Coastal Blog — Ocean Friendly Gardens
April 26 2013
Thousands See News Clip & Millions Will Walk By Strand OFG
Though Ocean Friendly Garden principles apply along the coast as well as inland, it's great when an OFG is installed along a high-profile beach boardwalk. To top it off, the ribbon cutting was covered by a major tv station, including a water district director giving the Surfrider OFG pitch!
April 18 2013
Surfrider OFG Teams Up With Habitat For Humanity
A Ventura, CA Surfrider activist with the Ocean Friendly Gardens Program learned about Habitat rehabbing a house and asked them about partnering on re-doing the landscape. The local Habitat rep liked the idea and loved the result. The next door neighbor may be next and including a curb cut, and…
March 22 2013
New Malibu OFG Helps to Protect Surfrider Beach
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class
This new, high-profile Ocean Friendly Garden at Bluffs Park is just up the hillside from Surfrider Beach, where Surfrider Foundation got its start. Backed by the City and many others, it's a good model for people to draw from: at home, at work, and elsewhere.
March 07 2013
Talks and Walks - An Easy On-ramp to OFG
Ocean Friendly Gardens Lawn Patrol
Whether your chapter is just getting going with OFG or has been at it for awhile, giving talks and leading walks are easy on-ramps for volunteers. A talk can be given to any group, and walks can be lead from any garden.
February 25 2013
High School Students Connect Water Quality Testing & Ocean Friendly Gardens
Students at this high school had already been actively participating in local water quality testing through Surfrider's Blue Water Task Force (BWTF). After helping to create an Ocean Friendly Garden (OFG) at their high school, the students will be monitoring how well garden's soil acts like a sponge to absorb…
November 15 2012
Green Girls Have Fun With Siuslaw, OR Chapter Rain Garden Workshop
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class HOW
On a rainy afternoon in late October, 32 participants attended the Florence Rain Garden Workshop to learn about ways to reduce non-point source pollutants flowing off their property as part of the Siuslaw Chapter’s Ocean Friendly Gardens Program. Green Girl Land Development Solutions showed how it can be fun and…
November 13 2012
Multi-City Departments Collaborate With Chapter at Santa Barbara OFG Workday
It takes a village to raise a child - and to create an Ocean Friendly Garden. Several city government departments worked with the Surfrider chapter: from redirecting a downspout and installing the dry stream bed to providing tools and food. Once again, workday "coaching" was provided by G3/The Green Gardens…
October 12 2012
OFG Branching Out Through Teacher Training
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class
The San Diego Surfrider Chapter utilized their current OFG Series (Class, Workshop, Workday) to train new teachers. More trained teachers mean being able to scale up the Program to educate and transform more gardens. Good timing: the Chapter is a partner on a large grant-funded program with the City, County…
October 11 2012
Taking OFG To The Streets: Parkway Curb Cut & Bio-Swale
After creating an Ocean Friendly Garden on this property, the owner went after street runoff. In water quality circles, it's referred to as LID, or Low Impact Development. But for the most part, it's removing asphalt and concrete barriers to landscape-based solutions.
September 28 2012
Portland, OR Chapter Installs Their First Ocean Friendly Garden
After holding a class then conducting a planning workshop in the landscape to be retrofitted, volunteers came ready to build the garden - and celebrate afterwards with a BBQ!
September 24 2012
Lawn Gone Without Chemicals
When the City Parks Department expressed uncertainty about killing turf grass without chemicals, the Santa Barbara and Isla Vista Surfrider Chapters brought out their (pitch)forks and got cooking in the garden with the lasagna method.
July 20 2012
Portland Chapter Follows Rain Garden Class With Site Evaluation and Garden Building
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class HOW
Like the Newport, OR Chapter, the Portland, OR Chapter teamed up with a Soil and Water Conservation District to host a sustainable landscaping class. Surfrider staff, Pete Stauffer, volunteered his landscape to be the site to apply this new knowledge. Step 1: Site Evaluation.
July 19 2012
OFG Members Have Great 1st Meeting With County Stormwater & Smart Gardening Staff
After testifying at a hearing about a proposed Los Angeles County stormwater fee for all property owners, West LA/Malibu OFG Sub-Committee members wanted to know more about what resources the County was already offering to reduce polluted runoff, what gaps existed, and how to collaborate. So they set up a…
June 20 2012
School Green Team Takes Over Maintaining Their OFG
Parents of kids at this elementary school have agreed to take over maintenance of the OFG in front of the school. They worked with the West LA/Malibu OFG Sub-Committee on a plan, and engaged a parent who is a landscape professional as well as City and School District staff.
June 08 2012
San Diego Chapter OFG “Uses The Force” At County Fair: Wins 3 Awards
This year's San Diego County Fair theme is, "Out of This World," and the local Chapter OFG Committee "used the force" to show they tackle real world landscape issues. The three honors were for the best display representing the diversity of San Diego landscape, for benefit to the environment, and…
May 18 2012
Give A Hoot: Replace NPK With OWL
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class
What's in a typical bag of fertilizer at the neighborhood nursery? More than you thought - and not what you hoped for. What is the Ocean Friendly Garden approach to building soil health, the foundation of an OFG?
May 14 2012
Ventura Chapter Teams With City For Ocean Friendly Gardens Program Series
Slightly overcast weather - perfect for working - greeted 30+ volunteers at an OFG Workday. The Workday was the next step in the OFG Series,
April 10 2012
Restoring Clean Water and Natural Ecosystems in Ventura, CA
Know Your H20 Low Impact Development Ocean Friendly Gardens Water Quality
For the past two decades the Ventura Chapter has been working on integrated solutions to the problems that face our ocean, waves, and beaches. Learn more about the many programs and campaigns they are leading to protect and restore water quality, water supply and watershed function in the Ventura River…
April 03 2012
Fire Station’s Ocean Friendly Garden: Indoor & Outdoor Classroom
Ocean Friendly Gardens Basic Class
Surfrider partners with an LA-based water district to fund ten public demonstration Ocean Friendly Gardens. In Los Angeles, Fire Station 171 holds a class and then goes out to the garden for show-and-tell at the new Ocean Friendly Garden built at their station.
March 06 2012
The Clean Water Program
Blue Water Task Force Know Your H20 Ocean Friendly Gardens Water Quality
The Clean Water Program has grown into a suite of complementary programs, campaigns and tools that Chapters and activists can use to help solve water pollution problems and to educate communities about the many benefits of responsible land and water management.
