Seoul Patch A

Goleta Garden Flows with Spirit

What do gardening and martial arts have in common? more than you’d think, says dae Kyu Chang, 53, owner of Jang’s Karate Center in downtown Santa Barbara, where he teaches a Korean discipline called Soo Bahk do™.

The study of martial arts “is not about conflict,” explains Chang, known as master Jang to his students. “It is a philosophy of relating our human spirit to nature. Through practicing this discipline, we learn to embrace the absolute integrity of nature in every aspect of life.”

At home in Goleta, his own backyard serves as a literal testimony to this philosophy. Chang cultivates a thriving organic garden that supplies most of his family’s produce needs throughout the year.

“Gardening is therapeutic; working with the earth harmonizes the flow of my Ki or life energy.”

Indeed, his meticulously tended bounty soothes the senses. Normal-sized apple, lemon, plum, tangerine, Asian pear and persimmon trees ring the yard. An extensive bonsai collection with productive apple, blueberry, pear and Korean cherry species perches above a retainer wall— including a miniature grapevine that still bears fruit after 120 years.

Neat rows of vegetables range from the familiar to the exotic: tomatoes, lettuce, squash, chives, peppers, bi-colored corn, Korean cucumber, wild sesame, ginseng, crown daisy (a type of wild parsley), pumpkin, radish and spinach with huge, chard-like leaves.

Traditionally, every meal prepared by Chang’s wife, Kyungsook, contains five different colors (black/dark, white, yellow/orange, green and red) and flavors (sweet, sour, bitter, salty and spicy). This supports longevity, the flow of yin-yang and the well-being of the body’s five major trunk organs (heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen), according to Chang.

“everything in Korean culture, such as music, medicine, art, food, structure, sounds and feelings, is identified with five harmonious aspects,” he elaborates. “The goal is to bring about balance between nature, humanity and spirit.” —Teri warm and there is plenty of time to get things in the ground before the winter rains.

Time to plant cool-season herbs, annual flowers, winter-blooming bulbs and veggies. Pansy, Sweet Peas, Chard, Kale and other seasonal color and vegetables will start appearing in your local nursery at the end of summer. Make it a custom of visiting your local garden retailer weekly at the beginning and end of each season. They are selling what you should be planting so make nursery shopping a routine.

Usually, your larger trees and shrubs need a deep watering this time of year to give them a boost of moisture that will last until the rain.

L. Breier

Maintenance items include the deadheading and cutting back of perennials, replacing summer-blooming annuals and re-mulching the earth to conserve moisture.

Native and Mediterranean plants go dormant in the summer making fall the perfect time to plant them so they will have time to establish themselves before the winter rains.

—Lisa Cullen

All products can be purchased at Terra Sole Garden Center 5320 Overpass rd. 964-7811

Lisa Cullen, landscape designer and organic gardener owns Montecito Landscape with her husband, Chris. She can be reached at 805.969.3984 or www.montecitolandscape. com. Follow her blog at www.gardengossipsb.blogspot.com and listen to Garden Gossip radio show on AM1290, Fridays at 11am and 9pm and Saturdays at 11am.

vertical Gardens: a New Dimension

How would you create space for a garden? The traditional method of planting requires what one would consider traditional space, so many feet long by so many feet wide, etc. But what if you took your garden and literally turned it ninety degrees vertical? Same square footage of garden taking up almost zero “traditional” space. That is vertical gardening. The man credited with innovating this revolutionary gardening technique is French botanist turned landscape designer Patrick Blanc. His living walls cover the entire sides of multi-storied buildings. The plants requiring the most water and least amount of sun are planted at the base of the structure and the plants needing more light and less water are at the top. Water percolates down through structure, going into a holding tank at the bottom at which point the water is pumped back up to the top and the cycle starts anew. A similar technique can be applied in a home garden on a smaller scale. Vertical Garden kits, made from recycled plastic, are now available at local nurseries. These kits include a planting panel with the capacity for 45 individual plants, a built-in reservoir and a water collection tray. Each module is 2 feet square and can be put together to create a living wall of any size. For outdoor use, succulents are an obvious choice for a living wall but you could use any plants that don’t require a tremendous about of root space. Want a kitchen garden but don’t have the space? Plant a wall of herbs. Thyme, basil, chives, parsley, etc. would make a living wall of goodness for the chef. How about a wall of organic lettuces? On the shadier side of things, ferns, baby tears, violas, orchids would be fabulous on either side of a wall fountain in your patio garden and in the sun, a wall of petunias would be spectacular. Then there are all the possibilities for inside the house. I hope I have gotten your imagination running so that you are now picturing all the possibilities. Need more inspiration? Go to the website of Patrick Blanc and see photos www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com. Then go to your local nursery for your Vertical Garden kit and have some fun creating your own living wall. Until next time, fill your garden with joy! —Lisa

Cullen