“I had always wanted a garden,” said Burton, stepping over onion and pepper plants. “But it was too intimidating.”
Two years ago she approached seasoned gardener Vicky Hebert, whose father traveled from Arizona to help the pair convert the barren plot into a vibrant garden.
“It was successful, but it was only the beginning,” Hebert said. “We saw the potential to get others involved.”
They posted fliers around the neighborhood and selected six partners to help plant new crops.
“I told them, ‘Don’t worry about knocking or ringing the bell,’” Burton said. “‘Just come in. This is your garden.’”
Los Angeles County maintains about 3,800 plots in 60 community gardens, many of which have lengthy waiting lists. But while apartment and condominium dwellers in North Hollywood and Santa Monica have joined waiting lists that stretch as long as 175 people, and two dozen local gardeners pay about $80 a year per plot at the Monterey Road Eco-Community Garden in Glendale, the Las Palmas crew pitches in just a few dollars a month for water and supplies.
In return, each neighbor is encouraged to harvest herbs and veggies and keep others posted with regular e-mails about the status of the garden.
“We’re having so much fun,” said Jennifer Lee, who along with several neighbors visited the garden Saturday. “For many it’s been a learning experience, and everybody brings something different to the table.”
Standing beside one of two compost bins, she grabbed a pitchfork and began to turn the “black gold.”
“This is the key to good gardening,” she said, stabbing at the grass and vegetable peels.
On the other side of the garden, neighbors Michael Baudanza and Susan Stone discuss simple recipes using tomatoes, basil, garlic and other ingredients grown on their plot.
The movement — spurred by the popularity of the slow food movement as well as edible gardens stretching across the countryhas become more fashionable as environmentally conscious people look to increase their health while slowly cutting back fossil fuels used to transport produce to grocery stores.
Interest has grown to the point that the Los Angeles Community Garden Council, which oversees gardens across the Southland, established the sharecropping website Growfriend.org, providing a social networking component to organic gardening.
For Burton, a lifelong resident of Burbank, the shared garden has managed to sow types of relationships she didn’t foresee blooming in Sparr Heights.
“We hope people in communities across Glendale take note of what we are doing and copy it,” Lee said.
