What Are the Benefits of Community Gardens?
Gardening is one strategy for improving much-needed access to fresh produce. But, many Fresno residents live in apartments or in home where they do not have space for gardening. Community gardens provide space by repurposing vacant land.
Have gardening questions or concerns
Contact our Master Gardener Helpline
Send us a brief description of your problem and a photo if you can. When submitting photos of an issue, please also include a picture of the overall plant.
Clovis Botanical Garden
Clovis Botanical Garden is a water-wise demonstration garden sustained by the community through memberships, donations, grants and maintained by dedicated volunteers. The land is owned by the City of Clovis, bordered by Dry Creek Trail and Dry Creek Park. Clovis Botanical Garden is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat.
Open: Wednesday – Sunday: 9 am – 4 pm
Closed: Monday & Tuesday, and select holidays
Location: 945 N Clovis Ave Clovis, CA 93611
(between Alluvial & Nees)
Admission: Free for children and adults.
FRESNO METRO MINISTRY
Since 1970, Fresno Metro Ministry has actively advocated for the health and well-being of our community. Join us in in honoring our longstanding history of community action, as we enter a new era of "Learning, Connecting and Engaging to Achieve Healthy People and Healthy Places."
FOOD GLEANING EVENTS 2023
Courtesy of Fresno Metro Ministries Community Garden Coaliti
Food to Share
Food to Share is a community food partnership that provides unique opportunities to address both food insecurity and environmental solutions. This project, inspired by the Fresno State Food Recovery Network model, will increase access and availability of nutritious food to underserved communities in Fresno County. Additionally, the project will make significant contributions to the improvement of regional air quality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and by encouraging waste diversion from landfills for renewable energy production in collaboration with Colony Energy and Caglia Environmental.
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education
UC SAREP conducts research and education in support of agriculture and food systems that are economically viable, conserve natural resources and biodiversity, and enhance the quality of life and equity in the state’s urban, rural and Tribal communities.
Please join UCANR in congratulating Ruth Dahlquist-Willard as our new interim SAREP Director and lend your support to her in establishing this new framework to accomplish our collective goals.
Visit their new website to learn more about this great program.
YOSEMITE VILLAGE PERMACULTURE FARM & GARDEN
The Yosemite Village Permaculture Garden and Urban Farm is an educational garden and small farm incubator located in South West Fresno, behind the Yosemite Village Apartments on California Avenue. The goal of the garden is to develop a model for a community-based food system by encouraging neighborhood based production, increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and supporting an entrepreneurial food based economy.
Run by Fresno Metro Ministry, the idea is to create a just and local food system by providing residents and community members with tools, knowledge and access to land. This is accomplished by utilizing vacant land for residents to grow their own food, creating opportunities to share knowledge on growing and eating healthy food, and organizing residents to directly improve access to fresh produce and green spaces.
There are 94 garden plots open to anyone who lives in the 93706 zip code. Rent is $18/6 months or $35/year. Residents who live in the Yosemite Village and Mariposa Meadows apartments in S.W. Fresno live in a food desert and many now farm on their plots. Compost and irrigation are provided.
Volunteer days are every Tuesday and Thursday. Volunteers help install irrigation and farm training on how to grow food in an urban lot on a small scale.
Contact - Info@fresnometmin.org
Yosemite Village Permaculture Farm Brochure
YoVille Garden Leadership Team Agreements
Fresno Metro Ministry Partnership
Rancho de Rodney – Sherril Nell Wells
https://www.ranchoderodney.org/
The mission of Rancho de Rodney, a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, is (i) to grow and distribute fresh produce and other food to charitable organizations or individuals in need at no cost to them, and (ii) provide agricultural, food preservation, and food preparation education.
Rancho de Rodney grows and distributes fresh produce and other food to charitable organizations and individuals in need in the Fresno, CA, area. We also provide agricultural, food preservation, and food preparation education.
In 2024, the modest 1-acre farm grew and donated 6,295 pounds of healthy food to the region and conducted 50 hours in food preservation and farming education. Since its incorporation as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in 2021, it has donated more than an estimated 10 tons of produce to food-insecure residents in the region.
Recipients in 2024 and prior years include St. Benedict Catholic Worker, House of Miracles Church, Senior Center of Mariposa County, Fresno International Refugee Ministry, Catholic Charities of Fresno, Unitarian Universalist Church, and Lemoore Naval Air Station, and to student pantries at Clovis, Fresno, and Reedley city colleges. To date, Rancho de Rodney has donated more than 14,000 pounds of produce to local families.
MG Sherril also works with the African American Farmers in Fresno.
