In honor of the 50th anniversary of earth day, we have collaborated with several of our campus partners to present a series of workshops hosted by nationally-renown urban farmers and gardeners that the CSUN and CSU community can take part in from their yard/balcony while they aren’t on campus. Everyone (staff/faculty/students) can participate to plant a simple garden with radishes, lettuce, and herbs. In eight weeks, we could all have a virtual “victory salad” (victory gardens were part of the WWII effort that raised food—approximately 40% of the fruits and vegetables. Here’s a recent story in NYT that highlights this history: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/dining/victory-gardens-coronavirus.html). In addition to this, CSUN is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day with a full month of programs and the first-ever all-digital Earth Month! To view the CSUN Earth Month Calendar visit: www.csun.edu/as/earth-month
CSUN Victory Garden 2020 Project
During both World War I ("Liberty Gardens") and World War II ("Victory Gardens"), at least 25% of the nation's fresh fruits and vegetables were planted by families to help prevent a food shortage. Gardeners utilized their lawns and backyards (sometimes called "farmlets") to mobilize food production.
CSUN Sustainability seeks to model this effort, galvanizing our community and the CSU network of students, faculty, and staff to start planting now! You can use your balcony, windowsill, or yard.
Phase 1: Join the CSUN Victory Garden 2020 Community
Complete this quick survey to sign up for the CSUN Victory Garden 2020 Project. During phase one of this project, CSUN Sustainability will distribute seeds to support you start your journey to growing your own victory garden salad!
Phase 2: Ready, Set, Go!
Phase two starts when you receive your seeds in the mail. Once you have your seeds please complete another quick survey to submit your feedback and any questions or comments you may have. Plant, nurture and watch your victory garden salad grow. Capture this wonderful process and share it with @sustaincsun using #victorygarden2020. Stay tuned to see others' progress and participate in our Wednesday Victory Garden Webinars.
Phase 3: Harvest and Celebrate
Harvest your salad and join us virtually to celebrate our victory garden and your success. More information on our virtual meeting will be provided.
Victory Garden Webinar Video Recordings
1. Grow Your Own Victory Garden with Scott Murray - 04-01-2020
3. A New 'Garden Army' with Rose Marie Hayden-Smith - 04-15-2020
4. Public Art and Sustainability with Wayne Healy - 04-21-2020
5. Gardening in Unlikely Places with Yvonne Savio - 04-22-2020
(We suggest watching this video muted, using the captions)
6. CSUN Student Sustainability with Student Interns - 04-29-2020
7. Green Campus and Zero Waste Initiative - 05-13-2020
8. Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Medical Use of Plants With Frida Endinjok, MPH - 06-17-2020
9. Biodiversity in the Food Garden & Exploring Urban Ecology With Richard Rachman - 06-29-2020
10. Urban Composting in the San Fernando Valley With Elliott Kuhn - 07-15-2020
11. Victory Garden Level 2: How to Put Your Seeds to Work With Scott Murray - 07-29-2020
12. Environmental Racism & Social Justice With Lisa Chaudhari and Natale Zappia - 09-17-2020
13. Supporting and Raising Butterflies at Home With Sarah Johnson - 09-22-2020
14. Using Aromatherapy for Wellbeing With Karina Jimenez - 10-12-2020
This website has DIYs, tips for apartment gardening, and other helpful articles on health and wellbeing.
Mobile Gardening Applications:
Open Gaarden brings together history and technology to reimagine what it means to live in this urbanized world, revealing public gardens and nature hidden in plain sight. This app aims to make green spaces part of our everyday life—part of the foreground rather than the background. The goal is to help visualize changes in land use patterns over time—from the movement of farms to the disruption of ecological systems to the reintroduction of these spaces in the twenty-first century.
iNaturalist helps you identify the plants and animals around you. You can use it to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect this kind of information for a common purpose or access the observational data collected by iNaturalist users.
Seed to Spoon Our App makes it simple for you to grow your own fruits, vegetables, and herbs in your backyard or patio economically, efficiently, and sustainably! This application offers personalized planting dates, companion planting guides, plant information & health benefits, recipes, organic pest treatments, and information on botanical insects.
Share resources with us which you find helpful by emailing us.
Have a question? Ask here:
Seed Saving Initiative
CSUN Seed Saving Initiative
Today climate change is one of the greatest threats that humanity faces. The focus of the CSUN Seed Library Initiative is using seed saving as a tool to address that threat; it can be a solution to many of the challenges presented by climate change. It can help address food insecurity in communities all over the world.
Saving seeds from a garden ensures that you will have something to grow for the next season and you don’t have to buy new seeds. Growing your own crops can also help preserve cultural identities. Food is a large part of a culture. Having more control over what is being grown and eaten season to season means that certain dishes that are culturally significant may be eaten more frequently.
The global food system has also presented many challenges for the world as well as for lesser developed nations. It has an enormous carbon footprint due to the transportation of food worldwide. Encouraging seed saving in urban gardens not only sustains those urban green spaces but also helps with preserving biodiversity.
And lastly, one of the greatest benefits is how seed saving changes our relationship with food and nature. It can help people build stronger connections with their food when they understand how it’s grown and where it comes from.
Seed Savers Pamphlet: This guide is intended to provide a foundation of knowledge that will set you on your way to becoming a proficient seed saver. It is necessary to understand how plants reproduce in order to understand how to preserve them. This pamphlet in conjunction with the sustainability presentation and the Spotlight Plants booklet will provide a holistic view on how to save seeds and why seed saving matters.
Butterflies are beautiful and they play an important role in our ecosystem. However, their populations have been steadily declining the last 20 years. Learn some tips on how you can help support butterflies and create your own butterfly garden at your home!
Local groups – Buy Nothing, So Cal Gardeners, LA Native Gardens
Aromatherapy & Wellbeing
Using Aromatherapy for Wellbeing
Discover how plant-based essential oils aid in the reduction of stress and promote mental clarity and physical wellbeing. Check out these links and articles!
