Christy Wilhelmi Offers Organic Gardening Tips and Tidbits

By LIBBY MOTIKA Senior Editor Christy Wilhelmi calls herself a garden nerd, and when you visit her at home and see myriad garden books, seed packs and a seasonal log strewn all over her dining room table, you can understand. She is passionate.   Her obsession started 12 years ago with a small garden on her apartment balcony in Santa Monica, and then she was lucky enough to secure a plot at the Ocean View Community Garden in Mar Vista (there is a perpetual waiting list) and, now as a recent homeowner she has big plans to keep the raised beds full of the bounty of fruits and vegetables available to gardeners in Southern California.   For Wilhelmi, it’s all about food. With her summer tomatoes, peppers and squashes just finishing up, she is already plotting the winter garden, which she considers the best time to garden in Los Angeles. ‘There is so much variety’salad greens, spinach, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli rabe,’ she says.   When she started out, she frequented retail nurseries, but in short time and with building confidence, she discovered seed catalogues, which to the gardener is like the Sunday New York Times’irresistible.   A native Californian, Wilhelmi grew up in Simi Valley and enjoyed mucking around in the dirt, but what she really loved was spinning around on her toes. She started with rhythm tap. After college at UC Irvine with a dance/drama focus, she performed, and since 2002 has danced with the Hollywood Hornets, a performance and swing dance troupe that has triumphed in the competitive world with three jitterbug trophies.   But all along the way, Wilhelmi has always found a place for a garden. ‘There really has been no transition from dancing to gardening because I always did both,’ she says. ‘Gardening became more of a focus when I became a vegetarian and started concentrating on where my food was coming from.’   With an increasing awareness of food sources, no doubt spurred on by the various contaminations reported in the news, Wilhelmi decided to become an advocate for sustainable gardening.   Her Web site/blog www.gardenerd.com is a one-stop shop for gardening resources and information. She offers a tip a week’this week’s tip, ‘Start your fall planning now,’ answers questions with her own trial-and-error experience.   Because most garden books, except for the Sunset guides, are geared toward the East Coast, Wilhelmi decided to start a class for budding gardeners who are interested in growing their own food, but don’t now how to get going.   ’I think there are several reasons for this,’ Wilhelmi says. ‘A big consideration is space; there is a high rate of apartment dwellers in L. A. who would like to have a garden. So I offer a small container or small-space class. In addition, people are afraid to do anything wrong.’   In four class sessions, Wilhelmi covers the basics: soil and fertilizers, small-space planning, starting from seeds and transplants, tools and pruning.   Despite the fact that she and her husband Andrew are now homeowners with a generous space to plant, Christy still loves her 15-by-15-ft. plot at the community garden’for another important reason.   ’I like the commaderie and the diversity of people. There are 500 plots, and about 392 people’it’s just so rich. There is a Polish man from Northern California, a lesbian couple, an East Indian man, a school principal’just in my little section.’   Wilhelmi serves on the Ocean View board and oversees 25 plots. In addition to the community, she notes that her community garden plot, just walking distance from her home, offers a different microclimate from her home beds.   Wilhelmi is offering a fall garden planning workshop on Satuday, September 27 from 3 to 5 p.m. To register, visit gardenerd.com.   In addition, there is still room to join the Gardenerd Organic Gardening series. Visit www.smc.edu for more details.   Finally, Wilhelmi is available for hand-holding upon request or to wax rhapsodic about organic gardening for garden organizations. Contact Christy by visiting her Web site.