West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and National Wildlife Federation are excited to present the 5^th Annual Urban Forestry Festival. This event invites all families and friends to the Outdoor Activity Center on Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 11am-4pm to celebrate Southwest Atlanta’s urban forests. The festival is free to the public, so bring your family to learn more about Atlanta’s incredible urban forest and its wildlife inhabitants. The festival will feature educational and entertaining exhibits, tours of the 26-acre OAC urban forest, food, giveaways, and hands-on activities and demonstrations by WAWA, NWF’s Earth Tomorrow program and their partners. Transportation to the OAC, located at 1442 Richland Road, S.W. in Atlanta, GA 30310, is easily accessible via MARTA. RSVP to info.wawaonline@gmail.com to be entered into our special drawing. For more information, please visit www.wawaonline.org or call 404-752-5385 or 404-876-8733 ext. 230.

Event #1: Oakhurst Community Garden Project Plans its Largest Spring Plant Sale Yet!

Picking out cow peas, longneck squash, and more to plant in our vegetable garden

50 varieties of tomatoes!  30 varieties of pepper!  20 varieties of eggplant!  5 varieties of basil! Plus over 200 varieties of herbs, fruit trees, perennials, annuals, natives, and succulents!

• Oakhurst Garden Member Preview: Friday, April 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
• Open to the public: Saturday, April 9 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sunday, April 10 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Lettuce and other spring greens are available for purchase at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project starting April 1.
Summer vegetable transplants will be available for purchase until June 15, 2011.

Check out the website for more details: www.oakhurstgarden.org.

Event #2: Celebrate Earth Day in Decatur at the Oakhurst Community Garden!

On Sunday, April 17^th, join the Decatur community to celebrate Earth Day at the Oakhurst Community Garden Project, presented by Latham Home Sanitation, from  12:30 p.m. until 4 pm. The event begins with the Earth Friendly Parade, which begins at Harmony Park in the center of the Oakhurst Business District. Join the Feed and Seed Marching Abominable Band and decorate your bike, wagon, stroller or yourself and march in the parade that will open the festival. Once at the event, there will be a Cake Contest, crafts for the children, a Raptor Show, food vendors, the community pavilion, live music and lots of fun!

This year’s event features over 30 earth friendly vendors and non-profits in the Community Pavilion including the City of Decatur Recycling Trailer.

New this year is a Community Phone Book Recycling Project sponsored by PitStop. Bring your old phone books to fill up a portolet! Let’s see how many phone books we can fit in there!

The winner of the Earth Day t-shirt design contest will be announced and the t-shirt will be on sale at the event. The contest was open during the month of March to students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade. The finalists’ designs will be on display at the Decatur Library during the month of April.  The 2011 The Sally Wylde Cultivating Life Award recipient will also be announced.

The Earth Day event is offered free to the community by Latham Home Sanitation, the Oakhurst Community Garden Project, the City of Decatur Active Living Department, the City of Decatur Environmental Sustainability Board, the Waldorf School of Atlanta, Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool, Agnes Scott College, and PitStop.

For more information and a complete schedule, please visit www.oakhurstgarden.org or contact: Stephanie Van Parys, director@oakhurstgarden.org, (678) 642-4977. You can friend the Earth Day in Decatur festival on facebook, too!

Started in 1997, the Oakhurst Community Garden Project is a member supported non-profit teaching environmental awareness through hands-on gardening and outdoor education programs.

Oakhurst Community Garden Project is located at 435 Oakview Road, Decatur, GA  30030.

If you are an artist who plans on submitting a proposal for Art on the Atlanta BeltLine 2011, join us as we walk and get to know the trail

The Art on the Atlanta BeltLine committee encourages artists to attend one of the following walks as an opportunity to talk about installation locations, project feasibility, and any other questions you may have.

• Saturday, March 12th – East Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Memorial Drive beside H. Harper’s Station and ending at 10th and Monroe Drive beside Park Tavern.
• Sunday, March 13th – West Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Washington Park (at Lena St.) and ending at Allene Avenue and Catherine Street.
• Saturday, March 19th – West Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Washington Park (at Lena St.) and ending at Allene Avenue and Catherine Street.
• Sunday, March 20th – East Side Walk at 11 a.m.: beginning at Memorial Drive beside H. Harper’s Station and ending at 10th and Monroe Drive beside Park Tavern.

You can RSVP to the walk online on our Art on the Atlanta BeltLine facebook page!

And download the request for proposals on http://art.beltline.org. Online submissions are encouraged and all submissions are due on March 28, 2011.

