San Diego, CA – We visit the San Diego Botanical Garden, in Encinitas, where we find many treasures including a small Permaculture Demonstration Garden. Permaculture, a concept developed originally by Bill Mollison of Australia, is a contraction of “Permanent and Agriculture”. It is a very rich system that stresses the use of perennial rather than annual plants, and employs many techniques that can be put into practice in small suburban lots as well as on large farms.

The Botanical Garden has a great example of a “keyhole” garden. The keyhole design, a Permaculture concept, features a single path leading to a central circle with shorter spokes of smaller paths radiating out from the center like petals on a flower. This design makes the entire planted area accessible from a single pathway, maximizing the planting area available for both edible and ornamental crops. Vegetables, flowers, and herbs are interplanted in a polyculture mix that helps to discourage insect pests and fungal diseases. Polycultures work because no plant’s nearest neighbor is the same as itself. This helps to prevent an insect pest or a fungal pathogen from leapfrogging from one plant to the next and wreaking havoc throughout your garden.

We also seize the opportunity to visit one of the “Edible Schoolyard” programs in the area at Cardiff Elementary School in Cardiff-by-the-Sea near Encinitas. Edible Schoolyards, a movement cfreated by Alice Waters of Berkely restaurant Chez Panise fame, is a national program for developing food production systems in local schools where kids can learn a variety of skills in addition to learning how to grow food. Cardiff Elementary received a generous grant from the Rob Machado Foundation for their garden. The grant funds allowed them to update the main garden site, including new equipment, irrigation system, and signage. The kids developed a “school-to-restaurant” pilot program. Students selected what to grow based on which crops a restaurant actually used. They harvested vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, and radishes, along with edible flowers and sold them to a local restaurant.

We also make two bookstore appearances in the San Diego area. The staff at Warwick’s, in La Jolla, are eager to share the book with their customers. We describe how we developed the book, and then hold a plant clinic at which we diagnose some plant problems that attendees have brought in. This is a lively group who really enjoys choosing their own adventure, as they use the diagnostic flow charts in the book. We look at the symptoms, answer the questions in the flow charts, and pretty soon we solve the mystery. These folks are not surprised to learn that becoming a plant detective is really fun.

In Coronado we’re at Bay Books, where people line up with baggies full of bits of plants in trouble for us to look at and help them figure out what has gone wrong. We use our book and show them how simple it is to discover the answer to their problems. And then we show them how to find a safe organic solution to fix the problem.

If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

David and I pack our belongings and prepare to leave our friend’s house in Arcata, California. To add drama, I might have added “meager” to describe our belongings, but that would not be accurate. We’ve brought plenty of comfort items on this road trip.

Miner's lettuce

A delicious salad of wild miner's lettuce.

We arrived in Arcata the day before from McMinnville, where we had our last bookstore event in Oregon. We stopped in Corvallis at the Great Harvest Bread Company to stock up on Dakota bread – a favorite of mine. We pulled off the road at Illinois River Forks State Park south of Grants Pass for a picnic, and discovered a bumper crop of miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata, in the portulaca family), with which we made a beautiful salad to go with our sandwiches.

Soon after, we entered the Great Redwood Forests of California’s North Coast, and quickly learned why this is called the “Redwood Curtain”.  The road twists and turns like a serpent, slithering its way through majestic trees. I wonder at what they must have witnessed. I ache for the wisdom I believe they must possess. I don’t know that they are any wiser than a box of rocks; I just believe they must be.

The road through the redwood curtain

Our schedule requires that we move on too quickly, yet the drive is so much longer than I thought it would be. Still, by evening we are in Arcata, at our friend’s. Her house sits on the edge of Arcata Marsh in a co-housing community that appreciates the treasure that lies just beyond. Birds haunt the edges of their garden. Some lead private, secretive lives; others are extroverts, visiting the garden frequently to devour pests that would eat their fill of vegetables.

We spend a quiet evening, strolling beside the marsh, seeing the sights of the sleepy town, where students at Humboldt State are away on spring break. We retire early to rest for our drive the next day. We pack our abundant belongings into our van and set off for Mendocino.

