High Country Gardens is back!

In a time when water is low and worries are high, anguished gardeners watch helplessly as cherished plants succumb to drought: trees that shaded generations of family, heirloom flowers from ancestral lands, and perennial beds are withered and brown.  We need help, we need heroes; we need Superman.  Just in time, he’s back. 

Though things looked dire, our Superman didn’t withdraw to the Fortress of Solitude; western gardeners are made of tougher stuff.  What David Salman did was forge new partnerships, bringing High Country Gardens back from the ravages of its own kryptonite:  forest fires, drought, and the economy.  Teaming with American Meadows, the beloved source for tough, xeric plants is back in business, right here in Denver at Center Greenhouse.

“I’m excited about the future; in a sense, this is embarking on a new career.  I can spend more time and effort on plants, speaking, and writing,” said Salman, who is eager to work with the Vermont-based company.  “American Meadows is letting me continue my role as Chief Horticulturist; I’m responsible for the choice of plants in the catalog.  They have the marketing expertise; I’m still able to educate people, make the selections, and keep our eco-friendly focus.  Our catalog is a little smaller, but still maintains a good breadth of selection, still focused on unusual, unique, garden-worthy plants.”

American Meadows, with its emphasis on wildflowers, was a perfect fit for purchasing High Country Gardens.  “We’re excited to have High Country Gardens as a brand, because it’s something I’ve looked up to for a while,” said Ethan Platt, President.  “We have no desire to change it; it’s too good a brand to mess with.  And David is really a unique resource – we’re eager to work with him.”

Maintaining a small research facility in Santa Fe, Salman and two of his long-time growers continue to develop new plants for the western landscape, sending cuttings and stock plants here to Center Greenhouse where the plants are grown.  With its roots in Denver firmly established, the 64-year old company is a leader in propagating and growing plants for wholesale to garden centers.  “We’ve increased staff by 10 employees just for this partnership,” says Brian Yantorno, Vice-President of Center. 

Center Greenhouses’ expertise is what Salman was searching for to take over care of plants as close to his heart as family.  “These plants need specific conditions to propagate them; you can’t do it in many places, not southern California, not the east coast.  I wanted to choose the very best wholesale growers to grow the best,” said Salman, who moved his production over the past month and a half.  “It was a huge move – imagine packing up a 2-acre house with thousands of plants, then getting them re-established in the new location.”

Celebrating their 20 years, High Country is offering 20 exciting plants, featuring their 2013 Plant of the Year, Phlox ‘Perfect Pink’ (Phlox nana).  The west Texas/New Mexico native is a showcase of the glory xeric plants possess: long blooming flowers of deep pink with a white eye on a tough, long-lived plant. 

Or snap up the new hybrid Skullcap ‘Dark Violet,’ (Scutellaria) with its masses of blooms in rich, seductive tones of reddish-blue.  “Thank goodness I’m not a dog, because if I only saw in black and white, I’d be poorer for it.  That’s what caught me about this plant – the color,” said Salman, who spent 5 years developing it for the catalog.

Hummingbird lovers will flip over Agastache ‘Desert Solstice’, a flower-packed powerhouse hybrid of blooms for our feathered friends.  The orange and pink, spikes sport 50-percent more flowers than its hybrid cousin, ‘Desert Sunrise,’ and tolerates the richer soils of amended perennial beds.

Check out highcountrygardens.com for more xeric plants, or contact them at 800-925-9387 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. mountain time.

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Sowing success a matter of temperature

In an annual ritual of spring, gardeners emerge from their houses in mid-March, blinking in the thin sunlight as they peer around the landscape, assessing what needs pruning, cleaning, or mending.  All it takes to get our sap rising is for the month to turn to March, and we shrug off our winter lethargy in favor of planting the garden.

 That harbinger of spring acts like a jolt of electricity on our minds, sending a surge of energy urging us to get our hands in the soil and sow seeds.  But if you’re too quick to cave in to eagerness, you might find that your good intentions are not appreciated by the seeds you lovingly pop into the ground.  They’re not impressed by the calendar; they could care less about leprechaun and daylight savings.

