April 22 - May 3 Organic VICTORY GARDENING EVENTS

April 22 - May 3 (Organic) VICTORY GARDENING EVENTS

(There isn't any 'Victory Gardening" that's not organic!)

We hold classes both on week-ends, usually on Sunday, and also have weekday classes in the late afternoon, starting at 3. They often end after 8, always with a few people coming only after 5. It is perfectly OK to do that, particularly if you work normal hours.

April 20 - 26 Organic VICTORY GARDENING EVENTS
April 27 - May 3 Organic VICTORY GARDENING EVENTS

This is the invitation to our Earthday no-costs ORGANIC VICTORY GARDENING class, gathering and volunteer day on Thursday 04/23, 3:00 to 7:30 PM and to a Redondo Beach "Whole Foods" class on April 29th, 4:00 to ?? PM (open ended).

Theme of the class: Learn to Build Magic Boxes with the
P.L.E.A.S.E. Method! Perhaps start by watching the videos listed
here first, particularly the ones showing Sepp Holzer's applications
of his personal version of the P.L.E.A.S.E. approach in harsh
environment (alpine) permaculture, growing oranges and lemons as
regularly planted trees in the Austrian Alps at 5,000 feet!

PREVIEW FOR NEXT WEEK:

Also please notice that on the request of "Whole Foods Markets"
we will have a short class going at "Whole Foods" in Redondo Beach
April 29th at 4 PM (open-ended).

Subject will be how to start an Organic Victory Garden in your
backyard or rooftop with what you have available locally.
The address for that class is: Whole Foods Market · Redondo Beach
405 N. Pacific Coast Highway, CA 90277 · 310.376.6931
(Person in charge for the event there: Marisa)

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This is just to inform you that the April 20-26 week's no-cost class in
Advanced Organic & Sustainable Victory Gardening [BelAir-IV]
will again be held at the same location in Bel Air as the three
previous classes and gatherings.

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The next class will be held on Thursday April 23 from 3 to 7:30
in the same Bel Air location as the three previous ones! ============================================
>>> DIRECTIONS to our classes & gatherings by request! <<< ============================================

LATEST NEWS 1: If you want free horse manure for your own garden,
we now have a source in Burbank, that we can share with you.
The deal is up to half of what you collect is yours, and you
bring the other half to the class (bags, or any containers of
your choice). If interested, please email for instructions and
directions!

The next class (our Earthday class) will be held on
Thursday April 23 from 3 to 7:30 in the same Bel Air location
as the three previous ones! Both Dr Green and Bio-Dynamic Wizard
Jack McAndrew will both be present!

There, you will learn to P.L.E.A.S.E. in the most efficient way
with the help of Magic Boxes! Most useful knowledge!
Now, you may think, "Wait a minute, I don't have a Magic Box!"
Well, maybe not yet... but getting one is yours, just for the
asking! In fact, anyone can do it almost anywhere!

You can do it in California, of course. But you could as well
in Alaska, in Maine, or even in Iceland or Patagonia, if you were
to move there! You don't even need land for this!

You can do it in the Spring! You can do it in the Summer!
You can do it in the Fall! And you can do it in the Winter as well!
Learn Magic Box tricks, and they will soon become the key to all
sorts of remarkable results!

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LN2: NEW INTRODUCTION VIDEOS LISTED AT THE END
============================================

LATEST NEWS 3: Our latest and third class in Bel Air was held on
Wednesday 04/15 from 3 to 7:30. It mainly featured how to transform
a useless band of earth alongside a house into a productive
little home garden in which we planted all sorts of goodies.
14 people attended, which afain is quite remarkable for a
Wednesday afternoon. We also talked about seeking grants and
starting to do these no-cost classes wholesale.

We had our third class/gathering in Bel Air Thursday 04/09 from
3 to 7:30, attended by 18 people, which is remarkable for a
week-day class, and shows how these classes truly address a need.

So, if you have a location where a Project could be started or
have some experience and could be teaching or help teaching about
gardening, please tell us about it, and we will send you the
material that goes over the four main options for creating a new
Project, namely: Do and manage it yourself; Have it done and managed
for you commercially; Have it done and managed at no costs to you
in a partnership between you and our non-profit, if the conditions
for that exist; and finally, Have it done with our support as a
collective local effort between you, your friends and family, or
your school or church, supplemented with local volunteers. Plus,
there are several side options or sub-options we also overview.

Also, if anyone has experience with grant requests writing, and a
bit of time, that would be great, as we want to explore that avenue,
since we could do a lot more if we had the funds for it.

