Pasadena Paradise: The Perfect Garden with Creative Urban Results.

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The family drives one vehicle, a black Chevy Suburban that runs on biodiesel refined from discarded cooking oil provided by local restaurant clients. The Dervaeses reach out to their community by using their garage to screen films, such as The Greening of Cuba, and hold seminars on building cob ovens or going solar. The Dervaeses also took advantage of Pasadena’s relatively generous home-greening rebates by installing a $14,000, two-kilowatt solar-cell system for less than half the retail cost.

Currently, the family is installing a wastewater reclamation system, a dual-flush toilet and a composting toilet. Already, they rely on hand-crank appliances and a pedal-power grain mill. “You can’t do this,” Jules says, waving a hand at his backyard, “and then go into a house and flip on all these switches.”

Jules Dervaes’s Garden Wisdom

“Anyone can do this, if they have dedication,” says Jules Dervaes of his wildly productive garden. “Don’t be afraid to start small with something like herbs that you know will survive.” For aspiring urban gardeners, Jules has plenty of advice, which the family makes available during its many workshops. Here’s a smattering.

Get to know your backyard. Though you’ve mowed your lawn for years, you may not know its ecology. As an example, Jules points out a patch near the rear of his yard that doesn’t appear to be shaded, but which, strangely enough, feels drafty. Jules uses a canopy with a shade cloth (available at hardware stores) and the micro-zone’s natural coolness to squeeze out one more round of lettuce in summer.

Let natural ecosystems develop. Jules recommends exercising patience when that first aphid infestation happens—the solution already may be in the local insect population. Recalling Path to Freedom’s first infestation, Jules says: “I tried spraying soapy water everywhere, but what I actually needed to do was just let the aphids continue to spread. Their natural ladybug predators needed the aphids to max out before they got to work.” Now, says Jules, an entrenched ladybug and praying mantis population takes care of most of his pests.

Keep a nursery. Beside his house, Jules keeps a large workbench with dozens of seedlings. He figures out when to plant by using “feeler crops,” guinea pig seedlings that he puts in the ground before the rest. He rotates hot, dry plants (beans, cucumbers, corn and peppers) with cool crops (kale, mesclun, snow peas), following the lead of the local nursery. “They wouldn’t be selling a plant if it weren’t time to plant it,” he says. Jules’s own mini-nursery allows him to have a diversity of crops on hand; if one type fails, he’ll simply pull it out and substitute another.

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