Summer Fun with Solana Center!

Upcoming Events

FREE Compost Workshops! Offered throughout San Diego,

throughout the year.

A Message from Our Director Greetings, I have lots of good news to report and there's more on the way!

Batiquitos Lagoon Carlsbad, CA

Saturday, June 13 10am-12pm

Alta Vista Gardens

Vista, CA Saturday, June 13

10am-12pm

Ocean Knoll Education Farm Encinitas, CA

Saturday, June 20 10am-12pm

Girl Scout Campus

Balboa Park, San Diego, CA Saturday, June 20

10am-12pm

Manure Management Valley Center, CA Saturday, July 11

10am-12pm

Alta Vista Gardens Vista, CA

Saturday, July 18 9am-11am

Calavera Hills Community Garden

Carlsbad, CA Saturday, July 25

We have been selected as one of eight nonprofits that exemplify innovative environmental programs that positively impact the San Diego region, and are now in the running to win $25,000! The ECO Ambassadors People's Choice Campaign is an online and on-air campaign that will run from June 5 - June 23. Our segment will air on Friday, June 5th on CBS News 8 between 6am - 7am. Starting Friday, June 5 at 9am, you will be able to vote for Solana Center once a day per device online at cbs8.com/Earth8. Please help us win and VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! We recently wrapped up the Love Your Planet program in Oceanside. By reducing waste, recycling more, and composting, participants reached an average of 70% diversion of their household waste (by volume) during the 10-week program. The County Board of Supervisors approved funding to support new information systems, which will help us serve you better - from registering and paying for classes online to receiving communication on issues important to you. I recently spoke at the 2015 BioCycle conference in Portland, and became aware that we are part of a uniquely strong community of passionate composters. I'm so proud to see how, collectively, we are impacting the movement toward keeping organic material - edibles and compostables - out of our landfills. Stop by our expanded booth at the San Diego County Fair and say hi! Jessica Executive Director

Summer Harvest Time

10am-12pm

San Diego Botanic Garden Encinitas, CA

Saturday, August 15 10am-12pm

Continue to check our website as we add more compost workshops to our 2015 calendar!

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Master Composting Courses

Interested in becoming a composting ambassador?

Join us in one of our upcoming Master Composter classes! These 5-week courses offer a combination of hands-on activities and in-classroom learning. Attendees are trained to become composting ambassadors in their communities. You'll get hands-on bin building and troubleshooting experience.

The next Master Composter Course will be held in Carlsbad in Late Summer/Early Fall...stay

tuned! ___________________________________________

Green Living Workshops

In these periods of drought, it is critical that we conserve water. A great way to tackle the water challenge is to incorporate compost into your summer garden. In addition to providing valuable nutrients, compost has been proven to increase soil's water retention capacity. Here are a few ways to incorporate compost into your garden throughout the summer to conserve water and boost plant health:

Mulch - Compost or other organic material spread around plants, trees, and shrubs helps suppress weed growth, regulate soil temperatures and hold moisture near plants' roots. Soil amendment - Work compost into the soil around your plants (side-dressing) to revitalize old soil and give vital nutrients to your summer crops. Doing this in combination with mulching will give you the best water-saving results! Compost tea and leachate - Consider using compost tea or vermicompost leachate as a soil drench around plants that may be stressed by heat, dry conditions, pests, disease, or heavy yields. Many composters report improvements in plant health by applying compost tea throughout the season. Adding compost to your garden during summer can help reduce your water needs and add valuable nutrients to your garden. Compost created in your backyard replaces soil amendments you would otherwise have to purchase. Using this compost also helps save money on your water bills by improving water penetration and retention and reducing runoff and evaporation.

Attracting Barn Owls to Your Home & Garden

Sunday, June 28

4pm-5pm

Solana Center

Solar Energy: Facts vs. Fiction

Sunday, July 19

10am-11am

San Diego Botanic Gardens

Creative and Colorful Succulent Landscapes

Sunday, September 20

10am-11am

San Diego Botanic Gardens

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Free Oil Filter Exchange

Encinitas Oil Filter Exchange Saturday, June 20, 2015

10am-2pm

O'Reilly Auto Parts 180 N. El Camino Real

Encinitas, CA ____________________________________

Enjoy your summer harvest, and remember...when in drought, compost!!

Master Composter Graduates!

We are so proud of our newest graduates of the Master Composter courses, in both County and City of San Diego.

Compost Bin Sales

Looking to start your own composting project? Solana Center sells both traditional and worm bins. Even better, costs are subsidized for Encinitas and Carlsbad residents.

Unincorporated County and the City of San Diego residents have bins available through a voucher program.

Solana Center also offers composting

accessories!

Visit www.solanacenter.org for more

information

Master Composter Spotlight

Meet Master Composter (MC) and Golden Pitchfork Award Winner,

Ann Ray

This year's prestigious Toast to Compost Golden Pitchfork Award was presented to Master Composter extraordinaire Ann Ray!

San Diego Master Composter courses are a unique opportunity to gain a more in-depth understanding of the composting process, and provide insight on sharing this knowledge and passion with others.

Can't wait to see what wonderful things they will do out in the community!

Congratulations, graduates!

Manure Management Workshop!

Our Manure Management and Composting Workshop shows you how to both protect your local watershed and produce a fantastic soil product from large animal manure. Composting is easy and inexpensive, while improper disposal of manure is unsightly, breeds flies, may create health hazards, and can contaminate local streams and water sources. Using composted manure on your garden and landscaping will help your plants thrive and will conserve water, too! The class also covers the basics of traditional composting and vermicomposting!

Ann receiving her award at our Toast to Compost volunteer celebration!

