Garden for the Environment is open to the public every day, and offers volunteer work hours twice a week and classes for schools another two days. You can also pay to sign up for workshops on topics like composting, food growing, beekeeping, bird watching, native plants and more.
The Master Gardener Program is also there to help, said Maggie Mah, the spokesperson for their San Mateo-San Francisco branch. The program, an extension of the University of California system, trains volunteers to work with local community gardens and at-home gardeners and teaches them proper gardening techniques.
Every county has a Master Gardener Program, and Mah said its volunteers host classes, workshops and other events, making themselves available to gardeners of all skill levels. Her branch even has a gardening education center in San Mateo.
“Basically, our role is to educate people on how to be successful with producing things,” Mah said. “We try to reach as many people as we can.”
What can I get out of a community garden (besides the produce)?
Communal gardening provides benefits beyond the food itself, Haskins said. It’s a great way to get outside, share resources and knowledge with your neighbors and cut down on grocery costs, too. Some community gardens also act as a shared space to explore cultural practices, including Indigenous agricultural methods.
And just because you don’t have a plot doesn’t mean you can’t share in the bounty. Some gardens, like Bancroft Garden in Berkeley, leave their harvest out in exchange for donations.
“It just works to the benefit of everyone,” Haskins said. “There’s lots of support to encourage people to have the ability to eat healthy, feed themselves and reduce their grocery bill.”
For some, the garden offers personal and community connection, unlike anywhere else — although it wasn’t always so competitive to get a plot, said Loren Jones, a San Francisco native and composer who’s been gardening at the Clipper Terrace Garden since the ’90s.
Jones said he stumbled upon the garden, which was established in the ’70s, when two brothers donated the land from their family dairy farm — after noticing a giant bush of blackberries on the side of the road. “One day, I just made the time to stop in, and I couldn’t believe it,” Jones said. “It’s one of the best blackberry patches in the city.”
Clipper Terrace had a few other hard-to-believe attributes, like its stunning view of the city skyline, hard-to-grow Gravenstein apple tree (since cut down) and tough-as-nails manager, a firefighter named Sarah who Jones fondly remembers having to call upwards of 15 times to convince her to give him a plot.
What Bay Area produce should a beginner plant in spring and summer?
Some of Jones’s recommendations to get you started in a Bay Area garden:
- Zucchini
- Potatoes
- Chard
- Fava beans
- Lettuce (although these fast growers need to be harvested regularly)
This Bay Area-oriented planting calendar may also help you brainstorm what to sow, keeping in mind if your plot tends to get more sun or fog.
The good news is that pretty much anything grows in the Bay Area, but be sure to ask the other gardeners at your community garden for their own location-specific tips or tricks.
