On Thursday, Pacific Beach residents marked the end of the year, as well as the end of their 40-year-old community garden.
Since the 1970s, locals tended individual plots at the Pacific Beach Community Garden on Shasta Street and Roosevelt Avenue. The land stretches for less than an acre in Crown Point.
However, a developer purchased the land, so New Year’s Eve became the last day for residents to grow their own herbs and vegetables.
Paula Gandolfo, the garden’s coordinator, said the plots were special because land is expensive in the area and many people don’t have a yard of their own.
“The dirt is what is healthy,” she said. “The dirt is what generates the beautiful plants and vegetables, and pots on the balcony will work, but it’s the dirt that you want alive, and that's hard to do in a pot in a container."
However, the end of the garden does not mean the members will stop exercising their green thumbs.
They are hoping to section off a portion of land in De Anza Cove to create a new garden. They will also turn to their neighbors for help.
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“The gardeners are the real seeds,” said Gandolfo. “Us gardeners are going to fan out into the community -- whether it is De Anza in a few years, whether it’s somebody's neighborhood, front yard/back yard in the next couple of months -- and we're the ones taking the garden to new places here in Pacific Beach."
The gardeners are volunteering to plant and tend new gardens for any neighbor willing to donate his or her yard.