 What the seeds want is warmth.  To ensure seeds sprout instead of sulk, gardeners need to plan on two things: frost date and soil temperatures.  Average date of last frost is what most rely upon to plan their plantings; it’s calculated from 30 to 40 years of data.  In Boulder the probability of frost is 50-50 on May 3, in Loveland May 4, and Longmont May 5. 

 Because it’s still possible to get frost after these dates, many gardeners prefer to use the 10-percent probability of frost date as their benchmark, which in Boulder is May 13, Loveland May 16, and Longmont May 17.  You still need to plan for protection from the odd cold snap, but the likelihood of frost is much less when waiting until mid-month.

 Yet there is a second temperature factor that Colorado gardeners shouldn’t ignore: soil.  Chilly soils will limit germination of seeds, and if the ground is both wet and cold, seeds will rot instead of sprouting. 

 Early spring vegetables vary in required soil temperatures.  Spinach and lettuce are the most tolerant, needing soil to be 35-degrees to germinate and 45-degrees or warmer to grow well.  Peas, chard, onions, mache, and parsley can grow in soils at 40-degrees, but do best in soils of 50-degrees or warmer.  Soil temperatures of 60 degrees or warmer are perfect for fava beans, beets, carrots, and leeks, while scallions, Asian greens, kale and kohlrabi like is slightly warmer, at 65-degrees.

  Can these plants germinate in slightly cooler soils?  Yes, but for them to grow rapidly and thrive – key to sweet flavor and tenderness – gardeners should pay close attention to bringing soil temperatures up.

 To do this, plastic mulches or water-filled walls are helpful.  If you’re choosing to go with warming by plastic, clear plastic works better than black at warming soil, bringing the temperature up 10 to 15 degrees in a few days. Make sure you weight down all edges of the plastic to keep it from blowing in the wind, and lay it out so that it touches the soil a week ahead of planting to give your seeds a warm start. 

 Punch holes into the plastic to sow seed if you plan on leaving the plastic in place over the season.  If you are removing the plastic once temperatures are stable, laying the sheets down in strips that can be folded back for planting space is a good way to leave the plastic between rows for a few weeks.  If using water-filled walls, place them out one week before planting to help warm the soil.

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Mighty ‘Mato good for Colorado

  Describe something as stronger, faster, and able to fend off foes, and most people think of caped crusaders in brightly colored tights.  Toss in a “and their tomatoes are amazing!” and you’re written off as talking to adolescent boys and Boris Vallejo fans.  But one look at the performance of this year’s hot new product, and you’ll be tempted to try a few in your garden to get a taste of what it’s like to live with a superhero.

 If you decide to plant a Mighty ‘Mato, buckle your seatbelts; it promised to be one wild summer ride.  The latest improvements to vegetables comes to us from the Pacific Northwest, where Log House Plants have perfected the art of fusing tomatoes to a rootstock that amps up America’s garden sweetheart with super natural powers. 

 “This is not a genetically modified organism; it’s a grafted plant,” says Brian Wheat, co-owner of Lafayette Florist, 600 South Public Rd. in Lafayette, CO, “it’s a modern tomato on an old world, wild tomato rootstock.  This is the same theory as roses, where they put roses on roots to have bigger flowers, bloom longer.  We want tomatoes to survive here, with our cool nights, poor soil, and temperature swings.  When people see how many tomatoes they get, how huge they are, they’ll be overwhelmed to see it performing so well.”

 To be honest, anything that touts itself as the must-have of the season gets a stink eye from me until it’s proven itself, because there are a lot of people who devote their lives to separating gardeners from our money.  Fads come and go, usually with late night television ads that, if you act now, will send you a few Ginsu knives they have lying around.  Wheat’s seen them all.  “Sometimes there’s a hula-hoop idea that is beautiful in its simplicity, like the Topsy-Turvy planter.  They’re perfect for certain places, like patios or those who don’t have gardens any more but want a little tomato plant.  I want my customers to get the most out of their garden; it’s the most important thing to me.”

 Getting the most from places in Colorado isn’t always easy, with changing elevation and a short growing season.  But this beauty and the beast pairing holds a lot of promise for gardens in challenging locales, like gardening at elevation, where Wheat sees the earlier cropping and tolerance to temperature swings of the Mighty ‘Mato beating out traditional tomatoes.  “When you look at its benefits, this tomato says Colorado, not Illinois, where I’m from.  They have rich soil, rain.  This makes sense for us; it starts producing earlier and gives fruit later into the season.”

