Northside Garden and Commons
From Westbrae Commons Projects Wiki
Visiting hours
When the weather is nice the Northside Community Garden is open to the public on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm, Sundays from 10 am to noon and Wednesdays from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. It may also be open at other times when gardeners are working or playing on their plots, and someone might be available to answer questions and show you around then too . . .
Location
Located in the Westbrae neighborhood of northwest Berkeley, California, Northside Community Garden is near the mouth of the tunnel that takes the Richmond train underground through Berkeley – on land owned by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Shaped like an elongated triangle, it is connected to the larger Peralta Community Art Garden by a path along the fence enclosing the BART tracks. A colorful gate on quiet, narrow Northside Street provides direct access.
History
The Peralta and Northside gardens were originated by Karl Linn, a peace and social justice activist and retired professor of environmental design, who had organized the renovation of the community garden on the other side of Peralta Avenue after it was dedicated in his name. With its beautiful new planting beds, fence, tool shed, and handcrafted commons, the waiting list for plots had mushroomed. The much-larger, unused, and oddly shaped lot across the street beckoned. Karl and Berkeley City Councilwoman Linda Maio negotiated a contract for use of the land signed by BART and the City, and Linda lobbied the city council for $10,000 in seed money to install water lines and construct the gardens.
Neighbors held work parties to remove broken bottles, metal, concrete, and other debris that had accumulated over the years. A lengthy and challenging process of exploration, discussion and design got underway. Berkeley’s Recycling Program provided truckloads of compost to enrich the soil. Americorps volunteers prepared planting beds, created networks of compacted pathways, and installed an irrigation system.
Unlike the Peralta Garden design team the Northside gardeners favored a more open-ended, do-it-yourself approach. The garden is composed of irregularly shaped beds framed with a variety of creatively recycled materials. Only two wheelchair-accessible raised beds were constructed with redwood planks.
The completion of construction in 1997 was celebrated with a fall harvest dedication ceremony. Artists were invited to create temporary art installations for the occasion. The next summer artist Sofie Siegmann led a youth group in creating a sundial with mosaic designs for the hours. The following summer she led another group in painting murals for the garden gate.
For about three years between 1998 and 2001 architect John Fordice spent weekends conducting workshops on cob, an ancient building method, using it to construct a tool shed for the Northside Garden. Cob uses a moistened mixture of soil, sand, and straw to construct walls. Participants enjoyed preparing the mixture by stomping on it with their bare feet.
Current status
The Northside garden is alive and well . . . many interesting projects . . . just completed an herb garden and an amazing, state of the art compost bin . . . Oh, and we have a blog! Find us at http://www.northsidegarden.blogspot.com/ . . . yes!
