field project

The Birth of the South County Demonstration Garden

In the spring of 2009 the Gilroy Rotary Club invited the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County to give a presentation explaining who they are and what they do. Bette Lloyd, MG’99, made the presentation and closed by asking if anyone knew of a good place for a Demo Garden in the south county. Master Gardeners who have lived in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and San Martin were looking for a site to start a project. Michele Averill, CEO of Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation, had an available piece of land on the hospital grounds. She and Bette started the conversation about the project and Michelle offered the land right then and there.

By August 2009, after dealing with the legal and business aspects of the project, a partnership between Master Gardeners, Santa Clara County and the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation had been formed. The mission of the project is to extend University of California horticulture-based information to the residents of the south county with the goal of developing sustainable gardens. It was also decided that the fruit and vegetables raised in the demo garden would be donated to St. Joseph’s Family Center of Gilroy and/or the hospital cafeteria depending on their needs.

La Mesa Verde

La Mesa Verde (The Green Table) is a newly established community program dedicated to building organic vegetable gardens at the homes of low-income families in Santa Clara County. The Master Gardener program is collaborating with the Health Trust and Sacred Heart Community Services to support this exciting, ground-breaking project.

Phase One

In August 2009, 30 low-income families were recruited for the pilot project. La Mesa Verde Program Director, Raul Lozano, consulted with Master Gardeners on the design and construction of raised beds. In September, Master Gardeners conducted classes on basic gardening and cool season vegetables for the participating families. Classes were offered in both English and Spanish.

On September 26th, families came to Sacred Heart Community Services and collected seeds and seedlings for their cool season gardens. Master Gardeners then helped each family plant their first garden. The gardens have thrived and provided fresh vegetables all winter long, enough for sharing with neighbors. The vegetables planted included lettuce, peas, chard, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, onions, garlic, and cilantro. Master Gardeners have continued to advise the families, answering questions and offering guidance as needed.

Nine Palms Ranch Trial, 2007

Leads: Betsy Fischer and Gil Patrick

Team members: Carole Reek and Suna Herder

Summary

Under challenging weather conditions, Silver Queen and Peaches & Cream ranked highest among the four corns tested. Golden Bantam is not recommended.

Overview

We compared four varieties of sweet corn (Zea mays) to determine the best production and taste. All the varieties were standard corn, not super sweet. Silver Queen is white corn, Golden Bantam and Jubilee are yellow, and Peaches and Cream is bi-color.

The last working farm in the city of Santa Clara, Homesteaders Ranch preserves part of our agricultural past. It is a collaborative effort between 4H and the Master Gardeners with a Santa Clara County Master Gardener as coordinator.

To teach children and teenagers horticultural practices, the Homesteaders 4H members learn from the Junior Master Gardener Level 2 Curriculum. School tours, lead by the teenagers, help the children to reconnect and understand their food supply. Besides the tours, the 4-H youth have two special projects to cut back the use of pesticides: the Homesteaders Frog and Toad Pond and growing Monarchs in the public school classrooms. This demonstrates how easily any pesticides can kill amphibians and butterfly larvae. Encouraging the protection of beneficial insects including bees, native butterflies and beneficial animals, such as bats, birds and toads, is an important part of these projects. With the end goal of hosting a Beneficial Bug Day, we hope to show the importance and beauty of beneficial insects to the community to demonstrate the significance of less pesticide use.

Homesteaders project uses the Junior Master Gardener curriculum, level 2, developed by the Texas Master Gardener for use by Junior High students and teens. The curriculum covers such modules as propagation, hydroponics, garden art, topiary, soils, water cycle, composting, insect identification, flowers, vegetable and fruit gardening.

Report

Photos of the bean varieties grown at McClellan Ranch in 2007.

Nine Palms Ranch Trial, 2006

Lead: Karen Schaffer

Summary

Belgian endive can be successfully grown in Santa Clara County as a cool weather green. The plants need to be started in the summer. In late fall, they are harvested, trimmed and transplanted into damp sand where they are kept cool and dark. Six plants will yield weekly salad greens from December through March, for as long as the weather stays cool.

Overview

The purpose of the project was to determine the best timing for planting and forcing Belgian endive in Santa Clara County’s unique climate.

Belgian endive needs to grow in the ground for about four months, then the roots are dug up, replanted in sand, and kept cool and dark while the chicons (the resprouting heads, pronounced shee-COHn) develop. In most places, this forcing phase of growing Belgian endive requires using temperature-controlled rooms, but with our milld winters, we suspected we could leave our bins outside and simply let nature do the work for us. Our 2003-2004 trials proved this conjecture correct.

But when we grew Belgian endive two years ago, we started seedlings in August and transplanted them in October. We then dug the roots in February for forcing. We only got one chicon harvest because the weather was already warming up by then. We believe that by growing the plants over the summer and starting the forcing just as the weather turns cold, we could get harvests all through the winter.

Soil preparation

The plot was cover cropped with fava beans which were cut down and rototilled into the beds in April, along with some aged horse manure.

Seeding/planting

Nine Palms Ranch Trial, 2006

Lead: Karen Schaffer

Summary

For best Brussels sprouts production, transplant seedlings into the garden in May or June. The plants will begin to produce sprouts in the summer and will continue through the fall and winter.

Overview

The purpose of the project was to determine the best timing for planting Brussels sprouts in Santa Clara County’s unique climate.

September and October are the recommended months for transplanting cabbage family plants such as broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. But Brussels sprouts that are transplanted then often don’t produce well. We wondered if starting the plants earlier in the summer would yield better results. We started seeds one month apart from May to August and tracked the results.

Soil preparation

The plot was cover cropped with fava beans which were cut down and rototilled into the beds in April, along with some aged horse manure.

Seeding/planting

We started five sets of seedlings of Jade Cross Brussels sprouts (seeds from Stokes) approximately one month apart throughout the spring and summer. We transplanted the strongest six seedlings from each batch when they were about six weeks old. They were planted one foot apart in two rows one foot apart in a three-foot wide bed. Each seedling had a handful of alfalfa pellets dug into its hole before planting.

Overview

The project, initiated at Google in Mountain View, reaches our local high tech community. EarthBoxes, raised beds and container gardening are all highlighted using demonstration gardens, classes and information booths. This project will be extended to other corporate sites soon.