As a volunteer mentioned, patients are “prescribed by psychiatrists to come and garden.” Additionally, healthcare workers and veterans participating in the VA’s Compensated Work Therapy Program use the garden for growing food and taking breaks. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the garden at any time. Unlike most other UA sites that will be mentioned in this chapter, there is no gate at the front entrance, though there are security cameras monitoring the property. Signs instruct visitors not to pick crops without permission. There are accessible pathways for those with mobility-aiding devices , a restroom, benches, a barbecue grill, a building with a refrigerator, and a large gazebo and seating area. Eagle Scouts from the Boy Scouts of America installed raised garden beds and a flagpole for the garden. Figure 13 shows a large greenhouse surrounded by California native plants, shade-providing trees, chairs, and rainwater barrels.In 2023, the Surfrider Foundation donated six 50-gallon rain barrels to collect rainwater, to water plants and prevent storm water pollution from runoff. The rain barrels were up cycled using mosquito netting, barrels used to ship food items, and PVC pipes and spouts . These amenities helped gardeners plant a variety of edible crops and about 70 fruit trees, such as bananas, pears, and persimmons. The Patient Garden is also decorated with cacti, roses, bird feeders, a rock garden full of painted stones, cannabis drying curing and a sensory garden with plants meant to see, smell, and touch.The Long Beach Community Garden was first established in 1976 at the abandoned Honor Farm .
Originally, LBCG was 6.5 acres with 218 garden plots, located between the Interstate 605 and East Carson Street. However, city officials asked LBCG to relocate in 1996, following the demolition of a Naval hospital and construction of a shopping center, which included Walmart and other stores . On December 1, 1997, LBCG opened its new 8.5-acre location, which is between the 605 freeway and El Dorado Park, on Spring Street in the 90815 ZIP Code. With 300 plots each measuring 20’ x 30’, LBCG is the largest community garden in the city. LBCG is managed by the Long Beach Community Garden Association , a not for-profit organization with no paid staff. A board of eight members oversees the LBCG’s budget, which goes toward the maintenance and enhancement of the garden. Gardeners pay an annual membership fee of $160 and are required to complete four hours of community service per year, to maintain common areas of the garden. Only LBCG members and authorized individuals can enter. The garden is protected by a locked gate, which features a remote-controlled entryway for cars and large trucks for trash collection and mulch delivery. The photograph in Figure 14 shows a tree in front of one of the many paved roads inside LBCG, which allows accessibility for both vehicles and gardeners.LBCG features a large gazebo, benches for sitting, a storage shed, and a fruit tree orchard. Gardeners may donate food from their garden plots and the fruit orchard to the Food Bank Collection Station. The food from this station is distributed to a variety of local charities, such as Long Beach Rescue Mission. LBCG’s fruit orchard has over 100 trees, including but not limited to: avocado, banana, cherimoya, grapefruit, lemon, lime, loquat, kumquat, orange, peach, pear, persimmon, pineapple guava, and pomegranate. There are several varieties of fruit and hybrids such as aprium, nectaplum, and pluerry . The QR codes direct to the official LBCG website with information on each tree.As shown in Table 3, five LBO community gardens are located on city property and four are located on land owned by a private owner .
The largest LBO garden was Zaferia Junction, which is 1.4 acres, over 20 times larger than Orizaba Park, the smallest garden . All LBO gardens provided hoses, a communal shed for tools, a compost area, and a picnic arbor for gardeners to sit in the shade and enjoy meals, and most of the gardens are accessible for those with disabilities. A few gardens feature special amenities, such as a hive for beekeeping, portable toilets, fruit trees, and herb beds. Zaferia Junction has a sensory garden and an earth oven for cooking food outdoors. At the time of writing, 250 of 281 plots were rented. Six of the gardens have a waitlist for renting a garden plot, with the wait time ranging from six months to four years. LBO prioritizes renting plots to low-income families who may otherwise lack access to organic produce, Long Beach residents or those who live near an LBO garden, and those who have no other opportunity to garden. Requirements for plots vary on the property owner. For example, gardens located on land owned by Long Beach’s Department of Parks, Recreation & Marine prioritize gardeners who live within walking distance. Gardeners pay a minimum of $55 per six-month season for plots smaller than 10’x8’. The fee for larger plots is $0.70 per square foot . LBO gardeners are required to sign a rental agreement and waiver of liability, maintain their plot, and complete a minimum of 10 hours of community work per six-month season. Each garden is secured by a locked fence, which gardeners receive the code for when they rent their plot. The gardens are open to volunteers and community members on Saturday workdays, which involve weeding, construction projects, and maintaining spaces outside the garden plots, such as walkways or areas near the fence. For example, for the Captain Charles Moore Urban Community Garden located on Long Beach Blvd, which began construction in April 2023, volunteers built the shed, arbor, and raised garden beds, as well as a swale to capture rainwater and direct moisture to the garden .
