LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — The ocean breeze hasn’t been kind to Maricela Diaz’s tomato plants.
On her apartment balcony, wind broke them apart. Now she’s growing tomatoes in a cloche in a new community space, Juntos en el Jardín (Together in the Garden). With her son, she planted tomato, radish and cilantro seeds in mid-May; days later, seedlings were up.
Juntos en el Jardín has rejuvenated garden sites in and around Lincoln City and created new spaces that expand access to growing food for Latino and Mesoamerican Indigenous families who often have limited access to land.
She learned about the opportunity from Oregon State University Extension Service nutrition educators Beatriz Botello Salgado and Jazmin Aguilar Flores in the OSU Extension Lincoln County office.
Juntos en el Jardín cloches sit beside the OSU Extension Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Oregon Coast Community College’s North County Center. A cloche — French for a bell jar set over plants — shelters seedlings from wind and cold, like a mini-greenhouse. Each cloche carries a Spanish pollinator name; Diaz gardens in “abeja” (bee).
In 2021, Danone Institute North America selected five teams for its “One Planet. One Health” Initiative, a grant program that supports resilient, sustainable local food systems. OSU Extension partnered with Northwest Coastal Housing and the Olalla Center to secure a $30,000 award.
Juntos en el Jardín has rejuvenated garden sites in and around Lincoln City and created new spaces that expand access to growing food for Latino and Mesoamerican Indigenous families who often have limited access to land.
What partners made possible
With the grant, community partners — including the Rotary Club of Lincoln City, the OSU Lincoln County Master Gardener program, Oregon Coast Community College, The Ridge Apartments, the City of Lincoln City, and Career Tech High School — supported new and refurbished gardens:
- Refurbished raised beds at Lincoln City’s Oceanlake Garden.
- Refurbished Rotary-donated beds, added cloches and installed new raised beds with an archway trellis to welcome families; provided gloves, tools, a three-bin composter and a topsoil pile for shared use.
- Supplied Taft Community Garden families with new topsoil, a compost bin, gloves and tools.
- Supplied five double-tiered raised beds for residents of The Ridge Apartments to improve accessibility (beds guaranteed for 25 years).
- Helped re-create Cornucopia, a garden for Career Tech Charter High School students in Otis, supplying 10 raised beds and topsoil.
- Are developing a Google mapping tool (in English and Spanish) to share community garden locations and resources.
- Offered a scholarship opportunity for a Spanish-speaking Master Gardener volunteer to earn certification to support future garden management and program sustainability.
Expanding a Newport model north
Before the Danone grant, OSU Extension worked with Juntos de Colaboración, Lincoln County Public Health, the Olalla Center and volunteers to create an inclusive, culturally responsive community garden in Newport for Latino and Indigenous Guatemalan families. The OSU Extension Master Gardener program led the creation of a garden at Lincoln County Commons (the fairgrounds) for 12 families, who now grow vegetables and herbs in 16 raised beds.
“In OSU Extension, it is important for us to continue building the community and supporting families,” said Botello Salgado, an OSU employee nearing 20 years who also serves on the Newport City Council. “Latino and Guatemalan community members shared with us that they didn’t have access to specific foods in Newport like tropical fruit and herbs. They said they were going out of town to shop in Salem and Woodburn.”
The Danone initiative allowed partners to expand that concept 25 miles north along U.S. 101 to Lincoln City, where about 13% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Bringing families together
On a sunny May afternoon, the Oceanlake and Taft community gardens bustled. Families picked up free seed packets and OSU Extension gardening and nutrition resources. “A great deal of our housing here in Lincoln City is apartments,” said LoRee LaFon, membership services specialist for the city. “This gives residents the ability to grow their own food, and to bond with the community.”
Community gardens also provide safe outdoor spaces for children to move and get fresh air, Botello Salgado said.
At Taft, Len Chavez pulled weeds from her raised bed. She grows onions, zucchini and squash. “I like to come here because I can be with my family,” she told Botello Salgado in Spanish. “I also like it because my husband has to help, too.”
Asked what she thinks of the garden, she smiled: “Wonderful.”