If you’re growing it in a container, think big; the root system on Mighty ‘Mato requires a whiskey barrel or larger size pot.  And caring for a grafted tomato differs from a standard one:  you don’t plant them deeply.  Along the lower part of its vine, tomatoes have lumps, called root initials, that often develop into roots.  When this happens to a grafted tomato, the genetics of the top growth can take over, reducing or cancelling out the robust characteristics the rootstock provides.  Plant them at the same level as they are in the pot, making sure that the graft line – you can clearly see it – is above the soil. 

Many varieties of heirloom and hybrids are available on the Mighty ‘Mato, including:  beefsteak, Mortgage Lifter, Black Krim, Green Zebra, or Cherokee Purple slicers.  Cherry tomato fans will love the better-than-bumper-crop production of Sweet Million, Black Cherry, or Yellow Pear.  I’m trying Brandywine, because I’ve noticed a decline in its vigor in my garden and want to see if grafting gives it the jolt needed to grace our table with the tangy, old fashioned flavor love apples are known for.

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The Lorax Lesson

Image via Wikipedia

One of the joys of parenthood is indoctrinating your child in your views, molding their impressionable minds into clones of yourself and your thinking.  Launching them upon society, a parent hopes that one day those seeds will bring forth an adult as completely entrenched in their visions as they are, which, of course, is The Only Good and Just Way. 

 If you’re a gardener it means saving the world, one seed at a time.  So it was with purpose that I read to my toddling son books and tales of controversy, like The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Good Night, Moon.  Deliberately, I selected material to foster in him environmental awareness, rabid tree-hugging, and rampant dirt worshipping.  It meant, of course, that I read him The Lorax.

 The Dr. Seuss classic, published in 1971 and now a major motion picture, is, according to some critics, a left-wing Hollywood conspiracy, a pinko-commie plot to indoctrinate children into being anti-industry and pro-trees.  Cue the outraged gasps. 

 What’s surprising is that anyone would assume the movie would have a different message than the book, which is a lesson in the effects of deforestation, human-centric consumptionism, and the dangers of a throw-away society.  What shouldn’t surprise others is that many gardeners will flock to see it.

 Growing up in our house, my son saw parallels between the book and real life every day, so the message doesn’t frighten him.  If you’ve read it, you know it’s a tale of a furry, mustachioed creature that “speaks for the trees,” something I do regularly by shouting at television ads and whispering warnings to shoppers in stores.  

 When the Lorax appears, he’s mistaken for a tree since he’s wearing foliage on his head.  Nothing new about that in our house, either; it’s a source of pride to see my son pluck a seed from me and joke “you’ve got hollyhocks in your hair again.”

 Saving trees is a message we get behind in our house, and I confess that the moment the Once-ler gave the boy-hero the last Truffula tree seed, encouraging him to plant it in the middle of town for all to enjoy, I nodded, because a gardener would plant over everything if given the chance.

 For me, that’s the message – go out and plant a tree, and the best time to do so is now.  Choose the site carefully for exposure and room for the tree to grow where it won’t rub against houses or power lines.

Measure the height of the root ball to determine depth of planting hole, which should be one to two- inches shorter than the root ball.  Dig a saucer-shaped planting hole, three-times the root ball width.  Straight sides limit root expansion, so slope the sides of the hole. 

Prevent sinking of the tree by firmly tamping down the bottom of the hole.  Remove the tree from container, clip any girdling roots, score the root ball, then set tree in place so that the knees of the root ball – where the ball begins curving in toward the top – are an inch higher than the soil line.

Pack soil around the lower third of the root ball, to help stabilize it, then backfill the rest of the hole, leaving soil loose.  Add water to firm the soil around the root ball, then backfill again.  Water the planting area and mulch the tree.

With car chases, a granny with attitude, and corny musical numbers, I worried that the message would be lost.  But in the closing scene, as tiny, new Truffula seedlings were tended by the contrite Once-ler, a little boy in the row in front of me said “I want some of those.”   And I thought, yes you do, and so do we all.

