(Editor’s note: So, you want to start gardening in Oakland? Then this urban gardening series is for you. Whether you want to learn how to garden communally on public land, private land, in your own backyard or learn how other Oaklanders have made their city gardens vibrant and productive, you will find what you need to get started here. In this second installment, writer Stephanie Ogburn tells Oakland residents who want to garden, but don’t have their own land, or want the support of a community, where and how they can get involved.)

Ever since First Lady Michelle Obama installed a garden on the White House lawn and the stock market tanked, gardening has seen a resurgence in popularity. Many of those new planters are Oaklanders who want to grow their own food to be healthier and save money, but don’t have the land space to do so themselves.

Community gardens are a solution for many landless urbanites. In Oakland, the city has a community gardening program, but there aren’t nearly enough plots available to would-be gardeners, and city residents might while away many fertile seasons on a lengthy waiting list.

One way to combat the city’s community garden plot backlog is to start your own. (For information on how to do this on city land, check out our last article on the topic.)

Starting community gardens on private land is another option, though, and might be a quicker way to get a collaborative growing effort off the ground, said Willow Rosenthal, founder of City Slicker Farms, an urban farming organization based in West Oakland.

“For regular folks who don’t have tons of time on their hands, it might actually be easier with a private landowner,” Rosenthal said.

Private landowners have two main concerns, Rosenthal said: liability and upkeep.

“A lot of landlords would love to have their property being used for community benefit,” she said. “But they also don’t want to open themselves up to liability risk or their property becoming a big trash heap where they are left holding the bag on a lot of garbage or unfinished projects.”

To start a community garden on privately-owned land, residents should be prepared to purchase liability insurance, pay the owners’ existing insurance or team up with an organization like City Slicker Farms to buy into its insurance policy and extend it to the new parcel.

Secondly, would-be community garden starters should develop a written plan for maintenance and site upkeep and submit it in their proposal to the landowner, Rosenthal said. Private landowners are a lot more likely to take an organized group with a written plan seriously and allow them to use their land for a project.

It’s also smart to make sure the prospective garden has good soil that isn’t contaminated, access to water for irrigation, and, ideally, a way to get electricity and trucks into the space.

All this might sound a little overwhelming – and starting a community garden is an ambitious undertaking. There also are other options in Oakland to grow food with others and learn more about urban gardening.

Gardening with neighbors

One such option can be found through Neighborhood Vegetables – a group organized by Laurence Schechtman, a Berkeley-based activist. Members of the Neighborhood Vegetables e-mail list let Laurence know when they need help on their garden and host garden parties in various parts of Oakland and Berkeley nearly every weekend. At these parties, other Neighborhood Vegetable members come help out and later on, many of them share in the bounty of the harvest, Schechtman said.

The Oakland-based Victory Garden Foundation also helps neighbors connect with each other to grow food collaboratively. Victory Lee, who runs the foundation, currently matches would-be gardeners who join her network based on her personal knowledge, but she’s hoping to improve this process over time.

“Eventually we’re hoping to have a database to match up people in a more organized way,” Lee said.

Lee’s group also sends out a weekly newsletter with links to local gardening knowledge, resources and garden work parties around the East Bay.

Volunteering and learning

A number of Oakland-based nonprofits offer opportunities for city residents to learn more about gardening or just get their hands dirty by volunteering.

Planting Justice, a North Oakland-based garden organization, has periodic work parties and volunteer opportunities to support its mission of increasing access to healthy food for the Oakland community.  Many of these trainings and opportunities take place on its rooftop garden, where volunteers can learn about container and raised-bed gardening in small spaces.
 
“It really gives people a chance to see what you can do if you don’t have even a place to do a traditional garden,” Planting Justice co-founder and permaculture instructor Gavin Raders said.

Planting Justice also is transitioning one of its school gardens – next to the former Explore College Preparatory Middle School in East Oakland – to a community garden where East Oakland residents can help build and maintain a permaculture “food forest,” said co-founder Haleh Zandi.

City Slicker Farms, in West Oakland, gives Oakland residents another gardening avenue through its volunteer and community-building focus. Volunteers can come to different sites Tuesday through Saturday and help grow food for low-income West Oakland residents, said Barbara Finnin, the organization’s executive director. The organization educates its volunteers on various gardening practices that they can then use in their own growing efforts.

“People are welcome to come and volunteer or just hang out and be a part of the garden,” said Finnin. “So there’s a lot of opportunities to come and garden and learn.

“Every day always brings a new experience," she added. "Anything from how do you actually plant a seedling, plant a seed, composting, learn[ing] about integrated pest management.”

Another West Oakland resource is Mo Better Foods, whose Executive Director, David Roach, works to bring locally grown food to the neighborhood.

Volunteers for Oakland Food Connection in East Oakland help the nonprofit create and maintain sites at schools and other locations in East Oakland neighborhoods. These gardens provide access to fresh vegetables to urban residents and help youth learn about food justice and growing their own produce, said executive director Jason Harvey.

“Many of the people who volunteer in the garden have some interest in food justice or food security,” Harvey said.

Whether it’s through creating a new community garden, participating in a neighborhood work party, sharing land with neighbors or volunteering to help grow food for others, there are many ways to find a patch of land and get your hands dirty while growing healthy food in Oakland.

GET INVOLVED!

To get involved with a community garden, check Oakland Local's list of community gardens (and farmer's markets)--please add new markets in the comments, below.