Gather with us in the Glen Green Cul-de-Sac for the final Trombones on the Glen.  You don’t want to miss this iconic Beachwood event being held for the very last time.

An RSVP is not necessary but a dish to share with the community is! One dish per group, sweet or savory, is suggested.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
Staging this event requires many hands to help put it together. If you can spare a couple of hours, it will be greatly appreciated. We'll need help setting up at various times during the day and night from noon until clean up at 9:00pm. Please let us know via the RSVP LINK if you can lend a hand. 

We look forward to seeing you!

Scott Logan, from Wild Wings Ecology, will be leading a morning bird walk at the Lake Hollywood on Saturday, November 2, 2024.  This easy ramble will have an emphasis on finding and identifying birds, as well as discussing their life histories.
 
Nestled in the Hollywood Hills, the reservoir is surrounded by Chaparral and some Black Walnut/Oak Woodland habitats.  We expect to find a diversity of bird species including California Thrasher, Black Phoebe, Bewick’s Wren and Nuttall's Woodpecker. We also anticipate finding some birds on the lake, like the Pied-billed Grebe.
 
The reservoir is encircled by a flat, paved road and we will cover about one mile of it. At that point, we will back-track to our cars and finish the walk. If desired, participants are welcome to continue the 3.5 mile loop after our turn around point. 
 
Meet at 8:00am at the Upper Hollywood Reservoir (there is plenty of street parking) and we'll begin the walk from here.  Dress according to the weather, bring water, a hat, sunscreen and don’t forget your binoculars! There are no bathrooms at this location, but porta-potties are available near the beginning of the walk. Click here for directions to the Bird Walk Meeting Spot.

RSVP is requested. The price per person is $15. Please bring cash to the event or pay via our website. This event is sure to be fun – we look forward to seeing you!

Join us on August 31 at 11AM for Wild Wings: An Intimate Wildlife Journey with Scott Logan of Wild Wings Ecology. Scott's work in the Gottlieb Native Garden continues to reveal the astonishing range of biodiversity that’s capable of thriving in our backyards when native plants and habitat are established. As the garden’s naturalist, Scott has identified over 2000 species of animals on the site – from tiny insects to some of L.A.’s largest mammals. In his presentation An Intimate Wildlife Journey, Scott uses beautiful photography to accompany his engaging stories about the power of native plants. He’s been a featured speaker at the Annenberg Space for Photography, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens as well as garden clubs and environmental organizations all over California.

This presentation will take place at a private residence in the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. The address will shared after you RSVP. Autographed copies of Scott’s The Gottlieb Native Garden: An Intimate Wildlife Journey will be available for sale at the event. RSVP is required.

ABOUT SCOTT LOGAN
Scott Logan is a graphic artist, naturalist and wildlife photographer with images appearing in books, magazines, and scientific periodicals. In his own book The Gottlieb Native Garden: An Intimate Wildlife Journey Scott chronicles the diversity of wildlife living in one single Los Angeles yard. Along with his wife Bonnie, Scott owns Wild Wings Ecology and he is currently the Gottlieb Native Garden’s on-staff Naturalist where he is documenting its wildlife, coordinating University research projects, collaborating with UC Davis on their Hummingbird Health Conservation Program and monitoring the overall health of the garden. Scott is an active nature guide, with excursions focusing on bird life. Being born and raised in Los Angeles has provided him an exceptional insight into its remarkable urban wildlife.

Join us as we honor the Year of the Dragon with our Mandarin Magic Pick-n-Kitchen this Saturday, February 10 from 9AM - 2PM in the Glen Green cul-de-sac. 

Oranges and tangerines play an important role in Chinese New Year traditions, and this year we’ve got a bumper crop here in the canyon. We’ve also got a busload of friends coming up from A Place Called Home. So, all we need to add to the mix is you!

With all the lovely rain this week, our local citrus should be even sweeter and juicier when the sun comes out on Saturday. So we’re gonna need a lot of hands both picking and kitchening!

Here’s the scoop. We’ll break into two crews: Harvest and Kitchen. You can select your crew below. The Harvest Crew picks trees in our neighborhood ­– fruit that would otherwise go to waste – and brings the haul back to our home base in the cul-de-sac. Then the Kitchen Crew collectively prepares a portion of the fruit in our pop-up kitchen. This year we’re making Spiced Mandarin Oranges!

At midday, both crews will reunite for a delicious New Year’s themed lunch. Finally, the rest of the harvest will be sorted and boxed up for delivery to others in our community. We’re talking tons of citrus saved and brought directly to the people who need it most.

And where does the fruit go? The bulk of our harvest is shared with partners like A Place Called Home, an incredible community center in South Central LA, and the Downtown Women's Center, the only organization in LA exclusively dedicated to addressing the needs of women overcoming poverty and homelessness on Skid Row. We also work with Council District 4 to get fruit to folks in need right here in Hollywood.