This week, we planted various things such as potatoes, chayote,
purple corn, celery roots, beets, and much more, as well as seeding
for 9 varieties of lettuce courtesy of Jack McAndrew the bio-dynamic
wizard at www.biodynamiccompost.com , who unfortunately is now
completely out of biodynamic compost until the next batch is ready,
so you can't buy any at any price right now (that's the problem
with small-scale production of a high-demand product -- sometimes all
of it is just gone).

Our previous Class in Bel Air on Sunday 4/5 was also very fruitful.
We created two small raised beds where nothing was before in one
afternoon, almost totally from local materials, if we except two
buckets of decomposed granite and calcareous sand, seaweed from the
Palisades, and a mix of horse manure and alfafa from a stable...

This week we will as well have a weekday class, on Wednesday 04/15
from 3 to 7:30, [NOT Thursday, as previously considered), again at
the same location in the Beverly Glen area of Bel Air, in the hills
between Sherman Oaks and Bel Air.

EARTHDAY WEEK: Please note that the week between the 18th and the
25th will be Earthday week. For the past 11 years one of the non-profits
in our group, Earthday L.A., organized a major event on the Promenade in
Santa Monica, but this won't be the case this year for lack of sufficient
sponsorships. However we will have the Venice Ecofest on Venice Beach
on June 27th, like last year, where we will of course have our own booth.

So this year during Earthday week, we intend to do attend some of
the other events organized. For this, we need volunteers both to
prepare materials for the events and for the events themselves
(more emails coming about this!). If you are available for some
grass-roots action, please tell us!

The current Bel Air series of events should be considered both a
"Westside" as well as a "Valley" class, as they are exactly mid-way.
There will be nothing again at the usual Alhambra location till May.

We absolutely love to show people how to create an optimal
organic (and sustainable) garden, so we look forward to see
you during all our coming classes and gatherings, which will
all be announced in time, usually once or twice a week, about 5-6
a month.

The Alhambra project got lots of new wood donated, and help
with easy carpentry is also needed there (to set up new raised beds)!
But this is not a "class", just volunteering.

Please note: No Pasadena classes in the near future, contrary to
what was in the planning, but there is something in the making
in Sylmar and perhaps in Palos Verde -- stay tuned about these ones!

This long email offers you an overview of what we do and why,
with links to our latest informational posts and links, is in the
process of being streamlined and broken down in separate pieces.
You don't have to read it all at once! It's here for your
convenience as a reference.

Remember, the DIRECTIONS for the free classes and Organic Gardening
Gatherings, are AT THE BOTTOM of this email. So just scroll down
to the end of the email to get them if you want to come for the
next one.

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If you wanted to familiarize yourself with the ideas of
"Optimal Gardening", you could start with looking at the
following video: "Square Foot Gardening Introduction Video.avi"
It's available at the URL addresses listed at the bottom of
the present email.

This video in truth is no more than just an introduction to
a simplified form of "PLEASE" organic gardening and farming.
However, for most people, it's definitely a very useful one.
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In general, we believe that the most important and
significant thing anyone can do is try to provide people
with materials that will truly empower them, particularly
when it comes to food -- what they are eating. "Ye are what
ye eat", said Hippocrates, the founder of Western medicine,
2500 years ago, and that sure hasn't changed since.

So teaching and educating people about Advanced Organic Agriculture
and Organic Gardening is our number one priority. It really makes
such a difference in so many aspects of our lives that it is
truly amazing how apparently so simple a thing can make such
a tremendous shift.

The most advanced approach we know of is the "PLEASE"
Organic "Victory Gardening" methods, something that seems
to now have reached even into the White House. Best proof
of it, make a search on Google and here is what you get:
Results 1 - 100 of about 138,000 for Michelle Obama organic
victory garden. (0.20 seconds)

Besides the fact that this is actually about pleasing yourself
as you address the fundamental needs of your body for
wholesome foods, "PLEASE is an acronym for

"PATTERNED LAYERED EDIBLE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS & ECOLOGIES"

which actually means a lot of specific things, which we will
go over in a different email later...

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A Special Note for people owning or having permanent, stable
access to some available land:

Please also note that if you have a substantial (or even a small)
backyard, besides trying to do something out of it entirely
without help, you could also consider creating a "Project" of
your own at your place.

Such a Project can be entirely self-administered and self-managed
from garden design to on-going maintenance. It can also be
designed by a Resident Coordinator who'd reside there for
a couple months (if you have the space to host one, that
is, an unused bedroom, big RV or even real or virtual garage
conversion), and then managed by you or by us. Of course there
are many other options, such as having it done commercially;
making a community project out of it, etc, etc.

