Growing a Grocery

I'm trying to clean up the dietary act, and I've found a few simple ways to do it. One, try to squeeze into a dress I wore to a friend's wedding just two short years ago. Two, watch Super-Size Me or other documentary detailing what's really in some of our processed foods and the corporate nature that drives our food chain. Third, have one really great homegrown tomato.

I have friends who have carved out little patches of yard, battling gophers and earwigs for a shot at their own bell peppers and beans. Heck, even the First Family has dug in, so to speak. And what a blessing it is that we live in a place with a seemingly endless growing season. While I'm a bit short on time and energy for my own Green Acres, I am surrogate mom to one precious tomato plant, heaping the kind of attention and maternal energy on it that my children have yet to see directed their way.

Another way to learn about or live vicariously through the gardens of others is to check out Nature's Table, the new permanent edible garden at Descanso in La Cañada-Flintridge. Here you'll find a garden variety of fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. One area is referred to as the "pie garden," seeded with pumpkins, rhubarb (does anybody really eat that?), blueberries and other future fruity fillings. The harvests will be donated to a local food bank.

The garden design was the project of the Cal Poly Pomona's Landscape Architecture Design Studio, where students hope to inspire all of us to grow something healthy.