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Home&Garden GOOD TIMES

MAGAZINE 2019

UPSIDE-DOWN GARDENING The growing technique that youâ€™ll flip for

BUILT FOR A REPURPOSE

Local makers find success giving new life to old wood

GOODTIMES.SC S A N TA C R U Z . C O M

CMY

HOME & GARDEN | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2019

2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

CONTENTS TURNING POINT P6 How upside-down gardening won over a new convert.

OUR SECRET GARDEN P12 Watsonville’s Ortega Nursery is an unheralded treasure trove for local gardeners.

A GREAT ALIBI P16 Meet the Santa Cruz County couple whose repurposed woodwork has gone viral.

GET ON HIS GRASS P18 An old-school cannabis user’s advice for navigating the new world of grows.

INDIGO GIRL P26 Kaitlin Bonifacio brings Japanese textile methods to Santa Cruz.

HOME & GARDEN EVENTS P28 Where to find gardening classes, plant sales and more.

EDITOR’S NOTE

urprise! It’s a whole Home & Garden issue full of surprises. Starting with how surprised Georgia Johnson was to discover the benefits of upside-down gardening. I think she even pitched the story to me as something like, “a chronicle of my attempt and failure to grow tomatoes upside down.” You can read in the story her growing astonishment at the fact that her experiment is not failing as she keeps a diary of her grow. It’s a fun read, and there’s a lot to learn in there about the power of readjusting our perspectives. Another surprise success came when Chris and Paige Curtis started using old wood piled in their backyard. Their early experiments with repurposing wood led to their business Alibi Interiors, which eventually led to national exposure on the Today show. How they’ve managed their success and stayed true to their aesthetic mission is a fascinating story. If you’re in the know as a Santa Cruz County gardener, you may not be surprised to read about Ortega Nursery, but I certainly was. If you didn’t know about this little slice of plant paradise before, you’ll definitely want to check it out by the time you’re done reading Lauren Hepler’s story. There are a lot of other surprises in store for you in this issue. May they serve you well this year in your home and garden adventures! STEVE PALOPOLI | EDITOR

STAFF PUBLISHER

ART DIRECTOR

EDITOR

Tabi Zarrinnaal

Steve Palopoli

DESIGNERS

Lauren Hepler

HOME & GARDEN | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2019

Georgia Johnson Richard Stockton

Dan Pulcrano

MANAGING EDITOR

A Good Times publication.

CONTRIBUTORS

Rosie Eckerman DiAnna VanEycke

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

Debra Whizin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Lisa Buckley Sue Lamothe Ilana Rauch Packer Tiffani Petrov

ACCOUNTING

Sarah Puckett

OFFICE MANAGER

CIRCULATION MANAGER

VICE PRESIDENT

Shannen Craig

Kari Mansfeld Lee May

COVER PHOTO BY GEORGIA JOHNSON COVER DESIGN BY TABI ZARRINNAAL

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WHO KNEW? It turns out tomatoes love—maybe even prefer—to be grown upside down, as our writer discovered with these thriving plants. PHOTO: GEORGIA JOHNSON

HOME & GARDEN | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2019

Topsy-Turvy

Tomatoes Why upside-down gardening will flip your assumptions about growing BY GEORGIA JOHNSON

am never going back to right-side-up gardening ever again. There’s no reason why I should. When I planted my tomatoes upside down a month ago, I knew they would die. I felt guilty even attempting it, given my past failures at growing them in the ground. But, to my astonishment, within a week they had started sprouting new leaves and winding their way toward the sun. I never knew about upside-down gardening until it came across my desk a few weeks ago. But since then, I’ve started to notice how upside-down gardens are popping up everywhere. GT’s resident accountant/business guru Sarah says she’s been upside-down gardening for years. Not only does it keep the pests away, she says, but it looks amazing, too. So I decided to take a shot at the trend myself. Here are some field notes from my upside-down adventures:

