Compost Q and A with "The Green Goatee"

"Compost;" not exactly an inspiring word - to most folks. But to Quesada Gardens' own Master Gardener, Tony Tarket, a.k.a. 'Green Goatee,' compost is a beautiful thing. 

Tony shed some light on the subject, something that is a mystery to the average person, when Footprints caught up with him last Saturday morning setting up the food table for the Every Saturday Volunteer Day at Quesada Gardens.

FP: Why compost?

TT: Composting is great because it uses vegetable peelings, lawn clippings, newspaper and other things you would normally throw into the trash bin. It turns them into fertilizer. So you don't have to buy expensive fertilizer with all kinds of chemicals in it, and you don't have to throw all that stuff into the landfill.

FP: What are some benefits of composting?

TT: Composting is great because it uses vegetable peelings, lawn clippings, newspaper and other things you would normally throw into the trash bin. It turns them into fertilizer. So you don’t have to buy expensive fertilizer with all kinds of chemicals in it, and you don’t have to throw all that stuff into the landfill.

FP: Can I compost anything I would normally put in the City’s green bucket, or are there certain things I’d throw in there that I can’t use in my home compost? 

TT: There are some things you should never put in your compost such as meat or anything with meat residue on it, and diseased clippings or weeds. Also you probably don’t want to put as much paper in the compost as you might throw away. I like a 50/50 mix of green (vegetable peelings, grass clippings, plants) and brown (wood, sawdust, branches, paper). Make sure you cut all clippings and wood and branches into small pieces so it will break down faster. Anything with chemicals, like wood that’s been treated, shouldn't go in the compost.

FP: Is composting complicated? What are some different methods?

TT: No. It does not need to be complicated at all. You can start with a ready-made compost container, which come in several varieties. Barrel composters, or plastic ground composters are great and easy, and there’s even one that’s really easy to use if you have a disability. All you need to do with those is to start putting the compost in and crank the handle to turn it. These and other types are all available at garden centers like Lowe’s.

 If you want to use a compost heap, that’s fine too. One good way is to use four posts with chicken wire around them to contain the compost. Then make the front so the wire rolls up from the bottom so you can take the bottom compost out when it’s finished. The heap needs to be turned once a week, ideally, with newspaper layers put on top after you’re done.

FP: Does it require much space?

TT: The smaller barrel composters are small, and the plastic ground bins are about three feet in diameter. So, no, you don’t need much space at all.

FP: What’s the best way to start?

TT: Start saving your compost and use a ready-made composter. You can begin right away with minimal cost, or start a compost heap for next to nothing.

 Tony is a horticulturist, Quesada Gardens Initiative's backyard gardening program coordinator, and a neighbor on Quesada Avenue. Email him with questions at greengoatee [at] quesadagardens.org.

Bayview's people, plants and critters - recent pics!

From top to bottom:

• Megan (center) brought her friends Andrew (second, left) and Jake (right) to join Bridgeview Gardens Joel (left), Sherry (with hat), and John (second, left) last Saturday.
• Tony and Jake inspect the ripening plums on the Harrison's backyard fruit tree.
• Annette, QGI's Co-Founding Gardener and Board Chair, shows us her new backyard garden.
• Shujcca, a neighbor next door to the developing Palou Community Garden, is planting his new Baybloom Backyard Garden.
• Jacob is QGI's volunteer coordinator, and can be found in one of the gardens most any day.
• Tom is a neighbor, QGI's treasurer, and a fixture in the neighborhood who regularly prepares the lunch for Saturday volunteers.
• Victor found Quesada Gardens on Craigslist, and made last Saturday his 3rd volunteer experience in the gardens.
• Hean, a Balboa High School student, was working in the gardens, as usual last weekend.
• The Conure parrots on Quesada are a noisy but cute couple.
• The Quesada Gardens Canary Island Date Palms are golden with ripening dates.
• This o'possum isn't having a good time, but needed to be relocated after outgrowing his cute phase and squatters rights in a Quesada house.
• Tony found his camera just in time to catch this hawk, in a camera-shy moment, outside his home.
• Lisa Foster's beautiful cherry tree was in full bloom not long ago.
• One ripe tomato heralds the coming of the full crop at Bridgeview.
• John Kosich shows young eggplants growing beneath green and purple-veined leaves at the Bridgeview Garden.

