350 Home and Garden Garden Challenge 2012

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2008, Living Mandala
creative services by: 360 Degrees

In Association With

Daily Acts

iGROW Sonoma

Sonoma County, CA

Transition US

* Additional Coalition Partners & Sponsors listed Below

* Plus 100’s of Participating Organizations, Businesses, & Citizens in Sonoma County, CA & Across the Country

350 Home & Garden Challenge 2011

On May 12th & 13th, 2012 thousands of people across Sonoma County will rise to the challenge to create more sustainable, resilient communities by participating in the 350 Home & Garden Challenge!

The 350 Garden Challenge was inspired in part by the 350.org's international campaign to find and implement solutions to climate change.

Building upon the incredible success of 628 garden actions in 2010 and 1,044 home and garden actions in 2011, our goal this year is to inspire 2,012 actions to grow food, conserve water, and save energy. From small to large, every action counts. Together, we can become more food and energy independent, and build our communities stronger, healthier, more beautiful, and more resilient!

Remembering the Roots: 350 Home & Garden Challenge 2010

On a single weekend in the spring of 2010, Daily Acts, iGROW Sonoma, GoLocal & Living Mandala collaborated with the Sonoma County Water Agency and dozens of community groups and local companies to create the 350 Garden Challenge. The goal was simple: 350 garden actions in a single weekend to transform Sonoma County landscapes into bountiful gardens which save water, and carbon emissions, grow food and habitat, and promote greywater and low-impact development, all while educating and empowering community and supporting local businesses. What happened was an amazing success that is now inspiring communities across the country: 628 garden actions in a single weekend! The 350 Garden Challenge in Sonoma County, CA engaged citizens, organizations, local businesses, media and civic leaders to save water and improve access to healthy, fresh local food while positioning Sonoma County as a national leader in the local food movement and water conservation. For more Info on the 350 Garden in 2010 Click Here.

Stand up and Be Counted!

Help others. Inspire a neighbor and help them transform their lawn. Plant extra food and share the bounty. As lead organizers for the 350 Home and Garden Challenge, Daily Acts and iGrow will provide ideas, educational opportunities, community connections, and resources to inspire and support your efforts! Register Now!

Get National! Take the Transition Challenge!

Join the thousands of people taking the Transition Challenge this May. There are any number of actions you can take to improve the place where you live while at the same time showing support for local businesses & efforts, educating & raising awareness, building community and empowering youth. Pick up your shovels and tools. Help construct rainwater harvesting systems. Install solar panels. Make energy efficiency improvements, and share garden know-how with their friends and neighbors. Have a potluck! This is an opportunity to promote and increase participation in city and county programs for lawn removal, greywater and healthy food while creating innovative demonstration gardens in communities ranging from front yards to apartment patios, city landscapes, schools, churches, organizations and businesses. Sound inspiring? Register your action so we can show the world just how powerful we are as a movement then check out the Actions Map to see who else is taking on the challenge.

In 2011 we logged over 1,500 actions. This year we are aiming for 2012! Be sure to check out last year's challenge summary. Organizing a Challenge in your town (or city, village, county, parish, island) not only helps raise awareness and continues to build local resilience, it offers an opportunity for your citizens to be a part of something much larger. This is the perfect opportunity for communities across the country to come together and show their solidarity. Register for the Transition Challenge Here!

How your Group Can Get Involved

The 350 Home & Garden Challenge’s success is dependent on many organizations, groups and individuals getting involved. We hope you are as excited as we are about catalyzing this moment of interest in growing, conserving water, saving energy, and building community into one mass mobilization in Sonoma County, CA and across the country with the Transition Challenge. We are looking for partners and have many ways your group can get involved.

1.Get Involved with Organizing an Action or Event - Take initiative in your community organize an action, a demonstration project, publicizing the event, recruit volunteers, and outreach to local groups.
2.Adopt a Project - Your group can take on a project at a public spot, an individual’s home, a business, or a church.
3.Publicize to Your Network - We hope to partner with as many groups as possible to get the word out. Send out information to your email list, write about it in your newsletter, put up information in your office.
4.Recruit volunteers - You have connections to hundreds of people we might not be able to reach, can you use your network to put out the word that we need volunteers to help both before and during the weekend.
5.Register an Action!
Stand up and be counted!

