Did you know that this is my 1,168th column? I started writing
for the Gilroy Dispatch in 1984, and 26 years later
”
Mulching it Over
”
is still here.
Did you know that this is my 1,168th column? I started writing for the Gilroy Dispatch in 1984, and 26 years later “Mulching it Over” is still here. The Dispatch’s sister papers – the Morgan Hill Times and Hollister Free Lance – picked up my column later.
This week’s column will be sort of a deviation from the norm. I call it “did you know about Gilroy?” Yes, I know not all of my readers live in Gilroy, but you’re close enough to still hold an interest in Garlic Town. And since this is a garden column, I’ll try to keep with horticultural items.
Did you know that Goldsmith Seeds on Hecker Pass Highway in Gilroy is open to the public? Located at 2280 Hecker Pass Highway, Goldsmith Seeds is one of the largest wholesale breeders of bedding plants in the world. The Gilroy headquarters is just the tip of the iceberg, as Goldsmith has almost 4,000 employees worldwide; another research facility in Andijk, Holland; and seed-production farms in Guatemala, Central America, and Kenya, East Africa.
The Gilroy facility offers free public viewing of its display gardens. The gardens feature two acres of bedding plants that are planted year-round in geometric-patterned beds that surround a large lawn. By the way, the lawn was once named one of the 10 best lawns in America by a large turf company.
Adjacent the display garden is a five-acre trial field where thousands of experimental bedding plants are grown primarily in the summer. There’s even a viewing platform that sits atop public restrooms where you can get an aerial view of the color.
Self-guided tours are free. However, groups of 10 or more can get a tour inside the normally closed greenhouses for $5 per person. Flower color is featured year-round inside the greenhouses. Visitors will learn why it takes an average of eight years to get a new flower to market. For information, call (408) 842-7997.
Did you know that the strange-looking “circus trees” featured at Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy once graced a dinosaur attraction in Scotts Valley just outside Santa Cruz? Called “Lost World,” it was across Highway 17 from Santa’s Village in the 1960s.
The strange trees – some in the shape of ladders or hearts – were intermixed among replicas of giant dinosaurs. They were grafted by a former Turlock farmer named Axel Erlandsen. The trees were destined to be bulldozed for a housing development until Michael Bonfante had the vision to save them and transport them to his specimen tree nursery in Gilroy in the 1980s.
Did you know that Gilroy once was the only city in the world with numerous garlic-processing plants? That’s one big reason Gilroy became the “garlic capital of the world.” While garlic fields once were plentiful around Gilroy, most of the garlic today is trucked into Gilroy from the Central Valley to be processed here.
And since the Garlic Festival is still on our minds, did you know that the festival was the brainchild of three locals: garlic king Don Christopher, garlic godfather Val Filice and garlic president Rudy Melone?
A reporter from the Los Angeles Times broached the idea of a festival to honor the stinking bulb. Melone, the then-president of Gavilan College, urged his friends to help organize the event. Both Christopher and Filice were naturals since both grew garlic commercially. Filice is known as the “godfather of Gourmet Alley” because he created many of the recipes and food operations that have earned the festival international fame.
