Plant2 Nerds Good2 for
I PHOTOS BY MARK FERNQUEST
spent some of the best years of my life on Alameda Island, working there for 11 years and living on the West End, at the Woodstock Homes Housing Cooperative, for four. Built in the 1940s to house the workers who built the Alameda Naval Air Station, Woodstock is located just outside the now-defunct military base. A sprawling neighborhood of wood-framed, semidetached units with large communal lawns and a network of paths running between the fenced backyards, it is delightfully dated, low-key and quaint. While living in my two-bedroom unit there, I experimented with turning my
small yard into an urban farmstead, with the goal of producing a large amount of food in a small amount of space. As with every gardening endeavor I’ve embarked upon, I met with mixed results and learned many things along the way. I built a keyhole garden out of cinderblocks and installed two self-watering tomato grow boxes. I also planted some fruit trees in half wine barrels and set up a worm garden. There were several nurseries on the island, but Ploughshares Nursery quickly became my go-to for most things gardenrelated. Located at 2701 Main St., across from the ferry terminal parking lot on the West End, Ploughshares was about a half
Alameda’s Ploughshares Nursery has a mission BY Mark Fernquest
mile from my house. I often bicycled there through the base, meandering past ruins, empty lots, shade trees and old military houses. Ploughshares takes up a fair bit of space, and its large, fenced yard is filled with a wide variety of plants, as well as the occasional satisfied cat. But it always was, and still is, more than just a nursery—it’s a nonprofit business with a mission. Via email, Manager Jeff Bridge says, “We are an environmentally sustainable retail nursery with a focus on California native, drought-tolerant and edible plants. We are also a nonprofit job-training program for residents of the Alameda
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 | EASTBAYMAG.COM | EAST BAY MAGAZINE
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