|
David Martinez is a native Pacifican, who learned to enjoy hiking and playing throughout the Southern Pacifica mountains as a kid. He graduated from Good Shepherd Elementary, and Terra Nova High School. He then received his horticulture degree from the College of San Mateo in 1982, and started Dig It Landscape & Gardening Service. Dave enjoys designing and installing gardens and irrigation systems, growing fruits and vegetables, and nurturing gardens, professionally and for fun.
Always looking for safer ways to garden, Dave became interested in natural and sustainable ways to care for plants and the soil. Dave attended lectures on sustainable practices and how to enhance and live with the environment, making it safe for you, your pet and native fauna.
A three-day seminar with Dr. Elaine Ingham, on the soil food web, taught Dave about the beneficial critters in the soil and compost. He learned how the soil is compressed or lacking in structure without these microscopic critters which help hold and loosen the soil and make it fertile. Dr. Ingham also warned against the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers which kill microscopic life. Wanting to know more about how to nurture the Soil Food Web, Dave signed up for a twelve week course with San Mateo County Recycle Works, to learn about compost, from Alane Weber, also known as the Worm Lady, and become a San Mateo County Master Composter.
Since becoming a Master composter, Dave has changed his business practices, and utilizes natural products and techniques that support the beneficial critters making gardens beautiful, healthy and safe places for people and animals. Being a horticulturist for over 35 years, Dave wanted to share his knowledge of gardening. In 2010, Dave completed the University of California Cooperation Extension program to be a UC San Mateo / San Francisco Master Gardener. Dave has given lectures on pruning, vegetable gardening, irrigation, sheet composting, and the Soil Food Web. Dave went back to listen to Dr. Ingham for her 5 days of lectures and has learned how to use and identify the beneficial organisms that are in compost by learning how to make “Compost Teas”, and learning how to feed the micro organism that feed our plants naturally. In furthering his emphasis on sustainability in gardening, and his business Dig It Landscape & Gardening Service, Dave became a Bay Friendly Qualified Professional Landscaper. Dave practices and teaches people about the 7 Bay-Friendly Landscaping Practices.
1. Landscape Locally
2. Landscape for Less to the Landfill
3. Nurture the soil
4. Conserve Water
5. Conserve Energy
6. Protect Water & Air Quality
7. Create Wildlife Habitat
In 2012, Dave was appointed by the City of Pacifica to be a member of the Pacifica Beautification Task Force Committee, and helped create the Pacifica 2012 Beautification Plan. Dave’s contributions were to implement the Bay Friendly Gardening Practices. Dave was selected by the Pacifica City Council in 2013 to be a member of the Beautification Advisory Committee to help implement the Beautification Plan.
Dave wants to help teach you about the hazards of chemicals in the garden, and the environment. He wants you to know how to grow a safe, healthy, and sustainable garden, by balancing the environment, and about growing the right plant in its right spot.
|
|
|
