The University of California, as a land grant institution, is well known for its dedication to community outreach through programs such as Master Gardeners. A relative newcomer on the scene, the UC Davis Good Life Garden at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, continues that mission. Its purpose is to expose and educate a wide audience to the relationship between good food and good health. Its web page at http://www.goodlifegarden.ucdavis.edu describes an intention to create a link between departments housed in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science on campus, and the surrounding Yolo County landscape. The Good Life Garden is a real working garden and contains a year-round edible landscape, featuring organic and sustainable grown vegetables, herbs and flowers. Adjacent to the Robert Mondavi Institute, it offers the perfect practice of what it preaches. I saw the garden at the end of April. It was well-organized, thriving and inspirational. Im eager to return soon to see what it looks like now. With the popularity of books such as Michael Pollans The Omnivores Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolvers Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, has come new interest in eating vegetables grown locally and in season. According to the Web site, The aim of the Good Life Garden is to educate the public on how to buy and plant seasonal vegetables for the best taste and highest nutritional content. Each season the gardens planting list will be available online along with information on how to grow, harvest, buy, and cook the various plants, herbs, and fruits found in the garden. A description like this is irresistible to master gardeners, first time gardeners and most anyone else who eats, Id guess. A list of what to plant each season? Specific to our area? With pointers about how to actually make all that work worthwhile? And if you dont plan to grow your own, its nice to have a place to go that will tell you which of the vegetables in the produce section of the market didnt require a long journey on a jet to get here. The Good Life Garden newsletter is available on the Web site for the asking and keeps all that information current. The Good Life Garden is more than a physical space. A series of successful programs has been launched, including A Tasty Exploration of the Asian Lunar Year, The California Gold Rush: What We Ate, A Mothers Day Brunch and Backyard Edible Gardening: Growing a Successful Vegetable Garden. The only one I attended was, unfortunately, the only one where no food was served, but the experience was well worth it anyway. Presented by Robert Norris of the Weed Science Program in UCDs Plant Science Department, Backyard Edible Gardening was comprehensive and designed specifically for local gardeners by someone who has grown his own local garden for many years. Norris first caution in his list of essentials for success is the planting date. Plants simply have a much better chance if they are planted at the correct time. Number two was also planting date. Hes obviously serious about this. Third on the list is variety. Some varieties of vegetables grow better in our area than others. Some varieties can tolerate more sun than others, some more wind. Some have been developed to withstand the attentions of common insects; some prefer one soil type over another. We can do ourselves a favor by looking specifically for varieties that seem to match the growing conditions in our own gardens. Why start off with something destined to struggle no matter how attentive we are? Last on the Norris list is everything else. And of course thats true. No matter how closely we follow good advice, some plants are just doomed at our hands .... well, mine anyway. He covered the need to prepare soil properly and to compost and mulch generously. We were cautioned not to walk on the soil around our plants because of the compaction that occurs. He suggests the use of planks. In our Mediterranean climate irrigation is essential. Most vegetable crops are not drought tolerant. On the topic of pest management we were reminded that correct identification of the problem and the pest involved is essential to choosing correct management strategy. The UCD Integrated Pest Management Web site, http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu, is invaluable in helping us get this right. Identification is easy and solutions are environmentally friendly. With so many resources we all have a fighting chance at growing our own edible garden this summer. There are lots of plants in area nursery departments just waiting to show their stuff. Bon Appetit! Marime Burton is a Master Gardener with the University of California Cooperative Extension office in Fairfield. If you have gardening questions, you can call the Master Gardeners office at 784-1322.
The Good Life Garden is a real working garden and contains a year-round edible landscape, featuring organic and sustainable grown vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Luke Hamilton
Posted by: allergy doctor | March 23, 2010 at 05:52 AM