Participants included water agency representatives, staff from non-profit organizations, ordinary folks and landscape professionals. Lead by our partner, G3/The Green Gardens Group, people learned the fundamentals of evaluating a site:
2. Coming up with a water budget if it were an Ocean Friendly Garden
3. Determining how much rain water can be harvesting off of hard surfaces like the roof.
G3′s Pamela Berstler lead the Workshop and was assisted by Renee Roth, a G3 Qualified Trainer and active member in Surfrider-Ventura Chapter’s OFG Committee (below, left, white shirt and jeans).
After breaking for a lite lunch, the group regathered on the lawn for the next steps:
Once a design is completed by G3 and accepted by the City of Santa Barbara, a volunteer workday will be scheduled to sheet mulch the site and create a sponge garden that people can walk through and learn from.
This Workshop is the second event in the Santa Barbara Ocean Friendly Gardens Program, funded by a grant from the California Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail License Plate grant program. The Series is co-presented by the Santa Barbara and Isla Vista Surfrider Chapters, The City of Santa Barbara, Goleta Water District and the County of Santa Barbara. Please get involved with the Santa Barbara Surfrider OFG Committee by emailing: santabarbaraofg@gmail.com.
More pictures from the Workshop can be found here.