COUNTRY CLUB PARK : Gardeners Find Common Ground
Yun Tae Cho and Carlota Padilla don’t speak the same language, but when the subject is gardening, they’re on common ground.
On a recent sunny day, Cho and Padilla, with the help of translators, talked about the community gardens they tend as members of the Common Ground Garden Program. The program’s coordinator introduced Padilla, a native of Mexico, to the Korean-born Cho for some gardening tips.
As the 80-year-old Cho scampered from one plot to another imparting his wisdom on greenhouses and secret fertilizers, he nibbled on a leaf of pu choo , the Korean name for a long slender herb similar to a chive or a leek. “If you eat a lot of pu choo it keeps you strong, and many people say mine is the best in Los Angeles County,” Cho said in Korean.
The garden program, sponsored by the University of California Cooperative Extension in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Los Angeles County Farm Advisor Department, provides training, technical assistance and seeds to residents who want to grow their own vegetables.
The Common Ground staff finds and secures vacant lots and helps organize neighbors interested in setting up a garden club, said Rachel Mabie, the program’s outreach coordinator.
After a water meter is installed or reconnected, the club members divide the lot into individual plots and establish rules and dues for the participating gardeners.
There are 12 gardens in the program, including Padilla’s in Pico-Union and Cho’s on Crenshaw Boulevard between Pico and Venice boulevards, Mabie said. Another 50 school gardens are tended by students in the Los Angeles area.
For Cho, who came to Los Angeles eight years ago from South Korea to visit his children and decided to stay, the garden is a treasured substitute for the farms he left behind.
Mabie said several African-American neighbors also have plots in the Crenshaw Boulevard garden. Although Cho speaks no English, he finds ways to make himself understood.
As Cho led Padilla and three of her four children around the plots where he grows squash, tomatoes, onions, strawberries, freesias and pu choo , he talked to her about how to age manure so it’s not too strong and enrich water by soaking fish parts in it.
He explained how to make an inexpensive greenhouse from pipes, slats from window blinds and sheets of plastic. And he cautioned Padilla that when she uses fish water in the greenhouses, “seal the plastic up really tight because cats will try to get in.”
Food grown in a community garden “tastes better because it’s fresher,” said Padilla. She said Cho taught her a lot about greenhouse gardening and her two sons seemed delighted by the 10- and 18-pound squashes and strawberry plants Cho gave them.
Information on the Common Ground Program: (213) 744-4341.
