How to push a snowball down a hill

The story of the neighborhood gardens of Bayview is a slow story. It’s a quiet, dogged story about people doing a lot of hard work to make their neighborhood a nicer place. It is a story of how a couple of neighbors came out to plant the median strip on their block and inspired others to pitch in. The story grows like a root system, never in a straight line, always reaching across and through the earth to connect the gardens, the people and the spirit of Bayview.

Karl Paige and Annette Smith, the two Quesada Ave. neighbors who started working in the garden in 2001, probably had no idea just what their simple acts would grow into. They just saw a weedy median with potential and decided to make it look great.

One after another people got involved: Neighbor James Ross started helping with the garden. Neighbor Jeffrey Betcher started Quesada Gardens Initiative, a private non-profit that helps many community groups within Bayview.

Soon, Mary and Joel McClure, who could see Quesada Gardens out one window, and a weedy vacant lot out another, decided to follow suit. They transformed the vacant lot into a garden. Now Bridgeview Garden is a sustainable learning garden that is used to grow food and to teach children from local elementary schools how food grows. It also provides food for a community sorely lacking in fresh produce for sale.




Rhonda Winter and Peter Haas started Latona Garden about a year ago by cleaning up a lot that had been used as a dumping ground for years. They and a few of their neighbors began to plant flowers and put in some raised beds. There is a sandbox for kids and a big tree for them to climb in.

Rhonda and Peter’s dedication is moving, especially considering they are renters. They have no financial ‘steak’ in the neighborhood, but they want to make this difference anyway. They would someday like to open up a bike shop and teach community youth how to work on bikes.

Double rock community garden grows organic food for the farmer’s market and also donates produce to the food bank. The youth from the neighborhood learn how to grow the food and they also run and operate the farmer’s market. It produces food for Bayview and gives the kids an important, productive job. They can see, touch and eat the difference they are making.

Gardening and plants have a healing effect. Something about seeing a flower grow out of a seed, or cultivating a vegetable crop is immensely satisfying. It literally grounds people and gives them a chance to work together as a community. It motivates and unites them with a common goal. It gives people a choice of what to eat and how to live.

Documenting some of this process has given me hope for our world. Our actions can and do make a difference. We do have the power to affect change in the communities around us.