Bayview plants and critters update

Sherry Scott, a resident on Revere near the Bridgeview Garden, is pictured harvesting sweet peas to share with neighbors.

The gardens and gathering spaces in the neighborhood's heart are blooming, and the critters are roaming. Here are some highlights:

The Bridgeview Community Teaching and Learning Garden is bursting with food production as corn stalks stretch over 5 feet tall, vines yield the sweetest peas you can imagine, young eggplants enter adulthood, and fruit in the orchard turn harvest colors. One red tomato is keeping company with countless green siblings. Joel, Mary, Serenity, Rika, Sherry, John and everyone pitching in with the garden are loving it!

The Quesada Garden Vegetable Patch has been dormant for months as garden educators have been demonstrating how covering the ground with cardboard and then mulch can benefit the soil. The cardboard turns to mulch after baking the soil free of unwanted plants, roots and seeds. Volunteers recently turned the soil, and discovered that the areas covered with cardboard were much easier to work than the area benefiting from mulch alone. Tony, Jacob, Chris, Victor, and Hean have worked the patch recently, after contributions from University of San Francisco students and youth from the Bayview branch of the Salivation Army.

The Canary Island Date Palm trees, landmark trees on the 1700 block of Quesada, are loaded with dates. Some boughs are low enough that visitors can pick and eat the dates when they are ripe. While smaller and less meaty than the more tropical ones found in stores, these dates taste just as good.

Bayview's plentiful plum trees are now producing. The most common type of plum tree in the neighborhood is the Mediterranean variety, (that's Punus domestica for the serious tree lover). Many of the older trees were planted decades ago by European immigrants who made their homes in the then rural Bayview. The Mediterranean or European variety remains a good choice for our temperate climate. (Check out this great recipe for plum sauce!)

The Latona Community Garden is showing its pride after feasting on mulch and welcoming vegetable starts in its double-height raised planting beds. Rita has led the way with help from Latonians Jim, Brigit, and Marcus.

The now-established Krispy Korner Garden is pumping out fruits and vegetables for the tables of nearby residents once again. Rahsaan, Cody and Cyrus are leading the way. Cody is working with other Quesada Gardens Initiative residents to create a mobile container orchard as an off-shoot of the Krispy Korner project.

The Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church garden is in its first planting season. The beautifully designed food production space next to the church is planted and will produce food for the congregation.

The Old Skool Cafe Kitchen Garden on Key Avenue has been mulched and weeded as this great community partner focuses on building out its new cafe space at Mendell Plaza.

The Baybloom Bayview Backyard Gardens network now includes 16 food producing gardens, after one was taken out when the home changed hands. Two more garden installations are planned for this month, which will bring the network's total up to 18. The gardens incorporate raised beds, fruiting trees and mini-gathering spaces for families, friends and neighbors.

All of the gardens and other landscaping residents have undertaken are blooming beautifully, with multiple varieties of dahlias and loads of the edible, spicy nasturtiums especially evident.

Several reports from Quesada and Latona residents suggest the O'possum population in Bayview is booming. Families of them have made homes in bureau drawers and basement corners under the watch of curious residents.

Those white butterfly's that look so lovely are flitting about all the gardens, irritating experienced gardeners who know that they are leaving leaf-eating larvae on plants. The snails, so ubiquitous in San Francisco, seem to be giving the gardens a break with a little encouragement from organic snail bait some gardeners are using.

The feral cats that some neighbors have worked with in hopes of controlling the population seem less skittish as they find a balance between their wild instincts and their curiosity of neighbors. Most of the cats are from the same lineage, and are dark gray or black. They are spotted every day on Quesada, stalking rodents and ignoring gardeners.

One of the two black squirrels many residents have been watching for years died recently from unknown causes, while the surviving squirrel, however mournful, seems to be holding up pretty well.

The birds and other animals that love the Canary Island Date Palm trees on Quesada couldn't be happier. The Conure parrots that have made their home at the gardens, crows that frequently perch for a conversation with their favorite residents, and hawks that make their egg-laying sisters of another species very nervous all appear fit.

