Gardeners Sow a Crop of Goodwill : Charity: Planters in community gardens share nature’s bounty with the less fortunate.
Wielding a shovel almost as tall as she is, Yoshiko Kita slowly turned over a row of rich soil at the Lago Seco Community Gardens in Torrance and spoke modestly about the things that draw her here.
“I love the outdoors,” she said. “I like to watch things grow, and I love to give to people (who) need it.”
Kita is one of hundreds of South Bay residents who seek relief from the stresses of city life by cultivating fruits and vegetables in country-style gardens.
The Torrance woman has grown produce for most of her 67 years. Now a widow, she finds solace and friendship in the narrow, winding paths that lead to the four plots she rents from the city. But for Kita, there is an added bonus: Much of the bounty from her lush garden feeds housebound men and women in the Torrance-Lomita Meals on Wheels program.
It’s easy to tell which plots belong to Kita: They are the ones that defy the seasons, that bear fruit and vegetables year-round when neighboring plots are barren. The daughter and wife of a farmer, Kita is such a skilled gardener that she can coax three crops out of the same patch of soil every year.
For the past 10 years, she has delivered fresh vegetables weekly to the Meals on Wheels’ kitchen. Thanks to her green thumb and generosity, dozens of Thanksgiving feasts today will include freshly picked cabbage, broccoli, chayote squash, carrots and cauliflower.
“We’re so appreciative of Yo,” said Bernice Stoneberg, Meals on Wheels’ kitchen manager. “She’s a special lady. Financially, her donations help a great deal and besides that, it’s much better quality than what you get in the supermarkets.”
And Kita is not alone. For years, gardeners toiling on community plots throughout the South Bay have been donating extra crops to local charitable groups--from a soup kitchen in Lawndale to an alcohol rehabilitation program in San Pedro.
Typically set next to parks or schools, community gardens spot the landscapes of Hawthorne, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach, San Pedro, Torrance and Wilmington. Most of them sprouted up during the ecology movement of the 1970s.
There used to be more in the area, but in recent years, gardens in San Pedro, Carson and Lomita have closed, most of them falling victim to development.
“Community gardens can be very here today, gone tomorrow,” said Rachel Mabie, community outreach coordinator for the Common Ground Garden Program, a federally funded organization that provides gardening classes through the University of California Cooperative Extension Office.
“One of the problems with community gardens is often you use land that’s sitting there because no one has decided to develop it yet,” Mabie said. “They have a precarious existence because usually they are there at the whim of the landowner or the city--and that can change.”
The South Bay gardens that have survived the past decade tend to have long roots in their local communities. Just about every garden has at least a handful of “original gardeners,” people who have grown fruit, vegetables and flowers since the garden first opened and who freely offer advice on everything from watering methods to national politics.
The gardens they work in range in size from tiny to huge. Manhattan Beach Community Garden has no more than 29 plots, whereas the San Pedro All-Year Gardens has 225.
The cost of a plot also varies widely by city: Wilmington gardeners can get a plot for free in the Eddie Albert Community Garden, but Lawndale residents under the age of 65 must pay $25 every six months for a spot in the Lawndale Community Garden.
The gardeners themselves span a variety of professions and ages. They are the heads of young families and 90-year-old widows. They are doctors, aerospace workers, teachers and in one case, a retired Episcopal minister.
Many sow seeds for the pure pleasure of the pastime, while others do it to supplement their monthly food bills.
The fruits and vegetables they grow tend to reflect their cultural diversity. In Lawndale, which has a large Latino population, several gardeners raise chile peppers and chayote squash. In Hawthorne, home to several generations of Italian families, fava beans are popular. And gardeners from Wilmington’s Pacific-Asian community tend to plant lots of Chinese cabbage.
Janet Brownlee, president of the Manhattan Beach Community Garden Assn., said she grows squash, onions, beets and carrots because she enjoys the taste of fresh vegetables.
But during the summer, when her garden produces more than she can use, she donates her surplus to the House of Yahweh in Lawndale, which runs a soup kitchen for the homeless.
“You see the homeless and the hungry gathered in a little courtyard where they are going to be fed and you know in some small way that you are helping,” Brownlee said. “It makes you feel good because you know nothing is going to waste, everything is going to be used and it’s needed.”
Mary Proper, director of the Beacon House in San Pedro, an alcohol recovery center for men, said she receives lemons, potatoes and squash from nearby residents all year, often without even knowing the gardeners’ names.
“Very seldom do we get something that can’t be used in a soup or something,” she said. “We’re on a real limited income. . . . Anything we can do to supplement what we have really helps.”
The donations “make a tremendous difference” to the center, which serves 200 meals a month, Proper said. It also makes an impact on the men, whose “eyes light up” every time they dine on home-grown vegetables, she said.
And even the smallest contributions are noted. Last summer, a woman whose garden bore two extra cucumbers was almost too embarrassed to offer them to the center, Proper said.
“But everybody commented on it,” she said. “They cut them up and put them in the salad. They hadn’t had cucumbers in a long time and they really appreciated it. People don’t realize it, but a little thing like that can really make a difference.”
South Bay Community Gardens HAWTHORNE
Hawthorne Community Gardens
12625 Grevillea St.
$24 a year; $25 refundable cleaning deposit
Hawthorne residents only
Contact Michelle Winters (310) 970-7230
LAWNDALE
Lawndale Community Gardens
160th Street and Sombra Avenue
$25 for six months (seniors pay $15 for six months)
$26 refundable cleaning deposit
Non-residents welcome; pay $5 extra
Contact Linda Pittman (310) 970-2176
SAN PEDRO
San Pedro All-Year Gardens
1400 N. Gaffey St.
$20 a year; no cleaning deposit
San Pedro residents only
Contact Art Bartlett, (310) 832-0666
San Pedro Neighborhood Garden
14002 Harbor Blvd.
$20 a year; no cleaning deposit
Non-residents welcome
Contact Fred Momi, (310) 831-0527
MANHATTAN BEACH
Manhattan Beach Community Garden
701 S. Peck Ave.
$25 a year; no cleaning deposit
Non-residents welcome
Contact Janet Brownlee (310) 376-3793
TORRANCE
Columbia Community Gardens
4045 190th St.
$24 for two years; $30 refundable cleaning deposit
Torrance residents only
Contact Anne Montgomery, (310) 618-5982
Lago Seco Community Gardens
3920 235th St.
$24 for two years; $30 refundable cleaning deposit
Torrance residents only
Contact Anne Montgomery, (310) 618-5982
WILMINGTON
Eddie Albert Community Garden
Avalon Boulevard and M Street
No charge; no cleaning deposit
Wilmington residents only
Contact Clarence Ankney, (310) 834-4483
