The Fetzer Garden - Fetzer Food and Wine Center, Hopland, California

Flower & Garden Magazine, August-Sept, 1993 by Ellen Henke

Across The Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, north on Highway 101 past eucalyptus groves and mighty stands of redwoods, is the wine country of Mendocino County. None of the beautiful stops along the way is likely to interest gardeners as much as the five-acre biointensive organic culinary garden at Fetzer Food & Wine Center at Valley Oaks.

The rolling hills in this part of California are beautiful in every season. In winter the leafless grape vines show their gnarled elegance. The summer sun highlights ripening grapes that seem to be dripping from the vines. In autumn at harvest time, the hills are painted in golden hues.

The Fetzer family came to Mendocino County in 1958 when Barney Fetzer, a lumber executive, purchased the Home Ranch as a place to raise rapes as well as his 11 sons and daughters. In the beginning, the grapes were sold to supply home winemakers. Ten years later the family began making wine commercially. Like other California families in wine country, the Fetzer children pruned, picked and helped make the wine. At age 16, Jim Fetzer presided as family winemaker.

Over the years the ambitious Barney Fetzer amassed considerable acreage for growing grapes, including the Valley Oaks Ranch where the demonstration garden is now located. When his sons got older, Barney set aside a section of the Home Ranch for them to live on or use as they wished. This arrangement kept the family together.

During the late 1960s, Jim and his younger brother Bob began to garden in that area of the ranch, growing melons, beans and tomatoes. The principles of organic gardening that appealed to California's hippies also captivated the imagination of Jim Fetzer. The idea that farming was more than a simple exchange of work for food, that individual farming methods impact the fate of the whole Earth, became a driving force for Jim. Today the garden at Valley Oaks, named for the 250-year-old valley oaks whose gnarled limbs dominate the 1,700-acre landscape, represents the fulfillment of Jim Fetzer's dream.

Michael Maltas, a South African trained in biodynamic gardening, took on the challenge of developing a model organic garden for the Fetzers in 1985. The land was submerged in water when Maltas first saw it; underneath he found "horrible, stinking blue anaerobic clay." Today this former swamp, with no natural drainage, is one of the best organic demonstration gardens in the country, featuring 110 beds containing over 1,000 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.

Because well-drained, rich soil is imperative to plants' root systems, Maltas first installed a drainage system connected to a sump pump that flushed the excess water into a nearby creek. He double-dug and raised the beds, amending them with tons of compost obtained from grape pomace (the skins and pulp left over from winemaking).

Today the soil in the beds is well-drained and filled with natural organisms and nutrients that provide a healthy place for plant roots to develop. Some of the raised beds sustain three harvests a year. Compost is incorporated regularly and cover crops are also used to enrich and aerate the soil, fix nitrogen and increase the availability of elements such as calcium and phosphorus. The only soil that gets compacted in this garden is found between the beds and along the pathways, where compaction from foot traffic serves to keep the ground weed-free.

No synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers are used here; everything is natural and organic. Nets and row covers help protect the harvest from birds and insect pests. The plants are watered by a drip system that conserves water and reduces the potential for fungus diseases. The garden is mulched with layers of organic material that helps retain moisture and reduce weeds.

Maltas selects seeds from a range of garden catalogs, the same ones that are available to the general public. Each variety is given a three-year trial before a final evaluation for hardiness, pest resistance, texture, flavor and visual appeal. Maltas also tests varieties for the Seed Savers Exchange, a group committed to preserving heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits.

Seeing the number of varieties growing here and the technology applied to growing them is truly amazing. This year visitors at Fetzer will find many plant varieties including 18 basils, 12 garlics, 15 lettuccs, 20 bush beans and more than 30 pole beans.

This garden, reminiscent of an English country garden with touches of Provence, is more than simply productive; it is also beautifully designed with evenly spliced rows of greenery. This intensive and diverse approach to planting the garden reduces spaces where weeds get their start and discourages pests by attracting a wide range of beneficial insects.

Fruit trees, including persimmons and apples, are underplanted with flowers to provide a decorative touch. Apple trees are espaliered in patterns that promote fruit rather than vegetative growth. Under an ancient spreading valley oak, which provides protection from the summer sun, edible flowers, herbs and native plants combine in happy profusion to provide color and fragrance.