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Sunscreen a must for gardeners

It nurtures the seeds warms the soil; with it the plants we love blossom.  But the sun that’s warm on our face is also wreaking havoc on our skin, and gardeners need to be savvy about sun protection.

“Sun does a lot of good; it’s good for mental health and makes you feel great.  And 10 to 15 minutes twice per week is what you need for vitamin D,” says Mary Buller, Chair of the Skin Cancer Task force of the Colorado Cancer Coalition.  “But more people are getting Melanoma in Colorado than in the rest of the United States.  It’s a combination of three things:  our altitude, 300 sunny days per year, and outdoor lifestyle.”

That outdoor lifestyle is what puts gardeners at risk, puttering away in our yards under the broiling sun.   That we spend more time out there once we’re older increases the chances for skin cancer, since cumulative exposure over a lifetime is part of the risk factor.

“Scientists had been thinking that the most dangerous sun exposure you get is as a child; but a new study shows older humans can get just as much risk, or you make it worse,” she said, by heading outdoors once retirement arrives.  Since gardening is a popular pastime, keep yourself safe with a few tips:

 - Schedule your gardening around peak UV hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.  Climbing temperatures work in our favor by driving us indoors during the heat of the day.  Cool mornings and evenings are the best time to garden and stay sun safe. 

 - Be smart when using sunscreen.  SPF rating will tell you two things:  how strong the sunscreen is and how long it will last.  Lotion with SPF 15 blocks 93-percent of UVB, SPF 30 96-percent; beyond that there is a diminishing return on benefit versus cost, says Buller.  “It’s impossible to block a hundred percent UVB, so the higher numbers – that often cost more – might not be a good purchase.”

Better to purchase slightly lower numbers and reapply more often, but to ensure protection, know how long your sunscreen lasts.  Though that is unique to each person, Buller gives a simple equation for planning reapplication.  “Take the number of minutes it takes for your skin to redden and multiply it by the SPF.  The total is the length of time, in minutes, that sunscreen will work.”  For example, if you redden in 12 minutes and use SPF 30, you should reapply it every six hours. 

Not reapplying sunscreen often enough is one reason many end up sunburned, says Buller, but how you apply it is also a factor.  A full ounce should be slathered on each time you apply it, using the two-finger method found on their website,  sunsafecolorado.org/.  Keep in mind that sweating reduces the length of time between applications, sometimes as often as every 40 minutes.

 A combination of cover up and sunscreen is the best option for gardeners, so toss on a wide brimmed hat, slacks, and shirt with long sleeves before heading out.  Inexpensive, lightweight, sun protective clothes made from wicking fabric take the heat out of covering up, and you won’t have to start spending more on your wardrobe for weeding than you do for your tools.

 But if your budget prevents you from purchasing new clothes, grab a long sleeve shirt from your closet; as long as the fabric is tightly woven it helps.  “Hold it up to the light, and if you can’t see light coming through it, that’s best.”  Darker colors absorb UV, while white is better at reflecting it.

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Bitten by the competitive bug

Today’s post can be heard on the public radio show Crop to Cuisine, hosted by Dov Hirsch.

  What wacky things a gardener will do if bitten by the competitive bug.  You might have one in your neighborhood – they’re those who hoist the first ripe tomato aloft, lifting it high enough to be seen above the six-foot privacy fence, proclaiming loudly “Honey, we’ll be enjoying tomatoes tonight!”

 Those of us on the other side of the fence can only sullenly stare in envy, alternately wondering how they did that and vowing to win next year.  Deals with the devil are made, and gardeners can quickly find themselves so wrapped up in the competition they lose sight of common sense, or even sanity.

 Take Kata Schmidt, a devoted vegetable gardener and Colorado Master Gardener inPueblo.  Eager to be the first in her neighborhood to harvest ripe tomatoes, she starts her 30 seedlings in January, then trundles them in and out of her home daily to protect them from frost.  That twice-daily tomato migration begins in February, a time when most of us are dreaming over catalogs and watching the snow fly.

But the task pays off for Kata, who begins plucking delicious love apples around Memorial Day, when most tomatoes are barely in the ground.  But it isn’t just the glory of the first delectable fruit that drives her, or the nutritious, homegrown food; she has her eye on the coveted title of Tomato Lady in her community, and goes after it.

