Multiple gardeners from all walks of life took part in the celebration at the ‘Matson, Mowder & Howe Community Garden’ on Saturday morning.
REDDING, Calif. – For many, a garden can be not just a place to grow food, but a place of sanctuary.
That’s especially true for a Redding community garden that celebrated its 40th anniversary today. Multiple gardeners from all walks of life took part in the celebration at the ‘Matson, Mowder & Howe Community Garden’ on Saturday morning.
The event was put on in part to try and raise $90K to replace current chain-link fencing with industrial fencing, and pay for new water infrastructure. “Initially, the [City of Redding] thought they’d might like to close it down and do some major renovations,” gardener Christina Piles explained.
She continued, “But, that would mean people who actually garden here and depend on a lot of the food that they produce would lose the garden for a year or more, and we wanted to prevent that from happening.”
The special event featured a garden tour, face painting from the kids, and the opportunity to purchase one of the remaining three plots of land the garden has.
The garden is nearly an acre in size, with three plots available at 21 cents/sq. ft., including all the water you need for a year. “You pick lettuce here and put it in your fridge, it lasts two weeks. You can’t say that about what you buy at the grocery store” Piles said.
She’s currently growing a variety of squashes, green beans and tomatoes.
She even let me try some of the ‘Sweet 100’s’ cherry tomatoes she’s been growing for the past few months. Let me tell you, they were exceptional.
For fellow gardener MaryAnne Overstreet, she likes to grow some of her favorite summer snacks like sweet potatoes, corn, plums and okra. “I notice that when I come to the garden, if I’m depressed, [in a] few minutes, it’s gone.”
Just yesterday, Piles and three other gardeners officially registered the community garden group as a nonprofit.
On top of new fencing and water hoses, the group wants to help get the word out about the garden, and help more people have access to all natural and organic produce. “We do plan to do more events like this, and just spread the word about what it is that we do,” Piles told Action News Now.
The Matson, Mowder & Howe Community Garden is located at 3000 Benton Drive, next to the Diestelhorst Bridge.
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