Regional & National Contacts

Sonoma County California - Daily Acts:

http://dailyacts.org/350-challenge

phone: 707-789-9664

Register Your Action in Sonoma County

Nationally - Transition US

http://transitionus.org/actions/transition-challenge

Register Your Action Nationally via Transition US.

350 Home & Garden Challenge 2012 Video

Register Your Action in Sonoma County, CA via Daily Acts.

Register Your Action Nationally via Transition US.

So What Exactly is the 350 Home & Garden Challenge? And the Transition Challenge?

You as an individual in your community can identify a specific project or action in one or more of the four challenge areas: food, water, energy and community. All we ask is for you to stand up and be counted by registering your project or action so we can document the strength and impact of this movement and show the world just how powerful we are when we stand together as a national community taking responsibility for our future. Check out the 350 Home & Garden Challenge Actions Map to see who else is taking on Challenge.

Why 350?

For all of human history until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 parts per million of carbon dioxide. 350 parts per million is the number that scientists, climate experts, and progressive national governments are now saying is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere to avert drastic climate change. We are currently at 390 and climbing. Unless we are able to rapidly return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching a tipping point of irreversible change on the ecological systems we know and are dependent upon that will effect all life as we know it.

We can turn this challenge into an opportunity to come together to create real solutions to the climate crisis, to strengthen our resiliency and self-reliance, and to build the world we have always dreamed to live in.

Get Involved!

Big challenges require an inspired vision and bold action. We are asking for your support to spread the word, engage your friends, neighbors, social groups, churches, co-workers, and civic leaders. The best way to make this country more food, water, and energy independent is to do it ourselves. It’s our community and WE make a difference... especially when we work together.

Grow Food...

* Transform your lawn into a food garden.
* Join or start a community garden.
* Grow a row for a local food bank
* Get educated! Attend a workshop.

Conserve Water...

* Switch to drip irrigation

* Install a greywater system or a rainwater garden
* Install a swale, rain chain, ground cover, or other stormwater management techniques
* Install water conserving appliances (toilet, shower heads, faucets)

Save Energy...

* Unplug energy zapping appliances, computers, games
* Conduct a home energy audit
* Weatherize your home, apartment or office
* Instal renewable energy technologies

Stand Up, Be Counted, Tell Your Friends, and Join the 350 Home & Garden Challenge Today!

What Can You Do?

Here’s are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

•Convert your lawn (or patio/balcony) to grow food
•Plant a fruit tree
•Create an herb garden
•Grow a row for a local food bank
•Start a worm bin or compost
•Install low flow
•Set up a greywater system
•Harvest rainwater
•Switch to drip irrigation
•Hang a clothes line
•Conduct a home energy audit
•Unplug and tune-in to Nature
•Have a block party and share stories
•Help a neighbor meet the 350 Challenge

Discounts from Local Sponsor! Register Today.

Register today and be eligible for these terrific offers from our generous business partners, while supplies last.

•One free yard of compost from Sonoma Compost from now through May 13th, 2012.
•20% off drip irrigation supplies, May 7-20, Sebastopol Hardware.
•Free laundry line consultation with laundry line guru Laura Shafer when you register a laundry line action
•Throughout 2012, redeem 20% off locally-sourced herbal tinctures from Herban Ecology's Apothecary.
•30% off veggies May 12-13 from Cottage Gardens of Petaluma.
•20% off potted fruit trees, May 4-13, Grow Gardens Nursery.
•Register your garden action in-store at Friedman’s May 12-13th, and receive a FREE 1-quart perennial for your garden (while supplies last).

***Must show proof of registration to redeem***

Register Your Action in Sonoma County via Daily Acts.

Register Your Action Nationally via Transition US.