Have a fruit tree that needs picking? Let us know and we’ll send a crew over.

Wow! What a rainy season!  After years of working to get a decent cover crop going on our groves of Orchard Trees, Mother Nature really gave us a hand. The mix of native and non-natives we’ve planted at the Mini-Grove, the Upper Mini-Grove and the Hollyridge Grove have really taken off! And now that some of them are starting to go to seed, it’s time to rein them in a little. In year’s past, we would’ve pulled them out. As if they were weeds! Now, thanks to all our Soil Sponge friends, we know better.

It’s time to Chop and Drop the Cover-Crop! 

That’s right, we’ll trim down the bulk of our cover crop plants, and leave them to mulch right where they fall - returning those nutrients to the soil, while leaving all those roots in place and the network of soil-building organisms undisturbed.

Pretty amazing stuff. And we can use your help! 

We’ll be Chopping and Dropping and even doing a little Composting next Saturday, April 29 from 9am to 1pm. Starting at the Mini-Grove, then moving to the Upper Mini-Grove and the Hollyridge Grove.

Bring hand-pruners or garden shears if you have them, wear good gloves and we’ll get right to work! We’ll help build the soil so that the trees we’ve planted really thrive!

Look forward to seeing you there!

Join us on Saturday, March 11 from 9AM - 1PM for our Citrus Bliss Pick (Part 2). This is a follow-up event to glean more fruit for our charities A Place Called Home & Downtown Women's Center. 

We will gather for the pick (and subsequent tasting of our Orchard-made water kefir) at the home of Tom & Nancy Amandes at 2751 Pelham Place, Los Angeles, CA 90068. This event will take place outside so please bring water and hand pruners (if you have them) and wear layers and sunscreen. Please let us know if you can make it!

Do you have a citrus tree that’s got more than you can handle? Let us know and we’ll send over a crew of neighborhood volunteers to pick it. And don’t worry, you control how much we harvest. We’ll only take as much as you want to share. If you prefer to pick the tree yourself and donate, that’s great too! Just let us know if you’ll be dropping off, or if you’d like to arrange for us to pick it up.

Back at our big January Composting Weekend, we had the good fortune to meet neighbor Sirach Fortuna, who runs the One World, One Nation Community Garden in Hollywood. Sirach brought a bunch of bottles of his delicious, homemade Water Kefir, in both lemon and pomegranate flavors – two fruits that The Orchard now grows plenty of!

Water Kefir is a delicious, healthy, slightly tangy, lightly fermented beverage that is reminiscent of a lighter, more refreshing kombucha. Goes down very easy!

This Saturday, Sirach has offered to come by and show us how it’s done! Normally, we do our Farmers' Circles outside. But with lots of lovely rain in the forecast, we’re moving this event to the Amandes' place on Pelham Place – outside if it’s dry, inside if it’s not. We’ll make a big batch of the first fermentation, then share it with everyone after the second fermentation in a couple weeks’ time.

Stop by and we’ll raise a glass to the Rainy Season!

The Details: Our Water Kefir Demo Farmers' Circle will take place on Saturday, February 25 from 10AM – Noon at Tom and Nancy Amandes' house at 2751 Pelham Place, Los Angeles, CA 90068. RSVP if you please.

We've really missed you! After three years of small and often distanced harvest, soil, and tree work, we want to have fun together again at one of our big community picks! Being with you is truly our bliss!

This time, we'll be gathering home-grown oranges, tangerines, lemons, and grapefruit that have valiantly flourished, despite the severe drought, to our basecamp at the Glen Green cul-de-sac in Beachwood Canyon. There we will use a small portion of the harvest to do some fruit-crafting, so you will learn a new recipe and have something to take home!

The vast majority of the fruit we pick together will go to our longstanding beneficiaries at Downtown Women's Center and A Place Called Home.

If this is your first time picking or kitchening, no worries -- we’ll teach you all you need to know to participate in whichever crew you choose to join. And while we ask that you select one, there is usually plenty of help needed in the kitchen once the picking is through. This event is entirely family friendly, and all ages are welcome. We just ask that small children only engage only in age-appropriate activities.

More details to come ... Please won't you join us? We'll be out there, rain or shine!

Harvest Crew: please bring a pruner/fruit picker (if possible), large canvas bag & water bottle and wear gloves, long sleeves & sturdy shoes

Please note: Our Citrus Bliss Pick-n-Kitchen will take place on Saturday, February 11th from 9AM-2PM in the Glen Green Street cul-de-sac in the Beachwood Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles. This event will take place outside so please bring water and wear layers and sunscreen.

Do you have a citrus tree that’s got more than you can handle? Let us know and we’ll send over a crew of neighborhood volunteers to pick it. And don’t worry, you control how much we harvest. We’ll only take as much as you want to share. If you prefer to pick the tree yourself and donate, that’s great too! Just let us know if you’ll be dropping off, or if you’d like to arrange for us to pick it up.

