual clients in their homes. With this passion, she launched TessaGrows in 2021 offering products and her services as a teacher and workshop facilitator.
The brand was created to inspire people to learn how to grow their own fresh food from the comfort of their own homes. With often limited space to do so, people can become deterred by the idea, thinking it might be too difficult with so little space and this is where the TessaGrows Grow Bags come in so handy. Her Grow Bags were developed with the budding gardener, with limited space, in mind. She sells these bags as full kits, providing you with almost everything you need to grow your own veggies and herbs in small spaces like patios and balconies.
These bags are the perfect gift for moms this Mother’s day. The bags represent the miracle of seeds sprouting, passion and love and who better to give them just that than a mama. Give your moms the gift that keeps on giving this Mother’s Day for only $32.
The bags included: a fabric growbag, tray, seed template, seed template tag, coconut coir puck for seed cover, x-marks-the-spot badge, watering spout, extra seeds, 3-month supply of plant food in a bug viewer, organic green tote bag.
For more information and to shop TessaGrows full product range, visit www.tessagrows.com
Come on down to the Green Tent at the MV Farmer’s Market this Sunday May 8th for Mother’s Day! Homegrown Gardens helps people and institutions grow food around their homes and places of work. They will be planting seeds and transplants for people to take home to their gardens! What a fun way to celebrate Mother’s Day! See you there!
On Sunday, May 1st, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., swing by the Green Tent at Mar Vista Farmers Market when the UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners return with lots of lovely green gifts: free seedlings and free seeds!
This month they’ve lovingly grown the following plants and herbs (from seed) for you:
There will be slicing cucumbers, cilantro , lettuce, yellow and green bush beans, sunflowers and a few sun gold tomatoes! We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
This Sunday, April 24, 2022 at the Green Tent at Mar Vista Farmer’s Market, come visit the Garden Master David King of The Learning Garden and find out what is happening at the garden at Venice High School.
Our History: For over 18 years, The Learning Garden has served as a model in the community for horticultural education and environmental sustainability. It has brought families, disadvantaged groups, and students together in fellowship, healing, and learning with a slate of programs including regenerative agriculture, holistic medicine, seed saving, pollinator habitats, fiber arts, culinary arts, and self healing arts such as yoga and qigong.
Our Mission: We as a people face grave challenges, with fewer of us connecting with nature, valuable species disappearing, and the loss of knowledge about the uses and benefits of plants. The Learning Garden is bringing this knowledge back with curriculum, community events, outreach, and training. We seek to continue this legacy, and to encourage understanding of the wonder and vulnerability of the natural world.
Who We Serve: The garden audience is the student body (70% Title 1) of Venice High School and the local Mar Vista neighborhoods which include vulnerable low income communities bisected by major freeways. The garden expands this reach to broader Los Angeles with partnerships supporting at-risk youth, urban hunger, healthy soil advocacy, and meditation therapy.
Your Support: Thank you to all our community and school supporters who have helped this garden thrive. It is amazing how much we have grown over the years and continue to touch lives with your support. There are many ways to get involved. Join an upcoming workday or share our story with your network online and have us speak about the garden at events. Stay informed by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on social media. The garden changes weekly. We don’t want you to miss a beat!
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 tips on electric cooking with information about induction cooktops. The chemicals added to natural gas pose health risks inside the home.
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 pose serious risks to the health of those living nearby.
We have the ability to transition to real clean energy and ensure a future of climate resiliency, good green jobs, and healthy communities. Click here to learn more about Protect Playa Now and their work. And we’ll see you this Sunday 4/24 at the Green Tent at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market!
You may have heard about the 600+ acres of the Ballona Wetlands just to the south and west of Mar Vista. But have you visited this wild habitat where so many wildlife species and rare plant populations still thrive? One imperiled bird species that our former neighbor and beloved Councilmember Bill Rosendahl loved, is the beautiful White Tailed Kite, which needs the upland areas where small mammals live just beneath the surface and provide great meals for the Kite, as well as for Great Blue Herons and several raptors.
