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Edible Gardens Project
For years now, NCCS has been expanding preschool classrooms into vegetable gardens at each of our child development centers. The vegetable gardens at each site offer learning opportunities for children and their families, and provide fresh produce that is incorporated into the meals served at our facilities.
The recent addition of the Gardens at River Road, a ½ acre garden in Oceanside, provides opportunities for volunteers, families, and preschool children to learn where their food comes from and benefit from a diet rich in fresh vegetables. Our friends at Eagle Creek were among dozens of supporters that sent volunteers to assist with the garden installation.
Today, the Edible Garden Project continues to sprout to life in 4 separate sites (and counting) in Northern San Diego County growing fresh healthy goodies like cabbage, a variety of herbs, lettuce, celery, onions, potatoes, snow peas, zucchini, and cucumbers in a total of 25,255 square feet of garden space- that's a lot of healthy eating! The links above will take you to more information on specific gardens.
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Edible History
In 2006, North County Community Services began installing small vegetable gardens at a number of our child development facilities throughout Northern San Diego County. Originally, these gardens were intended to serve as an extended classroom experience for children enrolled at our facilities. Children participated in planting, watering, and harvesting vegetables from the gardens that were then incorporated into the meals they consumed at the center.
During the early years of this program, a variety of vegetables were planted, allowing us to experience some successes and a few learning moments too. With each year, we were able to figure out some things which allowed us to realize a higher yield of edible goodies and more targeted growth of produce we actually needed to augment our nutritional menu to include "home-grown" food.
Today, the Edible Garden Project continues to sprout to life in 4 separate sites (and counting) around Northern San Diego County growing fresh healthy goodies like cabbage, herbs (varieties of) lettuce, celery, onions, potatoes, snow peas, zucchini, cucumbers for a total of 25,255 square feet of garden space- that's a lot of healthy eating!
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River Road Gardens
The Gardens at River Road
Since the spring of 2010, NCCS has been developing vegetable gardens on a ½ acre area of land adjacent to our preschool on North River Road in Oceanside. Before we began planting, we installed 80 raised beds with the help of volunteer groups. Since our first peas were picked in the spring of 2011, production has been steadily increasing each month.
The produce benefits families enrolled in our child development centers, and partners of North Countys Food Bank. During the coming year, we anticipate the addition of basic gardening classes for the general public, and special workshops for preschools on starting and maintaining a garden at their school. We also expect bountiful harvests of tens of thousands of pounds of produce from the site as it will be the first full year of production.
Want space to grow your own fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs?
The Gardens at River Road has beds available for households to rent! Two beds are $50 for one year- the beds have about 3X20 feet of growing space each. Contact
aweglarz_sdnccs.org
for more info!
