Both are methods she learned as a student in an organic gardening class at the Willows Senior Center in Willow Glen. She chooses these methods in lieu of spraying her vegetable garden with harmful pesticides and herbicides that could seep into her water system, she says. Another tip she learned in the class was to use baking soda to kill mildew.

"I want to teach my grandkids how to avoid using harmful chemicals," says Dow, a Willow Glen resident of 34 years who grows beans, peas, cabbage and lettuce.

Another thing she learned was to never plant anything in a round hole. A square hole will allow roots to take hold of the ground better and receive more nutrients, she says.

Classmate Pauline Lee also chooses to grow organically because she doesn't want to give her grandchildren fruits or vegetables covered with pesticides. She has also learned the appropriate time to plant seeds for this area of California.

Lee, who lives in Cupertino, found out about the class through a catalog she received in the mail.

The class has been offered through the Metropolitan Adult Education Program and taught by the Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County for the past three years.

The first class had the huge challenge of turning an abandoned horseshoe pit at the senior center into an area with soil soft enough for a garden.

"The horseshoe pit was almost like concrete," says Tosca Kuchler, who took the first class. She has numerous gardens on her 15-acre property in San Jose.

To transform the garden, the class brought grass, leaves, apple peels and other items from their gardens to start a compost heap. They created a huge compost pile in a container, watered it and then spread it over the garden bed. The students put earthworms in it, and "Mother Nature did its job," Kuchler says.

Now the garden has flowers, herbs and vegetables like sage, mint, sunflowers, lilies, beets and radishes.

Class instructor Nancy Garrison, a Willow Glen resident, master gardener and employee of the University of California Cooperative Extension, says Willow Glen has "the best class A agricultural soil on planet earth."

During a recent class Garrison had to chop down a weed that grew so large in less than a year it had a trunk the size of a tree. She says some areas of Willow Glen have 30 feet of topsoil.

Student Ismael Gonzalez, who is about to start a 12-foot-by-16-foot garden, says he has learned a lot of tips from the class. He now knows he should plan or plot out a garden on a grid and prepare the soil before planting. He is going to grow an organic garden and when buying produce from a local grocery store he tries to buy organic.

"I've had a few people die of cancer in my family so I want to try to eat as healthy as possible," Gonzalez says.

The class seeks to inspire students by organizing tours of houses with exceptional gardens. The group takes field trips to various sites throughout the Bay Area.

Student John Sheehan, who lives a few blocks from the senior center, has multiple sclerosis so he has raised gardening beds that are "easy to take care of," he says.

"I can't dig well, so the raised beds help," says Sheehan, who grows lettuce, broccoli, onions and tomatoes.

The class taught him how to install a drip irrigation system in his garden to help with watering.

For more information about the class, call 408.448.6400 or visit www.metroed.net. The Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County has a gardening tip hotline, 408.299.2638, available Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.