[conspire] OT: Fifth Annual Edible Landscaping Tour

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Rick Moen (rick at linuxmafia.com):

> Just before this Saturday's CABAL meeting, Deirdre, Cheryl, and I will
> be doing one of the highlights of summer in the Peninsula / Silicon
> Valley:  The Fifth Annual Edible Landscaping Tour, organised by Common
> Ground Palo Alto.  

_Palo Alto Weekly_ had a related story, a few days ago.  It's archived
online at http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/story.php?story_id=15235 


Friday, July 15, 2011
Planting new ideas
Edible garden tour inspires local enthusiasts to grow organic
by Casey Moore

Avid backyard gardener Jake Hartinger meanders within the waist-high
green forest that sits prominently in the center of his Palo Alto
backyard. He reaches inside one of his Sun Gold tomato plants and pulls
out two yellow, marble-sized fruits, rinses them under a hose, and pops
one into his mouth.

"This is my family's favorite tomato," he said. "My kids come out and
eat these. They forage and eat as many as they can find."

Hartinger's edible garden will be one of 10 featured in the fifth annual
Edible Landscaping Tour on Saturday, July 23, presented by Common Ground
Organic Garden Supply and Education Center and more than two dozen
community partners. This year's tour will showcase the most physically
broad array of gardens to date, including gardens from Palo Alto, Los
Altos, Mountain View and Menlo Park.

The popular tour annually brings together around 250 local gardening
enthusiasts for a tour of organic, sustainable gardens in the area, from
which participants can draw inspiration and ideas for their own
gardening.

"It's so great to share it with the community so that they can see: This
is approachable," said Patricia Becker, center manager at Common Ground.
"There's not just one way to do it. There's many ways they can do it.
It's just an exploration and an adventure and fun!"

Hartinger's adventure involves growing more than two dozen different
types of plants year-round. As he walks around the garden's border of
stepping-stones and wooden planks, he points out cucumbers, peppers,
chard, squash, beans, eggplant, four varieties of sunflowers and 15
types of tomatoes. His garden also boasts seven fruit trees —
oranges, lemons, figs and apples — and herbs such as basil, rosemary
and thyme.

"Most people have really well-defined beds," Hartinger said, motioning
to a small, stand-alone corner spot where his bean plants grow. "But I
change the paths and change where I grow things. ... I like to make
different pathways every year."

Hartinger's green thumb sprouted in high school when he enrolled in an
organic gardening class. The subject immediately sparked his interest.

"It's just relaxing and kind of fun," said Hartinger, who works
professionally as a consultant at Cisco.

He was unable to begin large-scale gardening until he and his wife Amy
moved into their Barron Park home nearly 20 years ago. The couple chose
this house mainly for its large backyard and gardening potential.

"Or I did anyway," Hartinger said, laughing. His wife and three children
are mainly "harvesters," he said, while he does the dirty work.

Literally. Hartinger picks up a shovel and thrusts it deep into the dark
garden soil until the long spade disappears. The soil bounces slightly.
When the shovel is removed, dirt falls off the spade with the delicacy
of cotton fluff.

By contrast, "this is the soil of Palo Alto," Hartinger said. He stabs
an adjacent dirt patch, and the soil merely dents a few inches.

Hartinger attributes the vast difference to double digging, a technique
he learned in a course at Common Ground. This aeration process involves
digging two shovel-lengths deep to prepare the soil for planting, he
said.

"The most important thing to grow vegetables is to have plenty of air
for the roots," he said.

He also maintains a compost bin layered with "dirt, food scraps, green
matter and straw," which he mixes and re-layers about once a month. His
family contributes enthusiastically to the stockpile, he said. Today,
the top layer is decorated with bright lemon and orange peels and
white-larvae-spotted dirt.

Compost and double-digging, Hartinger said, are the keys to a successful
home garden. Maintaining these practices means he only spends about four
hours per week on his garden, he said.

"I consider myself a lazier gardener," he said. "The soil is so nice now
that I can almost plant things anytime I want to, without even doing
work."

Often, his vegetables even plant themselves. His homemade, organic
compost is not sterilized, so any discarded seeds are re-scattered
across the ground when he lays down a new layer of compost.

"See, that's a 'volunteer' potato right there," Hartinger said, pulling
the fist-sized vegetable out from beneath the wooden pathway. "I don't
know how that got there."

The composition of the garden is always changing, Hartinger said. The
newest addition, chickens, arrived six months ago as a birthday present
for his youngest daughter. Currently, he is growing radishes in a wooden
flat and plans to transplant them in a couple of weeks.

"I bought a food dehydrator this year, too," Hartinger said. "I'm going
to try and dehydrate some of the vegetables." He hopes to preserve
zucchini, apricots, apples, squash and carrots for use in soups and
stews.

Hartinger hopes his fellow Palo Altans will try gardening. "I think
everybody should grow something," he said. "It's not that hard, and it's
so rewarding to be able to just go out and grab food from your yard."

What: Edible Landscaping Tour

When: Saturday July 23, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: 10 gardens in Palo Alto and surrounding areas, beginning at
Common Ground, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto

Cost: $35. Register at Common Ground or online.

Info: commongroundinpaloalto.org or call 650-493-6072

Editorial Intern Casey Moore can be reached at cmoore at paweekly.com