Farmscape Plants and Harvests Fruits and Vegetables for Encino Homeowners

The radishes are as big as golf balls, the lettuce and arugula are thriving and green onions are plentiful in John and Lani Shallman’s backyard, Encino garden.

“This time of year is a lot of fun,” said Lara Hermanson, as she trimmed off lettuce leaves. “The majority of the work is harvesting; it’s salad days.”

Hermanson tends the Shallman’s garden and 25 others in the San Fernando Valley as a farm manager for Farmscape, (a three-year-old, urban farming service begun by a group of young entrepreneurs dedicated to sustainability, local food and organic farming.

Co-founders Jesse Dubois, Sean Williams and Todd Liningerm, came up with the idea in 2008 and have since added 13 employees who build and maintain backyard farms for Los Angeles residents. From offices in Los Feliz, Farmscape oversees more than 200 urban farms in Claremont, Pasadena, Los Angeles’ Westside, Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades and the San Fernando Valley. Since 2009, the company estimates it has grown over 29,000 pounds of fresh food for Angelenos.  

To ensure good results, Farmscape first checks to make sure the yards of potential clients have enough space for a garden, plus at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight daily, said Rachel Bailin, who helps manage the company.

Then, raised beds are installed with soil and drip irrigation and crops planted. Depending on the time of year, Farmscape plants lettuce, kale, chard, beets, carrots, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, green beans and other fruits and vegetables.

For an extra weekly fee, farm managers like Hermanson visit to harvest, plant, rotate crops and take care of pest and disease control. The company also offers orchard and fruit tree care.

Farmscape has expanded to schools and restaurants and now seeks to put its gardens in large workplaces. The Valley expansion began in 2011 when Hermanson came on board, Bailin said.

Raised in Chicago, Hermanson worked beside her mom who ran a similar business.

“I grew up in the Midwest and if you didn’t have everything in the ground by Saint Paddy’s Day, March 17, you were too late,” she said. “But here in the Valley you can farm eight months of the year.

“This is the kind of food we could grow here if people would take out their lawn, seriously,” she exclaimed looking at the beds.

The Shallmans didn’t take out their entire lawn but did install two gardening areas in their large backyard. Both had early childhood experiences with gardens: John as an eight year old helping his sister plant a garden and Lani seeing the bounty of fruit her father was able to pull out of his Sacramento garden.

The couple wanted to provide that experience to their four children with the Farmscape garden. An added plus is the eco-friendly benefit, John said, with no gasoline burned to truck their food to them from farm to grocery to table.

Although the busy couple doesn’t have time to work the garden themselves, they say the weekly fee takes the place of a grocery bill.

“Why would I go buy heads of lettuce when I can come out her and have my dinner?” he said. “Plus, it tastes better.”