We seem to be getting more ties with Gilroy – yet again some folk travelled that far to join us!
Welcome to our booth at Cupertino’s 2014 Earch Day!
It was a busy and joyous day for us!
There is nothing like sound gardening tips from a pro!
Look at all those tomatoes!
Which one shall we pick?
We love kids at our table!
And they love our tomatoes!
Hope to see you all there next year!
We seem to be getting more ties with Gilroy – yet again some folk travelled that far to join us!
We had a full table!
Hmmm… what to choose!
Everyone had a good time but the attention was on the seeds.
The other side of the table.
It was a great, hot and instructive day with John talking about all the different benefits to grafting and demonstrating many grafting techniques, including rind and bark grafting on citrus. It was a pleasure to watch a pro at work and we are much better prepared to graft at home. Thank you John! Sally brought with her a couple potted rootstock apples that were grafted at the workshop and shared with participants – much appreciated!
Lunch under the canopies with John introducing the world of grafting.
Cleft graft demonstration.
Budding knife.
It’s great to have an attentive audience…
John demonstrating a rind graft.
John making a T graft (upside down…).
Finished T graft on citrus.
We all learned a lot and enjoyed it tremendously at the same time! Hope to have many more gatherings around gardening and sustainability!
It is always very rewarding to spread the love of heirloom tomatoes that come fresh off the vine in your garden! Thank you all for visiting our booth this year!
Sawako and Amy holding the fort.
And what is this? A companion plant – borage, good for increasing pollination as it attracts bees and the beautifull, small, dark blue flowers are edible. Just toss them in your salad!
She also likes lettuce, not just tomatoes!
Another young customer. It is awesome to see kids interested in growing plants!
Beautifull art work done by the kids just in front of our booth! See you there next year!
We had some folk come out to our Seed Exchange all the way from Gilroy this year – thank you for spreading the word!
Kids are always welcome!
Hmmm… what to choose!
We had quality potting soil too, for kids to plant their new found treasures.
See you next time!
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Below are some photos from visiting San Mateo Eco Village.
The tour begins… 
Overview of the San Mateo Eco Village garden. 
Pipes for the aquaponics system. There are three distinct flow cuircuts, all colour coded. The system rotates between them automatically. 
Pipes going to the outside fish pond – empty at the time of visit. 
Inside the Aquaponics greenhouse. Small fish pond is in front of Sanda, in the ground. Behind are grow beds. 
Another view of the inside pond with koy, as farming tilapia in Northern Caliornia is only allowed in established, large scale fisheries. Can we vote on that? 
Grow beds. 
Back outside – chicken coop. 
Resting by the water on a hot, summer day was really pleasant.
Once again we were very fortunate to be able to share our tomato starts with our customers and provide means for gardeners to exchange a variety of plants. We hope to grow the exchange part in the future!
Here are some photos from the event.
Welcome to GreenSteaders Plant Sale and Swap!. 
It was a hot day. 
Many different varieties to choose from! 
Tended them from young myself… 
Sawako speaking from experience. 
Our exchange table. 
Plant exchange taking place! 
Next generation of gardeners is here!
There are many great reasons to graft fruit trees, from extending the harvest season, to easier fruit tree pollination, enjoying more varieties and creating more disease resistant trees. Our participants ranged from novices to several experienced horticulturists. Everyone had a chance to try grafting and many interesting questions were asked and answered.
We were very fortunate to have John Valenzuela lead the workshop and to get a glimpse at the enormous knowledge he has regarding horticulture and advanced grafting techniques. We would also like to thank Greensteader’s board member Robert Wieckowski for both sponsoring and hosting the event. Below are some photos from the event.
Workshop – learning different types of grafting techniques. Starting with cleft grafts. 
Onto a larger tree! 
Graft location – sun exposure, out of the way, within hand picking reach. 
Proper technique for cutting the scion – the hand that is holding the scion moves, the knife remains stationary, to avoid any injuries and create even cuts. 
This scion is now ready for bark grafting. 
Finished bark graft, with temporary label.
We had more folk come out to our Seed Exchange this year, which made for a very pleasurable event. The weather cooperated, we had a sea of seeds to choose from and even some starts, like Ammi Visnaga, Flat Leaf Parsley and more.
Found it!
Overview – many seeds and conversations to choose from!
Different view.
Spreading the love of gardening!
And it grows in my container garden!
Come join us next time!!!
