Apartment Vegetable Gardens and More for 2012 Showcase

In the next few weeks and months Mar Vistans will begin recommending their favorite environmentally friendly gardens for the  4th Annual Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase.  In the past, this premiere event focused on homes that feature a variety of stunning sustainable gardens, often boasting additional green amenities such as vegetable plots, water capture, native plantings to support local wildlife and educational opportunities by organizations such as The Tree People.

This year we hope to add many multi-family dwellings (apartments, communal living spaces, condos) to our Showcase offerings. Through collaborations between apartment dwellers and their landlords and condo association members, sustainable living has become more attainable for a wide variety of Mar Vistans.

The green efforts take many forms:  Turf removal, native plantings to replace water-dependent plants, care in avoiding the “Terrible Ten” (plants that invade other gardens and crowd out food sources for local birds).  My personal favorite is Urban Vegetable Farming.  Providing food, a connection to nature and an educational opportunity for young and old alike, urban vegetable growing can be done directly in the soil, on balconies and patios, and even rooftops!  For those of you who are anxious to get started (and perhaps join the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase)Mike Lieberman, a longtime champion of urban vegetable growing, and founder of Urban Organic Gardener, will be available to share his secrets at the Mar Vista Community Council Green Tent  on Sunday, January 29 from 8:30 am to 2:00 pm.  With the support and encouragement of his landlord, Leiberman’s urban vegetable gardens have become the first in our new breed of  Showcase gardens.   Will yours be next?