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Greetings!
It's Spring so we're all about gardening this month. Even in our yards independent businesses can help grow community.
We know that lasting change happens step-by-step with consistent attention over time. Gardening exercises these skills. With time and patience, when we garden, we see a new world grow in our familiar old backyards. We become intimate with a special spot on earth. We see how living things have an exchange system for the necessities of life: air, water, nutrients, light. When we eat from our gardens we feel of self-sufficient.
Self-sufficiency, intimacy of place, exchange systems for the necessities of life ... These are what Buy Local Berkeley is all about.
So try growing your own - no matter much space you have. From indoor veggies and apartment worm boxes, to big backyard kitchen gardens anyone can tend the soil in our urban environment.
Read on for ideas for your growing local needs! |
| Win $300 in Gardening Gifts! |
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 Grow Your Economy - Not just your Garden!
When you buy gardening supplies this April, you can grow more than just plants. You can grow your local economy. Shift your spending to the great locally owned, independent gardening stores in Berkeley! The Grow Local Berkeley is an April long raffle at ten garden related businesses across Berkeley. Enter to win $300 in great gardening gifts from independent Berkeley stores. Visit BuyLocalBerkeley.com for details! |
| Local Garden Events |
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 Need a little inspiration?
Lots of local stores host events to educate and inspire everyone from beginners to experts. Here are a few events happening around Berkeley: At Mrs. Dalloways, visit an art exhibit by Helen Krayenhoff, who does beautiful renderings of fruits and veggies.
At The Gardener, check out their new indoor potting studio, where skilled staff members will custom pot an orchid or succulent of your choice.
Sarting in May the Ecology Center will host classes to learn the best growing methods and practices for productive Bay Area vegetable gardening. |
| Spring Jazz on Fourth Street |
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 Sunday, May 17th
The Jazz on Fourth street festival will go down Sunday, May 17, from noon - 5:00 on Fourth Street between Hearst and Virginia.
The free music festival benefits Berkeley High jazz programs and features its director, Charles Hamilton, with his BHS Alumni Band. Also performing will be Johnny Nitro & The Doorslammers, Tito Y Su Son de Cuba, and the award-winning Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. Besides terrific music, Fourth Street will be filled with local merchants offering unique menus, interactive displays, face painting and other children's activities.
The Berkeley High Jazz Program has produced such nationally known musicians as Joshua Redman, Dave Ellis, Michael Wolff, Benny Green and many others. Proceeds from Jazz on Fourth Street will help send the BHS Jazz ensemble to the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland this summer.
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Industry Profile: Indpendent Garden Centers |
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 Independence Means Quality and Experience
Renae Bobbett serves on the Board of the Garden Centers of America (GCA) and directs a nursery in Richland, WA. She shared with Buy Local Berkeley what sets independents apart from other garden centers...
Independents focus on quality and experience. It takes years to grow the knowledge to really serve customers. Our staff are with us on average 9 years. Employees who have worked for a national chain say that our wages and work environment are much better than the boxes. Those stores end up having very high turn over.
Like most independents, our employees have tremendous knowledge of our plants. They also know native plants and how to garden to reduce water use. Quality also extends to the products we sell. Often plants at independents are healthier than at the big boxes. Their roots are in better shape and they are more likely to thrive after planting.
Independent nurseries are a part of their communities. There are over 20,000 independent garden centers across the country. Many of them have been owned by a single family for generations.
To find an independent nursery in Berkeley, check out our special Gardening Section at BuyLocalBerkeley.com. |
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Hope to see you 'round town!
We'll be looking for the dirt under your fingernails!
The Buy Local Berkeley Gang |
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