Blood Bank Offers Tasty Rewards Straight from New Edible Landscape

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

The next time you leave the San Diego Blood Bank, proudly sporting your badge-of-honor arm wrap, you’ll have even more to feel good about. Not only will your donation help save lives, but you’ll support an organization that is doing its part for the environment through sustainable landscaping.

The San Diego Blood Bank just welcomed the final touches on an edible, sustainable landscape at its new San Diego Gateway Donor Center. The garden looks delectable from any angle—organic citrus and avocado trees will provide employees with a tasty treat during the day, while native plants save water and cut pollution that would run into our waterways.

For over six decades, the San Diego Blood Bank has helped save the lives of countless San Diegans. Hospital patients and trauma victims across our county depend on the generous donations of 400 blood donors per day, who know the Blood Bank is an organization they can trust to do the right thing for San Diego.

Now the Blood Bank is giving again with its new eco-friendly landscape, designed by Revolution Landscape, a homegrown San Diego business committed to providing residents with fresh, healthy food grown right in their own backyards.

The new landscape features a unique mix of low-water native plants, fruit trees, and other edibles. Avocado and citrus trees replace a water-hungry lawn, while fragrant sages and milkweed provide a habitat for monarch butterflies. The new native plants will require little to no water, a rare and welcome sight in parched San Diego.

“Donors and employees alike were curious and excited about the prospect of growing organic food onsite,” said Revolution Landscape co-owner Ari Tenenbaum. “We listened closely to the ideas of Blood Bank staff, and even planted several varieties of avocado trees at the request of employees.”

This isn’t the first time Revolution Landscape has turned an outdoor space into a beautiful, productive, and eco-friendly landscape. The company’s trademark green flamingo is cropping up in yards across the city, challenging its 1950s lawn ornament cousin. With the green flamingo comes fruit trees, vegetables, and native plants—a far cry from the costly, chemical-infused grass so often seen around our city.

Having grown up in University City, Revolution Landscape co-owners Jeff Robbins and Ari Tenenbaum are hungry to show San Diegans the true meaning of fresh, organic, and local. For Robbins and Tenenbaum, the Blood Blank garden is more than just another landscape. They hope that donors and employees will be inspired to plant their own fruit trees and native gardens at home.

“Building edible gardens at homes is always rewarding, but we were especially eager to create this landscape for the Blood Bank, which gives hope to so many San Diegans,” said Robbins. “We wanted to give back, and now the garden will continue to provide for and inspire blood donors and staff for years to come.”

So even if your plate is feeling full this fall, head on over to the Blood Bank. Help your fellow San Diegans by giving blood, and get a taste of another fresh idea that’s bringing energy and flavor to our community.

For photos of the Blood Bank’s new edible garden, visit:

www.flickr.com/photos/revolutionlandscape

To learn more about growing fresh, organic food in your own yard, visit:

www.revolutionlandscape.com

Posted in Press Releases, Revolution Updates | No Comments »