Bees and hummingbirds, important pollinators, can be seen everywhere. The population of pollinators bounced back at the gardens several years ago as the number and density of natural spaces growing the plants they love increased.

Anyone who doubts that neighbors can improve their own physical and social environment, even in the most challenging of places, should visit the network of gardens, gathering spaces and public art projects the Quesada Gardens Initiative as fostered in the heart of San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. The Initiative is not only inspiring, it is also colorful and thriving!

A recent status report on urban agriculture in Bayview Hunters Point is available online.

Is it safe to eat Bayview's homegrown food?

Bayview resident and SJSU student, Jennifer Gorospe, has announced that her research into soil toxicity in the neighborhood is available online.

She has created a website that includes basic information on heavy metals and gardens, as well as overall findings of her project. Special features include maps that show the levels of metals that were found in each garden alongside income and race/ethnicity data.

Jennifer's work also provides detail about the relationship between the concentrations of the metals in our soil and gardening models and demographic factors that might alter the chances of toxicity.

Jennifer is cited in the recent report: "Urban Agriculture in Bayview Hunters Point - Status 2011."

Bayview's history: food, farms & families

The full history of our neighborhood's role in food provision for the City of San Francisco could (and probably should) fill a book.

It wasn't long ago that most homes in the neighborhood included a backyard garden and some livestock. Remnants of those days are everywhere: converted chicken coops, aging Mediterranean plum trees, and the rusty tractor (pictured) that was just recently removed from what was a family farming operation on Williams Avenue.

From the slaughter houses in Dogpatch, named for the opportunistic dogs that lived off the slaughter house scraps, to Hunters Point Hill where the Hunter family grazed animals on the hillside in full view of the burgeoning town below, to the Chinese shrimp vendors and Italian fishermen along the water front, local food production and distribution to residents in the neighborhood and beyond its borders was common.

See more Bayview history online.

Environmental justice grants reviewed

Several Bayview Hunters Point organizations receive grant money from the San Francisco Department of the Environment, including the Quesada Gardens Initiative. A recent article in the Potrero View by Herman Wong provides some insight into that grants program and projects that serve our neighborhood.

In addition to the Quesada Gardens Initiative, other Bayview Footprints Network member groups are mentioned: Hunters Point Family and Literacy for Environmental Justice. Tony Tarket (pictured), a Quesada Avenue resident and key volunteer is quoted in the opening of the article:

A year ago the dirt patch at the corner where Bridgeview Drive slopes down to Newhall Street in the Bsyview District stood empty. Today it’s a vibrant community garden, with 12 volunteer gardeners. Green beans grow on three terraced levels, like giant steps; a concrete path connects a row of sunflowers to a new fence along a dirt path. The garden has beautified the hillside and provided food for its growers. It’s also created its own community. “I get to know my neighbors and that’s our biggest push, to get people out of their homes and learn to grow with us,” said Anthony Tarket, one of Bridgeview Garden’s green thumbs.

See the full article here.

Study shows potential of existing food systems

"Beyond Food Deserts: Measuring and Mapping Racial Disparities in Neighborhood Food Environments" by Samina Raja, Changxing Ma, & Pavan Yadav, provides more evidence that building community and the capacity of local systems is a key strategy in addressing even the most challenging issues.

The study found that, "contrary to reports in the popular press and studies from elsewhere in the country (Mari Gallaghar Research and Consulting Group 2006)...an extensive network of small grocery stores available within a five-minute travel time of minority neighborhoods offers a tremendous opportunity for creating healthful food environments within neighborhoods of color.

The study substantiates what we already knew, that there is an absence of certain healthful food sources, namely supermarkets, in neighborhoods like Bayview Hunters Point when compared to predominantly white neighborhoods.

The new findings offer insight into effective strategies to bring good food to communities like Bayview. Instead of trying to get supermarkets to open up stores here, the study suggests that "creative planning and policy support for networks of existing small grocery stores may be a more efficient strategy for ensuring access to healthful foods within minority neighborhoods."

Literacy for Environmental Justice's Good Neighbor program is an example of efforts to strengthen existing food retailing systems. Community-based food production like that which Hunters Point Family and the Quesada Gardens Initiative is engaged in, is another important capacity-building strategy.

