I’ve had the pleasure of volunteering at multiple garden builds. Last month NBC San Diego arrived at a build and documented the process of creating a garden. Watch me shovel and rake soil in the NBC video.

A few days ago I participated in another installation. Within a few hours the volunteer crew built wooden raised beds, amended the soil and constructed a compost bin. The onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic chives, eggplant, French tarragon, bell peppers and flowering plants were barely in the ground before butterflies began to arrive.

The Finished Raised Vegetable Beds

In addition to the garden installs, VGSD offers a series organic vegetable gardening classes that cover lawn removal, soil amendment, bed preparation, planting, irrigation, composting and harvesting your garden. Watch a short video to learn more about the VGSD gardening classes.

Victory Gardens San Diego (VGSD) is a project of San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project, a 501(c)3 California non-profit corporation.

“It’s a pretty sunset tonight,” said Melissa Reese. “Should we have the spinach noodles, or the wheat?”

Spaghetti is an occasional staple in the Reese household, although the ingredients added to the sauce tend to vary. Chad prefers the sprouted spinach noodles, but Melissa doesn’t like the fact that they tend to fall apart more when boiled. Other typical ingredients added to the spaghetti sauce include garlic, tomato, peppers, spinach and the occasional carrot.

“I don’t think grated carrot is the most typical ingredient in spaghetti sauce, but I really like carrots so it works well with me,” Chad said. “Melissa doesn’t seem to mind the taste, so we’ll occasionally add carrots to the mix — if we have any.”

Melissa and Chad prefer red wine that is organic, biodynamic or sustainable. More recently, most of the wine that they consume is produced in and around Mendocino county, California.

The sunset can be seen daily / nightly outside the glass patio doors of the home of Melissa and Chad Reese, except when the blinds are closed. Another factor that may limit the sunset view is the marine layer, also known as fog.

For more information, contact Chad Reese.

About Melissa and Chad
Melissa and Chad are based in San Diego, CA. They eat dinner at home or in restaurants, as a couple or with friends and family. Occasionally either Melissa or Chad will eat dinner alone, as necessary.