Please inquire for details. Please note that a standard "Project"
is not a "community garden" (that is another type of project),
but a garden of your own that is created with you or for you at
no costs to yourself when it comes to design and labor, in
exchange for a share of the produce, to be determined by common
agreement depending on many possible factors.

To give you an idea, each year, here in Southern California, any
500 square feet of usable space, if optimally prepared, that
is, raised beds, designer soil, mushroom mycelium inoculation,
etc, once mature, is big enough to produce about 1,500 pounds
of organic and sustainable food of the highest quality.

Plus, normally there is always additional space people
would normally not think of for gardening, along walls, etc,
but which is usually usable as well with proper plantings, for
example with vines such as, say, chayote squash, pole beans,
and all sort of long-vined squashes and fruit, such as passion
fruit, kiwi, grapes, etc.

If you are interested in starting a Project of your own, no matter
if self-managed or managed for you by a Project Coordinator,
we have a separate detailed email that goes over the several
different options you might want to consider. Just send an email
saying "Please send Project information" to get it. Actually,
this is now getting so elaborate that we are going to put it
on its own website soon.

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The following is the invitation to our next Hands-On Organic
Gardening Gathering and Class. Attendance is always
*completely free of charge*. And if you want a special
class held at your location or for your non-profit group, that
also is always totally free of charge (however, you need to cover
related expenses, if any, such as gas, seeds, or whatever).
If you are a business, it's STILL free of charge, however,
we are a non-profit, and certainly could give you a little tax
certificate for any donation coming our way to keep up the good
works going...

WHO WE ARE:

We are a "Victory Gardens 2.0" (Hey! even Michele Obama just
got into it, at the same time legislation to make organic gardening
illegal under the guise of "food safety" is discussed in Congress -
- now is this a case of political schizophrenia??? Perhaps consider
calling your congresspeople and tell them what you think about it!)
and "HEALTH THRU GARDENING" informal group open to new participants,
active in the Greater Los Angeles area - several locations, from
Orange County to Southern Ventura County. But in fact, read on,
and you will find out why we are a lot more than that as well...

WHAT WE DO IN THIS PART OF THE PROJECT:

First, design, start, maintain and share local Organic Gardens.
So people can emulate what we do on their own. "Copy it", if you
wish, adapting it to their own needs, environment and conditions.
So as to, in turn, become models to others.

As a matter of principle, we never charge anything for what we
offer. The unfortunate side of this is that also, we cannot
compensate you for your input either, would you wish to help us.

We believe that during this "Second Coming of the Great Depression",
as the Crisis further unfolds into a "Greater Depression", endeavors
such as ours will become increasingly in tune with the necessities
of the time as well as the needs of the people.

In fact, it is not impossible that in a future perhaps not too
far away, cities which will have adopted early timely programs,
such as those we advocate, might congratulate themselves for having
done so while they could. We certainly hope that the Greater Los
Angeles will show leadership in this area. However, as is often
the case with anything innovative and outside of the cages of
habit and conventional thinking, there has been some talk among
politicians, but little action. And, so far, certainly nothing
that will make any difference worth talking about.

With one exception we wish to fully acknowledge here: The strong
leadership expressed in and by the city of Santa Monica.

There, several innovative and impactful programs have been
developed and are currently successfully implemented. They all
express a clear will to cut through the red tape, as much as can
be done, and truly make a difference. We do not know who to
truly credit for these efforts, but we certainly wish to hail them.
But even more important than mere economic reasons, it is our
core belief that to be healthy, the very first thing we must do is
master systemic input. That is, breath clean air, drink pure water,
and eat fully functional food. In other words, EAT RIGHT.

For this, nothing can beat food grown truly organically (or shall
we say "ecologically") right where we live - that is, "zero food
miles" "truly organic" and sustainable food.

In fact, for the active environmentalist, instead of focusing
on nebulous and perhaps even misleading issues of little
immediate benefit to the many, nothing beats showing people and
factually proving that "eating Right" is a choice anyone can make,
anywhere and at any time. And that it is actually "a choice easy
to make".

Including (and preferably) by going straight to the ultimate
and optimal choice, access to your own "truly organically-grown"
"natural and functional" "sustainable" food.

One of our specialties is the concept of "Above Organic"
"Sustainable" "Optimal Edible EcoSystems" or "Edible Landscape".
Actually, saying that we "believe" that, to be healthy, one
"should" eat right is rather misleading.