See more about this issue and efforts in Bayview to support local food at resident Rhonda Winters' blog, at the Southeast Food Access Working Groups' online space, and in 2007's food preferences survey for the southeast sector.

Bayview parks are city's most neglected

Just across the street from one of the lowest rated parks in San Francisco is a gardening and open space improvement project that neighbors who live on the block have started.

The newer project is on public land, but limited to a narrow strip of dirt outside the larger fenced-in area because approval to use the empty lot has been tough for the neighbors to secure even though the site has been a trash dump for years.

These folks, known as the Palou Garden group, and similar groups associated with the Quesada Gardens Initiative and Bayview Footprints Network spend little, do a lot, and just might get a higher grade than City's Parks and Recreation department.

A report from the San Francisco Controllers Office reports that, while our city's parks are improved overall, Bayview's parks occupy half of the bottom ten list.

The report, covered in the SF Chronicle and the SF Examiner, was a reminder that resident-led efforts to define and maintain the open spaces near them is a cost-effective alternative to traditional government strategies that often fail to connect with the people who are most affected by the potential and problems associated with these public assets.


District with lowest-rated parks:

Bayview-Hunters Point/Visitacion Valley, 10

District with highest-rated parks:

Mission/Bernal Heights/Portola, 9

Lowest-rated parks:

Cayuga/Lamartine Mini Park, District 11
Sgt. John Macauley Park, District 6
John McLaren Park, District 10
Park Presidio Boulevard, District 1
Palou/Phelps Park, District 10

Top-rated parks:

Collis P. Huntington Park, District 3
Richmond Recreation Center, District 1
Fay Park, District 3
Midtown Terrace Playground, District 7
Hyde/Vallejo Mini Park, District 3

Most improved:

29th/Diamond Open Space, District 8
Saturn Street Steps, District 5
Page/Laguna Mini Park, District 8

Source: City Controller’s Office

Innovative gardening idea from Bayview

Photos and text by Rhonda Winter

Bayview Resident

My neighbor Alyssa and I spent this afternoon making paper pots to propagate wildflower seeds for the Latona Community Garden. Anyone can create these simple recycled pots using just an empty can or jar and paper.

To make a paper pot simply cut your material to size, fold it and wrap it around your jar or can leaving a few inches over the end of the container, then fold the edges of the paper over into the open end. Next, remove the jar and push the sides down to form the bottom for your pot. Now you are ready to fill it with soil for planting your favorite vegetables or flowers.

Once your seeds have sprouted, the whole biodegradable pot can be planted directly into the ground so you do not have to disturb the seedlings’ roots. The entire paper pot will eventually just decompose into the earth!

When initially making paper pots I suggest experimenting with different sizes, methods and materials to see what works best for you; there is more than one way to make a perfect paper pot. I prefer to use old grocery bags the spirit and energy of community because they are sturdy and last many months, but something else might work better for your planting needs.

New heroes at Bridgeview Garden

A stunning teaching and learning garden in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, at the corner of Bridgeview and Newhall Streets, continues to take shape, and more community heroes step forward to take part.

Yesterday, while roofers and sidewalk contractors worked around his house, David Antunovich somehow managed to find time to lead a hectic cement pour at the Bridgview Garden. David, a Quesada Gardens Initiative member, is a trade carpenter who designed the fence, a modern steel and cable structure that will enclose the garden site where it is currently exposed above a steep drop. He is also rehabbing the Quesada Avenue house he lives in with partner Linda and two children, Eva and Dylan.

The cement was for the fence post footers. David -- with help from University of San Francisco faculty and students, and residents Steve Jordan and James Ross -- donated time and muscle over several days to dig the holes for the footers. The task proved to be a mammoth one.

With the posts now sturdily installed, the fence will come together soon. It will join other garden components that are already in place, such as a series of terraced planting beds, a small amphitheater, and an orchard of dwarf fruit trees. The Bridgeview neighbors' vision of a showpiece community space, one of Bayview's newest treasures, will soon be realized.

Later this month, the Quesada Gardens Initiative will host MyFarm, an innovative backyard garden company, for a day of volunteerism to do soil remediation and irrigation system installation. The partnership comes with compliments from Yahoo!'s Purple Acts of Kindness program, a philanthropic arm of the online company which also donated benches for QGI's community gardens.

