Sacramento's park and recreations dept now has its first community garden. The southside community garden board opened the plots to the public Jan 31, 2004 and more than 70% of the plots (of the 100 plots) were rented in 2 hours! This big step in getting community gardens into the parks and rec system did come with a HUGE price.... The 30 year ron mandella community garden was lost to development. 75% of the mandella garden has been gutted (2-3 feet of soil removed to remove the so called toxic problem with the soil) the site it now a huge pit. The remaining green space of the garden is still fenced and locked to gardeners... this site is awaiting "cleaning" also....and is marked for a green space... either a community garden or?
The southside garden site was purchased and soil removed and new soil brought in by the developing agency...while this site is not the ideal site that the mandella gardeners wanted (site is very loud at the intersection of I-80 and I-5).. it is the one that was chosen for the voluntary mitigation done by the developing agency...it will guarantee a stable home for the southside community gardeners (about 10 blocks west of the mandella garden) now that the land has been turned over to the parks and rec dept the peacefulness, serenity and beauty of the mandella garden can never be replaced or recreated...especially at this new site... nor can the southside garden ever be called the New ron mandella community garden.. but it can be a unique garden of its own with a clean start...driven by the gardeners to shape its future.... The garden is open to all city residents... Other existing parks are considering creating community gardens in their unused park space...there are at least 6 community gardens planned of this type. And more will be created as folks learn that community gardens CAN be a park element! Bill Maynard Sacramento Area Community Garden Coalition
