Past Workshops:
Climate Resilient Landscape Design for Your Home and Our Unique Watershed
Water: Cycles, Consumption & Design
In the midst of drought and rising temperatures, it has never been more important for us to take care of soil . Trees and plants lock carbon into the soil and are a key part of the rain cycle. However, our large-scale wildfires release tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in just a few weeks; equal to all traffic over the entire year in California. The way we care for the earth right now has a direct impact on our future here in Ojai Valley and across the globe.
In 2011, the Ojai Valley Green Coalition provided fiscal sponsorship for a Community Garden (Ojai Valley of the Moon) which was located by the offices of the Ojai Land Conservancy on Baldwin Road. In 2015, our involvement deepened by actively managing the fruit trees, garden plots, and membership while we obtained funding to revitalize the property. This site had ongoing collaborations with US Fish & Wildlife, Monarch Arc, and the Ojai Valley Bee Club to support pollinators and propagate native milkweed species.
We understand that may in our community, including officials from the City of Ojai, are interested in revitalizing the Demonstration Community Garden behind City Hall. This site is centrally located in the community and would be an ideal place for educational workshops and demonstrations to show our community how to mitigate the impacts of drought and wildfires.
The overall intent is to develop a suitable and feasible model for small-scale drought-tolerant infrastructure in Ojai. This area can serve as a model to test and evaluate the feasibility of using sustainable practices in other areas. The creation of sustainable infrastructure in this garden area can provide benefits such as improvements in water and air quality, reduced urban temperatures, and reduced erosion. It can also provide community benefits such as improved property values, shared recreational areas, and serve as a learning hub.
Some potential ideas for this community space include:
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- Support a diversity of native drought-tolerant plants
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- Produce ongoing educational programs for public and school groups (composting, water-wise gardening, native plants, rain gardens, medicinal plants, plant dying, etc.) [note period after ‘etc’]
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- Demonstrate natural building techniques that are fire resistant such as super-adobe, hempcrete, cob, and strawbale
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- Show how a few tiny homes that could be thoughtfully integrated into the landscape
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- Grow medicinal plants and those that can be used for natural fabric dying that tie into our rich Chumash history
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- Build a seed bank kiva made of natural building materials
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- Establish water-wise landscaping and food growing techniques that are applicable for backyards
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- Include a rain garden to demonstrate how to capture hardscape run-off for homes
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- Ensure a safe environment for families and a place of pride for the community
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- Create an aesthetic place that facilitates a connection between people (benches, paths, a respite from the summer sun and winter rain) and a source of self-expression for the community (artwork, rain/fog capture systems)
- And More!
We believe it is important this space generates a service component through volunteerism and can include all residents.
Ideally, this will include collaboration with expert builders, landscape architects, urban designers, permaculture practitioners, civil engineers, ecologists, and horticulturists who will work across disciplies and across sectors to address Ojai’s vulnerability to drought and fire.
An innovative aspect of revitalizing this site might be that of listening to community concerns, ideas, and helping residents to realize the parts they play in all of this.
The goal is to support regenerative practices within our community.
If you are interested in supporting this ventura, through volunteerism, design ideas, or sponsorship, please reach out: contact@ojaivalleygreencoalition.org
Click here for more Regenerative Agriculture information and resources.