If you’re interested in learning how to add a burst of color to your California poppies, maintain a lush garden with limited space or grow some spectacular cactus, succulents or orchids, Costa Mesa’s Don Knipp is your man.

Attend an Eco Garden Expo and you will likely meet Knipp, a.k.a. Mr. Fertilizer who, at 91, still provides annual agricultural programming for the Centennial Farm at the Orange County Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.

In pronouncing his last name, the “k” is silent, but Knipp’s award-winning agricultural techniques have been loud and clear for many years.

Knipp is past president of the California Association of Nurserymen and has more than 60 years of hands-on experience in the California lawn and garden industry.

Prior to his stellar career in agriculture and gardening, Knipp was a football and track and field standout at Newport Harbor High, Class of ’49. He was a halfback on Coach Al Irwin’s first gridiron squad in the fall of ’48 and one of the smallest players on the roster at 5-foot-9, 131 pounds.

Knipp wore jersey No. 1 and established fertile ground like no other, earning Tar of the Week against Orange and All-Sunset League honors at season’s end. Newspaper accounts referred to him as “little” Don Knipp, one of the team’s fastest players.

“(Knipp) has tremendous drive for a back of his size, giving him extra yards when they count,” reported the Costa Mesa Globe Herald following his distinction as Tar of the Week against Orange, a 7-0 victory for the Sailors in week 5.

“The pint-sized Harbor back has been a going gun in Coach Al Irwin’s grid machine all season with several large gains to his credit, in addition to some nice punt returns,” the newspaper added. “In the Bonita game (a 13-6 Newport triumph in week 2) he scored the winning touchdown with a 26-yard jaunt off tackle. He has carried the ball 14 times in five games for 104 yards net from scrimmage for an average per carry of 7.14 yards.”

As a hurdler in track, Knipp helped Newport capture the 1949 Sunset League championship under Coach Ralph Reed.  Along with Knipp, some of the standouts on the team were Bill Gustafson, Jerry Spangler, Alyn Nielson, Maynard Lobell, David Pridham, Stan Young, Ken Galloway and Carleton Mears. With many fine athletes, the Sailors won league titles at every level through their senior year.

After Newport Harbor, Knipp played football for two years at Orange Coast College, then had a successful military career, serving in the U.S. Army as a sergeant in the heavy weapons division. After basic training in Fort Ord, and special training in heavy weapons, Knipp’s division was slated to join the fight in Korea, but the Korean War ended just before they were scheduled to be deployed.

Again, he was prepared to be shipped to Vietnam, but after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, a French-controlled territory that was backed by the U.S. in 1954, Knipp’s division never had to leave home, because the French pulled out of the region.

One of Knipp’s three sons, Kirk, his oldest and a West Point graduate, was killed in action during the Gulf War in the early 1990s. His other sons are Todd and Paul. Todd Knipp is a retired battalion chief for the Newport Beach Fire Department. Don Knipp’s wife, Ann, died seven years ago.

Knipp’s father, Harold, was a wooden boat builder for the British navy at a site currently operated by the Blue Water Grill restaurant in Newport Beach’s Cannery Village. The family purchased a half-acre of land in Eastside Costa Mesa, where Knipp resides.

Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.