OVGG’s Education Stations

*This page is continously being updated.

  • The majority of our fruit trees were donated by our neighbors at the inception of the garden with additional trees donated by partner organizations. All trees, including fruit tree groves, food forests, and gardens, are part of nature-based climate solutions, helping reduce heat within urban islands and sequestering CO2. Thank you to our community for our beautiful fruit trees!

    Click this link to learn more: Fruit Tree Grove Page

  • Here in San Diego, we do not get much rainfall, so it is best to opt for plants that are drought tolerant. Conserving our water resources is essential to mitigating and adapting to climate change impacts. Native plants also help support our local ecology, by providing habitat and food for native insects and animals.

    Click this link to learn more: Native Garden

  • OVGG’s Garden Kitchen, built in 2024, promotes garden-to-table cooking and allows San Diego communities to showcase healthy dishes from their own cultures. Talk about culturally-relevant and climate-relevant dishes!

    Click this link to learn more: Kitchen

  • A food forest consists of 7 layers containing a tall canopy or tree layer, lower trees, shrubs, herbs, ground covers, and root crops. The garden team is rehabilitating the food forest after it was taken over by four invasive Brazilian pepper trees that uprooted our fig tree and suffocated our macadamia tree in 2024. We are working to bring this area back to life with the tree donations and advisory from our partner organizations.

    Click here to learn more: Food Forest

  • Birds are an important part of our ecosystem they help pollinate, disperse seeds, act as natural pest controllers eating caterpillars and such. Many different birds can be spotted in San Diego!

    Click this link to learn more: Bird Watching

  • Composting is a beneficial part of any community. Holding a space where everyone can reuse their scraps to help our fruits and vegetables grow!

    Click here to learn more: Community Composting

  • Learn more about our dedicated classroom space here: Classroom

  • OVGG is in an area that is declared a brownfield, known to have heavy traces of heavy metals. Introducing crop beds is an impotant solution to growing safe and healthy foods.

    Click here to learn more: Crop Beds

  • Click here to learn more: Seed Saving

  • There are many insects to be found at OVGG that are a sign of a healthy garden. Some of these insects help to pollinate plants and trees that produce fruit and need the assitance of bees and butterflies to transfer pollen from flower to flower. Others such as ladybugs and preying mantis prey on insects that damage and eat crops, acting as a natural pest control.

    Click here to learn more: Beneficial Insects

  • Most of us can recognize the honeybee, but there are around 1,600 native bee species in California. Many of these bees live solitary lives, some live underground, and they are all amazing pollinators! They are essential to the health of our agriculture system, and are an importnat link in the network of species that make up California’s ecosystem.

    Click here to learn more: Native Bees

  • Click the following link to learn more: Relaxation Garden

Food Deserts and Brownfields

The Ocean View Growing Grounds (OVGG) is purposely located in a food desert, or an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. Not only does this neighborhood face the challenges associated with food deserts, but this area is also a brownfield. A brownfield is an area in which the soil is too polluted with toxins, such as lead, pesticides, or other chemicals that make the food that is grown in that soil too hazardous to eat.

Visit our Food Justice Page to learn more about food deserts and other topics relating to food justice.

Nature Based Climate Solutions

In addition to being a community garden, the OVGG is a demonstration site for nature-based climate solutions. These solutions assist in climate change mitigation by absorbing greenhouse gases as well as adaptation by using less water, increasing direct access to fresh foods, or restoring ecosystems.

Watch these videos to learn more about climate solutions!

Check out our Environmental Justice Page to learn more about environmental and climate justice.