About

The Beach Flats Community Garden, or Jardin de la playa, is a sustainable, organic, urban garden located in the Mexican neighborhood of Santa Cruz, California and close to the historic Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. A handful of gardeners have worked this land since the garden’s inception in 1994 and today we are 23 gardeners in total. Each gardener has a contract with the City of Santa Cruz and works their land in accordance to that contract and their own gardening practices. We are from California, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Nicaragua and El Salvador. We speak various languages, including but not limited to Spanish, English, and Zapotec. Our crops include: various types of beans, squash, chiles, lettuce and corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, oregano, rosemary, basil, mandarins, lemons, tomatillos, chayotes, and strawberries.