Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Ken Foster at his home for a tour of his garden. Ken is the owner of the ecological landscaping company TerraNova Landscaping. While strolling about his diverse 1/4 acre lot, we talked a lot about the other sustainable practices in his business because it is something I hope to do myself in the near future here in San Jose. As was immediately obvious by his driveway (slowly being claimed by potted plants) and his garage (reserved for his bike), he integrates sustainability into his life and business. The TerraNova maintenance crews also use bikes and bike carts for the day to day maintenance. They definitely bust out the trucks for major installations, but for the routine work, they try to use low impact, low noise methods (like electric mowers, blowers). TerraNova does beautiful work (photos here), and it’s fascinating stuff, but it’s time to get back to the point of this post!
His garden.
Even though it is the cool season (one can hardly call it “winter” in Santa Cruz), his front yard is flush with food, herbs and habitat. Ken noted that he likes to let things run a little wild in his yard, but he pointed out that what many might mistake to be weeds, are in fact self-perpetuating sources of food that readily reseed and grow themselves with little to no input on his part. As you can see in the photos, even with a looser, wilder growth pattern, it is a beautiful landscape accented by driftwood and quirky garden art.
The miner’s lettuce shown on the right is an excellent example of a how wonderful a weed can be. It is actually a multi-functional, low input plant and these attributes are highly valued within permaculture design. It is a beautiful ground cover that provides a living mulch, it is also a delicious green (I tasted it and I am very picky when it comes to greens!), it sows itself, and it is native to this area so it demands little attention. Definitely a “weed” that I wouldn’t mind popping up in my own garden.
The miner’s lettuce is growing on the edge of a bioswale that collects the rain runoff from the walkway and his house roof. The swale stops the flow of the water, spreads it over a small area and sinks it into the ground to create a lens of water which the fruit trees, the miner’s lettuce and the host of other plants on the swale can tap into as they need it. The swale serves a very, very important function but it also smells reaaaaaally good. Ken has partnered with a local tea business named SunChai to help them reduce their waste. He takes their spent chai mix and makes a Chai Mulch that he personally uses and sells to others. It is a beautiful mulch, it smells great and is a excellent example of a positive mutual exchange between two businesses to cycle materials.
Below are a few more photos, but I’ll have to leave it that. There was so much more going on and I didn’t even get past the front yard in this post. If you are in Santa Cruz and get the chance, I recommend arranging a tour with Ken and he can tell you all about permaculture, TerraNova, Transition Santa Cruz and other exciting things that he’s involved in. If you do drop in on Ken, ask him to show you the “Rock Star” ceanothus (it performed at the Cow Palace!).
Ken demonstrating the spiral herb garden that he and his daughter did years ago for a school project
plants fit snugly in Ken's repurposed shoes
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