 “There’s a woman nearby who likes to brag that she gets hers by the Fourth of July, but I so have her beat,” says Kata, adding that it’s fun to be so early in harvesting.

Now that it’s August, it’s crunch time for the most competitive in our neighborhoods, when County Fairs play on this obsession by pitting gardeners against one another in good-natured – and sometimes not so good natured – competition.   Perfection is measured in the straightness of beans, the uniformity of peppers, or the weight of cabbage.  And when it comes to pumpkins, size matters.

Blemished produce is no use in the county fair, so when the monsoons arrive, tossing hail and tree limbs, gardeners go to great lengths to protect their prized plants. Canopies, crates, and other coverings spring up almost as often as frost blankets, tossed on in the middle of the deluge once the hail becomes real.

Crazed gardeners measure the progress of overgrown zucchini, measuring its length and girth daily to see if they’ll triumph in the giant zucchini contests.  Alison and Gil O’Connor of Windsor are going after that prize, measuring their squash next to the size of their beagle, Willow.

If you’re planning to enter your crops for a chance at the blue ribbon, here are a few tips for selecting the prize winners from your plants:

Eggplant should be shiny, uniformly deep in color with a bright green cap.  Avoid dull color, green tinge or brown discolorations, which are all signs of bitter or old fruit.

 Sweet corn ears need to be filled to the tip with tightly packed, plump kernels, bursting with milky juice if lightly pressed. The silk should be a dark brown.   Leave those ears with dry brown husks and indentations on the kernels at home; they’re old, and the sugars have turned to starch.

Cantaloupes need to have a well defined grey-yellow netting over tan skin. Pick up the cantaloupe and shake it – the seeds will rattle when ripe, and gently press the blossom end to see if it gives slightly to pressure.  These are both signs of a perfectly ripe cantaloupe.  Judges will frown on spongy, wrinkled or moldy rinds.

Sweet peppers  should have deep, rich color that feel heavy for their size. Unless you’re growing some of the Italian bull’s horn types, avoid those with thin walls that give when pressed.  Enter the slender bull’s horns varieties that are wrinkle-free and sleek.

 Green beans are best when picked young, cooled quickly and brought to the fair as soon after harvest as possible.  Make sure the beans are slim, the seeds small and not swelling.  Look for pods less than one quarter to one eighth inch around with bright color and an audible snap when broken.

 

 

 

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Loveland Garden Tour a don’t-miss event

 Gorgeous gardens, amazing artwork, and cheerful plants await you on the 8^th annual Loveland Garden Tour, tomorrow, June 25.  Benefitting the Loveland Youth Gardeners, if you’re one of the lucky ticket holders, here’s a sneak peek at the treats in store for you: 

The tour has returned to downtownLoveland, winding through the cozy west side neighborhood to visit seven amazing gardens.  At each stop on the one-mile walking tour you’ll find gardens hand crafted by the gardeners who live there, personalizing their yards with raised beds, trellises, and an assortment of found items sure to make you reconsider tossing anything away. 

Following the map during the pre-tour event, I was amazed at the sense of community this tour has; you’ll find yourself waving hello to neighbors as you walk past, or stopping for a quick chat over a garden fence at a nearby home.  

Arriving at tour stops, you’ll goggle over front yards filled with perennials, roses, or shrubs, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this is all there is to see.  No, the inspired organizers take you behind the fences and into backyards that are a sheer delight, their hidden beauty a breathtaking example of the artistry of gardeners.  From formal beds and Asian-influenced screens to chickens and Rocky Mountain Natives, the gardens are true gems to be savored.   The copper-topped beehive in garden 3 caught my eye, as it’s easily the most beautiful bee box I’ve seen.

Plan to spend a lot of time in garden four, says Vonne Zdenek, one of the Colorado Master Gardener volunteers, because a little bit of time won’t work in the quirky yard packed with recycled items.  Old shoes, can, tools, and appliance parts are turned into garden art that brings grins to every face.  “It’s just amazing – he sees nothing odd about any of this,” says Kathi Taylor, “though it doesn’t match, it works together.  He’s brilliant!”

