Since 2011, Bayside's Environmental Learning Center has helped spearhead and support legislation that has resulted in the increase of urban agriculture throughout our region. Our team has helped support and develop more than a dozen community, backyard, and school gardens throughout the region.

BELC’s latest project was to reestablish the Linda Vista Community Garden now located at the Linda Vista Community Park, 7064 Levant Street, San Diego, CA 92111. This 14,000 square foot or ⅓ of an acre public use space features community rental plots, an outdoor classroom to support enrichment learning, and a native-plant pollinator garden.  In addition, older adults will have access to communal garden plots to grow and harvest together.

After 4 years of working through the City of San Diego’s Departmental Instructions, we broke ground December, 16 2023, construction and began in early 2024. Read more about the groundbreaking here.

And on June 8, 2024 we were so excited to unveil the completed garden to the public with a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by public officials, philanthropists, gardeners, and other residents throughout the region. Watch video from the ceremony here.

For more information regarding the community garden or how you can get involved in advocating for more green space in your neighborhood, contact Amy Zink at azink@baysidecc.org

If you’re a Linda Vista resident and want to get involved or stay updated on community garden activities, sign-up for our newsletter at: www.tinyurl.com/Garden-Info

Since 2011, Bayside has produced fresh, locally-grown produce in Linda Vista, a federally-defined food desert. In 2023, we distributed over 25,600 pounds of fresh produce to local residents!

Our Environmental Learning Center is also a hub that empowers others to produce and recover fresh produce. We are proud to work with partners like San Diego Food Bank, Mesa College, Montgomery Middle STEAM Magnate, San Diego Co-Harvest, Produce Good, Advancing Students Forward, Francis Parker, as well as individual farmers and gardeners throughout the county to make free and fresh food available in Linda Vista.

For more information about starting a garden on your property, learning how your garden can support the larger community, or donating produce please contact Amy Zink at azink@baysidecc.org

Tiny Gardens is a holistic and intergenerational approach that engages parents and kids to grow and learn together with hands-on gardening activities and healthy eating launched in December 2020.

Bayside's Tiny Gardens program provides ‘grow bags’ to low-income families in Linda Vista who have school-aged children. Our team offers monthly bilingual workshops to participating families to help them learn how to grow their own produce from seed through harvest based on San Diego’s year-long growing season. Tiny Garden families also learn creative ways to cook the produce they've grown, the importance of healthy eating, and how financial and environmental sustainability relates to growing your own food.

Check out a few of our Tiny Gardens families in action, click this video to see more. To learn how your organization can launch a Tiny Gardens program or to enroll in our next cohort, please contact Amy Zink at azink@baysidecc.org. Order your copy of the Tiny Gardens Recipe Book ($15 suggested donation) today!

As of September 2024, Bayside Community Center launched its latest Youth Horticultural Therapy Program with students from Montgomery Middle School, Linda Vista Elementary, and Carson Elementary schools. This program will increase connection with the natural world, through hands-on therapeutic gardening activities, utilizing evidence-based garden therapy interventions.

Participating students will benefit from onsite horticultural therapy practices in the Montgomery school garden during the school year and in the newly developed Linda Vista Community Garden (LVCG) during the summer. Students will also enjoy fields trips to the LVCG during the school year.

We look forward to expanding this program to more students and schools in the future! For more information about this program, contact Amy Zink at AZink@baysidecc.org.