VENTURA : Harvests Healthy at Community Garden
Just yards from busy, six-lane Telephone Road in east Ventura, nestled next to a barranca and tucked in behind brick walls, lies a peaceful, verdant tribute to Mother Nature and cooperative gardening.
It’s the city of Ventura’s Cornucopia Community Garden, a two-acre parcel situated on an Edison Co. easement just east of Johnson Drive.
For $40 for six months, gardeners can lease an 18- by 25-foot plot, either organic or non-organic. The fee covers trash and water service, the use of some tools, as well as a monthly gardening newsletter published by the city’s recreation department, regular meetings featuring guest speakers, and an artful gardening manual full of tips and advice.
Robert Barnum, 61, of Ventura rents two adjacent organic plots. A veteran junior high school band leader, Barnum signed up for his gardens in November after a long-awaited retirement trip with his wife.
His plots are two of the more productive in the garden, with peas, onions, beans and carrots sharing space with corn, potatoes and lettuce.
“We’ve been eating broccoli like mad,” Barnum said on a recent afternoon as he surveyed his efforts. “I’ve been giving away cabbage, and we have enough spinach to freeze.”
He attributes his garden’s success to his daily visits to weed, water and harvest, and he reaps rewards beyond the bounty of the fresh vegetables that he takes home.
“My health has always been good,” he said, “but it’s better now because of gardening. I have a passion for it. I almost think I would’ve been better off as an organic farmer instead of a music teacher.”
Ray Hendricks, 60, makes a regular commute from Channel Islands Harbor, where he lives on his sailboat, to care for his plants.
Indeed, the community garden seems to be a haven for condominium and apartment dwellers who have precious little room for a garden.
“I like it here,” Hendricks said while taking a break from turning over soil with a spade. “I like the sun, and my co-workers enjoy the tomatoes I bring in.
“And it’s nice to sweat once in a while,” he added.
As for watering the gardens in a city where a rationing program is soon to begin, recreation Supervisor Beth Cohen said no one has determined how to reduce the amount of water used by the gardeners by the mandated 20%.
“We might end up cutting back on the number of plots we rent, or asking people to voluntarily cut back on the amount of water they use,” she said. “But I don’t think there are many drought-tolerant vegetables.”
Water problems notwithstanding, the city expects to rent nearly all of the plots this spring. Of the 69 available in the northern section, nearly half are taken.