Local artists also get in on the act, with displays of metal sculpture, furniture, birdhouses, stepping stones, and truly lovely potting benches.  Art is for sale so if you find a piece you like, snap it up before it’s gone home with another gardener.

Tickets are $15 (children 10 and under free) and are available at Earle’s Loveland Floral & Gifts, Gateway Garden & Home Center, Loveland Garden Center, Rabbit Shadow Greenhouse, Rowe’s Flowers & Gifts in Loveland. InFort Collins, find tickets at Bath Garden Center & Nursery, Fossil Creek Nursery, Fort Collins Nursery, Wild birds Unlimited, and Gulley Greenhouse. 

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Gizmo makes netting fruit trees easy

 Once June turns the corner toward July, one question burns in the mind of gardeners: How much is a sweet, decadent cherry pie worth? With each day the harvest grows closer, having you — and the birds — dreaming of the first tree fruit of the season.

But it comes at a cost; we have to protect those cherries. So we try netting using the unfurl-with-a-snap approach, the two person banner toss, and the death defying fling from the ladder, all to no avail. There’s no dignified way to do this, and we’re left performing the Dance of the Seven Veils trying to get the net on the tree while the neighbors drag out the lawn chairs to applaud.

There has to be a better way, and finally, we have one.

“I started out with a full sized Montmorency cherry tree. Every year my dad, son and I would struggle to put netting on it,” said Ray Hauser, inventor of the Netbrella tree netting tool. “I tried leaving the netting on one year, but that was a bad idea; the branches grew through the netting and I had to cut it off of the tree the next year.”

Battling robins for the fruit that fills his favorite dessert made Hauser turn his inventive mind — he holds 22 patents already — toward thwarting the feathered bandits, who start pecking the fruit to test for readiness before people are aware it’s ripening. “This was first invented to hold a heavy tarp to protect the tree from frost. But that didn’t work out too well, so I tried it with the netting.”

Hauser designed a simple tool that makes placing bird netting on fruit trees fast and easy. Called Netbrella, it consists of a wheel with spokes attached to a center pole. When the bird netting is wired to the rim of the wheel, the structure resembles an umbrella, which you lift above the canopy and tie to the trunk of the tree.

Laying out the netting in the backyard of his one-acre property in north-eastBoulder, Hauser demonstrated the simplicity of setup for the tool. “It’s all in the fold. You do it right and one side will fall one way from the wheel, the other falls the other way.” Hoisting the wheel upright, Hauser walked to a dwarf Northstar cherry, centering the netted wheel above the trunk of the tree and securing it with soft rope.

Unfold the netting from the top of the Netbrella and it drapes around the branches, protecting the fruit. “Make sure you stake the netting securely to the ground every eight inches, or those robins will crawl underneath and make themselves fat on your cherries,” said the 84-year old chemical engineer.

The time to net a cherry tree is now, protecting your fruit before it begins to change color. Birds start their inquiries into cherry ripeness once the fruit blushes yellow, pecking at the unripe fruit instead of waiting until it’s fire engine red like the rest of us.

This nifty gizmo works well on dwarf fruit trees, but isn’t the solution for those of us with semi-dwarf or standards; we’ll still have to struggle through the tribulations of netting our fruit. But those who have smaller trees can get them netted in a span of a half hour, instead of an entire day.

Netbrella is sold as a modest kit that contains custom pipe fittings, rope, and twist ties used for attaching the netting to the wheel. You’ll have to purchase the PVC pipe for center pole and spokes plus flexible pipe for the rim, but Hauser includes detailed instructions for assembling. The kits come in two sizes: small for trees up to seven feet tall and wide ($12), or large for trees up to 10 feet tall and wide ($18). Netting is also available from him ($34), or purchase your own.

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Edible Schoolyard New Orleans

It didn’t look like much of a school, with the barbed wire fencing and modular classrooms crowding the yard.  But FirstLine Charter Schools founders saw in it the potential to take a failing program and turn children’s lives around.  But ten days after opening their doors in 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck, bringing five feet of flood waters to smother the school grounds. 

 Out of destruction an ambitious recovery formed, and with the help of dedicated volunteers and a bit of star power, the humble grounds of Samuel J. Green school transformed into Edible Schoolyard New Orleans.  Sowing, growing, harvesting and cooking are part of the curriculum served up at this innovative k-8 school.

