Contra Costa County features a diverse landscape of green hills seamlessly merging with urban communities. This diversity creates opportunities to blend these environments, resulting in urban areas incorporating green spaces within neighborhoods. Community food and pollinator gardens, green spaces, and native parks dot the map between homes, allowing both people and nature to benefit from one another directly. Organic fruits and vegetables, along with pollinator plants, sequester carbon, offer healthy food options, and create habitat for bees and butterflies. 

In small towns like Rodeo, the Contra Costa Resource Conservation District (CCRCD) is installing community gardens like the Rodeo Laurel Court Community Garden. Collaborating with the Rodeo Citizens Association, we are establishing a food garden for the community, which is both timely and essential for this town that has lost its only grocery store, leaving it a food desert. This garden could provide the nutritious foods that Rodeo lacks while fostering habitat within the urban area.

Beyond the garden…

The CCRCD aims to create sustainable gardens by developing water-wise projects that utilize the latest industry best methods, including drip irrigation systems, low-water native plants, and bioswales for water filtration. We strive to serve as a model for the community and inspire the public in implementing sustainable practices in their own yards. We incorporate public education into our planning, emphasizing our commitment to sharing water-wise gardening techniques with the community through an application-based project vision. We will host several workshops on water-wise gardening, watershed education, and fire prevention at the site. Additionally, outdoor learning experiences are among the most engaging platforms for educating others, and we intend to invite individuals of all ages to the garden to learn and discover.

We invite you to a movie night in the garden on April 12th. Get a sneak peek at the garden as it is being built! Visit www.ccrcd.org/events for more information. We hope to see you in the garden soon!