Cloud Forest Gardening

I've gardened in central California, Nevada, Florida, and now here I am in the oddest climate I've ever lived in. As a gardener, I consider tomatoes an "indicator species." It tells me a lot about a place once I know how one grows tomatoes. I've grown them in Nevada where the sun cooks fruit on the vine and in Florida where the constant Summer rains will rot the fruit before it even ripens. But never have a lived in a place where tomatoes cannot be grown until here. It just doesn't get hot enough here to do it. Guess what else? Lettuce doesn't bolt here--ever. San Francisco doesn't get hot enough nor cold enough to satisfy the needs of many varieties of edible plants. We are stuck in a perpetual chilly day with many a year without a single frost or a single day above 80 degrees. And, to make matters even stranger, our hottest days are in the Fall and not Summer. When some fruit are expecting a good Summer heat to push them into ripeness, we linger into Fall before things warm up enough and by then the season is over. A great example is avocado. Yes, here is a place in California that can grow the trees quite well but they rarely set good fruit because it's too cold in the Summer. Just. Plain. Odd.

What we have here is an unusual and fairly rare climate called a "cloud forest." There aren't many of these around the globe. Two famous ones are the Andes in South America and the Islands of New Zealand. So, there are a lot of things I won't be able to grow. But I have this pretty rare opportunity to grow things other people can't. There are some pretty cool veggies and fruit you rarely see in most American markets that I get to play around with. So there's that, at least. And hey, I bet I could fit a small greenhouse in the back yard to handle the tomatoes.

So, to get started, I bought and read a book on local gardening. This is key to growing food in San Francisco because our micro climates will drive even the most experienced gardener bonkers. I live just a few blocks off of Mission street in the Ex and what I can grow is measurably different than what someone who lives just 2.5 miles North of me on the same street can grow. And here is the very best book I could find from someone who is clearly respected in the San Francisco gardening community:

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gate-Gardening-3rd-Edition/dp/1570616175

I purchased the Google Books version but some folks like to get their hands on real paper. Whichever you choose, this is the best book for talking about the variety of challenges and undocumented features that come with urban gardening in San Francisco. From this book, I gleaned a list of those vegetables I enjoy that supposedly do well in the Ex.

However, as I mentioned earlier, we are a cloud forest climate not unlike the Andes and so I started looking at things that are native to that region to see what fun and unusual stuff I might have a decent chance with.  There are two plants I'm particularly curious about and have already acquired the seeds for one of them:  tamarillo (also called a tree tomato) and a high mountain passion fruit with a local cultivar called "mission dolores." Tamarillo is grown for profit in New Zealand as well, which gives me some hope that this fun plant will adapt well to our local climate. Tamarillo seeds are easy to obtain online. The Mission Dolores passiflora is, sadly, much harder to locate.

Stay tuned for progress reports!




Hat Tip to Pam Peirce: http://goldengategarden.typepad.com/