MARCH 16 I wouldn’t like it if someone turned me upside down for the rest of my life, so would my plants be OK with it? To the very limited extent of my gardening abilities, I’ve always lived by the idea that if I wouldn’t enjoy it, I shouldn’t do it to the plant. So far, this rule has kept my tiny garden box away from evening waterings, freezing temperatures and general malnourishment. But upside-down gardening is beyond the realm of the “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” gardening commandment. Today, I planted my first upside-down tomatoes. Full transparency: I have planted tomatoes before, both from seed and small starter. Both attempts failed miserably. Planting tomatoes upside down seems like a fool’s errand, given that I can’t even grow them right side up. I’ve also been told that it’s slightly early to plant tomatoes—they’re ideally planted in April or May when nighttime temperatures are warmer. The San Lorenzo Garden Center still has their tomato starts in a cute little plastic greenhouse. After extensive research this time around, I planted sweet cherry tomatoes, because once they start growing they will weigh less on the branches

compared to a beefsteak tomato or a larger varietal. Serious upside-down gardeners use big, 5-gallon buckets—the plastic kind readily available at Home Depot. They have strong handles and thick, insulating sides. The much-less-serious gardeners use milk or juice cartons with wide mouths hung by string. I put myself somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, so I bought smaller plastic planters. After cutting a hole in the bottom, I used hemp twine to hang them, but in retrospect I should have used wire. Twine isn’t element-resistant, but more on that tragedy later. Once upside down, the tomatoes got a really sad drenching of brown stained water. I was told to use coffee filters before putting soil in (this prevents the soil from running out the bottom hole)—but unfortunately I didn’t make the hole small enough, and soiled water gushed through the bottom onto my baby plants. I’m already a bad tomato mom.

MARCH 20 I don’t think tomatoes particularly enjoy being upside down, because they have managed to defy gravity and loop back up. They’re now growing straight up the side of the pot? This is not what I saw online. 8> 2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

< 7 ::: TOPSY-TURVY TOMATOES

MARCH 21

MARCH 29

APRIL 6

I’ve had to put plastic baggies over my tomatoes each night because it’s been getting cold. I nearly snap off their little leaves everytime I cover them. This is more work than I signed up for.

How is this working? The reason for my success so far, I figure, must be that I used too much vegetable fertilizer. I mixed a couple of teaspoons in with the tomatoes when I planted them, and that’s probably a basic gardener’s no-no. I’m convinced that when they run out of nutrients, the flowers will probably fall and die, shortly followed by the rest of the plant.

Considering how poorly I thought upsidedown gardening would go, I’m ecstatic with the results. Hopefully the tomatoes will continue to grow through the summer and I’ll be eating tons of bruschetta by July/August. Next year I will definitely be growing them again, though I will likely plant them later on—maybe late April—and get larger buckets so they have more growing room. I haven’t had any major issues with the holes in the bottom, though the plants do get a little brown when I water them. Next time I may make the holes smaller and use a coffee filter or something more substantial than newsprint as a filter. The control-subject plant in the ground has grown maybe an inch or two, but nowhere near as much as those planted upside down. The slugs have also started to investigate the ground tomato, but so far no trails around the planted pots. I may re-pot the ground plant—someone tell me if that’s a bad idea. No more ground gardening for me.

MARCH 27 My plants have their first flowers, but I’m not going to get too excited because they may just fall off. I also planted herbs, sage and thyme, at the top. Those seem to be doing well, too, given the amount of sunlight they have been getting. I sometimes feel bad that they have to share a pot with the tomatoes, especially because the pot isn’t very big. I now completely understand why people use giant buckets—and in retrospect, I wish I had, too. I planted a tomato in the ground, too, for purposes of comparison, and that one hasn’t grown nearly as much. I’ve been watering it the same and it gets the same(ish) amount of sunlight. Maybe I should uproot it and plant it upside down with its friends.

APRIL 3 The tomatoes are good; the twine holding up the tomatoes, not so much. With all of the rain we got this spring, they have started to shred and get moldy, and I know it’s only a matter of time before they fall.

