Garden for the Environment will offer the following workshops in January, 2013. All classes will be offered at Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s organic demonstration garden at 7th and Lawton Street. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening, compost education and low water-use landscaping.  For more information, call (415) 731-5627, or go to www.gardenfortheenvironment.org.

ORGANIC GARDEN DESIGN
Date: Saturday, January 12, 2013
Time: 10AM - 12:00 Noon

Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Cost: Free, Sponsored by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Learn how to grow a healthy and beautiful garden that minimizes the impacts on the environment. From building a healthy soil with compost to selecting beautiful plantings appropriate for the Bay Area’s climate, this workshop will give you the basics to implement sustainable gardening practices.

Topics covered include:

• Importance of healthy soil
• Organic matter
• Composting
• Selecting colorful plants for the Bay Area climate
• Climate appropriate plants
• California natives
• How to water without waste
• Preventing nutrient run-off
• Irrigation basics and watering schedules
• Natural pest and weed management
• Pesticide alternatives
• Non-toxic weed control

This workshop is FREE! To pre-register or for more information please visit

www.gardenfortheenvironment.org

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Garden for the Environment will offer the following classes in November and December of 2012. All classes will be offered at Garden for the Environment, San Francisco’s organic demonstration garden at 7th and Lawton Street. Since its founding in 1990, the garden has operated as a demonstration site for small-scale urban ecological food production, organic gardening, compost education and low water-use landscaping.  For more information, call (415) 731-5627, or go to www.gardenfortheenvironment.org.  

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD
Organic Vegetable Gardening in November

Date: Saturday, November 10th, 2012
Time: 10AM - 12PM
Location: Garden for the Environment, 7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco Instructor: Carey Craddock, Organic Gardening Instructor
Cost: $25 or $15 for GFE Members

Year-round gardening is one of our favorite things about the Bay Area and now, as we find ourselves squarely in Fall, it's time to think about your winter vegetable garden. Join us for this class which we offer on the 2nd Saturday of every month for seasonal-specific instruction for year-round vegetable gardening.

This month we'll cover:

- Vegetables to plant and what to harvest in Fall and Winter
- Fall & Winter Plant Care
- Soil Fertility and Cover Cropping
- Weeds, weeds, weeds! What to do about them.

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HANC opposed the Parks Bond, Proposition B, in the November election. We believe Rec and Park should be spending money on gardeners, recreation directors, and regular maintenance of its existing facilities before building more. This is especially true when Rec and Park is raising fees and leasing out public park property at an unprecedented rate.

Why did the Bond pass? The No on B campaign was outspent by more than 100 to 1. The approximately $9,000 raised by the No on B campaign could not match the onslaught of TV, radio, and newspaper ads, robo-calls, and multiple mailers bought with almost $1,000,000 from “park enthusiasts” such as Ronald Conway, Thomas Coates, the three Fisher brothers, the LLC that runs the Outside Lands Festival, Wells Fargo, AT&T, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and the San Francisco Association of Realtors.

Would there have been more No votes if Rec and Park hadn’t promised the poorest neighborhoods, ignored for so long, that there would be something for them in this bond?   What if McLaren Park had received funding in any of the previous bonds? Did the recent purchase of the Bay Guardian by the Examiner influence its endorsement of Prop B? “The Guardian has never, in 46 years, opposed a general obligation bond for anything except jails or prisons. . . .We’re not happy to be endorsing Prop B . . .We’re going yes on B with all due reservations.” 

Still, 93,735 San Franciscans voted against Prop B—almost as many as all of the voters who cast ballots in the three contested Supervisorial races in Districts 1, 5, and 7. The reasons for opposing the Parks Bond have not disappeared—we want continued public access to our parks and recreation centers through sound maintenance and operations, and we don’t want control and access to parkland going to the highest bidder. Please join us and put your comments on the record at the Janaury meeting of the Rec and Park Commission on Thursday, January 17, beginning at 10:00 a.m in Room 416 of City Hall.

The Nominating Committee of HANC has made the following recommendations for Officers and Board members for 2013.  All HANC members are eligible to serve.  The election will take place at the November meeting.

President:                               Kevin Bayuk

Vice-President:                      Richard Ivanhoe

Recording Secretary:            Burt Phillips

Corresponding Secretary:    Robert Leon

Treasurer:                              Tes Welborn

Housing / Land Use Chair:  Calvin Welch

Recycling Chair:                     Karen Fishkin

Membership Chair:               Michele Welch

Nominating Chair:                 Joey Cain

Members-At-Large:             Colleen Rivecca

                                                 Bruce Wolfe

                                                 Jim Rhoads

                                                 Karen Masonheimer

                                                 Michael Behrens