Rachel Brandes
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted Mar. 26, 2008
Dr. Sylvan Wittwer held a garden tour at his home on Wednesday, March 19. Wittwer is a retired vegetable researcher who resides in Logandale and keeps an impressive garden.
Wittwer has always enjoyed sharing his knowledge with others and decided to do so with this garden tour. Approximately 25 people attended the tour and asked many questions about what type of seeds and what types of supplies were best to use.
Alice Crites of the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension in Logandale was available assisting Wittwer. Crites had previously asked Wittwer to make a list of his gardening recommendations. These recommendations are available at the Cooperative Extension office and were also available to those in attendance at the tour.
Wittwer lists plant and irrigation supplies as well as catalog sources for seeds. Suggested varieties of several crops are also listed. Wittwer explained to the tour the reason for each recommendation and what works best for this area.
Wittwer grows a variety of items in his garden. Tomato plants, broccoli, carrots, peas, green beans, sweet corn, onions, and asparagus are all great growers in Wittwer’s garden. When asked if rabbits were a problem in his garden Wittwer replied “I don’t like rabbits”, to which a little girl responded “I like rabbits”. Wittwer explained that rabbits aren’t much trouble to his garden in Logandale because there isn’t a lot of brush for them to hide. “Rabbits have to have brush to hide in, gophers are another story” explained Wittwer.
Although he hasn’t been able to entirely keep gophers out of his garden he has done an exceptional job keeping his garden growing.
