Systems Thinking for Sustainability Beyond Organic Gardening

Day and Dates: 2 Sundays, October 17th and Sunday, October 24th

Times: 9A sharp – 6P both days

Location and Address: 10849 Ralston Avenue; Pacoima 91331

Additional info: Free street parking is available. Please bring your own lunch on the first Sunday workshop meeting.

Is there a way to eliminate garden trial-and-error? How about keeping your garden from looking like every other hodge-podge garden on the block? Absolutely! Design your own and that way you are bound to create a design that uniquely suits you and that fits your home and your personality.

The key to:

•    Reducing water usage for gardens and landscapes
•    Sharply reducing plant losses
•    Saving time, money, and energy in your garden or landscape

boils down to one very important strategy – work with a plan and match the needs of the plants with what a site provides.

In this two-day workshop, you’ll learn a system to implement this strategy. You’ll spend less effort and money on guessing, suffer less heartbreak from losing cherished plants, and more time enjoying beauty and the fruits of your garden and landscape success. For gardeners and DIY landscapers, the perennial (pun intended) challenge is to have the plants that you like thrive. It’s hit-and-miss if 1) you don’t know what you’re doing, 2) you have just enough knowledge to be dangerous, or 3) you’re pushing the boundaries of your knowledge through experimentation.

Correct placement is everything in the garden or landscape and often is the dividing line between success and failure. One of the most common mistakes do-it-yourselfers make is putting the wrong plants in the wrong places, including planting too densely and putting large plants too close to buildings and fences. Sustainable garden design is not like interior design. Plants cannot be successfully arranged at-will like furniture or appliances, which unlike plants do not grow and change both form and size.

Conventional garden design classes teach principles of design and about specific plants that you might use in your own gardens, but they often do not teach you what those plants need to thrive. Gardening classes on the other hand will teach you techniques and tips that will enhance your success but won’t necessarily give you specific information tailored for your particular garden and they sure won’t teach you design. (By the way, broad one-size-fits-all garden design templates are well meaning but these fail for this very reason of nonspecificity. Every site is different, so each deserves recommendations that are tailored specifically for you and your garden/landscape.) There are now classes that teach garden design with CA native plants and there are still plenty of conventional design classes out there that are starting to integrate organic methods and sustainability practices. This workshop offers an easy-to-understand, grounded, common-sense approach that makes sense once you learn the methodology.

For homeowners who are ready to dispense with their lawns but at a loss for what to put in place of the turf, Right Plants in the Right Places takes the expensive hit-and-miss and guesswork out of the process of creating an attractive landscape that enhances property values. The vast majority of homeowners have no idea how to approach designing their own landscapes so that they can be proud of their accomplishments as successful do-it-yourselfers. Moreover, homeowners will not proceed to remove their lawns in part or in whole without feeling confident that the replacement garden will be a success and not a waste of money, effort, and time. A replacement garden needs to be perceived to be a substantial improvement in appearance, value, and function compared to a lawn. We bolster homeowner confidence and fuel enthusiasm for the process of implementing changes by guaranteeing your success.

Right Plants in the Right Places will help homeowners develop the gardens that they really want by clarifying their desires and refining the uniquely individual plant palettes that will be used for their sites. Through Right Plants in the Right Places, homeowners will be on their way to developing their own garden designs. Participants will leave with designs – the degree of completion entirely depends on how quickly you make up your mind on plant choices. We’ll help you as best as we can. Through Right Plants in the Right Places, participants will receive personalized guidance from two professionals on successful garden design at a relatively low cost without the expense of contracting garden design services. Where else can anyone obtain two full days of help from two landscape/design professionals and have their own customized design for less than $500? (Don’t take our word on garden design pricing. Check out this CostHelper.com page (http://www NULL.costhelper NULL.com/cost/home-garden/landscape-design NULL.html) on the cost range for landscape design.)

How This Works / Workshop Content

1. The dates for this workshop will generally be two consecutive Saturdays or Sundays.
2. Prior to the first meeting of the workshop, your homework assignment is: 1) to take comprehensive and exact measurements of your garden site and to relay the overall dimensions of your property or garden site to the instructors and 2) to take a soil sample at least one week prior to class, prepare it and bring the sample to class. We will send you instructions on how to do both tasks.
3. On the first day of Right Plants in the Right Places (8 hours, 9A to 6P with an hour for lunch), workshop attendees will receive instruction on site analysis and on plants’ needs and how to match those needs with what their garden sites provide. Edible plants, California natives, and some easy medicinal plants that will grow in this climate will be covered.
4. Each participant will have multiple part homework due on the second meeting:
   1. conduct your own site analysis (we will teach you how to do this on the first day)
   2. bring in lists or pictures of desired plants (although scientific names are preferred for positive identification, common names will be fine) or to take pictures of gardens or bring pictures from magazines of gardens that appeal to you
   3. bring relevant photos of your garden site or property (photos alone will not suffice as a substitute for accurate drawings with a comprehensive set of measurements)
   4. generate an accurate line drawing of your prospective garden site – we will be providing you with a large sheet of paper with gridlines so that you can generate an accurately scaled line drawing from an overhead perspective. Bring this drawing to the second meeting of the workshop.

