Natural Perspectives:

One of the things that Vic and I do in our column is encourage people to grow some of their own food. It’s really easy to grow vegetables from seeds and transplants. All you need is a minimum of six hours of sunlight and some well-prepared soil.

The idea of a 20-by-20-foot square of rototilled soil at the back of a big yard is so yesterday. And so not for the small yards that we enjoy here in Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley. Vegetable gardens can be small, attractive and even the focus of a yard, not stuck away in a forgotten corner. Many gardeners, including us, are growing vegetables in raised beds filled with organic planting compost and composted steer manure.

We got our three Forever brand raised beds from Gardener’s Supply Co. Each one is 3 feet by 6 feet, giving us ample room to grow a lot of vegetables using Mel Bartholomew’s “Square Foot Gardening” book as a guide. Gardener’s Supply Co. even has an online square-foot planting guide that you can customize for what you want to grow.

Our beds are made of recycled plastic and wood shavings and look like aged cedar. I picked them because they are the focal point of our tiny backyard, and I wanted the most attractive ones I could find. Home Depot carries raised bed kits in its nursery department, so you might check those out, too.

Planting in the ground or in raised beds are the two most popular options for growing vegetables. But some veggies do well in containers for those who have only a balcony or patio, or who don’t want to dedicate a part of the yard to vegetables. Some of the things that I’m growing in containers right now are baby pea shoots, blueberries, thornless blackberries, bok choy, bunching green onions, ginger, horseradish, mesclun (mixed baby salad greens), radishes, sunchokes and blue potatoes.

I’m growing the latter two vegetables in containers called Smart Pots, also from Gardener’s Supply Co. Smart Pots are made of a felt-like material, so they don’t get waterlogged. Because we have such limited space that gets good sunshine, I’ve put the Smart Pots right in the driveway. When I told Vic that I was going to grow potatoes in our driveway this summer, he thought for sure that I’d gone around the bend. Well, yeah, but that’s a different bend.

In the past, I’ve grown cucumbers and eggplants in pots. Mark and Marlene Singer of Huntington Beach grow a wide variety of tomatoes and peppers in pots. If you decide to go the planter route, pick bush or dwarf varieties or use a large pot.

I generally get my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers as transplants because they take a long time to grow from seed. But this year, I’m attempting to start some of my own from seed. I have Black Beauty eggplants in starter pots, plus Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine and Black Krim tomatoes. I’m sprouting them in 4-inch pots on top of my chicken coop roof, one of the sunniest spots in our yard.

Two advantages of growing vegetables from seed are the lower cost compared with transplants, and the much wider variety of vegetables that are available from mail-order seed companies. Some plants such as beans and peas actually do better if planted directly into the soil. Some of the easiest varieties to grow from seed include beans, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, pumpkins, radishes, squash and sunflowers. Radishes only take three to four weeks from planting to harvest, and give the home gardener a quick sense of accomplishment. Right now, I’m growing German white icicle, French breakfast and Dutch redhead radishes, as well as a new variety called pink summercicle that is like a red Daikon. For a complete list of the vegetables I’m growing this year, visit my blog at greenlifeinsocal.wordpress .com.

So far this year, I’ve placed seed orders with the Cook’s Garden and Kitazawa Seed Co. The latter is based in Japan, with an outlet in Salinas, Calif. They have many fascinating vegetables, including Asian greens such as mizuna, mibuna, misome and komatsuna. I’m going to be trying them all this year. Their catalog and website have photos plus instructions for how to grow and cook these unusual greens. I also have seeds from Botanical Interests that I bought at Armstrong Garden Centers. Other seed companies that I use are Burpee, Ferry-Morse Seed Co., Nichols Garden Nursery, Park Seed Co., Renee’s Garden and Territorial Seed Co. For more information on growing vegetables from seed, see www.ezfromseed.org. If you go to the members’ page, you’ll find contact information for most of those seed companies.

Seeds can be open-pollinated or hybrid. At one time, the old open-pollinated heirloom varieties of vegetables that had been passed down in families for generations were being lost. The result was a frightening loss of genetic diversity as home gardeners switched to growing fewer varieties of hybrids. Seed Savers Exchange was started in 1975 to counteract that loss. You can order an incredible variety of heirloom vegetables from their catalog, available at www.seedsavers.org. I found several seed varieties there that I must try, like Cherokee Trail of Tears pole beans, a beautiful red speckled Romaine lettuce called Forellenschuss, and a unique yellow-podded snow pea from India called Golden Sweet.

Now for a quick switch from vegetables to trees. Arbor Day is March 26. To celebrate, the Huntington Beach Tree Society is hosting an event at Sowers Park at 10:30 a.m., to which the public is invited. They’ll be planting a tree as well as holding a contest for the Sowers Middle School student to see who can draw the best tree or write the best poem or story about trees. They’re offering cash prizes of $100, $50 and $25 to the winners. With 22 fruit trees growing in our yard, we’re out of space.

Please plant a fruit tree for us in your own yard to celebrate Arbor Day.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].