Springtime on the Central Coast reignites the unbridled optimism of home gardeners eager to grow their own food and flowers. The first question every home gardener usually asks is: “What to grow?”
Scott Bender, founder and owner of Green Planet Organics, offers a wide variety of locally produced fruit and vegetable transplants as well as nearly twenty years of gardening experience to home gardeners of all skill levels.
“I started Green Planet back in 2003,” Bender recalled. “I studied business at UCSC, and my business partner and I at that time recognized that there were opportunities in providing the home gardener with robust, locally grown, organic transplants.”
Shortly after launching Green Planet, Bender’s partner moved back to Chicago to deal with family issues, leaving Scott alone at the helm. “We gradually grew our business by hard work and being fiscally prudent. Saving money when times are good helps us make it through the offseason.”
Green Planet selects certified organic seeds whenever possible, turning them into transplants at his growing facility in Soquel off the San Jose Highway. Bender has built a strong network of retail partners all around the Monterey Bay, but limits his farmers market efforts to just the Saturday Aptos Farmers Market at Cabrillo College. “The Saturday market is a lot of fun. It allows me to work directly with the gardener, which is very satisfying.” His plant stock at the market ranges from certified organic cucumber, squash, radishes, and even Jerusalem artichokes. “99% of what we grow and sell is certified organic. If it’s not organic, it’s because we couldn’t find certified organic seed.” Scott also offers a variety of herbs, including tarragon.
Green Planet sells its transplants in biodegradable pots made from coconut coir. Scott explained the benefits of using this material. “You just dig a hole in the soil and put the potted plant with the coir container in the hole. It reduces the risk of transplant shock, the coir breaks down and becomes part of your garden, and we reduce the use of plastic.”
Green Planet’s tomato varieties are the stars of the show. “We partnered with Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms. They have provided us with some very special tomato varieties that yield great tasting tomatoes that are also genetically stable. That means this season’s tomatoes will taste exactly like last season’s. That’s really hard to achieve, but we’ve done it.”
The names of these new varieties certainly are different than their commercial cousins. Blue Beauty, Black Beauty, Brad’s Atomic Grape, Cosmic Eclipse, and Blue Boar are more than just amusing names. These garden stars taste great too. Scott described the development of these new varieties. “We grow for taste, first and foremost. If we like it, then we’ll continue to grow it. What’s the point if it doesn’t taste good?”
The late Texas songwriter Guy Clark sang that “there are only two things money can’t buy: true love and homegrown tomatoes.” Scott agreed. “We can definitely help you grow a great tasting tomato.”
