Now that spring weather is blooming, vegetable gardens will start sprouting. Vegetable gardening seems to be the theme of this week's San Ramon and Danville Expresses.
Heidi and Amelia Abramson in Danville have started a Bounty Garden at Hap Magee Ranch, where volunteer gardeners will grow vegetables for local food banks.
Joe Queirolo, former Head Gardener for Crow Canyon Gardens, wrote a lovely recollection of CCG before it became politicized and faded into City obscurity. Joe is the strong, silent type. He isn't a talker; he's a doer and a writer.
The photo with this blog is of Joe Q standing outside of Mudd's Restaurant building with the sign "This Place Matters." Joe and I took each other's photos for the "This Place Matters" campaign of the National Trust for Historic Preservation as part of our efforts to save the Mudd's building.
If you are new to San Ramon or don't remember the importance of Crow Canyon Gardens, or Virginia Mudd and her innovative, organic restaurant in the history of San Ramon, please read Joe's article. I would love to see Crow Canyon Gardens brought back to the importance they held for many years in this city.
I heard that the City Council would like to add another annual festival in the fall to complement the Art & Wind Festival in the spring. Crow Canyon Gardens used to hold a Fall Harvest Festival, which would be wonderful to bring back.
I'm not sure if that's what they have in mind, but we could hold an "Agricultural Roots Festival" with events at both Forest Home Farm and Crow Canyon Gardens to honor the different eras of farming and their effects on the growth of the City. I don't see why these two sites have to be in competition with each other.
When Crow Canyon Institute was maintaining the gardens they had a large group of volunteers working with them and putting together the Spring and Fall Festivals. When I visited Mudd's two years ago for a tour of the building, Becky Davies was tending the gardens. Becky was trained in organic gardening by Joe Queirolo and later hired as the organic gardener for CCG when the City took over maintenance of the gardens from Crow Canyon Institute.
So why am I getting so worked up about vegetable gardening? I'm not much of a gardener, but I like vegetables. I'm a good cook. I don't eat junk food, but I do like a lot of food and a lot of what I like are vegetables.
I ordered a Vegtrug from Gardener's Supply earlier this year. It's a planter box designed for growing vegetables on a patio. I plan to assemble it this weekend and start growing radishes, beets, and cabbage (or whatever I can get to grow in it).
I wanted to attend a presentation on "Seasonal Vegetable Gardening Using a Bio-Intensive Approach" scheduled at the San Ramon Library this Thursday night. When I got to the Library a white board out front said the Gardening presentation was cancelled and to go to the front desk for more information. I asked the Librarian why the meeting was cancelled. She didn't know why, but she gave me a paper to add my name, email, and phone number to be notified when it would be rescheduled.
I was planning to write the rest of my blog on what was covered in the presentation. Instead I'm including the cancellation notice with a contact number, so any of my readers who would like to attend the rescheduled presentation can call the contact number to be notified of the new date.
CANCELLED - Seasonal Vegetable Gardening Using a Bio-Intensive Approach
Event Type: Speaker
Age Group(s): Adults (18+)
Date: 3/14/2013
Start Time: 6:30 PM
End Time: 8:00 PM
Description:
Contra Costa Master Gardener Janet Miller will guide home gardeners through the process of creating a healthy vegetable garden using "bio-intensive" practices to reduce need for water, fertilizer and space. This presentation is currently being rescheduled for later this spring.
Library: San Ramon Libraries - San Ramon
Contact: Kathy Gilcrest
Contact Number: 925-973-2850
Presenter: Janet Miller
Link: Visit the CCMG website for more gardening events.
I've been to a couple of these Contra Costa Master Gardener presentation and they are very helpful even for a brown thumb like me. Even though the vegetable lesson was cancelled, or postponed, I will still assemble my Vegtrug this weekend. Anyone with any recommendations for what I should plant in it, please add them in the Comments section at the end of this blog.
