When tidepooling along the beach here on the Central Coast, I admittedly like to poke at the marine life.  But what exactly am I pestering?  Enter the Avila Beach Sea Life Center to shed a little light on my adventures in aquatic biology.  Located just south of San Luis Obispo, the Center allows visitors to learn about one of the most fascinating aquatic ecosystems in California.  Open to the general pubic and for schools and birthday parties, the aquarium is a must for anyone interested in science and nature.

For students, the Floating Lab takes participants out onto the open sea where they trawl for plankton, perform sea water chemistry, dissect squid, and observe marine birds and mammals in their natural habitats.  The facility-based Discovery Lab course lets teachers select from a diverse curriculum of fun games, lectures, animal encounters, and interactive activities that teach about the fascinating inhabitants of the Pacific, the importance of a healthy environment, and how we as humans can care for our watery neighbors.

The Avila Sea Life Center is the only public marine education facility between Lompoc and Monterey.  Adult admission is $3, students/seniors $2.  Come take a stroll along the beach, and discover another universe not far from home! (For more information, email info@avilamarine.org).

Armed with knowledge and looking for adventure?  Test your smarts and observation skills with some great ocean-side hikes:

- Montana De Oro: This state park in Los Osos offers a number of fantastic bluff and beach trails that provide wonderful views of the ocean, tidepooling, and bird-watching.  If you are lucky, you may even spot a sea otter, sea lion, or whale during their migration season.

- San Simeon:  Famous for its colony of breeding elephant seals,  park and walk several feet to take a gander at one of the ocean’s most impressive marine mammals.  However, be careful not to get too close to the hulking, snorting masses of blubber!  Males are known to be pretty aggressive and are a lot faster than they appear.

- Pismo/Oceano Dunes:  Check out one of the last refuges for the endangered Snowy Plover as well as a number of other ocean and estuary birds.  Take care not to get run over by drivers as the Dunes are one of the last public beaches in California to allow vehicles.

- Pirate’s Cove:  If you are an immodest enough soul to endure a little nudity on this clothing-optional beach located slightly south of Port San Luis, you are almost certain to encounter harbor seals in this sunny, quiet stretch of sand and sea.

Star Wars fans, tree huggers, and perpetual children rejoice, an Oregon man living in Cave Junction has done what many of us have long dreamed of doing.  Michael Garnier has built what might possibly be the largest concentration of treehouses in the world.  Dubbed the “Ewok Village“, the collection of houses complement the state’s “tree-mendous” and “tree-riffic” forests.

After leaving the Army from his post as a Green Beret medic, Garnier decided that he wanted to make a living off of the scenery without having to cut it down in the process.   He loved to work with wood, and began crafting picture propellers that use the eye’s natural responses towards the rapid shift between light and shadow to produce what he refers to as an “organic, psychedelic kaleidoscope”.  After trying his hand at constructing fences, pole barns, and furniture, Garnier found that renting his treehouses as vacation lodgings allowed him an income and a way to give people a new perspective on how to use the land. He also sells the parts and plans of his own invention for those who wish to construct their own mansion in the branches.

Designed to work with the tree’s natural biology, each house incorporates techniques that allow for the structures to become a part of the plant’s anatomy.  Eventually, attaching bolts and supports merge with the trunk and branches, creating the least obtrusive and strongest possible foundation for the dwellings.  Interconnected houses utilize sliding brackets that accommodate for wind and growth.  Complete with furnishings, spiral staircases, toilets, and windows opening onto the canopy, the houses resemble comfortable, upscale cabins.  Bridges connect each residence, and luggage and cleaning supplies are hoisted from the ground by ropes and pulleys.  His own house is an 1800 sq foot building that is supported by seven trees and may be the largest treehouse ever constructed.

Between Garnier’s prolific use of tree puns, amazing houses, and reportedly amazing meals cooked at this unique bed and breakfast, I am longing for an excuse to visit rural Oregon.  Branch out from a boring, tradition hotel or camping tent and leaf for a trip for the world’s most incredible treesort!

Garden guru Steve Solomon likes to pamper his veggies.  To make sure that they receive all the nutrients they need without the risk of leaching or or overloading the plants, Solomon uses his own home-made fertilizer in his garden.  A result of  over 30 years of experience, this mix is easy to make, affordable, and certain to raise an edible paradise.  Unlike many store-bought formulas, this organic fertilizer is free of harmful chemicals, includes valuable trace minerals, naturally slow-release, and is slower to dissolve.

What You Will Need:

Seed Meals- One of the most important ingredients, the seed meals are the byproducts of vegetable oil production.  Mainly used as feed for animals, they are labeled by protein content instead of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium composition like most fertilizers.  Composed of flaxseeds, sunflowers, cotton seeds, canola, and a variety of other plants, seed meals should be purchased free of genetic modification and be certified organic whenever possible.  Chemical-free grass clippings can be used as a substitute, although they will not stimulate the same growth as the meal.

Bone Meal, Guano, Phosphate Rock- All of these compounds help to add phosphorus.  Bone meals are probably the easiest  of the three to find in garden centers.

Kelp Meal- Seaweed provides a wide variety of trace minerals as well as hormones which act like vitamins that help a plant cope with environmental stresses.  Farm supplies will sell sacks of the meal, but lucky residents of the coast may opt to take a shovel and flatbed truck to the beach.

Lime- This rock possesses huge levels of calcium and is available in three types.  Agricultural lime is pure calcium carbonate, gypsum is calcium sulfate, and dolomite contains both calcium and magnesium carbonates.  Dolomite is the most preferred, but a combination of all three will produce the best results.  Make sure not to use chemically active “hot limes” which are sold as hydrated lime, quicklime, and burnt lime.

The Mix:

Measuring all ingredients by volume, mix uniformly:

- 4 parts seed meal

-1/4 part ordinary agricultural lime, finely ground

- 1/2 part agricultural lime (or 1/4 gypsum)

-1/2 part dolomitic lime

Then add:

- 1 part bone meal, rock phosphate or guano

-1/2-1 part kelp meal (or basalt dust)

Application:

Before planting, or at least once yearly (usually in the spring) apply one quart of fertilizer evenly.  Add a quarter inch of compost evenly on top of each 20 square feet of planting area.  Blend the layers with a hoe or spade.  For vegetables that demand more food like melons, cabbage, brussel sprouts, and spinach, sprinkle small quantities of fertilizer around the root systems every couple of weeks.  Gardens with heavy clay soils should expect to use 50% more fertilizer.

Get growing!