Bridgeview Garden project leaders and QGI Board Members, Joel and Mary McClure, have been extraordinary throughout the garden development process, regularly hosting volunteer appreciation lunches at their home, supplying tools and power, and plenty of community spirit.

Steve Jordan and James Ross, who live a stone's throw away from the garden, on Quesada, have contributed enormous energy and good will to the project.

David Antunovich, a busy family man with plenty to do around his own house, is an example of the heroism that is remaking the heart of Bayview with a large family of community and backyard gardens, public art, and regular community events. We salute him, and the long list of others who have contributed to the project.

Funding for the food-production work of QGI is provided by SF Environment, Kaiser Permanente, and California Pacific Medical Center.

Unusual visitor...and "Why is my sidewalk so clean?"

It's not every day you see a California Red-Sided Gartersnake. Their populations have dwindled over the years, and they move pretty darn quickly because they'd just as soon you missed them altogether.

QGI Horticulture Chair and "Green Goatee" Tony Tarket was too quick for a little visitor to the Quesada Garden when he saw something moving near the Third Street end of the garden last Wednesday in the late afternoon. Tony has worked for a zoo, knows his way around reptiles, and soon had delayed the creature's progress long enough to show him to neighbors and identify him as T. s. infernalis. That's a snake to you and me.

"In September 2001, the accidental death of a single garter snake at the San Francisco Airport BART station construction site delayed construction efforts 18 days and cost $1.07 million." From Wikipedia

The snake moved swiftly as soon as Tony had enticed the creature out of his shirt pocket, and was gone in a flash of beautiful red, tan and black markings the moment it was released, none the worse for wear, back into the garden where it had been found.

Tony works hard in our neighborhood's community gardens. Many mornings, he can also be found blowing debris from the sidewalk the full length of the 1700 block of Quesada, so that the street sweepers get a good haul (and so neighbors come out their front doors to a nice surprise).

Like the California Red-Sided Gartersnake (you knew there was a connection here somewhere...right?), Tony is all too rare in the scope of his community contribution. Several other neighbors on Quesada walk the block and pick up trash on a regular basis. (Thank you Tom, James, Annette...!) But Tony is one of the most visible and giving Quesada Gardens Initiative members ever.

Thank you, Tony! Say "hi" to our newest friend in the garden if you're lucky enough to have another visit.

Films, Footprints, Friends & Fruit

We're using all the "F" words fit to print...and should add one more - "Fatigued."

If your neighbors on Quesada Avenue in Bayview look a bit tired this week, they may be tuckered out from a long weekend of community service. It was a weekend that began on Wednesday.

CBS 5 news cameras came to the block Wednesday to tape the Quesada Kids harvesting local fruit trees, a summer project of the Quesada Gardens Initiative under Shane King's leadership. USF volunteer Greg Rivers has joined the team to develop the project into a sustainable outlet for all sorts of community entrepreneurship. Bayview residents Carlos and Julie Galan and Winifred Montgomery opened their hearts and yards so that we could harvest two types of plums and yellow apples for the cause.

On Thursday, Bayview Footprints' Just for Us...and YOU TOO! series of social events came to the Quesada Garden to help launch the 2nd annual Quesada Gardens Outdoor Film Festival. A tremendously diverse crowd of about 60 people gathered. Steven Aiello received the first-ever "Karl Paige and Annette Smith Award for Community-Building."

Jim Ansbro, from the Latona Avenue "northland," came early with a basket of basketballs...small ones as treats for the kids that also proved popular with Ms. Devere from Quesada who works with seniors who can use them for exercise.

Fred Guni wowed us all by singing and playing the guitar, delivering several songs including a heartfelt one dedicated to Karl Paige's memory. (A special "thank you" to Jamie, Quesada's newest neighbor, who turned out with his family for the event and donated use of his microphone and amp for Fred's performance.)

Nibblers tried yellow watermelon (from the Farmers' Market), while others enjoyed nectarines donated by Michael Janis and the SF Wholesale Food Market and sausages donated by Bayview's own Evergood Sausage Company. Tom Galante organized the food offerings for the event. Linda Brooks-Burton brought lemonade she made from locally harvested lemons.

