An ‘urban farm’ flourishes in Grover Beach

Sandy Warren in Grover Beach has allowed her son-in-law, Trent Burkett, to take over her backyard to grow an urban farm. Every inch is covered with raised beds, wine barrels and flowering natives. The unassuming front yard does not give a hint to the abundance of food growing in this hidden garden.

In 2014 Burkett removed some of the grass along the fence line (because it was not very kid-friendly) and started planting low-water natives. Burkett is an artist by trade, which shows in his garden design.

Even though it is mostly a vegetable garden, the space is an explosion of color, texture and variety. At his studio he started propagating natives to help keep the costs down and then decided to plant vegetables so his son, Eli, could learn how food is grown. Some vegetables were then planted at the grass edge with the natives.

In March 2015 all the Bermuda grass was removed and raised beds were built. To kill the grass, Burkett said, he used weed barrier cloth, two layers of cardboard and then mulch. Cinder block was used for the raised beds to avoid an “edge effect” — so that vegetables could be planted up to the edge of the block as the cement seems to act as insulation.

Burkett also plants alpine strawberries in the holes of the cinder block to use every inch of the garden.

Heavy-gauge wire fence panels were secured in the beds to allow plants with vines to grow vertically rather than along the ground to save space. Among the vegetables growing this way are delicata squash, pumpkins, Romano pole green beans and Italian zucchini.

Sprinklers were converted to drip irrigation using T-tape with 8-inch intervals. Every 8 inches, a vegetable or flower is planted. Because plants are grown close together, there are few weeds.

To help keep the garden healthy, Burkett maintains two cinder block compost bins at the side of the house. He saves carbon scraps (brown) and nitrogen scraps (green) in separate smaller containers. He then combines the scraps in the large cinder block bins and waters as needed. The compost is hand turned to increase the internal heat of the pile and accelerate decomposition. Burkett believes he saves 1,500 pounds to 1 ton of green waste annually by home composting.

Black soldier flies, which are not considered pests or vectors, but are as essential as red worms in breaking down organic matter and returning nutrients to the soil, have also found a home in Burkett’s compost piles.

Due to the lush vegetation, hummingbirds, bees, lizards, raccoons and possums are attracted to the garden, but gophers are not really a problem because the ground is mostly sand. The plants are very healthy in the garden and ward off most pests, with snails being the biggest problem.

Burkett likes to experiment each year with unusual varieties of plants, such as Korean radishes and Japanese bunching onions. Planted in some of the numerous wine barrels throughout the backyard are fingerling potatoes, cardoon artichokes, lime, lemon and Mandarin trees. Multi-colored Indian corn, heirloom dandelion greens and Amish snap peas help fill in the beds.

Enough lettuce and other greens are picked daily for a family salad. In one corner is an island mallow bush (native to the Catalina Islands) that has been pruned to a tree. The pink blooms last all year in Grover Beach’s temperate climate.

Every inch of this beautiful backyard garden is filled with vegetables, flowering natives or herbs.

Even though the front yard is beautiful with a lawn, succulents and small trees, this may soon become Burkett’s next edible landscape project. With his artist’s eye of combining colorful natives with edible plants, it appears a couple of vegetables are already growing along the grass edge that Warren hasn’t seen yet!

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 5:30 AM with the headline "An ‘urban farm’ flourishes in Grover Beach."