Helix Charter High to Host Community Garden—and One for the Students

Tools for a community garden at Helix Charter High School were delivered Thursday afternoon.  The garden itself will have to wait.

Trailed by four young women taking part in the BlogHer convention in San Diego, a just-arrived General Motors Corp. representative from Detroit opened the backs of two SUVs he’s marketing.

Then the rep, Joe LaMuraglia, forked over hundreds of dollars worth of garden implements, hand tools and compost equipment bought minutes earlier at City Farmers Nursery in southeast San Diego.

“We got a wish list for tools,” LaMuraglia said.

Earlier, he toured the garden site—a sun-baked slope south of the baseball field at Helix and about the same size as a standard infield.  At the grassy top of the slope, students will have their own garden, thanks to a city of La Mesa initiative. Below, residents grow their own produce.

When will the planting begin?

Assistant City Manager Yvonne Garrett, attending the tool acceptance with Helix executive director Rani Goyal, said the date is undetermined.

First the city has to make use of a $16,500 planning grant, which will help pay for the expertise of Judy Jacoby, a master gardener who promotes community gardens throughout the region, Garrett said. Deadline for finishing the planning is February 2012.

The grant is from Healthy Works, a countywide initiative promoting wellness initiatives addressing the obesity crisis, Garrett said. Healthy Works is run by the county Health and Human Services Agency.

The grant makes La Mesa one of four “guinea pigs” in how cities, schools, churches and nonprofits can establish community gardens, she said.

Bob Arganbright, whose daughter graduated from Helix in 2008, was on hand for the quick tour. He recalled the garden in the San Joaquin Valley town of Ripon he helped till when he was young.

The Helix garden—likely to be terraced and designed as raised box planters for less bending over—could be good for corn, squash, onions, tomatoes and eggplant, he said.

The garden will be run by a volunteer board with its own director, Garrett said. This is similar to the city’s arrangement with the group that spearheaded the fenced dog run at Harry Griffen Park called Canine Corners. The city will kickstart the community garden, but residents will oversee it.

Goyal, matching Garrett in dark sunglasses, said she hoped the community garden would be a way for La Mesans to get to know the campus and meet its students.  Produce from the student garden could be folded into its meal and instructional programs, she said. 

The school hasn’t had a Future Farmers of America chapter for many years, she said.

Near the end of a half-hour visit, GMC’s LaMuraglia led a group of 20 bloggers, gardeners and reporters to the faculty parking lot, where his SUV’s awaited.  Then the back doors were raised and tools transferred.

The city will store the gear for now and give it back to the school when a shed is available.

Goyal pitched in, carrying shovels to a four-door sedan. They fit in the back seat.

Story updated at 8:55 a.m. Aug. 8, 2011.