Last Planting at B&G Club!

Hi, all!

This is Anna from Ventura Eco-Renewal.  I want to let everyone know that we’ll be having our last planting at the 1440 Olive St Boys & Girls Club this Friday (February 3rd) from about 2:45 to 6:00 in the afternoon!  We have just a bit of clearing left to do on those two plots, so Thursday the 2nd we’ll be having another volunteering opportunity at the same times.  Come and volunteer to gain extra credit points (for certain VHS classes), community service hours, or just to help our community and environment!  This will be our very last planting at the Boys & Girls Club, so don’t miss out!

In other news, Ventura Eco-Renewal was featured in the Ventura Breeze with a lovely article by VHS student Brooke Demchuk.  Feel free to check out the article (page 13) at: http://www.venturabreeze.com/1.25.12.pdf

 

Finally, I will put the Junior Board on the website soon! We already have 8 interested students from the town of Ventura, all of whom are in tenth or eleventh grade.  I’m so glad to have such enthusiastic students joining Ventura Eco-Renewal!

 

Hope to see you Thursday and Friday!

Clearing, Prepping, Mulching

This Friday and Saturday, January 20th and 21st, we’re inviting volunteers to help us prep and clear the last plot to be planted, and finish mulching the already planting garden.  the mulch, which was generously donated by Agromin, is an essential part to keep our garden hydrated, organic, and healthy.

 

On Friday, we’ll be at the club (1140 Olive St) from about 3 to 6, and Saturday’s times will be in the early afternoon (we’ll let you know soon!).

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Photo courtesy of the Ventura County Star

Update: No Planting January 6

Hi everyone,

Due the lack of time to prepare and advertise about planting on Friday the 6th (and clearing on Thursday the 5th), we are postponing our event until next week. Thanks for your understanding, and hope to see you at the planting next week!

 

P.S. Be sure to check out Ventura Botanical Garden’s “Sow in the New Year” event this Saturday featuring native wildflowers! http://venturabotanicalgardens.com/events.html

New Year’s Updates

Happy 2012, all!

2011 was a really exciting year for Ventura Eco-Renewal: our founding, first donations, and fist ground-breaking! We plan to continue on with the planting at the Olive Street Boys & Girls club this month.   Our next planting is hesitantly scheduled for Friday January 6th at 3 pm!

In other news, Ventura Eco-Renewal was featured in the Ventura County Star in a lovely report by Ms. Marya Barlow.  We’re so excited to be getting the word out about native gardening, community action, and sustainability!

Check out the article at: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/dec/29/ventura-student-teaching-others-to-dig-the/

And continue coming back for updates!

Planting

Happy Holidays!

This is Anna from Ventura Eco-Renewal, and I’m excited to show you some pictures of the past two plantings! We have had a great number of volunteers coming out to the club to work on planting  and clearing.  On Friday the 16th, we had kids form the club helpings us out with the planting and learning about native ecology.

We will continue work on the garden after the new year starts, probably during that first week of January.  Stay tuned for more information, or contact us to find out more.

Planting: December 9

Hello everyone, it’s Anna from Ventura Eco-Renewal!

 

I want to let the community know that tomorrow (December 9th) is our first planting day! Thanks to some great volunteers, we have cleared the largest of the four plots at the Boys & Girls Club site! We’ll be planting from about 3 to 6, or whenever it gets too dark to work. Please join us for the planting, it’ll be really fun, and you can get community service hours (and even extra credit for some classes)!

If you’re planning on coming, make sure you fill out that waiver, and I recommend that you bring gardening gloves, water, and your not-nicest clothes.

We will be continuing to clear during next week from Monday through Tuesday, and planting again next Friday, the 16th.  Clearing is a blast, and I expect that planting will be as well!

Hope to see you there!

Liability Release Waiver

Hello everyone!

 

We’re so excited to begin breaking ground at the Olive Street Boys & Girls Club this week! If you are interested in joining us either for clearing (3 pm Tuesday – Thursday this week and next) or planting (3 pm to 6 pm this Friday and next Friday), please print and fill-out the liability release waiver below.  If you’re under 18, make sure a parent or guardian signs it as well.

 

Boys & Girls Club Planting Date Set

Ventura Eco-Renewal has officially determined a planting date for the Robert Addison Center!

The first phase of the planting will be Friday December 9th in the afternoon at about 3:00 pm.  We will be clearing and prepping the land in the afternoons next week preceding that Friday.

The second phase of the planting will be Friday December 16th, at approximately the same time.  Again, we will be clearing and prepping the land in the afternoons of the days before that Friday.

 

We welcome volunteers of all ages to help either with the actual planning or prep-work! We are writing up volunteer forms now, and will have those available at Ventura High School and at the Boys & Girls Club itself on the days of planting and prepping.  If you love the environment, want to work with kids, need volunteer hours, or are just looking for something to do, please consider joining us! We would love for you to contact us at ventura.eco.renewal@gmail.com or on our new facebook page if you are interested in volunteering, especially if you are interested in the prep work.  The address of the Boys & Girls Club is 1440 North Olive Street, Ventura, CA 93001.  We recommend that volunteers carpool, if possible, both for environmental purposes and because parking is limited.

 

We are planning to bring ice chests so that volunteers can keep their labeled water bottles (preferably reusable!) cold while working.  In addition, if you have shovels or any other gardening material that you think might be helpful, feel free to contact us!

 

We can’t wait to break ground on our project next week!

 

Updates on B&G Club

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Thanksgiving is a time when we can reflect on everything we have to be thankful for.  Though there are many problems in our world, there is still much about which to be optimistic.  Here are Ventura Eco-Renewal, we are thankful to live in the wonderful community of Ventura, and to break ground soon at the Boys and Girls Club’s Robert Addison Center!  We are talking to businesses about donations and figuring out logistical plans for our ground-breaking that is just around the corner.  Keep checking our site – we’ll have the details up soon!

Below is an early draft of our site sketch.  Though it is not completely up-to-date, it gives a fairly accurate envisioning of our plan for the Robert Addison Center’s future native plant garden.

Partnership with Ventura Boys & Girls Club: Robert Addison Center

Ventura Eco-Renewal is thrilled to officially announce our partnership with the local Boys & Girls Club!  After discussing and drawing up plans in September and October, we have permission to create a native plant garden at the Robert Addison Center on Olive Street, near Ventura Avenue.  We plan to clear the bits of grass and weeds in the front, prep the land, and begin planting in November.  This is an ambitious plan, but we are looking forward  to work with the kids at the Boys & Girls Club in our first large-scale project!  We will be welcoming volunteers of all ages to help with the planting.  In addition, we will be incorporating our environmental education program into this project, and will introduce the kids to the joys of science and conservation.  Hopefully, we can begin the first set of planting around Thanksgiving.  What an exciting way to give thanks to our community and our environment!

P.S. We still are planning to work with the city sites, but as the need at the Boys & Girls Club is more pressing, we decided that this project will be our main focus.