Lately I've been attempting to grow some vegetables in the container garden I have on my patio. So last Sunday I went to a workshop organized by Food Not Lawns. It was led by Paul Maschka who seems to keep popping up at different events I got to. Or more accurately, I keep popping up at events that he is leading. His business card is a bit different from the ones I've gotten at Chamber of Commerce mixers, so I thought I'd share it with you here.

Paul told us about the most productive and easy to grow vegetables for the San Diego area. His top ten list includes potatoes, sweet potatoes, Kabocha squash, Florence fennel, Jerusalem artichokes, lima beans, beats, kale, chard, and tomatoes.

The property itself is extraordinary. It's located on Sunset Cliffs on the ocean, right across from the peace sign if you know that land mark. The house doesn't look like anything extraordinary, but the land itself is just amazing. The photo below might give you a hint of what I'm talking about.

After touring the yard and harvesting some vegetables, we did some cooking on the camping stove he had set up in the back yard. This, along with food that everyone brought, made for a wonderful potluck.

When I got home, I email Paul some photos of my sad looking plants. Diagnosis: powdery mildew, a fungus due to moist air. Suggestions: don't water the foliage, let soil dry out between waterings, put plants in sunniest location, provide more light with aluminum foil on the ground and around the plants, spray plant with solution of baking soda and water which is a natural fungicide, and feed the plants with good compost.

I also met a guy there named Colin who has turned a whole yard near SDSU into a garden and keeps a blog here.