Urban Gardener Barters Crops
For you would-be gardeners in the heart of the city with no land of your own, consider borrowing someone else’s.
That’s what Charlene Love did when she wanted to grow vegetables. Her plot, just up the street from the ABC Television Center in the Los Feliz-Silver Lake area, belonged to a neighbor.
It was not being used and was choked with weeds, but a little digging uncovered an excellent soil, made rich from years of disuse and the accumulated leaf litter from a nearby tree. The soil was so good it required little preparation. Water was also borrowed, though Love uses very little, irrigating only once a week. In exchange for the water, the neighbor received free and very fresh vegetables, ample payment in just about anybody’s book.
This year, Love has moved and now has a new plot of land behind the house she rents, but it’s still “borrowed” as she shares it with her landlord. Like her other garden, it is not very big (“about the size of three automobiles” she said), but this time the soil is a hard clay and she is having to do more to it. “It’s awful,” she said, but the garden is planted and growing.
It is still in the heart of the city, with the usual assortment of city problems.
“Gardening in the city, you tend to learn more about people than you do gardening,” she said. “Most think you cannot possibly grow anything here and some resent the fact that you’re trying. They think a vegetable garden is an eyesore.”
On the plus side, Love points out that great recipes can often be found close by. “I’ve found some of my favorite recipes right in the neighborhood, especially a few that use the hot Mexican peppers I grow,” she said. “People see what you’re growing and stop to chat and one thing leads to another.”
The vegetables in Love’s garden are not your run-of-the-mill veggies. They are unusually pretty, because she rates good looks right up there with good taste. In her garden are things like striped eggplant and fuzzy tomatoes (a delicious cherry tomato called Peach Fuzz), dragon tongue beans and the striped French Marbel bean, a rare pepper from Japan and a chocolate-colored bell pepper, anise-flavored basil and speckled lima beans.
Love can’t possibly eat all she grows so she began a back-yard business a few years back called Eat Your Vegetables. She barters some of her crop to local restaurants that have a taste for the exotic.
Since she grows only a few of each vegetable variety, Love must be selective about whom she sells to, so she handpicks her clients by dining at restaurants until she finds one that does something special with vegetables. Then she brings the chef a few samples. Current clients include King’s Cafe on north Robertson and the Pasta Shop on Hillcrest in Los Feliz.
Although she enjoys growing vegetables in the heart of the city, she eventually hopes to have more room for vegetables. “I’d love to have acres and acres,” she said. “I live for that day.”
