Garden Adventures

Holiday Potluck – December, 2023

Organic Garden Club members enjoyed a lovely Holiday Luncheon Potluck, filled with Happy Gardeners, Good Energy, and wonderful food! Delicious dishes kept arriving! There was lots of laughter, great gardening conversations, and we all had so much fun! Our fabulous Annual Holiday Party was hosted in One Spark Academy’s hilltop recreation room, surrounded by a gorgeous view. Garden Club member, Laura Erlig teaches the middle schoolers how to grow food in raised bed gardens and potted fruit trees, harvest it, and learn to cook it.

2023 Summer Party at Amy’s Organic Cafe

The Organic Garden Club had a fabulous Summer Party on the patio at Amy’s Cafe, an organic vegetarian cafe with gluten free and vegan options, from the creators of the prepared foods you can get at the grocery store. Organic Garden Club members are forward thinking organic regenerative gardeners interested in growing our own food and living sustainable lives. Many of us volunteer to help improve our local ecosystems and to help feed the hungry. Many members have backyard organic edible raised bed gardens, fruit trees, and native plant and permaculture landscaping with perennial herbs and veggies.

Thousand Oaks Arbor/Earth Day -2023

Earth Day is about creating a sustainable future for the next generation by producing food, water, and energy organically working with nature. Plant a Food Garden where you live! Find the joy of daily small delights, delicious food and mystical insights into nature.

On Thousand Oaks Arbor/Earth Day, the Organic Garden Club was able to share the many benefits of growing an organic food garden, not only do you get food, but you can find health, peace, and happiness.

Rincon Vitova Insectaries Tour

We’ve got a bug for that! Organic Garden Club members toured the various rooms at Rincon Vitova Insectaries that grow insects to protect crops and animals from insect pests and learned so much from owners Jan Dietrick and Ron Whitehurst, long time Organic Garden Club members. Beneficial insects, which are 97% of insects, are nature’s way for pest control, rather than chemical poisons. Ron is one of State leaders on the Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap to rid the state of pesticides. We then celebrated Ron’s birthday talking about organic regenerative techniques to grow food and distribute produce for the health of the planet at Nature’s Grill .

Volunteer Gardening at the Ventura County Senior Nutrition Garden

Organic Garden Club members enjoyed transplanting veggies in the new greenhouse at the Ventura County Senior Nutrition Garden that grows organic produce for the Senior Meals Program and local food banks. Christopher Fiorello, manager at this lovely 2 acre garden in Oxnard, also showed Organic Garden Club members how to prune Dragonfruit that surrounds this wonderful organic food garden and chicken coop and which weeds to pull in the pollinator native plant area. Several Organic Garden Club members arranged to come back for more volunteer gardening as they found gardening there so peaceful and restorative.

Pollinator Garden and Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop with Newbury Park High Monarch Butterfly Club

The Organic Garden Club had a wonderful Pollinator Garden Workshop with the Newbury Park High Monarch Butterfly Club and Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop given by Bill Brandt.

Tour Gottlieb Native Garden

Organic Garden Club members were inspired and delighted with an enlightening experience at Gottlieb Native Garden in April, 2022. Susan Gottlieb graciously hosted us explaining the over 200 native plants in her Garden! Scott Logan gave us insights into the 500 species of wildlife that inhabit and visit because of the native plants in the landscape. The bird and bee houses, the amazing moth, the fabulous hummingbird dining areas, and the many water features at the Gottlieb Native Garden can inspire us to do more in our own backyards!

2021 Holiday Potluck in Michael Wittman’s Garden

Organic Garden Club members enjoyed a lovely afternoon in Michael Wittman’s Garden for our 2021 Holiday Potluck with lots of laughter, wonderful organic food, and delightful conversations!

Ventura County Farm Day 2021

Organic Garden Club members had a wonderful time at the 2021 Ventura County Farm Day! Here we are tasting different honey varieties where Blue Ridge Honey is bottled in Ventura, visiting VCAAA Senior Nutrition Organic Garden, and on a tour wagon at Driscoll’s Berry Farm, where we were given blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries!

California Garden Clubs Channel Island District Lunch

Organic Garden Club of Ventura County Volunteer Gardening

Organic Garden Club members joined the Hands on Earth Garden Beautification Students at Newbury Park High School to plant seeds and starter plants.

Organic Garden Club Table at the Thousand Oaks Earth Day where members grew veggies from seed to inspire the community to grow food in their backyard.

The Organic Garden Club participated in the 2020 Conejo Creek Park Halloween Trick or Treat Drive Thru! Lori was a ladybug and Steve was a peanut butter spider sandwich! They gave candy and seed packets to 158 cars!

Organic Garden Club Workshops

At the Bokashi Workshop, we poured ingredients into the tubs, enjoyed getting our hands in the bokashi mix, added biochar, and finally scooped it into air sealed buckets to ferment 21 days!

Our Succulent Workshop was so much fun! Everyone made a centerpiece to take home and helped make 30 vases for the California Garden Clubs District Luncheon!

Organic Garden Club members had a wonderful day at Past President Bill Brandt’s Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop! He gave us information packed demonstrations and we pruned Sheila’s fruit trees.

The Organic Garden Club Wreath Making Workshop was a big success! We had a wonderful time and everyone made spectacular wreaths!

Club Members Visit Ventura County Farms

Organic Garden Club members had a wonderful time picking yummy organic blueberries at our November speaker, Scott Bahler’s One Acre Farm in Santa Rosa.