Ann has been volunteering with the Solana Center just over a year and has already logged 70 hours of volunteer time. When she is not volunteering with us, she is busy spreading her love of gardening and composting in several elementary schools, working with our very own Environmental Educator Jennifer at the San Diego County Fair infield farm, running an afterschool garden enrichment program in Solana School District and is busy in her own yard sprouting, tending, and canning her seasonal harvests. A few highlight moments from last year include Ann showing up to volunteer at the Fair with her OWN volunteers (amazing!!). She also rocked the Switchfoot BroAm waste diversion event we did with Rob Machado Foundation. Ann also helped and her expertise was shared at our Gardening 101 courses - not to mention all her canned goodies she shared on our How to Save Your Harvest day! Ann's energy and knowledge have been a major asset to Solana Center. We look forward to more opportunities to work alongside her! Thank you and congratulations Ann!

Rotline: Question of the Month

Saturday July 11, 2015 10am-12pm Creek Point Alpaca Farm 30900 Lilac Road Valley Center, CA 92082 Click here to register

Solana Center Awarded County Grant

Special thanks to the County of San Diego Board of Supervisors for awarding us a Neighborhood Reinvestment Program Grant. The grant will be used for a new integrated technology system. This new system will enable us to increase our impact in the region, by reaching more people, offering more

classes, and providing more accessible content.

Switchfoot Bro-Am Green Team

Waste Diversion and Recycling

How do I harvest my worms?

We're always so happy to welcome new Worm Wranglers into the fold. Vermicomposting (composting with worms) is easy, rewarding and a great way to divert food waste from our landfills. Plus, the end result is an amazing, nutrient-rich amendment for your garden. However, in the excitement of getting the new bin started, folks are usually unprepared to store the info about what to do later when the bin is ready to harvest. So, 2-3 months after a worm bin purchase, our Rotline rings with the query, "Now, what do I do?" We have a couple of excellent blogs addressing this subject. Click below to help them wriggle to the surface: 5 Ways to Harvest Worm Castings and Fudgy Castings-

what to do if you think you've waited too long to harvest.

Special thanks to our wonderful volunteers!

Solana Center MC Volunteers, Russ Bruzee, Erika Osori and

Jim Beyster beautifying our garden!

John Sielaff

Don't miss the 11th Annual Switchfoot Bro-Am on Saturday, July 11, 2015! Solana Center is partnering again with the Rob Machado Foundation and the City of Encinitas to assemble a Green Team of volunteers to divert waste. Held at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, the Switchfoot Bro Am is an annual charity surf contest and concert fundraiser led by hometown rock band Switchfoot with the purpose of raising money for San Diego children's charities. Last year, the Green Team recycled 892 pounds of waste! Help us smash last year's record. To volunteer, contact Andrea@solanacenter.org

Solana Center at

the San Diego County Fair

Russ Bruzze Ron McCord

Ann Ray Theresa Trost

Teresa Lee Carol Graham

Marcia Venegas-Garcia Marycie Hagerty Anne Peterson Michael Clark Walt Sandford Mike Guerreiro

Jean Law Erika Osario

Meaghan Jones Jesse Hill

Tammy Bowser Wanda Reid

Amy Hoffman Angela Morrissey Ashley Marquez

Russell Pitts Sarah Clayton

Fang Chen Jessica Threat

Beverly Marshall Helen Bourne

Jim Beyster Jim Gale

Our interns

Larissa Amaral Rachel Duncan Greg Hanson

Kileigh Phillips Emily Pickering

Thank you for your donations:

Chipper- Andi McLeod Worms- Cristin Hagaman, Gavin Broatch and

Susanne Millian Please keep those worms coming!

Once again, Solana Center will be at the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds from opening day on Friday, June 5 through Sunday, July 5. Come visit our expanded booth, thanks to our sponsor EcoScraps, where we will have demonstrations on composting, worm bins, recycling and watershed conservation and protection. EcoScraps and Solana Center are partnering again on a fun family activity. Using EcoScraps potting soil, kids will plant their own seeds and learn how to become environmentally conscious gardeners. This year Solana Center will also have the Eco Sorting Cart at our booth. Here we demonstrate our sorting cart, intended to facilitate schools to divert food waste and recyclables from our landfills. On July 1st, we will also be in the Garden Center with an interactive booth on composting. Solana Center volunteers, ready to share your enthusiasm for the environment? If you would like to join us, email Andrea@SolanaCenter.org

Toast to Compost - A Celebration of Our Volunteers!

Make a purchase on Amazon and

support Solana Center! We are one of the charities that you can donate to through Amazon Smile. It's really

simple to do!

Check it out at smile.amazon.com

This newsletter was made possible through support from:

Our annual "Toast to Compost" celebration was held on May 2nd and was

awesome! We got to see many of our wonderful volunteers, ate delicious

food donated by Chipotle and learned about sustainable farming from

Farmer Paul of Primal Pastures. We appreciate and value all our wonderful

volunteers, composters and Eco Ambassadors! Congrats to volunteer

extraordinaire, Ann Ray for receiving the Golden Pitchfork Award.

Thank you to our "Toast to Compost" Sponsors

An additional thanks to our contributors listed below who helped make "Toast to Compost" celebration a huge success.

Chipotle Weidners Gardens

Primal Pastures Stone Brewing

Whole Foods Encinitas City Farmers Nursery

Sprouts The Inkorporated Crate Co.

Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply

The San Diego Natural History Museum

Girl Next Door Honey World Centric

Essential Hardware Primally Pure

Rob Machado Foundation Solarium Energy

Belly Up

Learn more about Solana Center on our website!

Want to support what we do? Help us to continue our environmental outreach and education in your community!

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