COOL (the Coalition of Organic Landscape Professionals http://www.organiclandscapers.org/index.html) and Seattle Tilth (http://www.seattletilth.org/) are presenting the compelling documentary “A Chemical Reaction” as part of an afternoon event at Lake Washington Technical College in Kirkland on Saturday, February 20th, from 2-6pm. The event will also feature keynote speaker Paul Tukey, the nationally-known gardening host who is the executive producer and narrator of the film. Tukey is also the founder of the regional gardening magazine “People, Places & Plants”, author of best-seller The Organic Lawn Care Manual, and founder of SafeLawns.org, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting natural lawn care and grounds maintenance. The event will feature displays and resources from The Garden Hotline and several other environmental organizations, books for sale, refreshments, and a question-and-answer session and book-signing with Paul Tukey after the movie screening. Proceeds from this event will be contributed to http://safelawns.org/

The movie addresses the human health hazards of pesticides, and one community’s efforts to ban the use of lawn care chemicals. It tells the story of a doctor whose activism prompted her town in Canada to be the first to ban lawn and garden chemicals in 1991. Since then the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and hundreds of other Canadian municipalities have also passed similar legislation.

For the past several years, Tukey has traveled across the United States and Canada in a relentless quest to tell the Hudson story and urge municipalities to follow suit. “Canadian doctors and the Canadian courts have looked at the toxicity associated with chemical lawn care and have banned these products in much of that nation,” said Tukey, a Maine native who went on to become America’s Horticultural Communicator of the Year in 2006. “Our hope is that people watch the movie and say, ‘Canada has banned these products, why do we still use them in the United States?’” As you well know, this issue is particularly relevant in the Puget Sound region, where chemical fertilizers and pesticides run off into our lakes, rivers, streams, and the sound during each rainfall.

To view a movie trailer, visit www.ChemicalReactionMovie.com

EVENT DETAILS:

Saturday Feb. 20, 2010, from 2:00pm- 6:00pm
Movie screening; reception with film producer; books for sale; free educational resources; door prizes; refreshments
At Lake Washington Technical College
West Building Auditorium, Rm. #404
11605 132nd Avenue NE
Kirkland, WA 98034-8506

Tickets:
$10.00 in advance from www.BrownPaperTickets.com or $15.00 at the door.

Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to SafeLawns.org
Free parking in the south or west parking lots (follow the sandwich board signs)
Campus map and driving directions: www.lwtc.edu/about/maps/campus

Feb 6 Fruit Varieties for the Pacific NW . 1 – 3 pm.  UW Botanic Gardens.  $20/$15 (members). Sam Benowitz is the owner of Raintree Nursery, a nursery specializing in fruit trees and other edibles. Whether it’s plums, apples, pears, or berries, Sam knows what varieties do best in any particular situation. He will discuss the best fruits for the Northwest, why rootstocks are important, and how to determine how big a tree will grow.

Feb 20 The Art of Espalier. 1 – 4:30 pm. UW Botanic Gardens. $30/$25 (members). Dave Conners, former president of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, has been training 18 different antique apple varieties on his city-sized lot for more than a decade and has been teaching “The Art of Espalier” at the UW’s Center for Urban horticulture for many years.

Mar 6 Pruning Grape Vines 9 am – noon. Phinney Neighborhood Association and neighboring site with grape vines. $20/$15 (members). Learn to prune and train grape vines and get tips on growing grapes for best production. Larry Davis is a Master Gardener and teaches grape and other fruit production classes for the WSU-King County Master Gardener program.

Mar 20 Planting and Caring for Young Fruit Trees 10 am – noon. Orca School Environmental Learning Center. $20/$15 (members). Find out how and where to plant your new fruit tree and how to keep it healthy. John Reardon, vice president of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, teaches tree care classes for Plant Amnesty, Seattle Tree Fruit Society and City Fruit.

Fruit tree care classes are also offered by the following organizations. See the City Fruit Calendar at www.cityfruit.org, or their websites for details.

Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle

Friends of Piper’s Orchard

Seattle Tilth

Seattle Tree Fruit Society

Western Washington Fruit Research Foundation

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Offered by City Fruit

Location: Phinney Ridge

10 am – noon

$20/$15 (City Fruit members)

Pruning your fruit tree will improve its health, productivity and appearance. This beginner’s class covers the basics, including pruning tools, reasons for pruning a fruit tree and basic techniques. Instructor Ingela Wanerstrand, Green Darner Garden Design, specializes in edible garden design and coaching and has been pruning fruit trees professionally for 14 years.

Register at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/91245 or send a check with the name and date of the class and your contact information to City Fruit, PO Box 28577, Seattle 98118. After registering, you will receive confirmation and the address of the class. If you can’t afford a class but really want to learn, email us atinfo@cityfruit.org.

  It’s taken me a month and a half, but I finally set up an online resource for people interested in painting their intersections. I know we had talking about a mailing list, but I felt that there may be a more useful social-networking type framework. So I scoured the Interweb and decided to set up a “Ning” site. A ning site allows users to join, blog, post photos, events, discussions, etc in a much more dyanmic way than a traditional mailing list.

  My hope is that this site becomes a vibrant, supportive and useful place for those engaging their neighbors in turning spaces into places. But it will only be as vibrant as you choose to make it!

  Please follow the link below and become a member of “Community Corners”. I’ve already added some photos and my lecture notes from the event in January. My hope is that each project will create a “Group” (with their own blogs, forums, etc.) so that other neighbors can easily connect with what’s happening in there area. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any feedback or questions.

  Here’s the link :  http://paintthetown.ning.com/

In community,
Eric Higbee