 “The garden is such a visible sign of positive change,” said Kelly Regan, Community Partnerships, Volunteer, and Family Coordinator.  “We made that promise, for the kids’ grades to come up and for them to be happy.  We wanted the school to be the heartbeat of the community.”

 In the aftermath of Katrina, many sought ways to help, including Chef Alice Waters of Berkeley, California, founder of Chez Panisse Foundation the organization devoted to promoting Edible Schoolyards.  Networking with local food legends such as Emeril Lagasse and New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees, Waters pulled in funding and support for the project and in 2006, the garden opened. 

 Where modular classrooms stood, the one-third acre garden grows, flush with late season harvest of eggplant, tomatoes, peppers and garlic.  Yearly, 3,000 pounds of produce is harvested, going into the huge teaching kitchen for children to learn the finer points of food preparation, table manners, and teamwork.  Large windows of the kitchen overlook the garden to reinforce where the bounty comes from.

“When we started there wasn’t one piece of fresh fruit or vegetable given to the kids by the contracted food supplier.  Here, 98-percent of the kids are from families at or below poverty income, but they were dumping their food in the garbage can even though they were hungry,” said Alison Heston, School Food Outreach Coordinator.  Now they get three servings of fruit per day, plus whole grains and all the food is made from scratch. 

Says Regan, “It’s not just about changing the food by putting something new in front of them. We have them involved with growing so they’re interested in eating their food.” 

In total, the 490 students receive 24 lessons over the course of the school year, where chef April Neujean leads the class by holding up the ingredients, talking of them, then letting the kids touch and smell the food before working on the day’s dish.  Teams work together to chop and cook the meal.

To solidify community ties, every other month the school hosts an open garden day, where the neighborhood is invited to stop by for tips on gardening or harvest.  In off months, youth leadership program participants learn small business skills by selling the produce at the Farmer’s Market.

 Sustaining the garden takes investment by community leaders in order to fund two full time staff and support the 20 to 25 volunteers that help in the garden each week.  With competition for dollars fierce, the school thought creatively and garnered support from a pantheon of food stars such as the Emeril Lagasse Foundation, Ruth U. Fertel Foundation (of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse), Slow Food New Orleans, Crescent City Farmer’s Market, and the Culinary Corps.

Their vision paid off: student performance has improved greatly, moving the school from one of the city’s worst performing to one-star status. 

Related articles

• Ann Cooper: Bad Food Is Making Our Kids Sick (and How to Take Charge) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Emeril’s New Show Dishes Up Great Ideas This Fall (celebritytreat.com)

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And now for this commercial break

Watching television is an endurance test, not for me, but for my spouse.  At any moment, the drone from the box will be split by an ear shattering “WHAT?” followed by my going on a five minute tirade whenever a commercial for a big box store comes on.  The 30-second ad gives me more of an aerobic workout than I get all day, what with my flailing arms, leaps from the sitting position, and fast march back and forth in front of the set.

The big box store, eager to cash in on gardeners’ enthusiasm for planting, has a chirpy commercial touting their expertise in plants, potting soil, and everything else to make your garden bloom.  Ahh, but the savvy gardener rises up in horror when the ad shows a tree plucked from its pot and plomped in the ground, not because the tree is planted, but how.

The three-second scene shows a man grabbing the tree by the trunk in order to lift it from its pot, which proves that the fellow doing this is an actor, not a gardener.  A gardener knows this is a no-no.  Grabbing the tree by the trunk to lift the heavy root ball from the pot puts the tree at risk of damage to the bark, which is sensitive in spring growth.

A good way to handle a containerized tree at planting is to dig your planting hole (which should be three times the width of the container, and the same depth as the root ball), then gently lay the containerized tree on its side.  Slide the tree from the container by tapping lightly on the sides of the container to get it to loosen away from the root ball.  Then set the tree upright and lift it from below the root ball to set it gently into place.  Score the sides of the root ball to cut any circling roots, then backfill the hole.

The ad doesn’t show this, so when it comes on, I lean forward, unable to look away from the flagrant foul the store commits.  Shrieking that the ad should have a “do not try this at home,” disclaimer, the diatribe begins anew.

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