Richmond, California, has a new public garden designed to make shared growing easier to reach. The Joe Lee Fisher Sr. Universally Accessible Community Garden opened Sept. 29 at Unity Park with 13 planting beds, wide paths that wheelchair users can navigate and water stations for service dogs, according to an Oct. 11 report by Richmond Confidential. Urban Tilth plans to make the produce available at its free farm stands at Unity Plaza, the report says. The project brings accessible features, volunteer planting and neighborhood food sharing together in a public park.
The City of Richmond had announced the opening beforehand. Its Sept. 25 City Manager’s Weekly Report listed a public celebration for Tuesday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Unity Park, 2 17th Street. The city named Urban Tilth as its partner and described the site as Richmond’s first universally accessible community garden, designed for people of all ages and abilities. The city said the planned celebration would include hands-on planting, music, special guests and community activities. Richmond Confidential’s later report confirmed that the garden did open on Sept. 29.
The garden’s layout is meant to support participation beyond simply looking at plants. Richmond Confidential reported that the paths can be navigated by wheelchair users and that the site includes water stations for service dogs. The 13 beds are intended for vegetables, herbs and flowers. Those practical details make the garden a place where people can spend time among the plantings and where volunteers can take part in the shared work. The city’s event listing described the project as a place for gardening, gathering and connection.
Some of the first planting work came from volunteers who already had an interest in gardening. Josh Detius told Richmond Confidential that he had learned to care for plants at Diablo Valley College and was glad to have a chance to use those skills at the new garden. He volunteers there through VistAbility’s Commercial Support Services program in Richmond, which serves adults with developmental disabilities. His account gives the opening a hands-on dimension: community members helped place the first plants in a space intended to keep welcoming people back.
Blake Ohlig, an assistant program coordinator with Commercial Support Services, told the reporter that volunteers want to develop skills and contribute to their community. The garden gives that work a visible home among the beds, paths and shared growing areas. Richmond Confidential identified the project as a partnership between the City of Richmond and Urban Tilth, a local agricultural nonprofit. VistAbility’s program participants took part as volunteers, connecting the garden’s accessible design with ongoing community activity rather than a one-day opening alone.
The design also drew on input from residents. Arleide Santos, Urban Tilth’s park equity community projects director, told Richmond Confidential that the organization surveyed more than 100 older residents and people with disabilities about what they wanted built. The resulting garden reflects those responses, according to the report. The City Manager’s report separately described the project as designed for people of all ages and abilities. Together, the two accounts document both the stated goal and a community consultation process behind the site.
Food grown in the beds is intended to move beyond the garden. Richmond Confidential reported that harvested vegetables, herbs and flowers would be available at Urban Tilth’s free farm stands at Unity Plaza. The report does not provide a harvest amount or a date for the first distribution, so the plan is best understood as a purpose for the garden rather than a result already measured. It links a shared growing space with a way for residents to encounter locally grown produce at no charge.
The garden carries the name of Joe Lee Fisher Sr., a Richmond community leader. Richmond Confidential reported that a cherry plum tree was planted just outside the garden in his memory. The name and tree add a local tribute to a project whose daily life will be shaped by gardeners and volunteers. Urban Tilth’s Santos described the garden as a community legacy; the public sources reviewed do not provide an attendance count for the opening, so this story does not estimate how many people came.
Urban Tilth said it plans to look for funding to add art, bring on more help to maintain the beds and purchase additional tools. Community members interested in volunteering can contact Santos at the email address published by Richmond Confidential. Those are future plans, not completed additions. For now, the documented opening leaves Richmond with a public garden shaped by resident input, built for access and planted by volunteers, with a stated plan to share its produce through free farm stands.
Reader responses