[Community_garden] Q2 and the new community garden opening

[lisa tucker]

A brief article about our garden at Anne E. Shirrells Park in the  
Press Enterprise, Saturday edition, with a picture of Q2.

> Story: Garden in San Bernardino's Westside sows seeds of community
>
>
> Garden in San Bernardino's Westside sows seeds of community
>
>
>
>
> 10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 30, 2007
>
>
> By MICHAEL MELLO
> The Press-Enterprise
>
> SAN BERNARDINO - Just yards from houses where windows are fortified  
> with heavy steel bars, a few young sunflowers sprout, straining to  
> reach into the summer sky.
>
> Growing in a corner of Anne E. Shirrells Park -- known lately as  
> the focus of some of the city's violent crime -- the sunflowers are  
> among the first inhabitants of a new community garden designed to  
> bring the neighborhood closer together.
>
> Neighbors and area leaders gathered just before noon on Saturday to  
> dedicate the garden. Many signed up to be part of the cooperative  
> caring for the plot. In return for a pledge to work a few hours  
> every week at the patch, members of the cooperative can claim a  
> share of the produce grown.
>
> Story continues below
>
> Paul Alvarez / The Press-Enterprise
> Darcy Robinson, of Los Angeles, tours the Garden Laboratory at a  
> new community garden in Anne E. Shirrells Park in San Bernardino's  
> Westside area during the garden's opening Saturday.
> Laureese Summers couldn't stop smiling as she wandered through the  
> garden, taking pictures of some of the Japanese eggplant and  
> oregano just starting to bud. Summers lives in Highland, but once  
> was a Westside resident and plans to return to the area.
>
> The garden will be one of her first stops, the spry 65-year-old  
> former nurse and police officer said. It will be difficult to  
> decide whether to plant bell peppers, cabbage or squash, she said.  
> She loves them all.
>
> "This is really exciting for me. I wasn't born in the country. I  
> missed all that," she said, referring to home-grown produce. "This  
> is a great chance, at my age, to finally have a garden."
>
> Jeanne-Marie Lovell and her husband, Matt Lovell, headed straight  
> for the sign-up sheet, saying they couldn't wait to get their hands  
> dirty.
>
> Story continues below
>
> Jeanne-Marie Lovell said the garden is a good thing in an area  
> where she's seen kids who are unfamiliar with agriculture refuse to  
> eat fresh produce "because it was in the dirt."
>
> "I've been interested in this for a long time," she said, saying  
> the garden will be an extension of the yard at their San Bernardino  
> home. There, the couple has slowly been replacing the landscaping  
> with edible plants.
>
> "The more (food) we can produce ourselves and the less we have to  
> rely on agribusiness, the better," Matt Lovell said. "We're really  
> excited to see this."
>
> Community leaders hope Westside residents will gather at the park  
> to tend the garden, and at the same time form bonds that will help  
> dispel some of problems that have plagued the area.
>
> "We want to show our community that what we sow is what we reap,"  
> literally and figuratively, said the Rev. Bronica Martindale,  
> president of the California Gardens Neighborhood Cluster  
> Association. Martindale played a large role in establishing the  
> garden.
>
> Reach Michael Mello at 909-806-3056 or mmello at PE.com
>
>

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