WEST COUNTY : VENTURA : Ex-Fire Chief Finds Satisfaction Grows

Since retiring in January, former Ventura Fire Chief Bob Horne has developed a green thumb from the free time on his hands. Several days a week, Horne tills the soil, plucks weeds and irrigates the modest crop he grows on a rented patch of ground at the city of Ventura’s Cornucopia Community Garden on Telephone Road.

“If you work at it, you can supply a family with more vegetables than they can eat with one plot and still put food in the freezer,” said Horne, whose crop includes corn, tomatoes, carrots, beets, peas, cabbage, cauliflower and melons. “It’s a challenge to make things grow and make them grow successfully and get out to relax in the sunshine.”

About 40 senior citizens maintain gardens on public land in Fillmore and Oxnard. Ventura is the only city in the county whose garden is open to people of all ages, although Port Hueneme is considering a similar garden project.

Leases on the 18- by 25-foot plots run $40 every six months. Demand has temporarily outstripped supply. Half of the 150 plots are under cultivation and, for the first time since the garden opened in 1984, the city has a list of people waiting for additional plots to be cleared by city workers.

Skip Robinson, a city recreation coordinator, said the garden attracts more than just people living in land-scarce apartment and condominium complexes.

“There are people who just would rather garden in a social setting and people who don’t want to tear up their yards,” said Robinson, the garden’s supervisor.

Horne, 61, said he has yet to find anything more rewarding to do with his time. “You can go to the store and buy produce, but it’s not quite the same as growing it yourself and hauling it home.”