Contact the AAFC
African American Farmers Of California
Will Scott, President
3171 West Kearney Boulevard
Fresno, CA 93706
There are two opportunities to help African American Farmers or youth in our Fresno Community. Farms to Grow and the Freedom School. See information below.
Farms to Grow is seeking volunteer support from the Fresno community. We invite you and your team to engage with a Black Farmer and develop your agricultural skills. As part of the Fresno Rural Farm Field Project, participants are given the opportunity to learn farming traditions from an elder and make a difference for the benefit of the local community. Volunteers will need to bring their own gloves, hat, closed-toe shoes or waterproof footwear, and a water bottle!
At Farms to Grow we encourage the promotion of sustainability and legacy of Black Farmers, including the next generation of small farmers. We work towards improving the access to food markets including schools, restaurants, and individual consumers for Black and underserved farmers.
Michelle, Volunteer
Farms to Grow, Inc
Fresno’s Freedom School
, a small farms advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension Service in Fresno, occasionally works with community programs like the Freedom School. “It’s a small group, but they are filling an important role in the food security of our communities,” she said. “You’ve got projects like the Freedom School and the Sweet Potato Project [run by the West Fresno Family Resource Center] that are providing young people opportunities they might not have had in job development.”
Harris grew up in West Fresno and remains passionate about the need to lift up its low-income residents. One recent analysis rated Fresno, 8 percent of whose 527,000 residents are Black, the 10th-worst U.S. city for African-Americans to live in: the Black median income is $25,895, less than half the average white income in the city, and the Black poverty rate is 41.2 percent—one of the largest rates for any city—compared with a 13 percent white poverty rate. Fresno was the only West Coast metro area to make the list.
“When the children come [to the Freedom School], they see a sense of self, a sense of love, a sense of purpose, a sense of someone to care about me,” Harris said. “At the Freedom School, we are about character-building. We’re about discipline. We’re about having fun.”
Here's a TED Talk by the President of African American Farmers of California, Will Scott Jr.:
Community Life Garden
https://communitylifegarden.org/
Karey Olson and Pat Pierce, both Master Gardeners, are directors of the Community Life Garden in Reedley, located on the southwest corner of Manning and Crawford Avenues. They have provided 30 growing plots and garden beds. They provide gardening and wellness education workshops that assist member gardeners and local communities grow a sustainable personal garden and learn the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. They include topics such as gardening fundamentals, healthy garden growing, and gardening wellness. They also provide workshops that promote healthy cooking by sharing recipes and healthy food samples. The gardening education workshops are taught by Master Gardeners and local experts. They also provide information on healthy food options and healthy eating tips, sometimes with the assistance of Champions for Change presenters.
They have a Food Giving Program with includes:
Contributing to the food needs of the community by growing vegetables and fruits, that will help supplement the canned & packaged foods that are being distributed through local food distribution organizations near Community Life Garden. Initial donations were small harvests, however, with volunteer and community support, the harvests continue to grow.
Providing opportunities for Volunteer groups (i.e. students, community service groups, businesses, and others), that help those in need in our community.
Opportunities include:
Adopting a plot to work on and grow produce for food charities. The groups develop their own schedule with gardening education and assistance from Master Gardeners and workshops.
Helping others to access and share in the growing experience. To reach out to those who might not be able to participate without our help.
The CLG Board of Directors continues to work in a collaborative effort with the organizations that distribute food, and to plan our plantings according to the culturally desired foods of our local communities. Individual and family garden plots will still be available. Volunteers will continue to be sought to assist with our garden growing efforts. Individuals, families and community groups are welcomed to adopt a garden plot.
For events at this garden click here
Al Radka community garden
City Parks Dept sponsored. Managed by Fresno Metro Ministry. 98 plots with the dimensions of 10' X 20'. On site composting, demo plot, storage shed.
10' X 20' plots, tool shed, composting, decomposed granite paths.
Bathrooms, water fountains, playground, open spaces.
Garden of Hope/ Dream Center
The Garden of Hope is located at the Dream Center right across the street from the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden of the Sun on Winery Avenue. The Discovery Center is also located near both sites.
The Dream Center offers many programs to find out more click here.
Community Garden Resources
Life Labs Community garden help
To help advocates work with local governments to adopt these types of policies, NPLAN, a project of ChangeLab Solutions, developed this policy package that includes model language that can be incorporated into local land use guidelines. We also recommend that you look at our model policies, which can help advocates work with local governments to create and sustain these important neighborhood resources
- ANR Resource: List types of community gardens and lots of pictures and step by step instructionshttps://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8499.pdf
- UCANR Resources for School Garden Educators
- Click here to download a printable copy of Community Garden Toolkit: UCCE Fresno Master Gardners