Community Garden Spotlight: The Parkside Community Garden in Monte Rio

This former school site in the small community of Monte Rio has been thoughtfully transformed into a vibrant community gathering place, now owned and stewarded by the Monte Rio Recreation and Park District. The site features a skateboard park, community garden, picnic areas, a creekside trail and a lease space for Lightwave Cafe, all of which help create a lively and welcoming destination for residents and visitors alike. What was once an old school facility is now a place where people come together to recreate, relax, and connect with one another and with the land.

Monte Rio is a small community where many homes sit beneath the deep shade of redwoods, Douglas fir and bay laurel trees, where limited sunlight can make gardening especially challenging. That is part of what makes the Parkside Community Garden so special. Located beside the tennis and basketball courts on the site of the Monte Rio Amphitheater and Monte Rio Youth Center, the garden includes 24 raised bed plots, carefully tended by dedicated gardeners. In this semi-public setting, colorful vines climb the fences and add a cheerful, eye-catching display for everyone to enjoy.

The surrounding trail and plantings also reflect the area’s deep natural and cultural history. Starting at the bus turnaround, visitors walking the one third mile trail encounter cherry, walnut and oak trees, fruits that were important food sources for the Pomo people. California roses, planted in several locations, were used to make medicinal rose hip teas and thornless blackberries near the skate park add to the site’s abundance of edible and native plantings. Within the communal farm and orchard, visitors can also find plum, apple, hazelnut, lemon, and walnut trees, along with blueberries, red grapes, kiwis, red raspberries, and black cap berries that may be harvested for the public to enjoy.

Through our Community Spaces Matching Grant Program, we contributed $188,000 in 1999 to help purchase the property, followed by an additional $389,000 in 2013 to support development and restoration. Those investments helped shape this former school site into the beautiful, welcoming and productive community space it is today.

There are a number of additional community gardens throughout the county:

Sonoma Garden Park >>
Sebastopol Skate Garden >>
Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa >>
Larkfield Community Garden >>