Terrace Foundation community garden plots create a bounty for Santa Barbara residents

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Residents living in apartments or tight areas with no extra backyard space have found a way to grow a garden with healthy food, close to where they live.

The Terrace Foundation non profit has 50 garden plots available each year, and provides a place for community members to rent a space and plant the foods they want to eat, in a location usually just a few minutes from their front door.

Every plot at the site on Modoc Road has been filled, and some are set aside for students, some from a school nearby and others coming for a summer camp. The program is popular with the general public and also focuses on educating children about gardening, cooking nutritious meals and the importance of healthy eating.

The location is on the site of the Pilgrim Terrace Cooperative Homes (“PTCH”) for seniors and those with disabilities who live indepenently. That is where healthy foods are served from other farmland on the site, managed by the staff, and delivered directly to the kitchen for daily meals. It's part of the healthy-living plan promoted by the housing site.

The community garden has some tools available and a staff to help. Neighbors also meet neighbors and share ideas. The goal in part, is to help with food insecurity in the community.

One of the gardeners, Cosmo Perrone said, "we have novices and we have master gardeners and different types of cultures. It's great to go around and see what people have planted because it usually reflects the culture they came from." He came to the U.S. as a child from Italy and learned farming on the family farm property there.

Many of the plots have lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and strawberries. Later this summer corn should be ready too. Some plots also have various flowers.

There will be sites set aside for edible flowers in a new effort into that area of culinary options from the garden.

Henry Rosas-Curry with the Terrace Foundation said, the garden connects people in several ways. He says you can , "exercise, relax, let the stresses of the day go away. It does mean food but it means more than that.   That is one of the things we really enjoy."

The Terrace Foundation is also planning a celebration of the garden in June.

For more information go to: the Terrace Foundation.