APRIL 4 They fell. The tomatoes are okay, bless them. The herbs need a little manual reconstruction and surgery. Will use wire this time around.

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Taking Root

Watsonville’s Ortega Nursery embraces the succulent boom after two decades in business

undreds, thousands, tens of thousands? After 20 years in business, Refugio Ortega isn’t sure exactly how many succulents, cacti, flowers, herbs and other plants are currently growing at his overflowing namesake Watsonville nursery. What the patriarch of Ortega Nursery sees when he surveys the never-ending rows of LAUREN HEPLER buds and blooms and lush leaves in his two jam-packed greenhouses are families in constant evolution. It’s up to him to pick just the right moment to pluck off small segments ready to strike out on their own—the “hijos,” Ortega says, or children—from adult plants he’s already raised. “You cut them like this, with care,” Ortega says as he rotates the dark purple leaves of a flowering succulent to reveal tiny white hairs jutting out from the stem. “Look, this is the little root.” Experienced landscapers and amateur gardeners alike flock from all over Santa Cruz, San Jose, Tracy and

other neighboring areas to buy Ortega’s wide range of plants—which start at $1 for the hijos and go up to $10 for large, three-gallon grown-up plants. It doesn’t cost much more than that for the palms and small trees that Ortega sells around the perimeter of the greenhouses that he and his small team have built over the years out of wood, metal and mesh. Five-star reviews on sites like Yelp usually involve some version of the sentiment, “I literally had a panic attack at how many plants are here and how inexpensive they are,” as one Central Coast reviewer wrote last year. It all started around 1999, when Ortega found himself looking for work after 18 years at Moran Nursery in Freedom. He’d moved to the Central Coast in 1972 from his hometown of Tepatitlán, in Jalisco, Mexico, and learned to grow plants in the more than a decade he spent at a different Watsonville nursery. Ortega knew it wouldn’t be easy to branch out on his own when he rented the space that the nursery still calls home on a quiet side street, but he

also knew that he was getting older and couldn’t count on other people for work forever. So he set up a table and sold his first few plants. “I didn’t know anything else,” Ortega says. “Over the years, I saw that my kids were growing up, that I didn’t want them to be wandering the streets. I wanted to have a little business to entertain them.” Ortega grew his inventory with plants he bought at local flea markets and other nurseries. Over time, one table of plants became dozens of tables filled to capacity. His children got married, and he now works at the nursery with his brother and two other employees.

GROWTH SPURT Nestled in a flat section of the rolling hills between Corralitos and Watsonville, near Pinto Lake, Ortega’s neighbors are a Nazarene church, wholesale nurseries, markets advertising weekend menudo, and modest one-story ranch houses with conspicuously nice gardens. You know you’ve arrived at Ortega when you see the big 15 >

2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

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< 13 ::: TAKING ROOT

piles of pots and plastic tarps draped over the greenhouses. Down the unpaved driveway and through the entrance near a big mound of fertile, wormy soil that sells for a few dollars a bag, the sensory overload really begins. To the right are vibrant flowers, prickly aloe plants and aromatic bunches of mint and rosemary, all neatly arranged on makeshift tables that stretch the length of about half a football field, separated by only a few inches of a dirt path (be careful to duck the hanging plants for sale overhead; this is not the place for the claustrophobic). To the left is the other greenhouse—Ortega’s growth business—brimming with cacti and succulents. “I have many succulents here, a lot,” he says. “The past four years have been mostly succulents.” This is the area where out-of-towners are most likely to be found snapping Instagram photos of endless rows of jade plants, echeveria and ball cactus,

sometimes with a surprise cameo from the rooster that wanders the premises. While some upscale gardening shops in the area have supplemented their inventory with Ortega’s plants, he says he doesn’t focus on wholesale deals. “If I bring them a sample, later they’re going to say, ‘Well, bring me 500,’ and I don’t have them,” he says. “I don’t have much space.” During the busy summer months, Ortega can sell several hundred plants in a weekend. The shop is open seven days a week, and most purchases are small, but bigger projects can add up to a few hundred dollars. He says he doesn’t mind if people just come to look. “I’m friends with everyone,” he says. After two decades, Ortega may be almost out of space, but he hasn’t stopped experimenting with his ever-expanding families of plants. This winter, he decided to build a supersized table to showcase about 400 boxes of his newest succulents. “Look, each box has 16 little plants,”

