Home & Real Estate
Landscape tour
inspire people and show them the diversity of types of gardens they can put in,� Patricia Becker, center manager at Common Ground said. “Small gardens, large gardens, ones where you do it all yourself or ones that you have people come in and help you. There’s a whole array of ways to do it.� This year’s tour includes such features as bee hives, ducks and geese, rainwater catchments and, as to be expected, lots of vegetables. Erickson sees much value in events such as the tour. “I’ve always supported (Common Ground’s) tour; our house has been on the tour a couple of times before, but it’s such a good way to get ideas,� Erickson said. “So you just go poke your nose into somebody else’s backyard, or front yard, and you can see what they’re doing.� N Editorial Intern Rye Druzin can be emailed at rdruzin@paweekly.com.
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garden is on a drip system that allows her to spend a minimal amount of time maintaining the yard. “I probably spend a minimum of half a day on the weekends, but I work in San Jose,� Erickson said. “At a certain point your biggest chore becomes the harvesting and then dealing with all the produce. So you eat it, you harvest it, you give it to friends, you can it, you freeze it.� The garden features tomatoes, roses and beans among others, and also has a multitude of perennials. Erickson plants her lettuce close to the back door so that she can pick it fresh in the morning for her lunch salad, which she fills with other vegetables from the garden. “It’s so much better when you grow it in the backyard,� Erickson said. “You can’t buy tomatoes like you can grow in the backyard. They’re not warm when you buy them; they’re warm from the sun when you pick them.� Her garden also hosts 16 different fruit trees, from avocados to persimmon, apple to fig. Erickson keeps the trees small so that there is plenty of sun for her lighthungry vegetables. Three of the trees — a lemon tree out front and an orange and large walnut tree in the back — have all been on the property since 1958. Erickson reminisced about how when she and her brothers were younger they dreamed of one day building a tree house in the walnut tree. While those days are long past, the walnut tree provides the bulk of the shade over the remainder of the patio. Like any fruit and vegetable garden, the main resource that Erickson needs is wa-
A small greenhouse, where seeds are cultivated before being moved outside, sits at the rear of Sharon Erickson’s garden. ter. But her property and vegetables provide for most of her compost, while six chickens produce manure. Erickson tries to make up somewhat for the water used by her garden by having a front yard that is native and water-free. She’s planted manzanitas, sage and a fruitless olive tree to make a simple and tasteful front. While much has changed in her garden, the same can also be said of the area. “(In 1958) these houses were all here, but they were smaller,� she said. “It was a different kind of community in those days. And when you went to the drive-in, you went through the country, and when
you went to the Monta Vista drive-in it was like miles of orchards. And now it’s (totally developed). So it was a very different place.� One of the main goals of participating in the garden tour is to show other people in the area that they can have a beautiful, functional and edible garden as well. Common Ground, the organizer of the Edible Landscapes Tour, has been working since 1972 to bring sustainable and healthy practices to the surrounding area. “We focus a lot of energy on that to make (the tour) really wonderful for all the tour goers in the community to really
What: Seventh Annual Edible Landscaping Tour When: Saturday, July 20, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1701, 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto Where: Self-guided tour of 10 gardens begins at Common Ground, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto Cost: $35 Info: www.commongroundinpaloalto. org/ediblelandscapingtour.htm READ MORE ONLINE www.PaloAltoOnline.com READ MORE ONLINE For more Home and Real Estate news, visit www.paloaltoonline.com/real_estate.
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