Wednesday, September 5, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
To create school garden, start digging into online resources/Web sites can help gardeners unearth supplies, training

-Pam Peirce
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Q: Do you know of any possible sources of grant money or financial sponsorship for a school garden? We have no extra money, since we are a public school. We do a lot of fundraising to keep our arts program going, and we have mostly low-income families here. Any information and leads would be most appreciated.

A: Plenty of information is available for teachers or parents who want to start a school garden or keeping it going. The most widely useful connection I can share with readers is the California School Garden Network. This recently formed statewide organization serves as a clearinghouse for all sorts of information for school gardens. Tim Alderson, chairman, says that it's a collaboration of state agencies, universities and trade associations offering resources for funding and supplies, teacher training
and curricula. The organization's handbook, Gardens for Learning, is available free in
hard copy for California educators and as a downloadable PDF file.

For information about funding, go to the Web site www.csgn.org and click on "Grants and Fundraising." The first listing on this page is the California Assembly Bill 1535, Nunez, School Instructional Gardens. This bill provided $15 million to promote, create and support school gardens, and the money is not yet all spent, so do look into this one.

For listings of local organizations that work with school gardens, and links to their Web sites, click on "Contacts and Training," then click on your region on the map of California. In addition to all of the above, the school garden network also sponsors, in cooperation with the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, quarterly public meetings open to anyone involved in garden learning.

You can find out when and where they will be, and see other useful events, by clicking on the school garden network "Event Calendar." (The fall 2007 meeting will be in Pacific Grove, near Monterey, Oct. 12-14.) Those who work with school gardens in San Francisco will also want to be in touch with the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance.

This organization's goal is to promote the creation and maintenance of "environmentally sustainable learning environments in San Francisco schools," including the support of school gardens. The Green Schoolyard Alliance publishes a resource directory and offers a monthly e-mail digest of events and information.

You can read more about them on their Web site www.sfgreenschools.org. To
subscribe to their e-mail digest, send an e-mail to Tamar Cooper, at sfgsa1@gmail.com.

San Francisco Unified School District teachers should also contact Arden Bucklin, director of educational gardens, at (415) 355-6923 or e-mail her at abuckli@muse.sfusd.edu.

Q: I planted a new 'Improved Meyer' lemon tree two years ago, but it is disappointing. The lemons have that wonderful Meyer fragrance, but they are thick-skinned and not very juicy. I've just heard that only the old trees were the lovely, thin-skinned, tangy Meyers. Are these available commercially?

A: I asked Four Winds wholesale citrus nursery your questions. I received an e-mail from Mary Helen Seeger, granddaughter of the nursery's founder, Floyd Dillon, and later spoke to his grandson, Don Dillon. I'll start with your second question, whether only the old 'Meyer' lemon trees bore good fruit. Seeger and Dillon explained the history of the 'Improved Meyer' lemon, and, having heard this story, I can say that the difference between it and the older, not-improved Meyer has nothing to do with flavor or thinness of skin.

Old or new, a 'Meyer' should bear fruit that is more perfumed and a tad less tart than other lemons. The original 'Meyer' lemons came into the United States carrying tristeza virus. While this disease was probably from South Africa or Southeast Asia, it first became a serious problem in South America. (The word "tristeza," which means "sad" in Portuguese, referred to the sad appearance of infected citrus trees.) The disease was
also known as "quick decline." Tristeza-infected 'Meyer' lemons did not show symptoms, but when aphids spread the virus to other citrus trees, they weakened, had dead branches and eventually died.

So when Four Winds founder Floyd Dillon, his son Don Dillon Sr. and Joe Grimshaw came across a plant in the Grimshaw nursery that tested negative for the virus, they propagated it. Its progeny sold for many years under the label 'Improved Meyer Lemon.' Now, however, all citrus trees are required to be free of tristeza virus, so the one distinction between 'Meyer' and 'Improved Meyer' lemon is no longer important.
But why are your lemons thick-skinned and not very juicy? Seeger and Dillon suggested four possible reasons.

First, the thick skins could be due to the young age of the tree. Sometimes citrus has fruit with thicker skin when it is young than it will have later.

Second, skin thickness could be affected by weather and climatic conditions from year to year. If fruit is on the tree past the point of ripeness, as sometimes happens
on larger trees that are bearing more than one can eat, the skin will thicken. This is more often true of the 'Eureka' lemon than the 'Meyer,' however, and would apply only if you have left fruit on long after it was ripe.

Finally, poor-quality fruit can be caused by lack of soil fertility, so be sure you are fertilizing adequately. If your tree is in a container, fertilize once a month, but follow the directions on the package of a fertilizer labeled for use on citrus.

Here's hoping your tree emerges from whatever has caused its problem and
bears you many delicious lemons. I can taste that 'Meyer' lemon meringue
pie now!

Pam Peirce is the author of "Golden Gate Gardening" and "Wildly Successful Plants: Northern California." She teaches gardening at City College of San Francisco. Read her blog at goldengategarden.typepad.com or e-mail questions and comments to her at home@sfchronicle.com. Kitchen gardening questions are sometimes answered in Saturday's Home&Garden. We cannot guarantee a response to all questions submitted.
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Copyright 2007 SF Chronicle

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