Hollister
– Locals will get a chance to test their green thumbs Saturday,
when the Vista Park Hill Community Garden holds its annual plot
selection.
Hollister – Locals will get a chance to test their green thumbs Saturday, when the Vista Park Hill Community Garden holds its annual plot selection.
Hollister resident Robin Pollard, who started the half-acre garden in 1999, said there are now six active plots. Since it’s unusual for more than two people to show up for the plot selection, there probably won’t be any problem getting a piece of ground to plant, she said.
“They can get as much dirt as they want,” Pollard said.
However, if a flood of would-be gardeners appears on Saturday, Pollard said she’d probably limit each allotment to squares of around 100 square feet. The garden has space for 25 plots of that size, she said.
Tools, seeds and even compost – provided by the Z-Best Composting Facility – will be provided.
“You just need the desire to garden,” Pollard said. “You don’t even have to be good at it.”
She said she started the garden to reduce the chances that the land would be sold to a private owner.
“It was really to anchor the land as public property,” she said.
However, Pollard said she is pleased with how the garden has come along. She acknowledged that things look “a little wild” right now, but she said it can be beautiful after residents put more work into the garden during the spring.
“It’s better than the weed-infested field that it used to be,” Pollard said.
Pollard herself focuses most of her energies on maintaining the garden’s flowerbed and the trees and bushes around its perimeter. However, she did start a vegetable garden last year.
“We had peppers and tomatoes all summer long,” she said.
Pollard also emphasized that Saturday’s event is really just an opportunity to promote the garden. People can sign up for plots year-round, she said, although this is the ideal time for planting.
Pollard’s neighbor, Dave Bulman, has been active at the garden since shortly after it started, and he said he’s happy with the results he’s achieved putting in around eight hours a week.
“If you do two or three hours a week – and that includes coming to water during the week – you could have a really nice garden,” Pollard said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 637-5566.