DEEP SEEDED Refugio Ortega opened Ortega Nursery in 1999, after decades of working at other local nurseries. PHOTO: LAUREN HEPLER

he says, bending over to inspect a neat grid of tiny, red-tipped green succulents. “And there it goes, they’re looking very pretty.” Ortega Nursery, 30 Paulsen Rd., Watsonville. 801-3050.

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HOW ALIBI INTERIORSâ€™ REPURPOSED WOOD PIECES MADE THEIR MARK BY GEORGIA JOHNSON

oss and lichen on a picture frame are the kind of details I never knew I wanted. This was probably also true for local husband-and-wife makers Chris and Paige Curtis, who started Alibi Interiors seven years ago. A former paramedic, Chris had some photographs he wanted to frame. Instead of going shopping he looked to the old pile of wood in the backyard. After Chris taught himself how to make frames and told a friend at Stripe that he had started dabbling, they ordered $1,000 worth of frames on the spot. 21 >

2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

Your Family’s Health is Everything

THE MANY ZONES OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY By Datta Khalsa, Broker

Santa Cruz generally gets cast as Surf City USA, and there is no question that our coastline and beaches are what puts Santa Cruz on the map, but depending on where you go in our County, those of us who live here know it for far more just its beaches.

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Based on information available online through Wikipedia and other sources, Santa Cruz County is divided into five main regions: the rugged “North Coast”; the central coastal plains occupied by our beach communities; the mountainous regions of Bonny Doon and the Summit; the valleys of the San Lorenzo River, Soquel and Aptos Creeks; and the fertile “South County” areas, including the farm communities of Corralitos and Pajaro Valley. In fact, there are such changes in the climate, elevation and the geography from one region to the next in this County that it may have you wondering if you’re even in the same state once you have turned a corner, and with each of these zones, the type of natural landscape and the types of gardens and planting you can successfully sustain will vary greatly. The Central Coast is a region of great biological diversity, encompassing cool, moist coastal ecosystems as well as warm, dry chaparral. Much of the area in the Santa Cruz Mountains is considered temperate rainforest. In valleys and moist ocean-facing slopes some of the southernmost Coast Redwoods grow, along with coast Douglas Fir, coast Live Oak, Pacific Madrone and Pacific Wax Myrtle. Big Leaf Maple, California Bay Laurel, and California Black Oak also occur in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There do exist several small and isolated stands of oldgrowth forest, most notably at Henry Cowell Redwoods and Portola Redwoods State Parks, and one sizeable oldgrowth redwood forest at Big Basin. At higher elevations and on sunny south slopes a more drought-resistant chaparral vegetation dominates: Manzanita, California Scrub Oak, Chamise, and Chaparral Pea.

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Santa Cruz County has a predominantly Mediterranean-type climate typical of most of California, with the majority of the annual precipitation falling between November and April. According to the National Weather Service, this totals more than 50 inches annually. Heavy summer fogs frequently cover the western ocean-facing slopes and valleys, resulting in drizzle and fog drip caused by condensation on the redwoods, pines, and other trees, which sustains the moisture-loving redwood forests. Due to a rain shadow effect, precipitation on the eastern side of the range is significantly less, about 25 inches a year. Snow falls a few times a year on the highest ridges, and more rarely the higher valleys receive light dustings. In order to assure yourself the best chance of success in your gardening and landscaping ventures, you should consult a knowledgeable resource at one of the many local nurseries who can guide you to the right types of fruits, vegetables, flowers and/or drought-resistant landscaping that is appropriate to your specific region of the County. And it never hurts to have an agent on your side who can help you pick a property with the right type of microclimate and soils based on their years of familiarity with the area. Datta Khalsa is the broker and owner at Main Street Realtors in Soquel. He can be reached at (831)818-0181 or Paid Advertorial datta@mainstrealtors.com

