By Jonathan Van Dyke
PUBLISHED: June 9, 2011 at 3:04 PM PDT
City officials broke ground Thursday for the first community garden located on the west side of Long Beach – a garden that will honor a famous local green thumb.
The Mary Molina Community Garden will be located at 20th Street and Santa Fe Avenue. The garden is named after a member of one of Long Beach’s more famous families.
“The site where this is at was actually owned by the Molina family originally,” First District Councilman Robert Garcia said. “They had interest in creating some kind of open space (for it).”
The garden is a joint effort between Garcia’s office, Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine and Long Beach Organic.
Officials said that Mary Molina was an avid gardener who was particularly interested in creating community garden space during her time. She also was a schoolteacher and a regional president of the Parent-Teacher Association.
The new garden will be built on a .15-acre parcel. It will be constructed and operated by nonprofit group Long Beach Organic and it will be completed within four or five months.
“Twentieth (Street) and Santa Fe (Avenue) is an area that is certainly surrounded by some tougher areas, so to have this new garden and open space … it will give the community something to really get involved with and take ownership of,” Garcia said.
Construction of the space will include the installation of garden plots, water lines and spigots, fencing and a granite path to an ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act)-accessible area with raised planters.
“There will be plenty of plots so that the surrounding community can create their own gardens,” Garcia said.
Garcia added that he thinks the presence of community gardens around the city continues to be an important tool to showcase healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices.
“We’re very grateful to the Molina family,” he said. “This couldn’t have happened without their support.”
For information on how to secure a plot, visit www.longbeachorganic.org.