BURBANK, Calif.—Recent inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic have spurred more Southern Californians to start home and community gardens, according to local experts.
The group hopes to provide space for local residents, organizations, people who don’t have access to backyards, and people who can’t afford food.
The gardens will also be a place to teach beginners about water conservation and native plants among other topics, volunteer Denise Bergsrud told The Epoch Times.
“It will be their community to run,” the lifelong Burbank resident said. “People are ready to get back out around people so it’s a great way to do that.”
About 30 gardening enthusiasts and volunteers came out to Burbank’s first community garden site at the corner of Chandler Boulevard and Pass Avenue on April 16.
The group planted a native garden in front of the fenced-off space that will eventually include 38 raised garden beds. Two of the plots will be handicap-accessible, Bergsrud said.
Applicants selected by the committee to plant at the site will pay a monthly fee but manage the operation themselves, according to Bergsrud.
“It can create a network for them, too, beyond gardening,” she said.
The land is owned by Los Angeles Water and Power and leased back to the City of Burbank for the garden, according to Bergsrud.
All food grown at the site will be organic and they expect to grow food all year, including tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, snap peas, lettuces and chards, along with carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes, Catlan Brinsley, of Burbank, told The Epoch Times.
Brinsley grows her own vegetable garden and fruit trees at home and volunteers on the steering committee for the community gardens.
“I just find such satisfaction from it,” Brinsley said. “Especially these days, because people are more and more concerned about the environment and concerned about what’s going on in the world around them.”
The community garden is great for children, who are naturally engaged and interested, she said.
“It’s very satisfying to work in the soil and smell the earth, and to grow something with your own hand,” Brinsley said. “I really hope in the end, the garden becomes a place for the community to come together and learn and support each other and thrive.”
The group hopes to host events at the garden, including hosting classes and having live music events, Brinsley said.
During the workday at the garden, expert gardener Erin Viera-Orr helped volunteers build a foundation to grow native plants by using newspaper, cardboard and mulch.
Planting native plants will attract more native species and pollinators, Viera-Orr told The Epoch Times.
“We are so excited that this has finally come to fruition,” she said.
Many people found gardening to be a way to reconnect to nature during the pandemic, Viera-Orr said.
“I think so many people have been at home and reconnecting on a level they never did before,” she said. “I do believe there’s been a huge shift toward growing your own food and growing native plants, being better hosts to our native ecology, and being a part of it instead of separate.”
Now that the pandemic is starting to ease and the world is opening back up, more people are migrating from the home gardens and into more community initiatives, she said.
Hunter Orr, 8, stayed busy hauling buckets and wheelbarrows full mulch.
“I like it,” Hunter Orr told The Epoch Times. “It’s a lot of hard work. We have our own plants and we have a little farm in our backyard.”
Many Angelenos became interested in growing their own food during the first surge of COVID, according to the manager of Sunset Nursery on West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
“We saw it at first at the very beginning of the pandemic in 2020,” Manager Greg Kuga told The Epoch Times. “There was a huge surge of people wanting to grow their own vegetables.”
And many are still growing their own produce, Kuga said.
Sunset Nursery customers have found potted plants, soil and other items at the store to help them get started. They can also find experienced staff to help them learn about planting, according to Kuga.
“You can definitely grow vegetable gardens year-round here but you have to be knowledgeable about what to grow,” Kuga said.
Interest in home gardening grew throughout the world during the pandemic, according to a new study released in March by the University of California–Davis.
Of those who responded, 81 percent said they had concerns about food access, and the safety and selection of food at the stores, the story reported.
In California, most gardeners reported feeling isolated and having problems getting gear to protect them against the virus.
Many people also valued gardens as a social space to connect with family and friends and other gardeners and neighbors, the study found.
“Not only did gardeners describe a sense of control and security that came from food production, but they also expressed heightened experiences of joy, beauty, and freedom in garden spaces,” the study reported.
