I went to my first Victory Garden class last Sunday held at Hami Garden and taught by master gardener George Pessin. The class was three hours of lecture and answering everyone’s questions. All of us are so eager to grow vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers. The student mix was varied – a wide range of ages, men and women, some came from as far as Long Beach and Venice Beach, others came from the West Adams area and many live in South Robertson.
George is so knowledgeable, I easily took about a dozen pages of notes, and he gave us a demonstration on how to properly plant seeds. Everyone in the class received a free packet of seeds of their choice. I selected Jewel-Toned (sweet) Bell Peppers Crimson, Gold & Orange from Renee’s Garden in Felton, CA.
Today I planted my tri-color pepper seeds and they are in my kitchen greenhouse window, waiting to sprout. I also found some 2005 zucchini and summer squash seeds that a friend mailed me years ago. I don’t know if they will sprout, but what the heck, I planted them too.
Excited to do that, I then went online to ReneesGarden.com and ordered seeds for these colorful & delicious plants:
California Spicy Salad Greens
Scarlet Charlotte Chard
Bulbing Trieste Fennel
Camp Joy Cherry Tomato
This is fun!
Most of the material George teaches from is taken from a 44-page manual, Vegetable Gardening – Handbook for Beginners, written by Common Ground Garden Program, University of California Cooperative Extension. The manual is available for free – use this link http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/files/84072.pdf
George’s first class did more for me (to get me moving) than all the gardening books on my shelves!
If you missed registration, check on this page for an upcoming Victory Garden class.
Text by Deni Mosser
Reynier Village Blog 