We drive the Avenue of Giants and enjoy another day in the company of towering trees. Individual trees that have lived a thousand years. A forest that has evolved over many millennia, since the last ice age.  I suspect there are secrets to success hidden in the depths of the forest. We stop to walk through the Founder’s Grove, and I place my hand on an enormous trunk. I feel the pulse of its vascular system. Water pulled from the roots by the trans-evaporation of its leaves. The water carries nutrients from the microcosmic world at the tree’s feet. A complex system that supports the deceptively simple “lifestyle” of the Giant Sequoia.

Gigantic, awe-inspiring trees, redwoods capture the imagination

We have time for only a short hike, but we grab the opportunity to inhale the scent of the forest, and to gather what knowledge we can from the presence of the great trees.

The allure of the sea beckons, and our tight schedule dictates our early afternoon arrival in Mendocino. A tiny town perched on the very edge of the continent. Christie and Michael welcome us to the Gallery Bookshop on Main Street. We enjoy wine and cheese and artisan crackers with guests who arrive with plants in peril and excellent questions.

Christie tells me she received anonymous calls beforehand from plant-friendly folk who asked if they could bring their marijuana plants for diagnosis to our plant clinic. She told them they could, but none of them come this evening. Instead questions revolve around houseplants, container plants, and problems that show up early in the season. Perfect.

Polyculture: Planting different kinds of plants next to each other keeps pests from finding their favorite food, and prevents disease from spreading easily.

There is also lively interest in food production (in the front yard, back yard, or in containers), and we share some secrets to preventing plant problems. Beyond our mantra of “put the right plant in the right place” (through which a plant thrives in a location that meets its needs for light, soil, water, and temperature), we discuss polyculture, rotation, and attracting beneficial wildlife.

Every event gives us the opportunity to make new friends. We enjoy the chance to meet and talk with like-minded people. And the drive gives us the opportunity to experience the magnificence of the California coast. What could be better?

If you have a favorite spot we should not miss, please let us know. We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)

Village Books in Bellingham, Washington, hosted our first bookstore appearance of the Great ‘Here Come the Plant Docs’ Book Tour of 2010. There is something very comforting about beginning such a venture talking about a book surrounded by good books, in the company of bibliophiles and phytophiles.

On this, my first trip to Bellingham, I discovered what a delightful town it is. Kathy, at the Village Inn, greeted us with an enthusiastic, “Oh, I should have recognized you. I have your book.”  Making us feel a little like the Olympic athletes who were also staying there (overflow from the games in Vancouver, just across the border). Naturally this welcome warmed my heart immediately and made me very predisposed to love Bellingham.

Robert, our host at Village Books, was equally kind and welcoming at this great bookstore filled not only with great books, but intelligent readers. I overheard some fascinating discussions about books as I wandered the store. As wanton book-o-holics David and I had to be very careful not to fill our van with books.  This may have been a dangerous place to begin the tour. But we survived. And we only bought four books. Whew.

 We had a good turnout for the talk and even sold and signed some books We got some great questions, such as: “What is the white stuff covering the soil in our houseplant pots?” Naturally we asked some questions and found that these folks were new to growing plants. We asked about their water and fertilizer practices, because we thought perhaps that the white substance was salt build-up in the potting media. But no. So we asked if tiny black bugs flew up into their faces when they moved the plants? Yes. Okay, those are fungus gnats. And is the white stuff soft and fluffy? Yes. Okay, that is a fungus that grows on the potting media. Use a mulch such as decorative stones or sand on top and that will cut down on the fungus problem and help to control the fungus gnats. We signed their new book and they went away happy.

We ate breakfast the next morning with a flowering plum. The early spring exuberance encourages and energizes us for the road ahead.

Today we are in Philadelphia, about to venture into the huge Flower Show at the convention center next door to our hotel. We traveled all day yesterday to get here. Got a great night’s sleep and are ready to roll. We look forward to giving a lecture tomorrow (March 3, 2010) here at the Flower Show.

We invite you to share your stories of the greenworld, and welcome you to join us at one of our stops on the road. See our events page for all the details (www.ddandkw.com/events)