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< 19 ::: SHOPPING FOR AN ALIBI

“I hardly even knew what I was doing. I was just messing around in the yard,” Chris recalls. “I think they sent like half of them back. But for me, that changed everything. When someone believes in you, it helps create so much.” Now the pair makes thousands of pieces each month in the busy season, always keeping in mind that the materials they use to build the products are just as important as the products themselves. They’ve had orders ship to Japan and Canada and were recently featured on the Today show for Small Business Saturday. “We were in San Francisco when the feature came out,” Paige says. “We weren’t able to watch it, but we watched the orders come through at like three a minute.” The couple started their business a few years after they began dating, and their relationship has grown along with the business. They started off with picture frames but now make mirrors, garden boxes, tables and more. It’s all a bit surreal. At one point they were making frames for fun, and now they’re meeting Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and CEO of the mobile payment company Square, on television. “A lot of our online sales were local to California and the West Coast, but after the Today show we started shipping to the East Coast and Midwest,” Chris says. “It was so much more than we had ever done before. It’s been slow steady growth for a couple of years now, and then this year I realized that it all compounded on itself.” Despite more than 100 wholesale clients, the couple still has a personal relationship with about 80 percent of customers. Paige recently launched Hunter by Alibi Interiors, a collection of curated second-hand goods, and Chris has been working on a lot of larger custom pieces, like tables and bookshelves, which he says can be a nice break from making frames. “These pieces were made from an old 1910 wine tank. It’s actually smells like cabernet. It’s amazing,” he says

DESIGNS ON SOUTH COUNTY Paige and Chris Curtis of Alibi Interiors

sell their sustainable wood pieces as well as a selection of unique objects and clothing in Aptos. PHOTO: JULES HOLDSWORTH

gesturing to a table. “I’ve done a few pieces with the wine tank. The tannins and acids in the wine have left these dark streaks. It’s really fun.” “Our material is sourced equally from fence boards, old barns and local demolitions, but it’s always really exciting when we get some unique wood that was part of a 1800s barn or a bait tank,” Paige adds. The couple says they are always looking for unique pieces, but they rely mostly on a network of people to find reclaimed wood. They can’t always take all of the wood they find; sometimes

it’s too coated in paint or filled with termites. But the sustainable aspect of Alibi doesn’t end at their repurposed wood. When it comes to packing and shipping materials, the founders take to social media to ask the community to drop off paper, boxes or used packing peanuts in exchange for a frame. “People want to be a part of something sustainable,” Paige says. “It feels good to recycle and buy products that are second-hand or repurposed. It’s time-consuming, but it’s so worth it.” thealibiinteriors.com. 2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

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WEED Wonderland An O.G. cannabis enthusiast explains how to relax and enjoy what Santa Cruz is growing BY RICHARD STOCKTON

et me pull out my razor blade and whittle on this hash block while I tell you whippersnappers about the then and the now of weed. I was born in the deep south—Bakersfield. I started smoking pot in 1965. We were told that pot was a gateway drug to harder drugs. Really? I’ve smoked my weight in weed and have never tried heroin or smoked a cigarette. Back then, weed was so intensely criminalized that merely using it was a revolutionary act. I knew a guy who went to prison for having one joint. The government, the doctors, the school administrators, and the cops—I knew they were all lying through their teeth about pot. It made me wonder, “What else are they lying about?” What weed did do was to open my doors of perception. The psychotropic effects of THC made me understand that there are other ways of seeing reality, and that my experience of external reality was influenced by what goes on inside my head. As John Lennon said, “Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.” 25 >

