Pacific Palisades Garden Club Offers Upcoming Field Trips, Guest Speakers

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Pacific Palisades Garden Club spring agenda is buzzing with excitement, including several upcoming field trips and guests scheduled to speak at meetings.

When it comes to field trips, the club will visit Tomatomania, billed as the “largest and longest-running local tomato event,” on Saturday, March 23, at 9 a.m.

“It will be gushing over 250 varieties of unique and exciting seedlings, plus peppers, herbs and veggies,” PPGC promised ahead of the trip.

The event takes place at Tapia Brothers Nursery in Encino. The club planned a local lunch to follow.

“We’ll roll out all our wildest and most wonderful tomato options at this flagship sale,” read the Tomatomania website. “And, of course, we’ll offer quality soils and all the veggie- and tomato-related products that will make this year your best ever. Our amazing staff of tomato maniacs can help you reach your tomato nirvana.”

Next month, the club will visit Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve in Ojai on Saturday, April 27, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Lunch will be hosted after by PPGC members.

“The Conservation Endowment Fund is a nonprofit organization based in Ojai, California,” read the Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve website. “The CEF is steward of the Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve, a 264-acre property located in the foothills of Ojai near Lake Casitas, which is home to the Taft Gardens and 200 acres of preserved Native California Open Space.”

While there is no regular March meeting for PPGC, there were three meetings and speakers lined up for April, May and June.

Long Beach City College horticulture professor Jorge Ochoa will speak at the April 1 PPGC meeting at 7:30 p.m. on “The Intricacies, Flora and Fauna of Griffith Park.”

The next regular meeting—May 6 at 7 p.m.—will feature a talk on “Native California Bees and Solitary Housing,” delivered by beekeeper and Palisadian student Oliver O’Donnell.

On June 3, ethnobotanist and author Lanny Kaufer will speak at 7 p.m. on “Medicinal and Herbal Plants of the Santa Monica Mountains.”

PPGC meetings take place at Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club, located at 901 Haverford Avenue.

Pacific Palisades Garden Club, a nonprofit, operates with a mission to “promote the knowledge and love of gardening; to educate through meetings, tours and publications; and to restore, improve and protect the quality of the environment through projects that demonstrate stewardship of shared habitat and responsible use of resources.”

Community members are invited to join the club for $35 for an individual or $40 for a household.

For more information or to join PPGC, visit pacpalgardenclub.org.