Drop by the Green Tent on Sunday, January 20, to learn about the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, which is a fragile mosaic of different habitats: seasonal ponds, wet meadows, salt pannes, sand dunes and prairie grasslands.
AND - learn about the imminent threat to these special lands - there is a plan to bulldoze and excavate the life-rich soils at Ballona, destroy habitat for many thousands of animals and move things around, as if they are decorating the place.
Biologist Roy Van de Hoek (perhaps you know him from the Feathers & Foliage walks in Mar Vista or have seen his Blue Bird houses in our trees), and Marcia Hanscom, Executive Director of the Ballona Institute, will be on hand to talk with you. Ballona Institute is known as "The Voice for Nature on the Los Angeles Coast." Click here to learn more about the treasures at Ballona. And watch this video to see just some of the miracles at the water's edge. According to the Drawdown data, Coastal wetland ecosystems are one of the top 100 solutions for reversing Global Warming. Wetlands sequester huge amounts of carbon in plants above ground and in roots and soils below. Coastal wetlands can store five times as much carbon as tropical forests over the long term, mostly in deep wetland soils. There are also hundreds of trees on the ecological reserve - as well as grasslands, which have also been discovered to be strong in terms of helping with carbon sequestration - which could minimize impacts of predicted climate change.
Additionally, a methane gas storage field sits beneath the wetlands on our coast - the Playa del Rey Gas Storage Field. SoCalGas wants to install new fossil fuel infrastructure as part of the ill-conceived plans for the Ballona Wetlands. So Ballona Institute has joined with Food & Water Watch, Indivisible and other groups like Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project to - instead - close this gas plant down and to do everything they can to protect the sensitive lands at Ballona on the Los Angeles coast.
Learn about Ballona Institute's latest campaigns, including the most important one of all - the threat that bulldozers we once chased from the Ballona Wetlands are threatening to return! Stop by to learn what YOU can do to help save the Ballona Wetlands again!
Climate change is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing our world today. But have you thought about the intersection between the environment and racism, and how you can make a difference? Stop by the Green Tent on Sunday, April 10 to learn more, and win some environmentally friendly prizes!
Environmental racism is a big problem in Los Angeles. The most polluted communities in the city have large minority populations, and not much is being done to help them. In fact, one community in LA, Wilmington, is one of the most polluted areas in the country with an EPA pollution burden of 100/100. Our guests, members of the Palisades Library Teen Council, are hoping to raise awareness about this issue. If you stop by, you could learn more about what you can do to alleviate this issue while winning prizes! Make sure to check it out at our booth on April 10!
This Sunday, April 3rd, from 9 am to 1 pm, join the Los Angeles County Master Gardeners https://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/ at the Mar Vista Green Tent. It’s the first Sunday of every month at the Mar Vista Farmer’s Market. Stop by for your choice of seedlings lovingly grown by the Master Gardeners expressly for the Mar Vista community. As always, you’ll get a chance to start your own plants from seeds — everything the Master Gardeners bring, they give away for FREE! They grow seedlings for just this market and give them away for FREE, in addition to FREE seasonal seed packets. Bring your questions and they’ll answer them.
This week they are bringing marigolds, sunflowers, green bush beans, cilantro, succulents, loofa, baby lettuce and Swiss chard!
The weather has certainly warmed up but still don’t know quite where to ride your (new/old/rusty/borrowed) bike yet? Curious about the Metro Bike Share stands? Maybe you recently pulled that bike that has been hiding in the back of the garage and need to get it road ready. If you already ride, learn how to register your bike to minimize the risks of bike theft.
Stop by the Green tent this Sunday, March 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and let’s talk. Mar Vista's "Master of Cycling", Rob Kadota, with be there with his trusty bike stand and few tools to get your bike as road ready as possible. We will also have wide array of bike-related resources, including clubs and ride tips.
Relaxing during a foraging expedition.