In celebration of the grand opening of a new store on Atlanta’s westside, Anthropologie will be donating 10% of the evening’s sales directly to Art on the BeltLine! If you’re like me and the airline lost your luggage over Christmas, this is the perfect time to restock on clothes, accessories, and crafty household items. Plus, refreshments and wine are provided for your shopping + charitable donation pleasure! Here are the details:

• When: Thursday, January 13th from 6 – 8 p.m.
• Where: Anthropologie located at the Westside Urban Market, 1207 Howell Mill Road in Atlanta
• RSVP: by January 10th to 215.454.4550

And bring your friends! The invite says “you (and a guest) are invited,” so if you have a group, you may want to have every other person call and RSVP for two – I’m not sure how that will work yet. See you there!

Come enjoy the sights and sounds of nature on an autumn evening at Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve’s eleventh annual Harvest Celebration on Saturday, November 6, from 4-8 pm. The mission of South Peachtree Creek Nature Preserves, Inc. is to preserve and promote Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve (CSNP), and its native wildlife and plants for the enjoyment and education of the community.

Bring the family to enjoy food, music, crafts, nature walks, and a warm campfire with your neighbors. Children can hunt for pumpkins and create crafts, while the adults can enjoy a home composting system demonstration and other displays.

A donation of $5 is requested to support the programs at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, a 501 © 3 nonprofit volunteer-run organization. Children 3 and under are admitted free.

The Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve is located at 2580 Pine Bluff Drive, Decatur, Georgia, 30033 in the Medlock neighborhood of North Decatur.

For further information or to volunteer, visit the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve website, send an email request to information@cshepherdpreserve.org or leave a voice mail message at 678.951.0105.

The Spirit of the Gulf Coast Exhibition is a multimedia event that explores the complexities of oil dependency and alternative energy futures through the intimate accounts of Gulf Coast residents affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It will take place tomorrow night in the LeCraw Auditorium at Georgia Tech’s College of Management from 6pm-8pm. The event is free and open to the public and we’d love to see you there!  The schedule of events is as follows:

• Fine Art Photo Exhibit featuring the stunning photography taken on the expedition by photographer Terrell Clark
• Documentary Short by filmmaker Nathan Black that reveals the stories, and experiences of the various coastal residents who we interviewed during the expedition.
• “Special Guest” - A special speaker whose talk will leave you with a new perspective about what really happened during the Oil Spill
• Social Psychologist Jeff Duvall - He will discuss the coastal response to the oil spill from a socio-psychological perspective
• Nobel Prize Winner, Marilyn Brown - Dr. Marilyn Brown will discuss what public policy could do to set us on a path of sustainable energy sources
• Call to Action - the part of the exhibit that features you!
• Panel Discussion - A Q&A giving you the chance to ask questions of any of our speakers or the Spirit team

You can RSVP on to the Spirit of the Gulf Coast on Eventbrite here or Spirit of the Gulf Coast on Facebook here.

Thanks t0 guest blogger Kim Campbell for sharing the Spirit of the Gulf Coast with Our Green Atlanta readers!

On Saturday August 28th starting at 9 a.m. we will be hosting the second annual Chicks for Charity fundraiser by the Atlanta Backyard Poultry Meetup group and nationally known chicken expert and radio personality Andy the Chicken Whisperer.

They will be giving away 1000 baby chicks and collecting donations for the East Atlanta Kids Club. There will be 2 avian vets present to answer your chicken rearing questions. Also there will be a rolling store to supply you with everything you need to start raising your own.

Andy the Chicken Whisperer will be doing a live broadcast from the market that morning.

The market is located at the corner of N. McDonough St. and E. Trinity Place 1 block south of the square next to Decatur High School. Plenty of free parking in the Calloway Building lot at the corner of Trinity Place and Commerce Dr. The entrance is off Commerce Dr.

Be sure to check your local zoning laws before coming to get some chicks!

Anna Millman  |  404-402-9409  |  anna@annamillman.com  |  www.annamillman.com

John Wolfinger in Virginia Highland heeded Anna’s advice and looked up the Atlanta chicken rules:

I just checked our ordinances relating to chickens – we are allowed a maximum of 25 chickens, allowing 2 square feet of land per birds over 4 months of age.

Wondering about Decatur chickens? Your answer lies with the Oakhurst Community Garden! They offer a class on Chicks in the City – and even have an annual tour of chicken coops in Decatur by the same name. You can find a full list of classes on raising chickens and general animal husbandry on the NEW Oakhurst Community Garden website.