2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

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< 23 ::: WEED WONDERLAND

A lot certainly changed when recreational pot became legal in California on Jan. 1, 2018. Since then, I can use without worrying that cops will suddenly appear. I am by nature hyper-focused on productivity, and my wife Julie encourages me to get high: “Richard, do less and have more fun.” Because of the fantastic array of strains available, it’s exciting to dial in how cannabis can help my creativity. I’ve got a strain of sativa for when I edit my comedy writing and practice guitar. I’ve got a strain of Indica to feel my body power and lift weights, do yoga and work on my Airstream. I’ve got a mixture of both for when I’m alone with Julie. I do love the potency of the new, high-THC weed. Mind loosening? More like jumping through a portal in the wall to a new universe. Back in the day, if there was a kilo on the table I could smoke anyone under the table. But with the potency now, I’m a one hit wonder. The new, super-potent strains can lead to creative euphoria, but they can also make you paranoid. I vaped some powerful THC

oil and imagined I could walk on a beam of light—but I was also afraid that someone would turn it off and I’d fall down. Legalization has opened up the discussion on how we can make the most out of this mind-loosening plant. Latest Gallup poll: 64 percent of Americans support legalization. But most thrilling is the cornucopia of medical benefits. I have a rare auto-immune disease called chronic idiopathic urticaria … hives, baby, hives. My hives had hives. Weed got me through until they started injecting me with Xolair, a genetically altered mice protein. The mice protein does have some side effects (like when I see a cat coming and cross to the other side of the street). But the new, potent weed turns me back into Mighty Mouse. So now there’s nothing in your way to explore this new weed wonderland. Except maybe your wallet. Still, I would definitely recommend the high-end dispensaries in Santa Cruz. If you want to explore psychedelic levels of THC for mind expansion, go

with oil vapor or even farther with edibles. Start slow with the edibles, though; lunatics like me look for the overdose edge, but that’s not for most. If you’re in pain, you can load yourself with a massive amount of THC and CBD with edibles. It got me through the worst of my urticaria. (If you have serious medical issues, join WAMM, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana.) When you do find a strain of cannabis that improves your mood, creativity or health, it makes sense to grow your own. You can grow the same $400-per-ounce flower sold in the dispensaries for dimes on the ounce. It’s too late this year to start from seed, but it’s a great time to plant clones. You can legally grow six plants in Santa Cruz County, and dispensaries sell awesome clones that you could plant right now; by fall you’ll have more amazing bud than you’ll know what to do with. At any level, this is an amazing time to change your mind and heal your body with weed. 2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

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THE SHIBORI METHOD Kaitlin Bonifacio brought her

love of textile dyeing back from Japan, and now teaches classes in Soquel. PHOTO: JULES HOLDSWORTH

TODyeFOR How Santa Cruz artist Kaitlin Bonifacio brought ancient Japanese textile methods to a local audience BY GEORGIA JOHNSON

aitlin Bonifacio stumbled upon indigo dyeing on a trip to Japan. Originally planning to tour a sake brewery, she found herself in very different company—a group of longtime textile dyers a short distance away. “I went to a community center down the street where all of these retired Japanese ladies, that didn’t speak any English at all, were Shibori dyeing with indigo,” Bonifacio recalls. “I was like, ‘What is going on? This is so cool!’” Shibori is a method of dyeing using several different techniques and folds, similar to tye dyeing traditionally done with indigo. After going to the class, Bonifacio was hooked and started experimenting back home in Hawaii. She was pregnant at the time and eventually made an indigo ring sling baby carrier for her newborn daughter. 28 >

2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

< 27 ::: TO DYE FOR

HAMMER TIME Bonifacio has been experimenting with flower hammering

for her classes more recently, which involves extracting pigments from flowers onto textiles—in this case, silk. PHOTO: JULES HOLDSWORTH

“People would stop me everyday and ask where I got it,” Bonifacio says. “So I decided to make a bunch one weekend and put them on Etsy. They all sold out right away.” Bonifacio has shipped her indigo products to customers all over the world, but she tries to keep pieces affordable since it’s also common to see indigo products that she considers overpriced. But starting an online business wasn’t without its difficulties. Because she was selling baby carriers, she had to send her products to get tested and certified by the American Society for Testing and Materials International. “I just wanted to make them and sell them, but then had to backpedal a bit to take those extra steps I didn’t know I had to do,” she says. “It was a learning process.” Although her company Yuzu and Rose

