Camp Joy, Boulder Creek

Camp_Joy_sign2If you've ever eaten a Camp Joy cherry tomato you'll know why I was excited to be given a tour of the new seedlings in the greenhouse by Jim Nelson, the creator of this beautiful, organic family farm. Since 1971 this non-profit farm has been providing educational, creative programs for kids and adults. It is an example of and encourages others who wish to begin their own sustainable farm.

It was a warm, spring day when I visited and Jim was gently watering the herb, vegetable and flower seedlings by hand using water from a large can that had warmed to room temperature and given off any chlorine that was present. Camp Joy has a spring plant sale coming up April 27th and 28th and another on Mother's Day weekend and Jim was pleased with the progress of the seedlings. They grow proven varieties that do well in our area. Group paintings done by charter school children decorated the wall of the greenhouse.

Outside we were accompanied by Jim's two dogs, Ruby and Rownya, as we admired the garlic crop that will rotated90.kids_painting_in_greenhousebe braided after harvest and offered for sale in the fall along with dried flower wreaths and onion braids.

The farm offers a Camp Joy Cooperative weekly for 3-5 yr olds encouraging them to explore their surroundings through all their senses. Garden tours for school age children or a group of any age are also offered. Everyone at the farm is happy to share what they've learned about growing and preparing food, saving seed, bees and other insects, goats and garden crafts. And there is always something to be picked, harvested, weeded or just enjoyed while having lunch in the gazebo.

Walking along a path bordered by phlox, aster, oregano, iris and nigella we admired a blooming Buff Beauty rose covering an arbor. Jim planted this as well as his favorite Madame Alfred Carrier 42 years ago when he first came to the property. His friend at UCSC, Alan Chadwick introduced him to it. The soft fragrance blended with the blooming lilacs and wisteria.

To maintain fertile soil, a cover crop of fava beans was just starting to bloom in a several areas. Ladybugs were plentiful on the flowers. The beans will be cut down, Jim explained, in about a month. Members of the farm will eat some of the beans while young and sweet and let some mature so they can save the seed. The goats also enjoy fava beans at the flowering stage. There is a fund-raising art program, called Kids for Kids, offered in May, the proceeds going to help improve the goat barn and yard.

lilac_wisteria-arborNext we visited the Kid's Garden. Art, cooking and gardening projects are ongoing in this area. Wholesome, healthy food and beautiful flowers are all part of the farm. The plot of godetia was setting bud and will be offered as cut flowers during the upcoming sales.

Everything is grown with care at Camp Joy. Jim explained that compost is regularly added back to the soil and used to start seedlings in a special blend of "real soil" allowing them to transplant and continue to do well in the garden. He sometimes used kelp and fish emulsion as fertilizer but mostly it's the compost that makes the seedlings so strong.

Camp Joy offers lots of classes for kids and adults alike. Family members and interns are passionate about the farm and enjoy sharing. On this beautiful day, we were greeted with a smile by the person spreading compost.  It was clear that there is a respect for the cycles of the earth and the changing seasons at the farm.

Take advantage of the Spring Plant Sale at Camp Joy. Bring the family and walk through the garden. Visit their website for more information about their events and classes.  http://www.campjoygardens.org 

 

Gophers & Gardeners

Do you walk in your garden and see mounds of fresh soil? Maybe it's a trail of raised earth snaking across the lawn you see as you look outside the kitchen window drinking your morning coffee. We all have a gopher, mole or a vole story to share. Tragedy strikes when your 15 year old apple tree suddenly fails and OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAthere'll be no apple pie this year.

I remember my first flower and vegetable garden. It was glorious. I was devastated, however, when the first of the border marigolds were sucked back into the earth one at a time. Then the tomatoes went. Finally, my prize zinnias were victimized.  I won't go into how the problem was solved but it involved a bassett hound named after a popular green apple.

There are better ways to deal with problem critters in the garden and at a recent workshop at UC Farm & Garden I learned from an expert that now is the optimum time to stop them.

Thomas Whittman first became interested in gardening as a student at UCSC. He helped build the garden. Later as an organic farmer at Molino Creek Farm up the coast he again encountered gophers, moles and voles that played havoc with the growing of produce. About 15 years ago he started his own business, Gophers Limited, to educate and provide his services in the control of garden critters without poisons.

Thomas pointed out that simply poisoning a gopher, mole or vole doesn't solve the problem as the feeding burrows are re-occupied sometimes within hours. Also those anti-coagulant toxins can be passed on to pets,  hawks and other predators that might eat them. That's why he advocates the use of mechanical live and lethal trapping methods in the place of poisons.  Preserving our environment and water resources is his top priority.

Did you know that gophers are solitary, nocturnal, territorial and active year round? All those mounds you see are created by one animal as the female will drive off her young after just a few weeks of giving birth. If you dispatch a female before she gives birth in the spring you can often solve your problem. Don't give her the chance to have another litter in June. She can live for 3-5 years.

There are no gophers in the Northeast but the Golden gopher of the Midwest is twice as large as our Pocket gopher who got it's name as they love to store food in side pockets inside their head. Gophers love sprouts and apples and will gorge themselves to destruction if they are plentiful.