• What: Toolapalooza 2010
• When: Tuesday, August 31st from 7 – 10 p.m.
• Where: STATS in downtown Atlanta, 300 Marietta Street, 30310 (by the Omni Hotel)
• How much: $20 gets you in and gets you two free drinks, food, and live music. Click here to order online!
• Bonus! You might win an iPad! You can purchase raffle tickets or, better yet, bring a pair of suede leather work gloves for a FREE raffle ticket and a chance for your very own iPad.

“What is the Atlanta ToolBank and why should I go?” The Atlanta ToolBank is a non-profit that supplies tools to other non-profits and organizations to help them work on project they wouldn’t otherwise have the resources to accomplish. Thanks to Gina, CJ, Patty, and the team, we’ve been able to borrow hundreds of dollars worth of tools to help clean the Atlanta BeltLine, install artists’ work for Art on the BeltLine, and more. So next time your organization has a charitable cause they’re working towards and need to borrow the tools to make it happen, visit the Atlanta ToolBank!

I just wanted to share this quick video from Moore Farms and Friends, a CSA (community supported agriculture) that delivers local Georgia produce and food to dozens of drop-off points around Atlanta each week. I’m going on my second year with them and am excited to get my box this week from Sawicki’s in Decatur. In addition to fresh food (and they have a wide range of dairy, meat, eggs, herbs, preserves, and more), the owners Will and Laurie will include recipes in their weekly newsletter with tips on how to cook items in that week’s box.

Moore Farms and Friends from Moore Farms on Vimeo.

On Sunday, June 27th, Moore Farm and Friends members are invited to tour three farms as part of the Summer Farm Tour and Big Pig Roast. The tour is $25 per adult (kids 12 and under are free) and follows this schedule:

• 10 a.m. (EST) Udderly Cool Dairy Tour – Roopville, GA
• 11:45 a.m. (EST) Mt Gilead Farm Tour – Newell, AL
• 1 p.m. (EST) Moore Farms Tour and Big Pig Roast – Woodland, AL

Each ticket includes a meal (with vegetarian or omnivore options). The Big Pig Roast will feature chefs Steven Herman of Haven and Matt Swickerath of Valenza. (My stomach is already rumbling thinking of the last time Will Moore served as master of ceremonies for a pig roast from some of Atlanta’s top chefs… you’ll want to be there!)

You can find out more about Moore Farm and Friends, buy tickets, and sign up for their CSA service (you pay each week, so no long-term commitments, and you can join any time) on their website, www.MooreFarmsandFriends.com.

• When: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 from 6 – 9 p.m.
• Where: SweetWater Brewery at 195 Ottley Drive Atlanta, GA 30324
• How much: $21 (prices go up to $30 after June 14th)
• Sign me up: click here to RSVP

You can also view the PDF invite here. I’ll be out there and I’d love to meet you, so come out and say hi!

You can read more about Park Pride and their mission to green Atlanta on their website: www.parkpride.org. And become a fan on facebook at: www.facebook.com/parkpride!

The Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons invites us to join them on June 26th, 2010 for a Lantern Parade as part of Art on the BeltLine from Irwin / Krog, up the BeltLine trail, to Park Tavern in Piedmont Park!

Looking for something to do the next full moon? What about a Lantern Parade with Art on the BeltLine and the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons? I just received this from Chantelle, who is putting together this swaray as her performance piece – and she needs all of us.

The Latern Parade is on Saturday night, June 26, with a full moon rise at 9:15! What luck! We will have a tailgate line-up 8-9 at Irwin & Krog and step off at 9pm. We expect to arrive at Park Tavern around 10:30ish, where will tie the lanterns to the fence and have a cold one! We have 4 lantern-making workshops coming up. They are free and only a 30 minute to 2-hour time commitment. A lantern would be a lovely memento for anyone to have from the 1st ever Art on the BeltLine! But the Coleman in your garage works just fine, too.

All the info is here: www.gratefulgluttons.com.

Trees Atlanta invites you to join them for their second annual "City in the Arboretum Conference" this year with a theme of "Bringing the Arboretum Home." Click the image above to register!

Atlanta is known as “The City of Trees” thanks to our canopy of ancient oaks and mature trees, but we still have work to do to expand our greenspaces and plant and preserve native tree species. At this second annual “City in the Arboretum Conference: Bringing the Arboretum Home,” Trees Atlanta will share with guests how to do just that. 25 years ago, Trees Atlanta began their mission to plant trees throughout the city and, as a part of that, have developed seven neighborhood arboreta for educational, scientific, and aesthetic purposes.

Here is more information about the goals of both the Arboreta Program and the Arboretum Conference:

The goals of the Arboreta Program:

• To educate the public about trees and tree species.
• To increase the biodiversity of our urban forest.
• To create new citizen advocates for trees.

