North Park is a great community, but hey there’s always room for improvement.  An area where North Park is definitely not leading the pack is in the establishment of community gardens.   Community gardens seem to be flourishing elsewhere in San Diego, according to a list of gardens maintained by the San Diego Master Gardener’s Association.  It seems a mystery travesty that North Park is not (yet) on this list.

The good news is that there are local efforts to foster the growth of community gardens in more San Diego neighborhoods including North Park.  A group called the San Diego One in Ten Coalition has been making the rounds of various local neighborhood planning committees (including the North Park Planning Committee at their October meeting) trying to raise awareness and support for making changes to the city’s permitting process regarding community gardens (thus making it easier for community gardens to sprout and take root in all of San Diego’s neighborhoods).  The One in Ten Coalition is a subsidiary of San Diego Food Not Lawns promoting a vision that 10% of San Diego households grow or buy food from within 100 miles of the city in 2010 ("1 in 10 in 2010").

Chloe and George are strong believers in the benefits of backyard and community gardens.   These gardens are pockets of wonder hidden in our cities like little embassies; protected zones where the concerns of the concrete maze outside are not allowed to pester you while you dig you hands in the soil and find yourself a sweet potato or two (more on this in a future post).    We applaud the efforts of the One in Ten Coalition and their ilk and encourage all North Parkers to speak up in favor of creating community gardens here in our neighborhood (especially you, District 3 City Council member Todd Gloria)!