I stopped at Whole Foods in Oakland this evening just to see how much cash I could drop at one time in one place (KIDDING WHOLE FOODS HA HA HA ALSO YOU CAN BE MY SPONSOR NOW!!!), and noticed at the checkout counter that they are current funneling money like a laundering operation to Oakland [...]
Posts under ‘Community gardening’
Where things (don’t) stand with the community garden
Back at the beginning of August, I sent a missive asking the Oakland community gardening coordinator for an update on where I am on the waiting list. So far, I’ve heard nothing. It’s only been about three weeks, of course, since I sent the email, and things move slowly in Oakland government, but it’s now [...]
They call me number 19
Early this week, I got an update from the Oakland community gardening coordinator. Turns out the Marston Campbell garden? The one I mapped out and identified as ideal? Not open to the public. The garden is the sole territory of Oakland Based Urban Gardens, a stellar program that gets kids excited about gardening, no matter [...]
The discovery of Oakland Roots
I discovered Wednesday night that I might have made an incorrect assumption. I assumed the City of Oakland was the sole purveyor of community garden experiences in the area. But an email came across my transom that indicated that might not be true. A group called Oakland Roots has apparently taken over a plot of [...]
The waiting & hoping game
A recent comment on a post reminded me that it’s probably time for an update on where I am with scoring a garden plot for this year. The fact is, there’s not much to say right now. I have put my name on the waiting list, I assume, for the garden I identified, but don’t [...]
A little fear of change
“I’m a little worried about this whole community-gardening thing,” I told a friend one night recently over drinks. “I’ve never gardened anywhere but Iowa, and the garden there was right out my back door.” “Then you can go out and weed for 10 minutes and come back in and do other stuff,” he said. “Exactly,” [...]
Gardens: mapped
The map? Made. There are eight community gardens in the Oakland system: three up toward Temescal and Emeryville, three smack dab in the heart of it all (right around downtown), and two down toward San Leandro. I know I said making a Google map of the garden locations was the most nerdy thing I could [...]
The nerd approach to garden location
The next step in the find-a-garden-plot investigation was to email the guy who runs the community gardening program. I figured there was no way I’d get in at Lake Merritt, but as I said, I figured there had to be some plot, somewhere in Oakland, where I could just slide right in, no problem. As [...]
The investigation has opened
Before I moved to California, I gave some thought to the whole how-am-I-going-to-garden concept. I had visions of a balcony garden, complete with herbs and maybe a flower or two, and some peppers ripening in the golden sunshine. I imagined myself sitting out on the balcony, sipping a glass of wine, and marveling at a [...]