The goals of the Conference:

• Share information, tools, and resources to implement arboreta projects and support Trees Atlanta’s mission.
• Connect citizens, neighborhood arboretum leaders, and city leaders through facilitated discussion and networking. We will create a cohort of tree advocates and supporters!

The objectives of the Conference:

• Provide background and accomplishments of BeltLine Arboretum and Neigborhood Arboreta programs.
• Discuss opportunities for getting involved and upcoming events (such as tree walks, maintenance days, and more).
• Learn how to leverage a neighborhood arboretum as a neighborhood asset and attraction.
• Understand arboreta themes and collections, and how to properly document them.
• Discuss the importance of biodiversity.
• Learn basic tree care needs.
• Hear from keynote speakers and professional horticulturalists.
• Facilitate learning, dialog, and feedback that address current and future program needs. Arboreta leaders will exchange successes and challenges in an open forum.
• Take a walking tour of the Inman Park arboretum.

The Arboretum Conference will take place on May 22nd, 2010, from 8:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. You can get all the details and register online right now on the Trees Atlanta website!

Thanks to Robby Astrove with Trees Atlanta for sending this along!

Please bring a reusable water bottle and gloves; tools will be provided.

• The clean-up on the west side will be on Saturday, May 1st at 9 a.m. – meet at Gordon White Park.
• The clean-up on the east side will be on Sunday, May 2nd at 1 p.m. – meet at the intersection of Somerset and the BeltLine.

Please visit the Hands on Atlanta site here for full details, directions, and to RSVP. You can also email me, Jenny, at jenny.p@mac.com.

Thanks so much to Gina with the Atlanta ToolBank, Kim with Hands on Atlanta, Keep Atlanta Beautiful, and the BeltLine team for helping to make these two Art on the BeltLine clean-ups happen!

About Art on the BeltLine:

Join us May through October 2010 as we celebrate the reawakening of old railroad corridor as Atlanta’s new public place with a kick-off arts event staged from late spring through summer. This spring, Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. plans to open nearly 8 miles of the future BeltLine corridor to pedestrians and off-road bicyclists via an interim trail. Visual arts, performing arts and historic site interpretation will direct the public’s attention to this amazing resource that encircles downtown Atlanta!  Potential projects are expected to include temporary sculptures and visual installations, environmental art, murals, transformations of building facades that border the corridor, public performances and more. There also will be a series of historic markers and way-finding signs to orient and introduce the public to Atlanta’s new linear greenway.

Thanks to Dee for passing this along from the Parkview Civic Club google group!

This is going to be a big event, with activities for the whole neighborhood — not just the folks who will be using the garden. DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis and county commissioners Kathie Gannon and Larry Johnson are expected to attend, along with Atlanta City Council member Cleta Winslow and representatives from the Scott’s Miracle Gro company, which provided the grant that allowed us to build the garden.

There will lots of fun activities for children and adults, including: The DeKalb County Extension Service will demonstrate composting, vermiculture (composting using earthworms), and “integrated pest management.” They will also do a “healthy cooking” demonstration” and answer gardening questions.

Home Depot will teach folks about container gardening.

Keep DeKalb Beautiful will have tables where children can make terrariums out of parfait cups and flower garden art out of recycled cans. Keep DeKalb Beautiful is looking for volunteers to help set up the event. If you are interested, please let Susan Potter know at susanleahpotter@gmail.com. Click here for a map of DeKalb Memorial Park!

Earth Day in Decatur's Oakhurst Community Garden!

A mere 40 years ago, the first Earth Day was proudly declared in April and, this year, the City of Decatur and the Oakhurst Community Garden invite you out for the city’s official Earth Day celebration! If you didn’t make it out for the spring plant sale in the garden last week, now is your chance to explore the blooming garden in the weekend sunshine (I ended up going to the plant sale twice last weekend, once to sneak in early so I didn’t miss out on the Romaine lettuce this year and another time to take friends back!).

• What: Earth Day in Decatur
• When: Sunday, April 18, 2010
  12:30 p.m.: kick-off parade in Harmony Park
  1 – 4 p.m.: Earth Day festivities at the community pavilions within the Oakhurst Garden
• Where: Oakhurst Community Garden (map it!)
• Cost: Free!! So bring the whole family!
• Events include:

• Kids’ crafts
• Live music, including the Tessitura Drummers, Morgan Rowe, Sydney Rhame and others
• A live raptor show!
• Special Earth Day t-shirt contest
• Checkin’ out the resident chicks and bees in the garden
• World Famous Cake Contest
• Book reading event
• 30 tables with educational and environmentally-friendly vendors

The Decatur Earth Day is brought to you by the City of Decatur Environmental Sustainability Board, Decatur Active Living Center, Agnes Scott College, the Waldorf School of Atlanta, the Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool, the Decatur Farm to School Initiative, and Oakhurst Community Garden. You can friend the Earth Day in Decatur festival on facebook, too!