This has little to do with "belief". It is definitely FACT. Fact
that has been proven over and over during the ages. Fact already
summarized almost twenty-five hundred years ago by no less than
the "Father of Medicine", Hippocrates, with the well-known aphorism
"Let Thy Food be Thy Medicine". Fact further explored nineteen
hundred years ago by his disciple Galen, whose core idea was that
"Nature" had designed living creatures to function perfectly.
That such was their own nature, if they were allowed to express it,
that is, assuming they lived with optimal input in pure air, water
and food. So, it's truly not that we are proposing anything new here.

Moreover, this fact was demonstrated again recently during the longest
(and still on-going) research project ever made on human nutrition,
known as the "China Project". Cornell and Oxford Universities,
working in team with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese
Ministry of Health, under the remarkable leadership of Pr Dr T.
Colin Campbell, have accumulated an enormous wealth of statistical
facts that stare us all right in the eyes. All we have to do is look
at them, and *think*. For a change!

Further, we feel that if one wants to do something for the
planet, one needs to start with oneself and one's own environment.
In other words, that "active environmentalism" is what counts.
Rather than "environmental activism", which is unfortunately
too often fluff and waste of time and resources in what are often
dead-end or misleading directions (think, for example, "ethanol"
or "peak oil").

And if the reward for doing right for you ends being vastly improved
health and well-being, are you really going to complain? We certainly won't!
So what we do is endeavor to educate people about issues pertaining
to the Environment, Ecology, Green Living and Green Buildings,
Organic and Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening, Alternative
Health, and New Energy. And how they all relate to our health and
well-being. For this, we are in the process of collecting data
and producing substantial educational and edutainment material.
You can see some of that material on websites such as:
http://victorygardens2.blogspot.com and its complement
http://vg2gardenerhandbook.blogspot.com , as well as other sites
such as lawncrusade.blogspot.com healththrugardening.blogspot.com
www.topangamodel.blogspot.com www.optimalbiomass.blogspot.com
www.pathtofreedom.com / www.pathtofreedom.org , and many more...
We'd suggest to explore the first two listed first, and to finish
with this one: http://savetheplanetandourselves.blogspot.com/ .
We apologize for the fact that this placeholder and PR ranking
accumulating material has yet to be properly edited. (Worse,
some of the older material hasn't even been properly spellchecked!)
We are slowly working on these issues.

Some of the things we are best at are soil design and using the
systemic relationship between soil, natural energy, plants and
humankind for both our individual and collective benefits.

This is based on a long experience, grounded in and on the input,
over the years, of the most amazing mentors, and with historic
affiliations going back to the likes of Karl von Reichenbach,
Rudolf Steiner, Otto Warburg, Carl-Gustav Jung, Wilhelm Reich,
Viktor Schauberger, Viktor Frankl, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch,
Karl Bauer, Hans von Reichmann, Helan Jaworski, Alfred Korzybski,
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Maurice Maeterlinck, Louis Kervran,
Andre Birre, Andre Voisin and Jean Pain. To name just a few.

This lead us to develop concepts such as what one could call the
idea of "Optimal" "Above Organic" "Edible EcoSystems". Which, at
the practical level, leads to something like sort of " 'Square Foot
Gardening' and 'Companion Planting' 'on steroids' " as part of
"Edible and Sustainable EcoSystems", and was finally formalized
as the PLEASE Organic Victory Gardening approach.

Another of our areas of specialization is the relationship between
functional food and human well-being and health, in other words,
"Optimal Nutrition". This, in a sense, was the true specialty
of Pr Dr Otto Warburg, even if the fact is totally ignored nowadays,
as he reached wide recognition for his work in cell physiology.

It is the knowledge and experience so accumulated over the
years, that allows us to recognize and acknowledge the
contemporary input of Pr Dr T. Colin Campbell as absolutely
invaluable. We cannot think of anyone else who, today, would
more deserve a Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

Theory is great, but practice, even better. So we tend to
think that teaching by showing people how to do and experience
the things that can change their lives by themselves is the most
important part of what we do.

This is why we were absolutely delighted to discover by chance,
a couple weeks ago, that our concerns and vision are widely shared
by one of the most outstanding architects and urban designers of
our age, Ian Ritchie, Royal Professor of Architecture at the Royal
Academy in London, who assured us of his full support.

This led us to hope that in consideration of such support, the
City of Los Angeles will end starting to show leadership in these
areas. Indeed, at a conference at the USC campus on January 21st,
2009, and in private conversations thereafter, Mr Ritchie outlined
ideas which, if they were to be adopted by City Hall, would
certainly prove quite instrumental in helping to alleviate
some of the unavoidable problems that will come with the further
unfolding of the economic aspects of the Great Crisis.

