NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

There is no time like the present to start growing a vegetable garden. By raising at least some of your own food, you’ll be getting the freshest food possible while helping reduce carbon dioxide emissions used in transporting food to market. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s fun!

Vic and I harvest many different kinds of homegrown organic herbs, fruits and vegetables from our yard. Here in coastal Southern California, mid- to late September is a perfect time to put in a new fall garden.

Some people don’t garden because they are intimidated and don’t know where to start. Others aren’t sure a vegetable garden will fit into the space they have, or work with the landscaping of their yard. We have some suggestions that may help you get started down the garden path.

First, remember that small is beautiful. You don’t need a big rectangle of plowed dirt in the middle of your lawn to have a vegetable garden. Three basic concepts that fit well with our small Southern California yards are square-foot gardening, container gardening and edible landscaping.

Vic bought me a copy of “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew. I believe that Mel’s sister lives here in Huntington Beach. There are some important concepts in this book. The first is good soil preparation. The second is growing a wide variety of vegetables in 4-by-4-foot blocks, using each square foot for a different type of vegetable. For example, in any given square foot, you might plant one eggplant, cabbage, pepper or cauliflower. Or you could plant 16 radishes or carrots, or nine beets or spinach plants, or four chard or lettuce plants. As the crop in one block ripens, you replace it with another crop. The key is to plant seeds deliberately and sparingly, not sprinkle the whole packet of seeds all at once in one long row. Who wants a 10-foot row of radishes anyway?

We recently came across an eye-catching, raised-bed garden system that would be perfect for people who want an aesthetic yet practical garden. A company called Gardens to Gro produces redwood raised beds in a U-shaped configuration with a trellis in back for tall plants. The system comes in three different sizes, 8-by-8, 6-by-12, and 8-by-12, and two different heights, 12 inches and 20 inches. An automatic irrigation system is included. They’ll set it up, fill the raised beds with soil, and even provide a gardening lesson for you. This would make an ideal system for square-foot gardening and is attractive enough to complement any yard. You can check out this San Diego company at www.gardenstogro.com.

Container gardening has been a boon for our food-growing efforts. We’ve grown eggplants, cucumbers, bok choy, spinach, sugar snap peas and tomatoes in pots and bowls along the edge of the driveway, which is the sunniest part of our yard. We’ve also had really good luck with dwarf fruit trees in pots, growing lemons, limes and peaches. As long as you provide good potting soil mixed with some compost and fertilizer, and water the plants adequately, there is probably no limit to what will grow in pots. If you’re not sure where to start on container gardening, check out one of the dozens of books on the subject at amazon.com or at the library.

Edible landscaping is another space-saving way to grow your own food. Vegetables can be incorporated into landscaped borders, interspersed with flowers. Lettuce, radishes, beets, chard and kale all go nicely with flowers. Instead of growing a long row of one type of vegetable, you alternate vegetable and flowers in a bed or border. You can plant radish seeds in between pansies, or intersperse marigolds with lettuce, kale and chard. In our front yard, we have chrysanthemums, marigolds and sundrops interspersed with chard, broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage and other vegetables. Eggplants and artichokes make interesting specimen plants and can stand on their own at the back of a flower border. Semi-dwarf fruit trees make another great addition to any landscape. You might want to check out “The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping: Home landscaping with food-bearing plants and resource-saving techniques” by Rosalind Creasy.

Herbs are a great way to begin a campaign to grow at least some of what you eat. Herb gardens are attractive, aromatic, drought-tolerant and don’t take up much room. Herbs can fit into flower borders beautifully, and provide a constant source of fresh seasonings for cooking. Rosemary, thyme, sorrel, sage, mint, chives, oregano and marjoram are perennials that grow in our yard all year long. Cilantro and parsley are annuals that reseed themselves every year, but it seems that we have to plant new basil every spring.

Gardens don’t have to be relegated to the back 40. We admit that it’s a little odd to grow vegetables in the front yard, but it’s working out really well for us. Since we started growing vegetables in front, our neighbors now wave as they drive by and stop to talk as they walk past. And the neighborhood kids are fascinated. Some have never seen vegetables growing in soil before.

Some people might say that a garden is series of holes in the ground into which you pour money. But what you get back in terms of healthy, delicious food and satisfaction is unbeatable.

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