Thanks to Gary Garrett, the Chair of Decatur’s Environmental Sustainability Board, for sending this along!

The Oakhurst plant sale has a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and general plants for sale, including heirloom tomatoes, eggplants, beans, peppers, kale, broccoli, lettuce, chard, and much more. The transplants and seedlings are all very affordable, with a focus on certified organic seeds and soil fertilized with worm castings and compost. Have fun playing in the dirt and feeding yourself and your family for less this year!

Here are the details on this year’s Decatur plant sale:

• What: The Oakhurst Community Garden Project’s 2010 “Plant Sale at the Garden”
• When: Saturday, April 10th from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sunday, April 11th from 12 – 4 p.m. (and a members-only preview sale on Friday, April 9th from 6 – 8 p.m.!)
• Where: Oakhurst Community Garden at 453 Oakview Road, Decatur, GA 30030 (map it!)

If you can’t make the Oakhurst plant sale hours, no worries – you can drop by anytime and pick out your plants and leave your payment in the mailbox by the front door. And be sure to take a walk around the garden when you’re there and check out their activities, classes, and membership online at www.oakhurstgarden.org!

Not yet a Georgia Conservancy member? No worries – it’s just $15 for friends and you get a one-year membership. Information will be available to sign up for Generation Green events and trips for 2010.

• What: Save Water, Drink Beer!
• When: March 29th, 2010 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Sweetwater Brewing Company (map it!)
• How much: $10 for Georgia Conservancy members and $15 for non-members (includes a one-year membership)

Click here for full event details on the Georgia Conservancy website (and look for it on facebook!) and register today!

If you would like to pay by check, you can also contact Bryan Schroeder, membership coordinator, at (404) 876-2900 x 110 or bschroeder@gaconservancy.org.

To kick off this green Atlanta event, Park Pride is offering two tours the weekend before the conference. On March 20th, explore the Bellwood Quarry Reservoir (future home to Atlanta’s 300+ acre Westside Park on the Atlanta BeltLine)  and Clayton County’s Newman Wetlands Center with the Green Infrastructure Tour.

On Sunday, March 21s, 2010, take a relaxing tour of Atlanta’s community gardens with an overview of how four neighborhoods are discovering sustainable gardening and self-supported agriculture. You can get info on the Community Garden Tour and the Green Infrastructure Tour schedule on the Parks and Greenspace Conference webpage.

Register online right now!

Some of our volunteer opportunities include staffing the booth at local festivals, becoming a BeltLine Ambassador, administrative help in the office, Art on the BeltLine, social networking, and much, much more!

• What: BeltLine Volunteer Kick-Off 2010
• When: March 18th from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
• Where: Park Tavern on Piedmont Park at the corner of Monroe and 10^th Street in Midtown

Busy summer schedule? Not sure if you’ll have time to volunteer? We still encourage you to come out anyway so you’re trained and prepared to volunteer whenever it’s convenient for you.

Please feel free to bring your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone else who might be interested in learning more about the BeltLine and our volunteer program. You don’t have to have volunteered previously to attend and, of course, you’re under no obligation to volunteer by attending.

If you have other ways you would like to get involved with the BeltLine, please email festivals@beltlinepartnership.org.

As always, a HUGE thanks to all of you who make it possible for the BeltLine booth to appear at over 15 festivals each year and spread the word about the future of Atlanta’s transportation! We look forward to seeing every one of you out at a festival this coming spring, summer, and fall!

You don’t have to take our word for it – check out this BeltLine volunteer video! (and yes, that’s me in there talking about our stellar volunteers!)

Selections include apple, fig, plum and persimmon trees; olive trees; blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry bushes; pineapple guave; muscadine vines; pomegranate / quince; strawberry plants; and much more. Check out the full catalog of fruit trees and bushes here!

• What: The Virginia Highland Hard-to-Find Edible Plants Sale
• When: Saturday, March 13th, 2010 from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. (or pre-order online through March 12th)
• Where: At New Highland Park at the intersection of St. Charles Place and North Highland, across from Belly (Atlanta, 30306)

I’ll be ordering my fruit bushes later today – for now, it’s time for me to head out and play in my own garden for a bit!