PEOPLE is where we share portraits about gardening friends and heroes !

Today we profile Pam Pierce who I came to know as an instructor in Horticulture at San Francisco City College. About nine years ago, she taught a weekend class Vegetables Spring/ Summer during Winter semester. As the Winter semester began in January it was a challenge to propagate because of the seasonal weather.

The delay offered Pam a chance to educate us about the many details in preparing a vegetable plot. Her instructional text, Golden Gate Gardening ( a book she authored ) became her introduction to the course and gave me a sound resoruce focused on Northern California gardening.

As she states in her introduction: " Food gardening is relatively new to our area. The coastal California land is so boutiful that Native Americans to the area ate well without planting. But food gardening is the earth's oldest and most common kind of gardening. As such, it has much to teach us about being human."

I can share I learned much from reading her book. The months are segmented into a planting calendar and well planned for the types of vegetables to start from seeds. Her book, now in a 3rd edtion ( SF Chronicle 1/31/10 review ) we recommend. You may contact her for gardening tips anytime at the Golden Gate Gardener.