HOME & GARDEN | SANTACRUZ.COM | GOODTIMES.SC | 2019

is only a year old, Bonifacio has been dyeing for much longer. She started using natural dyes with flowers and plants in her backyard in Hawaii a few years ago. One of the interesting parts about natural dyes, she says, is that every factor matters and affects the final product, from water quality and temperature to the age of flowers. “Trying to nail down a consistent result to put online was difficult,” she says. “I really narrowed it down with avocados and onion skins to be the same every time, so there weren’t any surprises. Now I want to teach other people how to do it.” Bonifacio often still experiments with dandelions or colorful flowers she finds, but she’s been mostly teaching dyeing classes with indigo, avocado and onion skins. Bonifacio is originally from Santa Cruz, and since moving back she

says she’s been particularly surprised by the community support she’s gotten for both classes and sales. She currently teaches classes at Cabrillo College, All Hands Workshops and her studio at the Craftsmen Collective in Soquel. “The retail side of it is more of a side gig,” she says. “I’ve been really focused on teaching the classes.” Part of the reason Bonifacio has been able to do all this, she says, is because of the community in Santa Cruz. She now has two young daughters and knows other women in town that juggle motherhood and running local businesses. “I think the only reason I’ve had the success is because of the community,” she says. “There are other people doing indigo in the community, and they have all been so welcoming. This is a really special place.” Instagram @yuzuandrose.

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Calendar MONTEREY BAY ROSE SOCIETY 39TH ANNUAL ROSE SHOW There are literally hundreds of beautiful cut roses ready to take home at the annual MBRS rose show. There will also be the opportunity to meet Joe Truskot, author of the Central Coast Rose Manual, and to receive rose advice from ARS Consulting Rosarians. Plus there’s live music, wine and Corralitos Market sausages.

5/4

12:30-5 p.m. Alladin Nursery and Gift Shop, 2905 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville. 724-7517, alladinnursery.com. Free.

FREE FARM TOUR Take a relaxing stroll around the gorgeous 30-acre UCSC farm and get a close-up look at its organic agriculture and horticulture. You will also learn more about the education, research, and outreach work taking place through the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.

5/5 6/2

10 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Meet at UCSC’s Cowell Ranch Hay Barn, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz. casfs.ucsc.edu. Free, registration recommended.

‘FARMING WHILE BLACK’ Author Leah Penniman discusses the history of black farmers and their contributions to agriculture, traditional farming knowledge and foodways, as described in her book Farming While Black. Penniman is the founder of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York.

5/10

3-5 p.m. UCSC Hay Barn, 94 Ranch View Rd., Santa Cruz. 459-3240, casfs@ucsc.edu. Free.

CABRILLO COLLEGE 41ST ANNUAL SPRING PLANT SALE More than 1,000 different organic vegetable starts, perennial edibles, annuals, bedding plants, culinary and medicinal herbs, cut flowers, natives, succulents, and more— just in time for Mother’s Day.

5/10 - 5/12

3-7 p.m. on Friday, May 10; 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, May 11; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday, May 12. Cabrillo Community College, 6500 Soquel Drive, Aptos. 479-6241. Free. 32> 2019 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM | HOME & GARDEN

Calendar TOMATO MASTERS Learn how to master the art and science of one of the world’s most popular fruits. Follow the growing techniques learned in this workshop to grow 7-foot-tall plants that yield 100 pounds of fruit per plant. This is a hands-on seminar on backyard tomato growing where attendees get the latest techniques for fertilizing, pruning and soil amending for maximum production, health and taste. This class is taught by farmer Cynthia Sandberg, co-founder of the World Tomato Society.

5/11 6/2

10 a.m. -2 p.m. Love Apple Farms, 5311 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley. growbetterveggies.com. $69.