Come to the Mar Vista Green Tent this Sunday in the heart of the Mar Vista Farmers Market. Meet Art Lee…a Renaissance man for our times. Whether he is foraging for healing herbs or rerouting your washing machine to water your trees, his heart beats to the pulse of Mother Earth. And don’t forget to ask about his one-of-a-kind solar powered bicycle!
GET THAT GREY WATER IN THE GROUND!
Don't let the winter rains fool you. We still need every drop of water back in the soil. Redirecting grey water is an easy way to prevent waste.
What is grey water? It's the "waste" water from your washing machine reused to water your fruit trees or perennial plants instead of being sent to the reclamation plant and then out to the ocean. With a grey water system, every time you do a load of laundry your plants get a good drink and you save money as well.
As everyone knows, California has experienced an extreme drought for many years and it will most likely continue. Water is probably the most important resource for every living species on our planet.
Learn how to double the usage of your water!
Green Tent guest Art Lee holds workshops that cover all the information you need to install a grey water system at your house. He's bringing a mini greywater demo system so visitors can see how it works and will answer your questions. He'll also have a signup sheet for those interested in attending a future workshop.
How many times do we get rid of things we have that are perfectly functional? Did you know that in the fashion industry alone:
The apparel industry is the 4th largest industrial polluter and accounts for 8% of global carbon emissions.
The average American sends 70 pounds of clothes to landfills every year. That’s 21 billion pounds of post consumer textile waste per year!
Less than 20% of what gets donated to charities gets resold.
And of course we get rid of much more than clothing. In Nicole Robertson’s new Swap Society article, she says “Giving things freely to neighbors instead of throwing them in the trash, and receiving gifted items instead of shopping, is the cultural shift the world needs right now. Overconsumption and excessive waste are trashing the planet.” Click here to read more! https://www.swapsociety.co/blogs/all/tales-from-a-buy-nothing-group
Water 4 Life Global is a women-led 501c3 nonprofit working on the ground in Guatemala to provide clean water to indigenous communities. Through the distribution of water filter technology, we help provide families with access to clean water they can drink, cook and clean with.
We imagine a life free of water transmitted diseases, water toxins, malnutrition, and environmental damage, in a country that maintains each of these issues as very viable threats to the communities
and ecosystems. 95% of the water in Guatemala is dangerous to drink, mainly due to pollution, poor infrastructure, and unregulated sewage systems. Together, we can help heal the environment and health of families who rely on their waterways as a source of potable water. Spreading awareness about the global water crisis and ways to help is crucial to our mission.
At the Green Tent, we will demonstrate how our village water filter works and share the
environmental issues Guatemala faces. You will have the opportunity to donate a filter and receive unique, hand-woven textiles made by a women's cooperative in Guatemala. Each piece was created using sustainable materials, natural dyes, and patterns that express the deep Mayan culture. Come by and share the love!
Photo Courtesy of Joe Clark
Ballona Creek
Trash
Interceptor Pilot Program: Every day new solutions are being offered to help our beloved planet get healthy. Come to the Mar Vista Farmers Market this Sunday, March 13 and visit the Green Tent, where Cung Nguyen from
LA County Department of Public Works
will explain the latest effort by the county of Los
Photo Courtesy of Joe Clark
Angeles to stop the flood of trash from Ballona Creek before it enters the Pacific Ocean.
We also welcome your assistance in securing the safety of local wildlife, so they are protected from getting caught up in the gears of
progress.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Clark
Email &/or call LA County Supervisor Holly Mitchell and ask that she direct Public Works to:
a) keep a close watch on the trash interceptor to make sure marine life is not caught up in the machine and harmed during
Photo Courtesy of Joe Clark
this pilot project and b) prioritize installing trash screens where storm water enters the creek upstream.
is a women-led 501c3 nonprofit working on the ground in Guatemala to provide clean water to indigenous communities. Through the distribution of water filter technology, we help provide families with access to clean water they can drink, cook and clean with.
