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%u2018Learning to eat new foods is part of the fun of growing vegetables...Rosa grew all kinds of beans had never heard ofand Rosa iearned io eai zucchini *Continuedwith the fact that they grow that way. %u2019 %u2019Suarez%u2019 Baltic plot last year won a $250 cash award from Molly Parnis for Neighborhood Improvement and he says he knew then that he was on to something.%u201c I really like this work. I would like to make a career out of it, especially working with kids,%u201d he notes. %u201c For example, the other day the kids saw bees around the plants and they tried to kill them. I told them not to bother the bees, that everything is here for a purpose, and that without the bees you will not have vegetables. Even when there are harmful insects, I try not to spray unless it is really getting bad. %u201dNOT ALL ROSESShowing little kids how to grow vegetables can be trying. Sarah Cromer, from Park Slope, helps kids from her block to grow vegetables on one of the FourthSome half-million dollars worth of public works have been pumped into the area around the Manhattan Bridge for improvements and Renzini has more plans. He wants a %u201c Welcome to Brooklyn%u201d sign erected and he wants the footpath on the bridge reopened. He%u2019ll probably get his way. But it all started with that vegetable garden four years ago.There were two lots filled with rubble. Renzini arranged for Con-Ed bulldozers to move the debris and six sanitation trucks to cart it away. Then Renzini and staff members from Congressman Richmond%u2019s office built up one side of the lots to prevent erosion, since they were located on a sloping hill. Congressman Richmond donated topsoil. Cornell University Cooperative Extension, of course, donated seeds and tools.W hether harvesting tomatoes in the Bergen Street Community Garden(above) or planting seedlings in a Baltic Street lot (left) local city dwellersare joining the gardening ranks in increasing numbers.This year, Renzini and four Youth Corps workers, among them a four-year veteran, George Dash from Farragut Houses in Fort Greene, are growing corn, tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, beans and chard. The garden is so successful that it has been feeding 12 blocks of people.But there is not zucchini to be found here because Jerry Renzini says they take too much space. And %u201c Besides,%u201d he says, %u201c last year I tried to grow them and they died. Maybe it was too shady where I tried to grow them. I don%u2019t know. Zucchini is a favorite with the Italian people in this neighborhood, so I should try again.%u201d CAN%u2019T BEAT IT DOWN Maybe some gardeners fail with zucchini %u2014in other gardens, zucchini is not meant to grow but comes up anyway.On the corner of Wyckoff and Bond Streetin Boerum Hill is a beautiful tree and flower garden with a wrought iron fence and stone pillars surrounding the edge. Ornamental trees and flowers are scattered in a creative and appealing design around the garden.As I stood gazing at the lovely display I noticed some familiar shapes, and wouldn%u2019t you know%u2014there were a dozen or so zucchini plants. Stan Murray, who has been one of the driving forces in starting and maintaining the garden, explained that his compost pile contains the leftovers from a vegetable stand in the neighborhood. So his garden sprouts all kinds of surprises. Sure enough, he pointed out tomato plants popping up among the chrysanthemums and more zucchini curling around the box wood.Anybody have a good tomato and zucchini recipe?Avenue Baltic Street plots. Cromer related an amusing%u2014but discouraging%u2014incident: the kids got so carried away playing with sand and mud, that they managed to %u201cmud-slide%u201d the small seedlings in the planting, and most of them died. Now, with the older Youth Corps workers, everything appears under control on Baltic Street. Youth Corps worker Jeffrey Jenkins from Boerum Hill just reseeded the area and is looking forward to a big fall harvest.One of the most interesting vegetables gardens around is the 50-by-50 foot plot located right off the Manhattan Bridge. What makes the garden interesting in part, is Jerry Renzini, the person who has tended this community garden for four years. Renzini is known to every politician, anybody who runs a program and anybody who has money or influence or both, He is a prolific letter writer on behalf of his community, and his efforts have paid off.And How To Start Your OwnHow to start your own garden:OPERATION GREEN TH U M B : tel.233-2928; 1 Centre Street, room1800, N .Y ., N.Y. City programwhich has 10,000 city owned vacantlots which can be turned into flowerand vegetable gardens; can help getyour a lease for your lot from the cityfor $1 and help to get the Sanitationuepiiocieanix u d .CORNELL UNIVERSITY COOPERA TIV E EXTENSION: tel. 237-0920;30 Third Avenue, Brooklyn, 6thfloor. Free seeds, tools, technicaladvice (how to grow a bigger andbetter crop). Free booklets and helpyou send away for soil samples.BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN:1000 W ashington Avenue, tel:622-4433; Piant information service:622-4440. Sells booklets, usuallyarouna s i.fo , including nanaDooKson soils, home vegetable gardens,herbs, mulches, insect and weedcontrol. Also offers a wioe variety ofspring and fall courses.%u201c GARDENING FOR FOOD ANDFU N ,%u201d YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE 1377 sold by the Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office WashingtonD.C. 20402 Stock number: 0001-000-03679-3, price, $6. This book tellsyou absolutely everything aboutgrowing fruits and vegetables%u2014 it%u2019sadeserving bestseller.August 3,1978, TH E PHOENIX, Page 11