It\u2019s spring planting time on a misty March Sunday morning in Oak Park. Small, brilliant pink and yellow signs of life jump up among the moist brown weeds and clumps of grass that winter left behind.<\/p>\n
Volunteers queue up with seed-growing trays and bags and dig in to start vegetables \u2014 tomatoes, peppers, squash and zucchini, that will feed themselves \u2014 and a city. They\u2019re at Alchemist Oak Park Sol Garden<\/a> (3733 Broadway, Sacramento).<\/p>\n \u201cWe grow vegetables to donate to others in need,\u201d said Amber Hamby, manager of the Community Garden Program for Alchemist Community Development Corporation. Founded in 2004, Alchemist CDC is a nonprofit organization that connects people with land and food through an array of efforts including its community garden program.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can come here, feel connected, share thoughts, share ideas, share art, share their culture and feel good about making connection with others in their community,\u201d Hamby said.<\/p>\n \t\tKeep up with Community Reporters<\/p>\n Stories from Abridged by PBS KVIE Community Reporters are regularly featured in our morning newsletter.<\/p>\n \u201cAlchemist works to reduce food insecurity, a lack of sustainable access to affordable food,\u201d Hamby said. \u201cFamilies often work multiple jobs to survive, leaving no time to garden.\u201d <\/p>\n Alchemist\u2019s solution was to tend plots for those folks.<\/p>\n In April the garden will open its gates to community members who need community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, which are five-pound boxes of produce people can come and pick up whenever they want.<\/p>\n Alchemist also grows food here for its Food Connections Program, which partners with Sacramento City Unified School District to provide box lunches to students and grocery bags to families.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to be a member gardener to sample the produce, Joe Robostelli, director of food access for Alchemist said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at a gardening model that invites the public in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alchemist uses its food for Taco Tuesdays serving low-income neighborhoods and open pantries <\/a>where people can shop. It\u2019s a gathering spot for community events, recently hosting student-athletes from Sacramento State on a community bus tour, Robostelli said.<\/p>\n Robostelli\u2019s work focuses on \u201cthird spaces,\u201d which he says are \u201cplaces outside of home and work that people can rely on to build communities.\u201d<\/p>\n Nearby Pansy Avenue Community Garden Park (3601 Pansy Avenue, Sacramento) is one of those spaces. It\u2019s a small corner park with a few plots that are open to the community to plant. There is also the new Oak Park Art Garden (3834 Martin Luther King Blvd., Sacramento). The space will offer fruit trees and vegetables for the public to forage among the art. A tool-lending library and e-bike-lending venture with Sacramento Area Bike Association (SABA) are also slated.<\/p>\n Christian Sandrock, an Oak Park gardener and physician at a nearby medical center, brought his daughter Emma along to collect ladybugs from flowers at Oak Park.<\/p>\n \u201cGardening has been a good way for us to connect with people and give back to the community,\u201d Sandrock said as Emma collected ladybugs off a bright orange nasturtium. Christian\u2019s wife, a nursing professor at Sacramento State, brings nutrition program students through the garden for inspiration on bringing food to patients. <\/p>\n It\u2019s the \u2018small things\u2019 that matter<\/p>\n Healthy Roots Community Garden (401 McClatchy Way, Sacramento) is one of Sacramento\u2019s 22 city-owned community gardens<\/a>, run through the Department of Youth, Parks & Community Enrichment. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s such connection here to the community,\u201d said William Friedrecksen, who manages the garden. <\/p>\n Friedrecksen insists that the benefits of community gardens might not be noticed by most. \u201cI think it\u2019s hard to see the big picture,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cTo me, the important part is the small picture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou see families forming lifelong connections, people sharing produce and complimenting each other on their plots, education,\u201d he added. \u201cPeople get to feed their families, and they get the sense of pride of having grown that ridiculously healthy food for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Cutting food costs<\/p>\n \u201cOrganic food is expensive,\u201d Friedrecksen noted. \u201cThis is an affordable way for people to grow nutritious organic food. <\/p>\n Our average 10-foot by 10-foot plot costs $40 a year (plus a refundable cleanup fee), which lets you grow upward of $350 a year. You get 10 times your investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n There is a two-hour service requirement here each week to maintain the overall space. Six of the site\u2019s 73 plots were available.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes such a wonderful class of people to have the vision of turning bare dirt into beautiful plants,\u201d he said. \u201cI love being around them.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayden Columbine pulled a clump of Bermuda grass from the soil in his roughly 12-foot by 12-foot plot at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Garden (12th and Martin Luther King Blvd, Sacramento).<\/p>\n \u201cI live in a rental now, and I really wanted to do outdoor gardening,\u201d Columbine, who lives in a nearby apartment, said. \u201cI\u2019m a low-income student, so I want to grow my own food.\u201d<\/p>\n Gardener Linda Sanford grew more than 1,800 pounds of produce in her plot to donate to the River City Food Bank last year. \u201cMy lifetime amount with them is a little over 15,000 pounds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSubsidy programs don\u2019t provide everything,\u201d she said. \u201cI grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, summer squash, winter squash, radishes, Asian greens and strawberries,\u201d she said. \u00a0As a certified master gardener, Sanford does plot demonstrations for other gardeners, and also provides classes at Fair Oaks Horticulture Center (1139 Fair Oaks Blvd, Fair Oaks), which is open to the public for monthly planting talks.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, on the same Sunday morning, a circle of eight city gardeners gathered at 19th Street Community Garden (617 19th St., Sacramento) to map out their spring plans.<\/p>\n Manager Kaitlyn Gentilin says the garden has 22 plots and a waitlist of four to 15 people. <\/p>\n The cost is $15 for the first year and $10 to renew, plus a two-hour work requirement satisfied by two work parties annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n As the gardeners discuss their cleanup, Alex Camacho volunteers to take on the beast of trimming back a giant tangle of blackberry brambles covering a shed. <\/p>\n \u201cThe community has been really the thing that keeps drawing me back,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve made some really fabulous connections.\u201d<\/p>\n A source of solace<\/p>\n \u201cI started community gardening before the pandemic hit when I retired,\u201d said Mollie Quasebarth, a long-time Sacramentan originally from the Baltimore area, now treasurer at 19th St. \u201cIt was perfect since the plots are six feet away from one another. Now it\u2019s become social. It\u2019s a source of solace and comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_4783-1-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Gardeners at Alchemist Oak Park Sol Garden line up to fill seedling trays. (James Smith)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_4838-2-1024x576.jpg\")
A gardener weeds around a fence at 19th Street Community Garden. (James Smith)<\/p>\n