We imagine a life free of
water transmitted diseases, water toxins, malnutrition, and
environmental damage, in a country that maintains each of
these issues as very viable threats to the communities and ecosystems. 95% of the water in Guatemala is dangerous to drink, mainly
due to pollution, poor infrastructure, and unregulated sewage systems.
Together, we can help heal the environment and health
of families who rely on their waterways as a source of potable water.
Spreading awareness about the global water crisis and ways to help is crucial to our mission.
At the Green Tent, we will
demonstrate how our village water filter works and share the environmental issues Guatemala faces.
You will have the opportunity to donate a filter and receive unique, hand-woven textiles made by a women's cooperative in Guatemala. Each piece was created using sustainable materials, natural dyes, and patterns that express the deep Mayan culture. Come by and share the love!
Want to hear a shocking statistic? In the US, nearly 1 in 4 teens who menstruate cannot afford or access the period care products they need. As a result, they miss school and work and suffer from a lack of dignity - all because of a period. To make matters worse, there are no meaningful federal programs to help provide these necessary products to the people who need them. Until now, because we found a loophole.
The federal program SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps) provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people. We created a (fictional) cereal called Loopholes where the prize inside every box is one cycle’s supply of pads and tampons, so families don't have to choose between buying food or menstrual care products. And because it’s food, the government pays for it with SNAP benefits. That’s right. We found a way to make the government pay for period care products.
While Loopholes is a fake solution to a very real problem, there is actual legislation in the works to do something about this. New York State Representative Grace Meng has introduced a brave new bill called the Menstrual Equity for All Act. The bill seeks to make pads and tampons freely available in public schools, universities, and prisons. In addition to many other reforms, the bill also proposes expanding Medicaid to cover these necessary items.
Visit LoopholesCereal.com to ask your representative to support the Menstrual Equity For All Act and to find other ways to take immediate action. Together, we can make period poverty a thing of the past. Come visit the MV Green Tent this Sunday at the Mar Vista Farmer's Market to learn more!
Come by the Green Tent this Sunday, February 27th from 9am-2pm to learn about the incredible benefits of habitat gardening. Trish Mazure will be sharing how planting California natives creates a visually stunning display of color, provides a living ecosystem, and a thriving sanctuary for wildlife.
We also have some good news! The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is offering rebates for removing your lawn. At the Green Tent, we will be offering FREE advice to help you create a new landscape that will provide beauty and natural habitat. So come down to the MV Farmer's Market this Sunday and see our display of resources to help you get started!
TessaGrows is a celebration of the wonders of gardening and nature. It was born out of Tessa Nathan's desire to cultivate and spread the knowledge that plants yearn to share. Tessa describes her work as "an immense joy and privilege".This Sunday at the Mar Vista Green Tent (located in the heart of the Mar Vista Farmers Market) Tessa will be sharing information about the ‘sprout, grow, feast’ cycle with aspiring gardeners. Tessa will describe how intention and simple, practical applications create miracles in both small and large outdoor spaces. Her ethos is largely based around the idea that this ancient wisdom already exists in all of our genes and, through a process of remembering, we are able to harness it and watch it grow in the most beautiful way.Tessa loves being able to share the hard-earned nuggets she’s learnt from master teachers along her journey. And it’s beyond exciting to witness the joy of her students as they taste the fruits of their labor, while gaining respect for their environment and exploring ideas for sustainable living.
Based in Los Angeles, TessaGrows offers one-on-one weekly or bi-monthly classes with families and children, sells vegetable and herb GrowBags, as well as insect identification cards, edible flower identification cards and other gardening accessories.
To find out more, please visit her website at www.tessagrows.com
On Sunday, February 6, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., swing by the Green Tent at Mar Vista Farmers Market when the UC/CE LA County Master Gardeners return with lots of lovely green gifts: free seedlings and free seeds!
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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.
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 pose serious risks to the health of those living nearby.
We have the ability to transition to real clean energy and ensure a future of climate resiliency, good green jobs and healthy communities. Click
to learn more about Protect Playa Now and their work.
