Dearborn Community Garden (San Francisco, CA)

I love this little garden in the Mission. It sits in a quiet alley just a block away from bustling Guerrero (and one of the best bakeries in the city). What a lovely oasis.

The outside borders are lined with roses, lavender and other perennials. People obviously care about the place a lot. You can see into the garden from the street, and go inside if there’s someone working there.

The garden also has some huge fences! 10 feet tall with barbed wire (interwoven with spiky canes from the rose bushes and dead palm fronds!). I guess that’s gardening in the gritty city for ya.

Stanford Student Garden (Stanford, CA)

I stopped by the Stanford Farm yesterday to see what was going on there. A lot, apparently.

The student garden section has taken off like wildfire, mostly thanks to a new, full-time staff member who coordinates gardening and education projects around campus. (Frankly, it sounds like a pretty sweet job.)

She showed me how the student garden has warp-sped into high production mode, supplying food for a weekly farm stand in the middle of campus. (The food is driven across campus in a tiny, electric truck.)

This quarter, 35 students were turned away from the on-site sustainable agriculture class, and there is discussion of moving the student section of the “farm” to a larger, more central location near the equestrian center. (Oh-so-convenient to all that manure, I imagine.)

Wow! Stanford is joining the sustainable food movement in some significant ways.

Santa Cruz Homeless Garden Project (Santa Cruz, CA)

I visited this cool garden last weekend. We drove down the pacific highway, arrived late in the day, and there was only one person and one dog hanging out there by then. But, the person was totally friendly and the dog was very, very awesome:

He came right up to us with his tail wagging, just the sweetest animal I’ve ever met. One day, I will adopt a dog. One day! Anyway, the garden was great—huge and full of interesting projects (including a hutch full of ducks!!) and lots of flowers. Definitely a garden with a lot going on.