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Business & Tech

Planting the Seeds of an Organic Lifestyle

Master gardener Geri Miller inspires local business owners to see the sustainable potential in their landscapes.

Master gardener Geri Miller knelt beside a modest-sized plot brimming with a colorful array of flowers—soft pinks, bright reds and deep golds—delicately sifting through them as she talked.

"The pulp of the strawberries makes a very potent dye," she said. "The beets make a very dark red dye. And the potatoes, when you harvest them, can be made into stamps."

Sectioned off by wood planks, the "art supplies" garden is accompanied by three others of equal size yet varying vegetation. There's a "traditional" garden, integrating edible plants with ornamental ones; a "drought-tolerant" garden, boasting lavender, thyme and oregano; and a "companion planting" garden, demonstrating how pairing together certain plants will hinder complications such as diseases and pests.

This patch of precisely planted greenery outside Reaney Design Company, an interior design shop on Manhattan Avenue, is just one of several on the boutique- and restaurant-lined stretch of downtown Manhattan Beach. And with the assistance, expertise and TLC of Miller, these gardens will continue to sprout in the most unexpected places.

Miller, a Manhattan Beach resident, is a horticulturist who received her certification in master gardening from UC Davis. In 2008, after serving L.A. County for several years as a mandated master gardener, Miller's craft turned personal. A wave of home gardening emerged among middle-class families, and numerous Manhattan Beach residents began to seek her counsel, she said.

"Research from the National Gardening Association had shown there was a large uptake in home gardening—specifically edibles," Miller explained. "It was an economic reaction to the recession and the horrible situations middle-class families were suddenly put under. Getting back to basics in that way of sustaining your family out of your own patch of earth became something that was very emotional to people."

The overwhelming response Miller was receiving on her Facebook page eventually led to the formation of Home Grown Edible Landscapes, a garden consulting company of sorts with Miller making house calls free of charge.

But while taking a day trip to the newly opened Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes in July 2009, inspiration struck Miller when she spotted four flower beds with withering vegetation in front of Mar'sel restaurant. She wrote a letter to the manager, and soon after began transforming the beds into a flourishing, edible resource.

Miller has since been collaborating with local business owners to reinvent the common perception of the ideal garden—the "English cottage garden," an informally designed landscape with dense bushes, tall grass and an abundance of flowers—into a sustainable one.

"Business owners want to give back to the community they serve," Miller said. "In order to do that, we need to consider other types of beauty that [are] more sustainable and economically sound."

The unmanaged land beside Reaney Design Center "was wild and filled with weeds, but it had a lot of potential," said owner Mary Reaney Hocking. "With this garden, Geri created an additional room. It allows for an extension of how you live and in our case, how we work."


Farther north on Manhattan Avenue, Miller's services are in full bloom at the Four Daughters Kitchen, a cozy, beach-side eatery where the owners welcomed the opportunity to grow their own ingredients and add an attractive fixture to their cafe.

"If we're out of something in the kitchen, I'll come out here and pick some basil or parsley," said operating partner Chris Domanico, who waters the three 3- by 6-foot beds every morning. "The garden definitely has some curb appeal too."

Although drawing interest from pedestrian traffic was a major factor for the gardens at Four Daughters Kitchen and Reaney Design Center, Elegance Spa owner Bernadette George opted for a tranquil, secret garden atmosphere for her business' airy yet clandestine patio.

"We're the only [spa] that I know of in the South Bay with a garden on-site," George said.

Overflowing with plants that exude sweet yet soothing scents, such as lavender, mint and cinnamon basil, the garden serves as a space for patrons to relax, drink tea and eat lunch after their appointments. It also includes a canopied area nestled away for outdoor massages.

But as is the case with Four Daughters', Elegance's garden also serves a practical purpose. After assessing each client's skin type, an employee goes into the garden and picks plants best suited for the client (for instance, roses are used on mature skin), so the ingredients are not only fresh, but precise.

"It's like having a farmers market at your doorstep," George said. "A lot of people are into health these days; this is one way to do it."

In the hills of Rancho Palos Verdes, Mar'sel head chef Michael Fiorelli echoed George's sentiment. Although the four beds in front of his restaurant do not grow enough produce to fully supply the kitchen, they add a touch of organic flavoring to the dishes it serves.

"We get a lot more than you would think out of these four beds," Fiorelli said, sifting through the dozen or so bags of Mar'sel-grown produce in the kitchen's freezer. "It's pretty inspiring, but it's sometimes frustrating when you have an excess of one thing and you don't want to discard it. But it lets me be creative day-to-day with what I do."

In exchange for her services, Miller is allowed to post a Home Grown Edible Landscapes sign in the gardens. Several businesses, including Reaney Design Center and Mar'sel, regularly open their gardens for workshops taught by Miller. The latest of these took place July 17 at Reaney, during which Miller discussed growing one's own art supplies.

For more information on Home Grown Edible Landscapes, visit the company's website or e-mail Geri Miller at info@myhgel.com.

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