5. The second meeting of the workshop will be another full 8-hour day from 9A to 6P with a break for a potluck lunch and networking. If you have a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book or other helpful plant ID books with pictures, please bring it/them.
6. There will be discussion about the plant lists or pictures that workshop attendees have assembled. Plentiful examples of matching the needs of a plant with what a site provides will be made using participants’ plant lists or pictures as the practice material. Ms. Talaro and Mr. Hernandez have developed a framework for a step-by-step system for matching garden or landscape conditions with the plants best suited for it. Due to Ms. Talaro’s and Mr. Hernandez’s specialties, there will be particular focus on edibles of all kinds (including edible natives and easy-to-grow and easy-to-use medicinal plants),  CA native plants (i.e. drought tolerant plants; erosion control; plants attractive to pollinators, beneficial insects and native wildlife) and Mediterranean climate plants.
7. Initial plant lists will be drafted based upon the optimal confluence of the what the garden sites provide and what the plants need to thrive. Based upon the site analysis information provided by each participant, specific plants will be recommended but the appropriateness of the advice given will entirely depend on the accuracy of a participant’s site observations and site analysis. We will also troubleshoot and make specific recommendations to help each participant be more successful within in his or her garden/landscape context.
8. Using the plant lists and their site drawings, workshop attendees will then learn how to arrange the plants in an aesthetically pleasing way that also permits relative ease of maintenance (and access for harvest, if the plants are edible). For those who are creating edible gardens, we will also be advising you on best practices for building and maintaining the fertility of your soil sustainably.
   

For those individuals in the San Fernando Valley who lack the time or who are not confident about their ability to conduct a site analysis and render a drawing of their property or prospective garden site(s), Ms. Talaro and Mr. Hernandez are willing to provide the option of an in-person visit to conduct a site analysis and take measurements in order to generate a tailored, accurately scaled line drawing prior to the Right Plants in the Right Places workshop. The cost of this service is $300. For those living outside of the San Fernando Valley, the cost will be $375. Appointments for on-site visits must be scheduled no less than ten (10) days prior to the first day of the workshop in order to give Ms. Talaro and Mr. Hernandez enough time to complete the site visit and rendering. Once this service is rendered, the site visit and rendering fee is nonrefundable even if the participant withdraws from the workshop or is a no-show.

Important registration information:

1. Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy is strongly recommended as a prerequisite for this workshop because we are teaching you a comprehensive system for garden and landscape success and sustainability. Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy offers information you need as a foundation in order to derive the maximum value from the material in this workshop. Up to now, part of the reason why you haven’t been more successful in matching plant needs with garden / landscape conditions is because you have not approached that alignment as part of a thoroughly interconnected system. Up to now, you have not had a framework.
2. Enrollment is strictly limited on a first-come, first-served basis to 10 individuals because the workshop is structured to provide personalized attention.
3. The deadline for registration is Sunday, October 12th.
4. If you have taken Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy, the cost for registration is $325.
5. If you have NOT taken Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy, the cost for registration is $450.
6. To register securely online, please use the appropriate PayPal button below. You do not need a PayPal account to make payment with a credit card. In the note box, please provide 1) an e-mail address you regularly use for correspondence in case that isn’t your PayPal e-mail address and 2) your phone number.
   
7. Alternately, you may send USPS money orders and checks payable to Wendy Talaro c/o 10849 Ralston Avenue; Pacoima, CA 91331.
8. Transfer policy: If you have paid for but cannot attend a workshop for whatever reason, you will receive a credit for the next Right Plants in the Right Places: Create Your Own Successful Garden Design workshop and must use this credit within 6 months.
9. There will be a potluck lunch on-site on the second meeting to facilitate networking and community building, so please bring your business cards and a dish or snack to share
10. Cancellation Policy: No refunds unless the instructors initiate class cancellation.

What You Will Need for This Workshop

1. your prepared soil sample for the 1st Sunday – we will send you instructions via e-mail
   
2. a notebook
3. Sunset Western Garden Book (optional)
4. a few graphite pencils – Relax, you do NOT need to know how to draw!
5. a good quality eraser
6. colored pencils (optional)
7. a long straightedge, such as a yardstick
8. hat and sunglasses for the 1st Sunday meeting
9. a bag lunch for the 1st Sunday meeting
10. a potluck item for the 2nd Sunday meeting

If you have previously taken an Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy I workshop, register here: (registration deadline 10/12/2010)

If you have NOT taken an Urban/suburban Ecoliteracy I workshop, register here: (registration deadline 10/12/2010)

If you have further questions, please send an e-mail to wendy (at) urban-suburban-ecoliteracy (dot) com or to Steve at steve (at) urban-suburban-ecoliteracy (dot) com.

Other workshops offered by Urban/Suburban Ecoliteracy:

‘Compost Your Lawn & Smother Your Weeds’ Hands-On Workshop in Torrance, CA

Ecologically Literate Site Analysis

From Stumped to Pumped: Great Garden Results Guaranteed

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