Dan came to our Tomato and Pepper Transplants class last weekend. He sent me his email as an update on his garden and seed starting set up. We want to share it with you as we think it's inspiring!
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks to you and your staff (and the weather gods) for a great Saturday pair of classes. Totally worth it and learned so much from all of you.
About a year ago I decided to cut back on my 60+ hour weeks and get some more balance back in my life. One of the tasks I promised I'd take on was to thoroughly reboot our entire landscape with natives, ornamentals and raised beds. Our back yard is now an ornamental oasis but doesn't receive enough sun to make it worthwhile for most edibles. The side yard is all natives and blueberries (thanks to Alrie Middlebrook who's business is around the corner). So the front yard had to go. Well most of it.
I've got about 200 square feet of beds and did all the work myself including the design soil prep, conversion to drip, carpentry and bed irrigation. The lawn between the beds will eventually get sub-surface Netafim drip. I'm currently growing a cover crop of grasses and legumes that I'll compost and till in prior to spring planting. By the way the cover crop pea and bean shoots are delicious. I'm going to pair them tonight with some wild chanterelles to serve as a bed for some roasted halibut!
I probably would have skimped on the materials and design if this were going in my backyard. But I think there's a certain amount of curb appeal required to convince people that a front lawn doesn't have to be just that.
I've also built a seedling grow room and nursery in my basement. You can see the tomato and pepper/eggplant flats we sowed last Saturday awaiting germination. I invested in a thermostat to control the four foot heat mat and for $5.50 I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of mylar coated styro-board and cut it into four 2' x 4' shelving pieces. It certainly makes a difference in providing insulation for the heat mat rather than having it leach off onto the steel shelves.
During the process of tearing out the lawn, converting the existing irrigation, building the beds and watching the cover crop come up, I could not believe the number of people (most I didn't even know) that stopped by, asked questions and expressed a great deal of interest in doing the same things. I'm convinced that home gardening is an incredible catalyst for community building. And you and your staff have been a true inspiration.
I'll see you at a future class. And if you're ever in San Jose feel free to drop by. I'm out to evangelize our neighborhood one block at a time. Might be a business opportunity for a semi-retired old geezer :-))
Best,
Dan Cochran
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