Saving the planet one garden at a time

The 3rd Annual Green Gardens Tour — Santa Monica, featuring home gardens which are becoming ecologically sound in Southern California’s climate, has been set for Saturday, April 28. The tour offers demonstrations of sustainable techniques and practices along with the sublime beauty of green gardens throughout Santa Monica, all of which emphasize the tour’s motto, “Sustainable is Attainable!”

All proceeds from the tour support the Virginia Avenue Project, which offers free performing arts and tutoring programs that nurture children growing up under difficult circumstances.

The Green Gardens Tour is growing in popularity with gardening enthusiasts and with those interested in doing positive things for the environment. The tour balances beauty with knowledge, emphasizing cutting-edge green ideas and technologies with an understanding that home gardens take many steps to becoming fully sustainable.

What makes the Green Gardens Tour a friendly tour is the committee of landscape professionals and garden enthusiasts who serve as docents at each garden. Their in-garden advice, as well as green information and publications, means that each tourist walks away with easy-to-understand information that can be put into action in their own garden. Demonstrations of simple gardening techniques and technologies are scheduled at each garden.

What makes the Green Gardens Tour beautiful is the choice of gardens which demonstrates that green gardens can be lush, colorful, and inexpensive — much less expensive than gardens which rely on too much water and too much of the home gardener’s valuable time.

Tickets and information are available at (310) 264-4224, or at www.VirginiaAvenueProject.org.

DP



Going to the clinic

REI Santa Monica hosts clinics on various topics for the outdoor enthusaists. All Clinics will be held at REI Santa Monica, located at 402 Santa Monica Blvd. The January line-up of classes is as follows:

Basic Bike Maintenance

The basic bicycle maintenance class is an informative class that will teach you how to lube a chain, fix a flat tire in record time, and make other minor adjustments to your bicycle. The class is on Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m.

Hike for Discovery

Hike For Discovery (HFD) is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's new adventure fundraising program that prepares people to experience a natural wonder in a special way. The Greater Los Angeles Chapter will be a taking a hike into the Grand Canyon May 17-20.

Hike For Discovery provides:

- Professional training and coaching support;

- Clinics on hiking and climbing techniques, hydration, nutrition, first aid, trail stewardship, and equipment;

- The fun and camaraderie of training and traveling with a group;

- Transportation, lodging and social events at the Grand Canyon during your three-day stay.

In return, you'll raise funds for lifesaving cancer research and services for patients. We support your fundraising efforts by providing ideas & tools, including your own personal fundraising webpage.

Across the Atlas

In August of 2006, six adventurers completed an exhilarating, arduous and selfless journey through the undiscovered Arctic National Wildlife Refuge inAlaska. The team traversed the refuge’s remote and rugged terrain by trekking, climbing, skiing and paddling inflatable canoes down the Kongakut River to theArctic Sea, all for the sake of a tremendous cause. The primary goal of this journey was to promote efforts to protect wildlife, preserve the ecosystem and prevent commercial invasion of this environmentally precarious land, while simultaneously benefiting the Colorado Cancer Foundation. Hear the adventurers share their intimate experience of union with the ancestral history and incredible wildlife of an area seen by only 5,000 people since earth was formed.

Across the Atlas will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.

For more information, call (310) 458-4370.

DP