Dear Garden Club!
I hope this week brings you joy and a little bit of rain. As you know, California is facing one of the most severe droughts this year, and LA continues to offer rebates on rain barrels ($75/barrel!). You can find the website at:
http://socalwatersmart.com/index.php/qualifyingproducts/rain-barrels
Almost 50% of the water in a regular household is used to water outside plants, mostly lawns. Harvesting rainwater reduces the amount of runoff into local rivers and creeks, and also saves you a bit on your water bill. A quietly kept secret is that plants thrive better with rain water than city water. Whether the reason is the chloramines (an antibacterial to keep our drinking water safe–but kills the good bacteria in the soil), or the lower pH (to balance out our high pH soil), plants show more vigor with rainwater.
If you do get a rain barrel (and the bragging rights with it), remember to cover the top with a screen to prevent mosquitos from enjoying your harvest.
This week in gardening club, we’re going to clean up the outer garden.
It’s important to clear out the weeds and generally spruce up the garden before the summer heat makes us all hide inside, with infrequent trips outside to grab tomatoes and melons.
As an aside, there will be a Stanford service day on May 17th at CDI at 10AM. If you are a Stanford alumni, come volunteer beyond the farm and meet up with other Stanford alums in the area. If you are not a Stanford alumni but part of garden club, you should come and show them how service is really done. 🙂
I also encourage you to have playdates outside CDI, since it helps your child become comfortable through familiarity. It also gives you a network of parents who are going through almost the same situation, and you may gain a lot of useful tips on where to go and how to navigate the LA area. We also try to have lunch at CDI afterwards, so please join us if you see us.
See you this Friday at 9:30AM in the OUTER garden! Help sprinkle some herb seeds into our hanging garden, scrape up some weeds, and plant some succulents into our terra cotta pots!
Pin-pin
ELC Mom, Master Gardener, Parent Ambassador & Garden Club Coordinator