The good news is that to start living a better and healthier life,
we do not need any impetus or incentives coming from above.
In fact, "choosing a better and healthier life" is one of the
easiest thing for you to do. Simply because starting to "Eat Right",
doubtlessly one of the most impactful and transformational action
anyone can take, is something anyone can do. Truly, it is a
choice any of us can make, anywhere, and at any time of our choice.

The very first thing to do starts in and with your own backyard,
or the backyards of friends and/or family. Here in Southern
California, any backyard or rooftop can easily and very cost-
effectively (read -- on a total shoestring, if needs be)
be transformed into a little paradise. An oasis that can produce
2 to 3 pounds of food per square foot per year, and more.
Meaning, handled optimally, a 1,000 square feet backyard can
produce 1 to 1.5 and, in fact, 2+ tons of fresh, wholesome organic
food each year. Something which can easily be demonstrated.

Because this is not at all just theory. Anyone who so wishes can
visit a place, right now, right here, in Pasadena, where this
was achieved in 2008: 10,000 pounds of organic food produced
on just a 4,000 square feet backyard! You can see this fully
illustrated at www.pathtofreedom.org and www.pathtofreedom.com .
The videolog for PTF is here: http://www.youtube.com/user/dervaes?ob=1

We simply teach people how to do the same. For this, we have
several on-going projects that will be completely documented
on video, from small clips to feature-length, professionally-
edited material, in which you can participate. And more are coming.

And we encourage our emulators to do as we attempt to do, try to
be "channels' in the sense expressed by Carl-Gustav Jung:
"The channel is not a person endowed with free will who seeks
his own ends, but one who allows 'creation' ('art') to realize
its purposes through him. As a human being, he [or she] may have
moods and a will and personal aims, but as a channel he [or she]
is 'human' in a higher sense - 'symbolically human'; a vehicle and
molder of the unconscious psychic life of humankind." - Carl
Gustav Jung, "'Psychology and Literature," 1930.

[The word translated here as "channel" is extremely difficult
to translate. It could be translated as "artist" or "poet", which
would be misleading, as it does not mean "poet" or "artist" in
the common sense, but rather "poieit" as in the Greek "poiein" -
- creator, inventor, maker of things or ideas. Or even more
truthfully, the expression of collective memes, the "channel" or
incarnation of or for archetypes.]

Moreover, we are currently looking for a land donation or long term
lease for a symbolic dollar allowing us to create as many as
possible model facilities. Currently, we have two small projects
in the process of being documented, one in Bel Air (Beverly Glen)
between Bel Air and Sherman Oaks, the other in East L.A., at the
exact border of L.A. with Alhambra and South Pasadena. There are
several other projects in the pipeline, for example possibly in
Sylmar and Palos Verde

WHAT WE NEED: Help in all forms, and first, volunteers to help do
as well as document the work in progress, as well as potential
Projects Coordinators. Of course, tools, materials, money, etc,
are quite welcome too... As well as more places to demonstrate
what can be done -- such as perhaps your own backyard!

At any rate, TO DO WHAT WE DO, WE NEED YOUR HELP! So, if you are
interested in what we do and want to help, or want to learn how
to transform a lawn or an empty backyard into an organic food-
producing garden, or know people who might be interested, please
contact us and come participate in our on-going activities.

In any event, our next Organic Garden Gathering and Hands-on Free
Class will be every Sunday in April and May in a new location to
be announced, and you can still volunteer at the old location
in L.A. near Alhambra off Huntington Drive.

We are also open to weekdays volunteering, if there is some interest
for it and to special on-demand classes for schools, groups, churches,
etc. Just tell us what would be most convenient to you.

Also, please note that we are also actively looking for more
projects to take on, particularly from April-May 2009 on.

At any rate, if we don't have it already, please provides us with
your location and a number to contact you, just in case there are
changes in location or timing, or new Projects closer to you. And
please feel free to bring along anyone in your friends or family
who might be interested, including children, as long as they come
with at least one parent.

Please note that we also need help with Project Coordination,
Talent Management (for example for the videos) and technical help
(for things such as websites set-up and maintenance, text editing,
and making and editing audios and videos or other multimedia
material, for example Camtasia (or similar)-based educational
material).

Projects Coordination

Link to interesting video introductions to the P.L.E.A.S.E. methodology:
http://vg2gardenerhandbook.blogspot.com/2009/04/introduction-to-please-video-material.html

Link to the current announcement on http://www.earthday.net/ : http://earthday.net/node/15791

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