The Green Goatee held court, once again, handing out alms of gardening advice to whoever had a need. CBS 5 returned to cover the event set-up in time for broadcast on their evening news.

As dusk approached, jazz diva Sarah Vaughan and silent film star Harold Lloyd came to life on the BIG screen (lent for the occassion by Kristine Enea). The younger crowd held on to the event until nearly midnight, using the projection system for a video gaming competition. Many thanks to Quesadians Sharon, Jon and Chester who supplied electricity from their home.

On Saturday, the Quesada Kids were back at it. They set up shop on the corner of Third and Palou to sell plums from Winifred Montgomery's yard and apples from Carlos and Julie Galan's house.

That evening, the Film Fest kicked into high gear with a showing of Girl's Rock!, a feature-length documentary by QGI co-founder and resident Shane King. Shane took questions from the audience after the film, and then local youth swept in to hook up a Play Station. Another 60 people attended over the course of the evening, and the spirit of community was present. Doris Vincent brought homemade caramel popcorn and Rhonda Winter brought her special chocolate chip cookies...both to the delight of kids young and old.

It's worth noting that all events were free and, aside from the donations of food, neither Footprints nor Quesada Gardens had a drop of funding for any of the community-building work. It's just another example of Bayview residents stepping up to create the neighborhood we know is possible. The benefit of this work is already clear. The costs are minimal. The expense of NOT building community is always higher than we want to pay.

Quesada Kids Community Fruit Stand

The Quesada Kids Community Fruit Stand was the talk of Third Street over the weekend. Shane King organized half a dozen youngsters to harvest his backyard plum tree and sell the fruit at the tip of the Quesada Garden near Third. The fruit sold out in about an hour, the kids made more money than they expected, passers-by LOVED the idea, and everyone wants more of the same.

Shane and the kids could use your help. If you have a fruit tree ready to harvest, please email info@quesadagardens.org or call 415.822.0800 and let us know. We'll do our best to harvest it and leave you with some fruit while making sure the rest goes to good use. The fruit should be good, of course, which could rule out some older trees or trees that haven't been adequately watered this season.

Or give a couple hours of your time to the project to help the kids out. Maybe you have experience with fruit trees, or setting up attractive sidewalk stands, or helping kids understand basic business.

If you have a pole-picker or other harvesting tool, we need that kind of thing too.

Watch for the fruit stand on weekends, depending on how many volunteers and trees we find. You can't miss it. The kids' smiles can be seen from a couple blocks away.

Pictures (from top): Shanika and Sabrina; Sabrina harvesting plums; Shanika, Sabrina, Marquez, Arrin, and Nathan bringing fruit to the people.

What happens when Bayview kids get bored?

The children who live on Quesada Avenue often drift out to the garden to ward off the universal summertime mantra of youth: "I'm bored." This past Sunday, they found Shane and James working on the irrigation system, and they were curious.

Nathan and Marquez (top) began learning how the system works, and pitched in with the work. Shanika, shown holding Timo, learned later contributed bubbles to the afternoon's community gathering.

Shane King, James Ross, and Tony Tarket have been project-leading the irrigation system development. James and Tony had, just the day before, helped out with the Founders' Memorial construction.

Between heavy lifting at the Memorial the prior day, and just before irrigation system fiddling commenced, James found his way to Palou and Griffith where he and Cyrus, a good friend of Quesada Gardens, spent a couple hours clearing a lot for a new garden. These amazing residents show that what makes Bayview Hunters Point so truly remarkable isn't just the great weather!

Wednesday morning = Farmers' Market in Bayview

If its Wednesday morning, it must be time to hightail to the Bayview Farmers' Market for affordable, organic fruits and vegetables. Brought to you by SF Department of the Environment, Hunters Point Family, and others concerned about the environment and the health of Bayview Hunters Point residents, the Farmers' Market can be found at Mendell Plaza (Third and Oakdale) from 9am to noon each Wednesday throughout the summer.

The Market is not just a good place to find organically grown produce - some of which is grown right here in the community - it's also a great place to meet your neighbors. So grab your tote bag...and bring an extra.

See you there!

