California transplants look
to promising gardening year in Lakewood
By Thea Steinmetz
Insights
Published May 7, 2008

A lone book in an otherwise empty shopping cart at Costco was the inspiration for this column. The hefty book was about growing vegetables the organic way. So, of course, as I am always on the prowl for a good story, I had to find the book’s potential buyer. Some day, someone will tell me to mind my own business and not ask too many questions of strangers. In this case, I found a young lady who did not mind my intrusion in her shopping day.

Very quickly I became aware that there was an appealing story here. The young couple, Joy and Jim Alberts, and their two small sons, Jacob and Silas, had just purchased a house in Lakewood. They were transplants from the San Francisco Bay area when a new job beckoned here. Joy had grown up in Michigan, but they both were concerned about what winter would have in store for them in Ohio. 

To buy a house in November provides no clue as to what is growing on the property, other than perhaps evergreens. They had no idea of what spring would bring in their newfound garden. One thing was clear: since there was mostly lawn in the backyard, there was ample space to plan for vegetable beds.

The past weeks, trying to get ready to plant, have kept the couple busy. New beds were dug and roto tilled. The soil has been amended to insure a good harvest. Seeds have been purchased and some have been started indoors. Mother’s Day is the target for really planting in earnest.

There is a learning curve involved in all this gardening. Growing one’s own vegetables in northern California is vastly different than desiring an ample harvest in Lakewood. Joy remembers that the wild growing fennel along the west coast is called earthquake food. It grows wild, and not even an earthquake can do it in. Artichokes also can be found growing in the wild and make for good eating.

Rosemary is considered a highway plant and grows along busy roads. Hedge clippers are employed to keep it trimmed.

While some new gardeners go about haphazardly when creating a new garden, Joy is very organized. She made plans for the various areas and made sure that each space follows a function. The boys’ play area is removed from the newly dug circular herb garden. The vegetable area is placed for maximum sun exposure. By summer, the family will eat cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, pole beans and Swiss chard.

Joy is in tune with her inner gardener, and so she wanted to get a good start for her yellow beets and planted the seeds in peat pots. This exercise did not turn out well, and the small seedlings perished. Now she will wait until the soil has warmed sufficiently and entrust the seeds directly to the earth. Her first crop, the mesclun mix, planted in a pot, is about ready for the salad bowl.

Eventually she plans to eliminate even more of the grassy area in the back yard. For now, she is satisfied with her first year effort of converting the otherwise grassy area to growing the vegetables the family enjoys eating.

To grow her garden organically is a priority for her.  She now spends time learning all she can from an enormous book on this subject. It is the one she bought the day we first met. She represents the next generation of gardeners that want to do it right with less dependency on chemicals.

Observations
Spring was never more welcome than this year. With the moderating weather came some of the sights we have longed for. I must be living in one of the prettiest neighborhoods around. The flowering trees are glorious. If I have one regret it is that this entire splendor is so fleeting.

A few years back, Jim Wilson, the author of excellent gardening books, and past host of the Public Television series “The Victory Garden” came to have dinner at our home. His first comment was that the city must like Bradford pears a lot. He let it be known that there could be other and better choices for street trees. If he were here toward the end of April, he surely would take pleasure in the spectacle these trees have prepared. Enjoying the white swollen clouds of flowers on mature trees, plus the red flowering crabapple trees interspersed, is unadulterated pleasure. The tree lawns will never wear better finery to provide us with this glorious sight. It is as if Mother Nature flung a masterpiece at us to make up for the winter just past. A gifted painter could not come up with a more magnificent landscape on canvas. Add to this a few magnolia trees in bloom here and there and my glass is filled to the brim.

Yes, I know I am waxing poetic but I always like to enjoy the many pleasures that I find in nature to the fullest extent. There is no way a thinking person can possibly ignore the lavish beauty of spring. Too bad that heavy rains and winds cut short this annual flaunt of grandeur.