SUCCULENT WREATH WORKSHOP Who said wreaths are just for the holidays? Tamara Cucchiara, better known as “the succulent diva,” will teach participants how to make a living, breathing wreath perfect for summer and holidays alike. Cucchiara is considered the go-to expert in the Alladin community for succulent design, demonstrations, teaching, care, and propagation. Ticket cost includes all of the materials needed.

5/11 6/22

11 a.m.-1 p.m. Alladin Nursery and Gift Shop, 2905 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville. 724-7517, alladinnursery.com. $65.

AN INTRODUCTION TO GARDEN HERBALISM Aside from delicious strawberries, kale and beautiful flowers, the fields and gardens at the UCSC farm abound with medicinal plants. Learn how to use commonly found plants for a more restful sleep, to combat stress, soothe or strengthen digestion, heal wounds, and much more.

5/18

9:30 a.m.-noon. UCSC Farm and Garden, corner of Merrill College Road and McLaughlin Drive, Santa Cruz. 459-3240, online tickets at brownpapertickets.com. $30 general admission.

SUMMER VEGETABLE GARDENING CLASS If you’ve been wanting to start a vegetable garden but don’t have the knowledge or tools, this workshop is for you. The day-long intensive class covers bed preparation, fertilizing, proper sowing and transplant dates for specific crops, discussion of over 20 different warmweather veggies to grow, warmth, light and climate needs, companion planting, pest and disease control, and much more. Plus you’ll take home your own flat of summer veggies.

5/19

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Love Apple Farms. 2317 Vine Hill Rd., Santa Cruz. 588-3801, growbetterveggies.com. Advance online registration required. $79, plus $20 materials fee. 34>

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COMPOST, VERMICULTURE & SOIL FERTILITY

Using homemade compost is the single best thing 5/25 you can do to increase your garden’s fertility, ward off pests and keep diseases at a minimum, according to Cynthia Sandberg, co-founder of the World Tomato Society. Worm castings have also been shown to be a similarly powerful tool. Sandberg will teach students about the benefits of compost and vermiculture, how to properly build a compost pile and proper worm bin. Students will also take home their own worm bin. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Love Apple Farms, 2317 Vine Hill Rd., Santa Cruz. 588-3801, growbetterveggies.com. Advance online registration required. $69, plus $20 materials fee.

CONTAINER VEGETABLE GARDENING Growing vegetables in containers is harder than it looks. Whether it’s tomatoes or cucumbers, this class is for those who have limited space or pest problems. From the proper potting soil to use to a plethora of available container options, the class will also include discussions about space requirements, sunlight needs, the all-important fertilizing, and companion planting for maximum yield and results.

5/26

10 a.m.-2 p.m. Love Apple Farms, 2317 Vine Hill Rd., Santa Cruz. 588-3801, growbetterveggies.com. Advance online registration required. $69.

FAIRY/MINIATURE GARDEN WORKSHOP

They say succulents are easy to care for, but they are fairly easy to kill, too. Just because they are small and don’t need as much water doesn’t mean they don’t need love and affection. Join “succulent diva” Tamara Cucchiara for a hands-on class on planting and growing succulents and miniature gardens. Everyone will get the chance to make and take home their own mini succulent garden.

6/1

11 a.m.-1 p.m. Alladin Nursery and Gift Shop, 2905 Freedom Blvd., Watsonville. 724-7517, alladinnursery.com. $20.

BACKYARD CHICKEN-KEEPING Even city dwellers can keep a few laying hens in their yards if they have the right tools. Learn how to properly care for young chickens and build a simple, predator-proof coop. Students will take home three live chicks, with potentially more for sale. Class participants also receive a brooder starter kit containing a heat lamp system, feeder, waterer, bedding, and chick feed. Attendees need not build the coop prior to class; the chicks will be fine with a take-home brooder kit until a proper coop can be built.

6/1

10 a.m.-2 p.m. Love Apple Farms, 2317 Vine Hill Rd., Santa Cruz. 588-3801, growbetterveggies.com. Advance online registration required. $89, plus $30 materials fee.

SUSTAIN SUPPER

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