Backyard Gardens

The Backyard Gardens program is an initiative of City Slickers Farms, an organization that supports access to fresh, healthy, organic food for low-income residents of West Oakland, CA. City Slickers Farms provides individuals in the community with a full set of resources to grow food in their backyards, beginning with soil analysis and contamination testing. The Backyard Gardens program helps each participating household build a garden that includes two planter boxes, a fruit tree, plants, and seeds. The plant mix is tailored to each household's needs and their soil's profile. To provide guidance and support, the program pairs new gardeners with garden mentors during their first two years of growing food. The program also creates gardens at childcare sites to expose children (and their families) to healthy foods.

City Slickers Farms' initiatives are funded mostly through support from foundations and government agencies, but the organization also receives monetary and in-kind donations from individuals and local businesses. All services are free. City Slickers Farms also hosts the Community Market Farms Program, the Urban Farming Education Program, and leads a Policy Advocacy Initiative.

The Backyard Garden Program builds food self-sufficiency by empowering low-income households to grow fresh produce where they live.

In 2010 alone, the Backyard Gardens program created new gardens for 20 households and 10 childcare sites, provided additional services to 18 existing gardens, and supplied 473 hours of technical assistance. City Slicker Farms estimates that its support resulted in the production of 24,000 pounds of produce. A 2010 survey of Backyard Gardeners revealed that 100% of gardeners were happy or very happy with their gardens, 92% had saved money through their garden, and 86% had increased their consumption rate of fresh fruits and vegetables to at least once a day.