Perhaps you have a mole problem and are not troubled by gophers. Gophers Limited website can teach you how to tell the difference.  Moles are carnivores and are one of the oldest animals on the planet. Arriving in our neck of the woods 40 thousand years ago via the land bridge that used to exist between Asia and Alaska, they are smarter than gophers. Members of the shrew family, they are hard to outsmart. In the 13th century the word shrewd came from these wily creatures.

Thomas mainly uses cinch traps for the control of gophers and trains others in their use. Other traps like the macabee trap need to be set up in the main burrow and this excavation takes longer than the 20 seconds required for a surface trap like the cinch. His website has many tutorials on traps and other methods of control. When the country fair comes around in September I'll be sure to look at the Agriculture History display of gopher traps dating back to the early 1900's.

I enjoyed a lively discussion of urban myths regarding gopher control. Juicy Fruit gum is not effective per studies at UC Davis. Chocolate ex-lax has not been studied so the jury is out on that one. Putting glass or dried rose cuttings with thorns down a hole is effective as gophers are hemophiliacs and will bleed to death if cut. Castor oil is effective for a short time as is coyote, cat or any other urine. Fish emulsion or meat products are deterrents as gophers are committed vegetarians. After trapping, Wittman always leaves the dead gopher in the hole. He claims they "get the message".

Are there plants that gophers won't eat? Wittman claims that he has seen gophers repeatedly avoid lavender, sage or salvia, rosemary, thyme and oregano. As a designer I have a slightly longer list of gopher resistant plants   but always recommend planting in stainless steel gopher baskets anyway.

I have to chuckle at a list of plants supposedly not on a gopher's menu that I found in a magazine several years ago. Apapanthus was on the list. Wittman smiled as he shared some of his personal slides of huge gopher burrows right underneath an agapanthus. A female gopher gets her water from roots and hopefully it won't be from your favorite apple, camellia or daylily.

There is much more useful and educational information on Thomas Wittman's website.
Visit http://www.gopherslimited.com/

The Hillbilly Gardener of Scotts Valley

anemone_clematis_vineThe self -described "Hillbilly Gardener" lives In the banana belt above Scotts Valley Civic Center. Technically, Richard Hencke says he is 1/4 German, 1/4 irish, and 1/2 hillbilly from his childhood in Texas and Oklahoma. A true gardener at heart, Richard spends much of his time as an emergency room doctor at a local hospital and the rest of his time tending his garden. With trees and plants collected in his early  days as a Boy Scout in Port Arthur, Texas, as well as plants acquired from the far corners of the earth he has created a spectacular landscape surrounding his home. "They'll carry me out of this property in a pine box", Richard says. He clearly loves his personal arboretum.

On a clear spring day recently, Richard gave me the royal tour. I visited this garden 2 years ago and I couldn't help but be impressed with incredible growth he has coaxed from his many blooming trees, conifers and vines.
The Pride of Madeira spikes glowed in the sun, some cobalt blue, others vivid purple. Early spring blooming shrubs and perennials offered color at every turn.

One of his passions is allowing flowering vines that grow up into the canopy of his trees which adds one more dimension to his landscaping. A Blood Red trumpet vine is happily inching up a redwood trunk while a butter yellow rosa banksia scrambles into an oak. On a fence along a walk a spectacular blooming double white pandorea vine has found a home in a Butternut tree he got in Pennsylvania. A rose colored anemone clematis nearly covered the trunk and branches of a dormant catalpa.

Fragrance and color as well as good "bones" or structure make Richard's garden breathtaking. He nurtures each seedling with the same care he gives to the large trees. I laughed as he pointed out a 15 ft tall aralia elata that was transplanted from a tiny dish garden received many years ago as a gift. One of his favorite trees is a white pine gleaned from his grandmother's place in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. A black cottonwood he picked up in New England, 2 maples hail from New Orleans and the sisal agave grew from tiny pups he found at a rest stop on Hwy 280 in case he ever wants to make rope or twine.

Richard likes to naturalize Hawaiian native plants starting them mostly from seed collected while on vacation. He has several Sacred Koa or A'ali'i growing on the property. Since this dodonaea species grows at 5000 ft elevation up Moana Loa they have adapted nicely to his Scotts Valley climate. I wouldn't be surprised if Richard goes into the canoe or lei making business when his trees grow up.

A small portion of Richard's garden is fenced but most is open to the deer. So far the branches growing eutaxia_obovatathrough the fence of his bright golden pea-like Eutaxia obovata have not attracted them. Also known as Egg and Bacon shrub this plant is a compact shrub originating from Western Australia. It's graceful fountain shape really shows off the thousands of flowers adorning the branches.

Like all devoted gardeners, Richard likes to share plants with others. A couple of years ago he sent me home with one of his F-2 hybrid Douglas iris and this year a dendrobium orchid. I'm hoping more of his cuttings of the Sacred Flower of the Andes ( Cantua ) take and maybe I'll be lucky to get one of these, too. A day in Richard's garden is always a magical experience.

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