McClure's and Bridgview Garden in the news

Joel and Mary McClure must have brought a commitment to community-involvement with them when they moved into their home on Bridgeview Drive. In short order, they adopted the hillside lot next door to them, participated in all sorts of Quesada Gardens group activities just down the street, and are now on the Board of Directors of the Quesada Gardens Initiative.

Along the way, they've been the leaders and heart of the Bridgeview Garden project that has brought a teaching and learning garden to life where trash and weeds thrived not long ago.

Today's Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle puts Mary on the front page of the Home and Garden section, along with an article by Patricia Yollin about the importance of community gardens in tough economic times.

The McClure's and the Bridgeview Garden deserve every bit of the attention! (See the full article online.)

Two years ago, Mary McClure started a community garden on a forlorn lot next to her home in San Francisco's Bayview district, the city's historic food shed.

"My husband and I got tired of looking at weeds," said McClure, 56, as she unlocked the gate to Bridgeview Garden, where bumblebees were buzzing and fava beans were poking through the fence.

Now the hillside garden is terraced and an orange-and-yellow mural, studded with white phoenixes, covers the concrete wall below. A crop of vegetables had just been harvested, and nine fruit trees were coming alive.

The food helps feed Bridgeview Drive's elderly residents, said McClure, retail manager of a furniture company. She added that the produce garden first lady Michelle Obama is starting at the White House has been a big hit in the Bayview.

"It's gratifying," McClure said. "And it's a validation of what we've been doing here."

photo of Mary McClure by Eric Luse, SF Chronicle