A Suburban Plot : Venturans who don’t have room to grow vegetables in their yards can join the community garden.

A garden hobbyist steps out the sliding glass door and onto the back-yard patio. Surveying tidy rows of verdant vegetables, cultivated in a corner of the spacious yard, a dining decision must be made: Will it be broccoli tonight or kohlrabi?

Not a decision of great consequence, you say, but one plenty of folks would like to be in a position to make. After all, not all abodes offer residents the ample space or ideal growing conditions to accommodate a vegetable garden.

And so the Ventura Parks and Recreation Department inaugurated the Cornucopia Community Garden.

According to garden manager Joanne Wolf, the idea was to provide condominium, townhouse and apartment dwellers an opportunity they might not otherwise enjoy.

“Those types of housing have limitations,” said Wolf, who works for the department. “One of them is usually not having the land to grow your own vegetables.”

Situated just off Telephone Road east of Johnson Drive, the two-acre site attracts gardening enthusiasts year-round. Brick walls protect the city-owned parcel, which is checkered with 18-by-25-foot plots. Participants rent each plot for $40 for six months.

“This location has been here for about eight years and was met with a lot of interest,” she said. “It’s growing every year.”

Indeed. Besides Ventura residents, gardeners from Camarillo, Oxnard, Ojai and elsewhere make the trek to soil their hands.

“We have about 75 plots being used at this time,” Wolf said. “There’s room for more when the need arises. With spring and summer approaching, we start getting lots of calls.”

Sections of the community garden are cordoned off for organic and non-organic cultivation. And while participants are governed by few rules, one caveat does prevail: “No trees,” Wolf said. “Anything that would cause shade on another person’s plot is prohibited.”

“It’s a peaceful and quiet place,” said Bob Horne, retired Ventura fire chief. He has been renting space at the garden for about five years and works three plots. Like many participants, he would rather raise fresh veggies here than in his yard.

“A garden just won’t work in my back yard,” he said. “It’s shaded by large cypress trees and nothing will grow.” Horne’s plots flourish with sweet corn, carrots, kohlrabi, kale and other seasonal vegetables.

Not all gardeners are there because of poor growing conditions or cramped space at home, Wolf said. The tranquil setting is also a social scene for some.

Jo Mullins, a coordinator with the Social and Community Integration and Participation program in Camarillo, is a garden member along with a small group of developmentally disabled adults.

SCIP provides support services, including community activities, for developmentally disabled adults.

“We try to teach them to be independently mobile,” said Mullins, who, with colleague Mike Jensen, works with the group on gardening two plots. “The garden is a wonderful chance to meet other people and make friends.”

HERE’S THE SCOOP

Membership in the Cornucopia Community Garden includes water and trash service, monthly newsletter, a gardening starter manual and the use of some tools. Occasional guest speakers address such topics as composting and growing methods.

Members are encouraged to help maintain the garden’s compost heap or keep individual compost bins.

The garden is open daily during daylight hours only.

Members, given the combination to a padlock securing the entrance, are free to come and go at will.

A $25 deposit is required, which will be returned upon forfeiting membership.

The deposit is to ensure that members leave plots free of weeds and ready for future gardeners.

For information or to join the garden, contact garden manager Joanne Wolf at 658-4726.