I had three mentors when it comes to growing things. My mom who would go on these hard core gardening binges where she would dig everyting up - make raise beds, create compost. And basically she had us doing French Intensive gardening.

My nextdoor neighbor on the the other hand had a perfectly landscaped house, a green house and the kind of knowledge that came from being married to the former head grounds keeper of Golden Gate Park - which her son took over during the 80-90's. From her I learned about pruning, splicing and caring for orchids.

Lastly was my grandfather - who survived the Bataan Death March and had a Silver Star - taught me about intensive permaculture (though he would have never called it that. He had a 120 sq foot garden in the center of San Francisco and in the middle of it he had an apple tree. Some how he had something harvestable all year long and he grew enough stuff to share with others. From him I learned his water saving techniques which included using un-soaped rinse water and compost to feed all his plants.

So I had great mentors and I try to do the same with the young folks I've come across during my life. These day I drag my 2 and 5 year old to the community garden I'm designing and building. I've been reading and dreaming about aquaponics for 5 years now and am finally really getting my feet wet. I'm building a 512 sq foot system and plan to keep my young ones and many other around for the whole project.