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Yahoo!Well, I’ll be honest, the Community Garden Project in Estero Park isn’t really a secret. There are signs, but they are easy to overlook. You could walk right by the organic gardens without giving them a second glance. The gardens are situated across from the playground, next to the basketball court, separated from the rest of the park by a low fence. As you walk by you might see some herb rows, or get a glimpse of fruit trees, but you wouldn’t get an idea of the great variety of plants and trees growing just behind the borders.
Cat Neushul
There are other reasons the community gardens owned and run by the Isla Vista Recreation & Park District remind me of the walled garden in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel “The Secret Garden.” You can’t get in without a key, and the gardens are rather magical in their own way. You won’t find rose bushes, bluebells, or a garden swing, but you will see some surprising sights like an eight-foot-tall beanstalk, which finally help me visualize the whole Jack and beanstalk thing.
Angela Kamm, the IVRPD Community Gardens Coordinator, was my guide on a tour of the gardens last week. She pointed out the tall rows of corn, and the banana trees, which she especially likes. Artichokes here, cacti there. Kamm also told me a little about the people who garden there. She said that many are Latino and Hmong families. Others are students or people interested in learning about organic farming. According to the IVRPD literature she gave me, many of the gardeners are living below the poverty level, and depend on the food they grow in the gardens to supplement their diet. A 19-by-40 foot plot costs $22 per quarter to rent.
Cat Neushul
Grapevine
People often grow culturally distinctive plants, Kamm said. You are liable to find tomatillos, chile, and squash in one plot, and in another, bok choi. Of the 32 garden plots available, most are used to grow vegetables and herbs, but one gardener used the space to create an English garden. Gardeners add their own touches to their plots, erecting a birdbath or birdhouse. The plots are in high demand. Kamm said there are 19 people on the waiting list at this time.
The smells of the herbs and other plants in the garden are intoxicating. After a while I identified cilantro as one of the tantalizing scents. Kamm said the smells reminded her of a victory garden her father had planted in England. “I love it here,” she said.
Not only do the gardens provide a way for people to grow their own food, they also give community members an opportunity to interact. Kamm said she sees people sharing seeds or discussing growing techniques all the time. It’s also a way for parents to teach their children about gardening. “They are basically teaching them a life-time skill,” Kamm said. “The art of gardening is being passed down from generation to generation.”
Kamm gave me a copy of a contract potential gardeners have to sign. It includes a commitment to growing organic. It says that “gardeners are strictly prohibited from using or storing chemical fertilizers, pesticides (including snail bait), herbicides, fungicides, commercial potting soils, or any substances or materials that contradict the concept of organic gardening.” The IVRPD also provides gardeners with a packet of information on topics such as composting and plant basics. It includes, for example, a chart showing which plants should, or should not, be planted near each other. I found out that basil likes tomatoes, dislikes rue, and repels flies, and that fennel should be planted away from gardens since most plants dislike it. There is also a list of botanicals that can be used as pesticides if necessary.
Estero Community Gardens was an outgrowth of the 70’s. “This corresponded in time with the outset of the environmental movement, so people were very interested in taking care of the earth and in assisting biodiversity to flourish,” according to the IVRPD packet. Indeed, you can see a lot of 70’s-type free expression going on in the individual plots. Two of the gardeners I stumbled upon while walking through this wonderland had rows of peppers, a fig tree, green onions, tomatoes, and a grape vine, and still more area yet to be cultivated. Serkaddis Alemu and Bill Langenbacher said they had been working for three years on their garden, but had come up against some obstacles. The first was soil problems. Alemu said the previous gardeners had planted perennials which required dry soil. She said they were now trying to “heal” the soil. “I think next year we are going to finally get it,” she added. “It’s trial and error.” Another problem they encountered was gophers. They’d heard some rumors about certain plants that might dissuade gophers, but they hadn’t decided how they were going to handle them just yet. Alemu said that she had grown up with a garden, but that this was the first time she was one of the primary gardeners. “It is a labor of love,” Alemu said. She showed me the grape vine she and Langenbacher had saved, now a healthy plant with lots of grapes. In the future, she said she hopes to eliminate food shopping. “The goal is to eventually eat seasonally, and not buy groceries,” she said.
Before I left, Alemu pointed to some tomatoes and green onions they’d harvested that day, and said I could take some. As soon as I got home, I sliced up a small red tomato and shared it with my son. It was delicious. I can’t wait to try the onions.
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