Down the center of the Stanford Avalon Community Garden rows and rows of dark green herbs, expansive heads of lettuce, prickly cacti and crisp cabbage lay neatly in line. These colorful vegetables stood out against their asphalt surroundings. To the right and left, cars with revved engines buzz by. Overhead, city power lines towered high in a cloudy sky as their bulky transmission towers stood only a few feet away. Maria Pedroza still smiled as she glanced toward her plot filled with fresh produce, something that is seldom available in her neighborhood of Watts.
The nearest food store to Pedroza is a 7-Eleven convenience store. According to Pedroza, the markets around her are “no good.” “In here it’s fresh,” she said, gesturing towards a garden plot.
Cushioned in between houses, busy streets and power lines, 180 garden plots stretch across eleven blocks throughout the USDA-classified food desert of the Watts. Projects like Pedroza’s garden represent a greater movement towards using community gardening initiatives to fight food insecurity created by food deserts. In Los Angeles County, 1 in 4 residents live in a food desert, according to USDA data. USDA’s definition of a food desert is an area where at least half of the residents in the neighborhood do not have a grocery within half a mile and a significant portion of the community does not have access to a car. This forces many residents to rely on a gas station or mini-mart for their groceries.
These gardening solutions don’t look the same for every Angeleno. While Pedroza’s garden — which is operated by the Los Angeles Community Garden Council (LACG) — is situated in an expansive community garden, LA Green Grounds turns the front yards of homes in South LA into edible gardens. The organization hosts “Dig Ins,” where volunteers help rip up a yard and plant fruit trees, vegetables, lettuce, herbs and legumes in the freshly tilled soil.
“I said, ‘I want to start an organization that will help teach people how to grow food,” Florence Nishida, master gardener and LA Green Grounds founder, said. “I want to grow the food in their own yards, and have those people invite their community, their friends or their relatives to come and be the first students. And at the end of the day, we would have a garden built.”
Fourteen years later, Nishida and her crew of volunteers have planted over forty edible gardens in South LA. LACG has seen similar success, and since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began leasing the land to LACG in 2006, they’ve gained 235 members in Watts, while also expanding their programs to three more locations in the city.
“In a community where there’s not a lot of access to organic produce, it’s a safe haven for a healthy source of food for gardeners,” said Jesse De La Cruz, community partner for LACG who helps oversee the organization of the Stanford Avalon Community Garden.
For an average of $35 a month, community members like Pedroza can apply for a plot. The cost goes towards dealing with issues presented by the Los Angeles government bureaucracy. According to De La Cruz, their water prices from the Department of Water and Power have surged by 300% since 2016 because of classification rate changes. Additionally, under current law, LACG members cannot sell their produce, unlike farmers and gardeners with privately owned plots.
In De La Cruz’s dream garden, there would be an organized system for the gardeners to sell their excess produce. “[It would act like a] sales channel to local supermarkets and restaurants, and being able to really optimize yields in a way that’s efficient for the garden owners and for the public,” De La Cruz said. “So it will look like an active farmers market.”
These community-centered experiences is how Nishida has been able to expand LA Green Grounds. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, while the smell of mulch drifted through the air, Lorenita Holloway’s parents’ dirt yard in Compton turned into a garden during their April Dig In. 13 community volunteers in close-toed shoes ripped up grass, laid and tiled new soil and mulch, built garden beds and planted all sorts of fruits and vegetables, while listening to Nishida sharing her gardening tips.
“[The volunteers] learned about soil — what to do with it, how to improve it, how to level the ground, how to add the amendments you need, how to plant, how to fertilize. It’s that hands-on,” Nishida said. “There’s nothing that substitutes for actually doing it.”
Nishida spoke to volunteers about the science behind determining the best fertilizers for their gardens, the proper amount of water for planting and which vegetables grow best in LA’s dry climate. Adorned in hats with refillable water bottles in hand while consistently reapplying sunblock, the volunteers listened intently to Nishida’s advice. As soon as Nishida stopped speaking, the volunteers quickly began working while following her tips, joking around about all of the math involved with gardening as soft rock played in the background.
Holloway saw the garden as an opportunity to cultivate a community with those interested in gardening and organic produce. “I have told people and anybody that comes to help build it, then they’re definitely able to come and get the fruits of their labor,” Holloway said. “I’d love to have a little cart sitting out, you know, once a month or once a quarter when I got something to have extra to sell. Why not?”
For Holloway, a local science teacher working to expand her school district’s agricultural programs, her new garden serves as an opportunity to encourage her students to understand the importance of organic, fresh produce, even if it’s not always accessible in their community.
“Students from Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School can come down and we can do any type of experiential learning,” Holloway said. “Kids don’t know where strawberries come from. They think they just come out of the store…[My students can] understand how they’re connected to nature and how we’re supposed to take care of it.”
Both gardens echoed that these gardens provide more than just healthy food options, but to emphasize personal ties to the food. Before the Dig In, Nishida consults with all garden recipients about what their favorite fruits and vegetables are, then tries to introduce them to her favorites — kohlrabi and Japanese purple mustard leaves — as well. Then, using her planting expertise, Nishida spent nearly an hour slowly walking the perimeter of the fresh soil while surveying sun and shade distributions in the yard, deciding the best spots for Holloway’s favorite produce.
When Pedroza began her garden over twenty years ago, it was originally so her father could grow the vegetables and herbs he grew up with in Mexico. When her father never took to the garden, Pedroza took it upon herself to keep up the plot. After a few friends around the garden taught her some basic gardening skills, Pedroza was able to grow the same hierba mora and quelites that her father did. Now, Pedroza can pass those same skills down to her grandchildren, even if the asphalt road is just outside of view.
“This is a legacy for the children of my family,” said Pedroza. “My grandson runs everywhere. When he is here, it’s happy.”