The Sunday gardener (times 100)

Once a year, Stanford men from Kappa Sigma, and Stanford women from Kappa Kappa Gamma adopt the Quesada Gardens for a day. This year, stalwart volunteers from University of San Francisco were part of the work and festivities.

A group of guys broke ground on Quesada Gardens' new "Founders Memorial," an elegant sitting space designed by Bayview resident-volunteer Steven Aiello (pictured in hat). James Ross worked with Steven and the others for hours, until the scent of a cookout at the mural site below became too attractive.

A group of the women joined QGI Horticulture Chair Tony Tarket to plant new street trees, and to repair others. Clusters of volunteers contributed more work to the new food production field in the middle of the main garden, while a weeding party formed near the top.

Above the Quesada Garden, more volunteers from both schools, including Professor Seth Wachtel (USF), completed the elaborate retaining wall system for the Bridgeview Garden, a teaching and learning space devoted to food production.

Many residents came out to work along side these amazing volunteers, and then to enjoy "community" with a plate of food in hand. Quesada Gardens organizers thank each and every person who participated in what was an inspiring example of dedication to strengthening this part of Bayview, a model of social transformation.

BAYBLOOM Launches - Growing Food and Community in Bayview Backyards

One of the things Quesada Gardens Initiative has learned these past years is that community building works best if projects are defined by people instead of agendas.  Loads of people love community gardens, but not everyone wants to meet neighbors in that sort of setting. 

In a place with such diversity, there are lots of reasons why residents may not head to a public space or try to meet neighbors on the street where they live: country of origin, language, citizenship status, safety concerns, etc..  For these folks, the effort to connect people to one another and to place has to come to them instead of the other way around.

Quesada Gardens residents in the heart of Bayview and concerned University of San Francisco faculty and students have launched a unique community-university partnership called Baybloom.  Together, participants have begun installing FREE backyard gardens for qualifying Bayview residents with a commitment to offering expert gardening help.

The Apostal family received the first backyard garden in 2006 as part of an organizing effort on the 1400 block of Quesada Avenue.  Five more backyard gardens will be installed in the coming months. 

Resident gardeners can choose from a menu of planter boxes, fruit trees, seeds, compost and more.  Family and neighbor gathering spaces are incorporated into each design to encourage building community between family members, friends and immediate neighbors in a "safe" space.

Project leader James Ross encourages neighbors to take advantage of this great offer.  "It's good for your pocketbook, your health, your community," he said.

Quesada Gardens Initiative is grateful to program partner Prof. Seth Wachtel and his Architecture and Community Design program at University of San Francisco.  We are also grateful for support from SF Department of the Environment, Kaiser Permanente, and California Pacific Medical Center).

UPDATE:  The Baybloom Backyard Garden project is now 18 gardens strong.  There has not been funding for the project for some time, but gardening mentorship continues as does distribution of whatever materials and supplies we can scrounge up. 

Tony "Green Goatee" Tarket became the Baybloom project leader when James Ross and family moved.  Many new gardens have been created under his leadership.  One backyard garden created in the yart of a church (Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church Garden) was so elaborate that we think of it as a part of our community gardens network.

Garden recipients include:

Aisenfeld Family

Antunovich Family

Apostol Family

Betcher Family

Bliss Family

Carter Family

Cornerstone Family

Dumlao Family

Eagleton Family

Galante/Tarket Family

Goebel Family

Harrison Family

Jordan Family

Pettus Family

Ross Family

Smith Family

Sumchai Family

Walls Family

Williams Family

Quesada Garden gets serious about food production

From the early days, Annette and Karl grew food in the Quesada Garden. Collard greens and peanuts among the favorite plants.

QGI Board Chair Annette Smith and Horticulture Chair Tony Tarket are pictured here by a small field dedicated to the next generation of food production in this prize-winning urban garden. From the perfectly tilled rows to the spacing of vegetable plants (did they have a ruler?!), you can see the pride of work Annette and Tony planted along with the plants themselves. The field has been stopping traffic!

Latona Garden brings new life to empty lot

Last Saturday's volunteer day drew residents from Latona and beyond, including USF students Max and Mike who built planter boxes for the garden. All pictures by Rhonda Winter.