Creating Community Resilience

What is it about gardens that brings people together? I think it has to do with the joy of working outside, seeing plants grow, harvesting fresh food and, of course—as kids in their school gardens will tell you—getting dirty.

Ecology, collaboration, permaculture and food literacy are the pillars of a new project that connects gardens with schools and the community while benefiting the local environment. The Santa Barbara Ecological and Edible (SBEE) Garden Project is envisioned as an archipelago of edible permaculture gardens that will promote biodiversity, increase access to locally grown food and create a connection between the community and natural ecosystems.

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) and local nonprofit Explore Ecology have teamed up and were awarded a $100,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to collaborate with five community partners on the project. The SBEE Garden Project will bring together teachers, students and community members of all ages. I had the opportunity to speak with some of the key people involved and learn how this timely project and significant funding will benefit our community and local ecosystems.

“This is the largest EPA Environmental Education grant ever awarded to an organization in Santa Barbara County and one of the largest in California in recent decades,” says Rachel Johnson, director of grants for the SBCC Foundation. “It speaks to the collaborative work and far-reaching impact of SBCC, Explore Ecology and our incredible community partners.”

The garden locations range from schools and youth centers to community gardens and homes. Students and community members will visit, study and work in the gardens, sharing the lessons and bounty the gardens produce. Their efforts will help revitalize local landscapes, establish native habitats and sustainable food systems, improve soil and water quality and help build community resilience. The gardens will provide food for those in need, helping to address the high levels of food insecurity in our community.

By slowing down and asking the right questions, we are creating a garden that will help build community resilience.

The scope of the SBEE Garden Project resonates with the principles of permaculture design. Permaculture gardens are developed over time, using observation and flexibility to adapt to a particular site’s needs and promote healthy ecosystems. Five diverse nonprofit partners will contribute their unique expertise and learning opportunities: Somos Semillas of El Centro, United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County, Mesa Harmony Garden, Youth Drought Project’s Community Food Forest, and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The project will connect the edible gardens to each other and to the community through educational programs and research.

Daniel Parra Hensel teaches environmental horticulture at SBCC. The students in his Advanced Permaculture Design course work closely with community members to design a food producing, native-habitat garden as part of the Somos Semillas (“we are seeds”) program at El Centro Community Center in Santa Barbara. Their detailed design report will incorporate input from everyone involved with the center, and students in subsequent courses will work on garden installation. “The community is front and center in this process—we asked about their vision for the garden and what they want to grow and eat,” says Daniel. “By slowing down and asking the right questions, we are creating a garden that will help build community resilience.”

Says Adam Green, PhD, professor of environmental science and biology at SBCC, “This grant will allow us to create spaces that restore biodiversity, grow healthy food, connect with the community and educate students. These efforts show how a community college can reach out beyond its campuses and partner with residents, community groups and local schools to make Santa Barbara a healthy and enjoyable place to live and raise your family.” Students will also continue to develop the permaculture gardens at SBCC that started in 2015 and supply produce for the campus food pantry.

The two-year grant will also allow Explore Ecology to devote an extra hour per week at six Santa Barbara School District schools through its School Gardens Program. For 25 years, the nonprofit has been a vital force for garden education, providing dozens of schools and youth groups with on-site gardening programs. Lindsay Johnson, executive director of Explore Ecology, says they will work with SBCC and others in the network to connect all of the gardens with the standards based education taught at surrounding schools. “We’re really looking forward to this project—partnering with SBCC students, hosting educational events for families and creating a bridge between the school gardens and the community.”

Last year, a winter vegetable garden provided healthy snacks for children at the Westside unit of the United Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County. Jesse Gonzalez, the club director, says that they will rehabilitate their garden with assistance from SBCC students and faculty with the grant funding. He’s looking forward to the garden providing more opportunities for the children, as it’s a central part of their after-school program that promotes healthy lifestyles.

“The kids enjoy the fresh produce and get exercise as they help plant, water, weed and harvest the vegetables,” Jesse says. “It’s been great, as it’s something we’ve been able to do outside and safely during the pandemic.” The new garden will also include plants to attract native pollinators and a stormwater catchment system to reduce water runoff pollution from the facility.

Mesa Harmony Garden, a volunteer-led community food forest in the Mesa neighborhood of Santa Barbara, features more than 100 fruit trees, among other crops. The church owned land sat vacant for many years until 2010 when a group of SBCC students proposed creating an edible garden with the goal of sharing food with those in need while building community.

Board president Hugh Kelly has been volunteering at the garden from the start. He says, “Mesa Harmony Garden is a mature food forest, where SBCC students and others can discover firsthand the potential for urban landscapes to become biodiverse and productive edible gardens with healthy soil, well-managed water and no chemical inputs.” Through the SBEE Garden Project, they hope to expand their volunteer base and educational programs, inspiring similar gardens at people’s homes and community spaces.

Another food forest in the Mesa neighborhood is just getting started—in the front yard of a private home. Heading up the project is Brad Smith, founder of the Youth Drought Project. He explains that SBCC faculty and students will work on garden design and installation and that most of the food will go to the SBCC student pantry. Explore Ecology will help develop an educational component so that community members can visit the garden to learn about native species, water retention and runoff prevention, drought resistance and growing food. “Our goal is to show that the most beautiful gardens are productive and designed to emulate nature,” Brad says.

The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden (SBBG) will research insect pollinators in four of the project’s gardens. The SBBG’s mission is to conserve California’s native plants and habitats, which play an integral role in sustainable gardening and provide resources for both pollinators and beneficial pest control insects.

SBBG Director of Conservation and Research Denise Knapp says, “Our SBCC intern will monitor the gardens from season to season, gathering data on the insects that are visiting and which plants are supporting them.” They will work with SBCC on the research project and use the California Pollinator Project’s Citizen Scientist Pollinator Monitoring Guide to analyze and report the data. (She says there are about 1,600 species of native bees in California!) They plan to share their information through the iNaturalist social network of naturalists, citizen scientists and biologists.

Thanks to the SBEE Garden Project, our community will benefit from edible gardens that promote biodiversity, native habitats, local food production and community resilience. With assistance from select local agencies and organizations, the project partners will track and evaluate results from all of the project activities.

Gardens help to build resilience on many levels. They’ve long been spaces where people join together to work, create, learn about natural systems—and remember that it’s fun to dig in the dirt.