Gardeners may also complete their volunteer hours on Wednesdays at Zaferia Junction to assist with harvesting, washing, and sorting produce, which is donated to California State University, Long Beach’s student pantry .Though most gardeners grew the previously mentioned crops that thrive in Southern California’s climate , there were many notable crops unique to each garden site. For example, one gardener at Zaferia tended to a variety of fruit trees, including peaches, apples, and hybrids like nectaplum , pluot , and bubblegum aprium . Pacific and 6th had banana, papaya, and loquat trees, as well as perilla and other crops planted by Asian gardeners. Gardeners at Grace Park grew longevity spinach, Malabar spinach, and hoja santa , an herb native to Mexico. Many LBO gardens also had herbs such as cilantro, basil, sage, thyme, and oregano, and grew grapes from their picnic arbor.Three small community gardens are managed by Century Villages at Cabrillo, Inc., an independent nonprofit entity affiliated with Century Housing Corporation. Founded in 1997, Century Villages at Cabrillo is a 27-acre campus community that aims to provide permanent housing to veterans, families, and individuals to prevent homelessness. CVC is located at 2001 River Avenue Long Beach, CA 90810. The Magic Garden, David’s Garden, and American Indian Changing Spirits Garden at CVC are free for residents, vertical growing systems with a “first come, first served” policy. Over 1,797 people reside at CVC, including 669 veterans . The Magic Garden, which was formerly known as the CVC Veteran’s Gardening project, was originally built by the late veteran and former Navy SEAL Tony M. in 2013. Due to CVC construction, the garden was moved in 2017, and is available to all residents. The Magic Garden offers 22 raised garden beds, where gardeners planted several edible crops. There is also a common area with papaya and banana trees. The Magic Garden also offers a sensory garden and meditation labyrinth .A CVC Occupational Therapist , who helps residents with disabilities or changes in their physical and mental capabilities, oversees the garden. To recruit volunteers, they partnered with PATH and OT internship programs from University of Southern California and California State University, Dominguez Hill’s Occupational. David’s Garden and the American Indian Changing Spirits Garden are adjacent to each other, next to two barbecue grills and five picnic tables with benches. David’s Garden, which has four raised garden beds and in-ground plots, is maintained by Sowing Seeds of Change, which operates its own urban farm about three miles away from CVC. Produce from David’s Garden supplements CVC’s weekly farm stand, which provides fresh, locally grown produce to residents. American Indian Changing Spirits, an agency which served 132 adults in 2022, provides culturally appropriate alcohol and drug education, counseling, and recreation for American Indian men and women. Their garden supplements social and cultural activities.I visited two gardens managed by the City of Long Beach: the health department’s Peace Garden and the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library Learning Garden. Information on the exact size of each garden was unavailable, but they are roughly the size of LBO’s smallest gardens . The Peace Garden is inside Martin Luther King Jr. Park at 1950 Lemon Ave, Long Beach, CA 90806. It is adjacent to Long Beach’s Black Resource Center and the Central Facilities Center of the Nutrition Services Division WIC Program, which provides public services related to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children . LBDHHS established the Peace Garden in 2010 as part of the Healthy Active Long Beach Project, to promote healthy eating and physical activity through educational activities.
The garden has eight plots, a greenhouse, compost bin, and several fruit trees: plantains, figs, mulberries, and pomegranates. Local community residents can register for a garden plot at no cost. LBDHHS prioritizes households that reside in the 90806 or 90813 ZIP Codes, are eligible for federal nutrition programs , and/or have children who attend a school served by Healthy Active Long Beach. The garden is open on weekdays from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. LBDHHS staff provide free plants and grow produce around the perimeter of the garden for community members to harvest. For example, Figure 18 shows a table with free cacti and seedlings, next to a patch of squash.To learn more about UA sites located at schools, I visited gardens built by the nonprofit organization, Ground Education. Ground Education provides gardening curriculum to the LBUSD, which has 47 elementary schools and six K-8 institutions . In 2024, Ground Education operated in 24 LBUSD schools, over half of all schools in the district. The nonprofit intentionally selects schools in areas with less access to green space, and so their gardens are “mostly concentrated in North, Central and West Long Beach” . Founded by Holland Brown and Karen Taylor in 2008, Ground Education was originally created to revitalize former school gardens that were abandoned or needed maintenance. Originally a two-woman team, Ground Education now employs 29 staff members, including Garden Educators at each school site and a team that builds and maintains school gardens . Ground Education designs and builds new school learning gardens, teaches monthly outdoor lessons for transitional kindergarten through 8th grade, develops educational programming for after-school and summer programs, and provides workshops for partner community gardens. All Ground Education gardens feature the following amenities: a portable hand washing sink, rotating compost bin, storage shed, bird feeder, and benches for students.The gardens also have a small nature path with tree stumps and native California plants for students to explore. Ground Education’s Garden Educators deliver hands-on educational activities for TK-8 students to plant wheat, peas, lettuce, fava beans, carrots, beets, green onions, and other crops. Each class participates in monthly one-hour lessons during their usual class time. In addition to learning about where food comes from and tasting the food they grow, students hatch chickens in their classrooms, discover the importance of decomposers, and gain skills such as pickling vegetables, making pesto from carrot tops,milling flour from wheat, and using a solar oven to melt cheese on nachos with heat from the sun. Figure 22 shows Fremont Elementary’s main garden, which has 14 raised garden beds.Heritage Farm was once Gladys Avenue Urban Farm, previously owned by LBO founder Captain Charles Moore. The 8,000-square-foot parcel of land was sold to the current owner with the stipulation that it would continue to be used for UA. As of June 2022, Heritage Farm is managed by Chef Lauren Pretty, owner of the restaurant, Heritage. The farm supplies Heritage with a variety of herbs, flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Some notable crops included cucamelons, passion fruit, longan, Brazilian cherries, mulberries, “1,500-year-old cave beans” , and cardoons .