Sharing the bounty is an integral part of being a gardener.
Ron Labetich embodies this ideal. He gives away 75 to 80 percent of his homegrown vegetables to friends and to people in downtown Los Altos. At the height of the season, he's taken a couple boxfuls of produce to the police station or city hall. Even the Los Altos Town Crier has received his bounty.
Giving away produce from his backyard garden is a big deal to him and a sign of friendship, he said. It's an interesting way people get to know you.
As a child, Labetich enjoyed visiting his grandfather's organic garden in Oakland. Gardening is part of my soul, he said. There's a joy in being able to grow something. Now, with five grandchildren, it's gratifying to teach kids to grow their own food, he said.
Charlie O'Brien, one of his young grandsons, said his favorite part of gardening was planting things.
One of the features that sold Labetich on the Loyola Corners house he bought was the organic garden in the backyard. Same house, same wife for 42 years, he said. He grows the basics in his backyard organic garden: tomatoes, beans, zucchini, and peppers. Asked what he'd learned in four decades of gardening, the genial and relaxed Labetich said, There's nothing better than a good tomato. In the past couple years he's added greens such as heirloom lettuces and kales to his repertoire.
His wife, Marilyn, cooks everything. Most years she freezes tomato puree that they use throughout the year. She missed having homegrown puree the one year she couldn't process the tomatoes, she said.
He spends as much time in the sunny garden as he can from March to September. Labetich likes preparing garden beds by hand, including double-digging every few years, and he hand-waters everything. He'd rather be out in the garden watering than tinkering with irrigation parts and the inevitable repairs, he said. By mid-March he'd already planted some lettuce starts and a few early tomato plants. He gets tomato plants from a friend who likes to grow tomatoes from seed.
Out of 14 plants, Oregon Spring was his favorite tomato variety last year for taste and production. Labetich estimated he picked 150 tomatoes from one plant. For flavor alone, the best was Cherokee Purple. Several years ago on a garden tour, I was impressed by the abundance of huge ripe Brandywine tomatoes in his garden.
He favors tasty Italian zucchini varieties from Franchi Sementi seed, including Genovese and Albarello of Sarzana (Little Tree of Sarzano) .
Pest control is relatively minimal. Labetich checks his plants at night when snails are active to limit their damage. Though many suburban gardeners complain about squirrels, a neighbor's cat patrols his yard and keeps the squirrels away.
Labetich advised beginning gardeners to talk to someone or take a class. The basics are good soil, enough sun, and an understanding of watering. He recommended the classes at Common Ground in Palo Alto, which also sponsors a tour of organic gardens each July. Labetich's garden will once again be on the tour this year, slated for July 20.
Ron Labetich stands in front of his winter cover crop, fava beans, in his sunny backyard garden. He used wood from a deck to build the tall raised beds.
Newly planted, the heirloom lettuces have interesting colors and patterns: light green, medium green, spotted and speckled, and red-tinged.
Fava beans, at right, are one type of bean that will grow in the winter. Planted in the fall, they protect the soil through the winter and can be turned into the soil to add some nitrogen in early spring. At left, notice fava's beautiful black and white flowers.
© 2013 Tanya Kucak