Gustavo Fuentes wasn’t keen on the snails eating his lettuce and spinach, so he built a clever vertical planter from wooden pallets to keep the seedlings off the ground. His wife, Felicita Salinas, says they both learned to grow food while growing up in El Salvador.
“We were taught to plant our own vegetables, to grow flowers, to use our corn to make masa for tortillas,” she says. When the couple moved to an apartment in Hayward, they were eager to join the Hayward Community Garden.
It took weeks of waiting, but now the family of six (they have four young boys) has two side-by-side plots where they grow a large portion of their household produce. In early spring, they already have spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, herbs, and strawberries. The couple is happy to share their extensive know-how with other gardeners…