Greetings from the Pacific Southwest! The forecast for this weekend shows a chance of actual sunshine on Sunday morning! So much like Mom always said: take a break from your dang screens! And go outside and play with your friends! (Your friends from the Orchard, of course.)

We’ll gather promptly at 9am at our very lush Mini Grove, for a quick dedication of a couple special trees. Then we’ll hike down together to Beachwood Drive, where Orchard favorite Nora Anilian has promised Armenian goodies to go along with our coffee and baked goods! We’ll plant a number of fruit trees with Nora and a couple other adoptive tree parents nearby, to further add to our growing Virtual Orchard!

Then we’ll sit back, and hope that Mother Nature continues to supply more of this wonderful liquid sunshine to get our plantings off to a good start!

So come get your hands dirty! (Or muddy, as the case may be.) Rain or shine, we promise you won’t regret it. Bring gloves and work clothes, maybe a light jacket that sheds a little rain. 

One good turn deserves another, so the next day Trees & Soil Chiefs at Hollywood Orchard, Lora Hall and Tom Amandes will lead a smaller composting session at the Glen Green Mini Grove, followed by a hike through the hills to check in on a bunch of the fruit trees we've planted in seasons past, in order to prepare for our upcoming Diggin' In planting event January 15.

Your fresh veg & fruit scraps are very welcome for the compost pile, as are fresh grass cuttings and leaves. Again, dress for dirty work, wear good walking shoes or boots, bring some gloves, some water, a hat, maybe some garden shears, and we'll supply the rest.

We’ll be working with our favorite APCH students to do a thing or two with Poms & Persimmons from our recent picks. Our first hands-on, in-person event at APCH in years!

We could use a handful of adult volunteers to help the groups of kids with the activities. Please RSVP if you can join us to help make this day special and go smoothly.

Feeling a little cooped up? Come on outside and play! (Safely, of course.) We’ve got a bunch of trees to plant and more at our annual Diggin’ In Plant-o-rama!

Over the last seven or so years, Hollywood Orchard has planted over a hundred trees with loving adoptive tree parents throughout the neighborhood. This weekend, we’re going to add to that number with the first Diggin’ In day of the year.

We’ll start at the Mini Grove where we’ll fill in a number of available slots, and add to the thriving cover crop with a selection of native plantings. (Those of you who helped with the Soil Sponge work last month, you won’t believe all the sprouts coming up! We couldn’t have timed the rain any better!) Time permitting, a handful of us may run over to the Hollyridge Grove to plant a couple trees there.

Safety first: We’ll require masks and recommend vaccinations and boosters for all. Please bring gloves and water. Please RSVP below.

Thanks for all the volunteers who came out last Sunday. That was fun, but we have more work to do! Join us THIS SATURDAY at our Hollyridge Grove. We’ll be revisiting our plantings there, just two years after putting them in. And it’s all looking really good (especially after our three inches of rain this week)!

We’ll be Chopping & Dropping, Composting, Seeding and Mulching – all in preparation for our Diggin’ In next month. So come lend a hand, and play in the dirt. You’ll be glad you did. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP today.

These cooler months are always a good time to prepare our trees for the coming year. So we’ve got work days planned for pruning, cover-crop seeding, mulching, composting and even planting fruit trees to replace those we’ve lost during the drought.

First up is a safe, in-person event at the Mini Grove on December 12th at 9AM. RSVPs are limited and social distancing and masks are required. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP today.

From Surviving to Thriving

Our Mini Grove trees have been hanging in there, but with the weather getting hotter and drier, we know they’re going to need our help getting truly established and vigorous. And it all starts with the soil. Come lend a hand, and see how creating a Soil Sponge can help our hillside bloom, bear fruit and retain water better than ever.

We’ll be hosting a safe, in-person event at the Mini Grove on November 7th at 9AM. RSVPs are limited and social distancing and masks are required. If you’d like to join us, please RSVP today.

Growing Sub Tropical and Unusual Fruit with Steve Hofvendahl
Online Workshop/Webinar
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (pacific)

Fruit Enthusiast Steve Hofvendahl will discuss his experience with odd and rare fruit. Wanna know the difference between White, Black, Chico and Mamey Sapotes? (Hint: none are related to each other). From exotic mangos to upstate New York paw paws and from vining kiwis to multi leading guavas (all 3 kinds of guavas), etc. – he’ll share the failures, surprise successes and valuable lessons learned in the 20 years of his Altadena fruit growing experiment. 

Steve Hofvendahl is an actor, Master Gardener, and was the Nursery Manager and Fruit Tree Kahuna at TreePeople for eleven years where he administered the successful distribution of over 50,000 fruit trees to Los Angeles County Angelenos.

You must RSVP in order to receive login details.

$10 suggested donation.