Ploughshares Nursery

Plan Nerds

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Alameda’s Ploughshares Nursery has a mission

BY Mark Fernquest

Ispent 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 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 fi lled with a wide variety of plants, as well as the occasional satisfi ed cat. But it always was, and still is, more than just a nursery—it’s a nonprofi t business with a mission.

Via email, Manager Je Bridge says, “We are an environmentally sustainable retail nursery with a focus on California native, drought-tolerant and edible plants. We are also a nonprofi t job-training program for residents of the Alameda »

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.

«Point Collaborative housing community for formerly homeless families.” In fact, Ploughshares is an indelible fixture within the greater Alameda community. One hundred percent of its sales support housing and services for formerly homeless families and individuals living in the adjacent neighborhood on the old Alameda Naval Base.

Bridge—a low-key, knowledgeable guy—assisted me and answered my many questions back then, and little has changed. In response to my asking him how he became involved with Ploughshares, he responds, “I think it was the motto ‘make your garden part of the solution’ that excited me most. Buying plants at Ploughshares is part of the solution to homelessness and ecological collapse. Also, I was looking for work.” He adds, “We built this nursery up from a ‘so-so back lot’ in 10 years into the FREAKING AWESOME BACK LOT NURSERY it is today.”

Indeed, in the five-plus years since I moved on from Alameda to seek my fortune elsewhere, Ploughshares has stepped up its game. Its 5-star website is gorgeously designed and loaded with information. The nursery now advertises frequent discounts, offers free workshops on subjects ranging from sheet mulching to caring for succulents, hosts a seed-sharing library with the simple instructions: Borrow > Grow > Return, accepts donations— large and small—for its own Little Free Library and sends out a monthly newsletter.

As for business during the time of Covid, Jeff writes, “Business is always mysterious here, we are pioneering plant offerings and sticking with a mission which puts ethics and ideology first. Covid has been as wild and scary for Ploughshares as any other small business. I’m glad we were able to stay open and help people grow their garden when they were locked down at home. Our parent organization really took care of us during the worst of it, and nobody on staff fell ill.”

Now, more than ever, Ploughshares relies on the support of the surrounding community. “Just like the other small, independent nurseries, the Big Box stores kill us,” Jeff says. “We pay our staff good wages here, and we have to charge a little more for plants. I hope more people will support independent nurseries and especially non-profits which help fight homelessness.”

If YELP reviews are an indicator of happy customers, Ploughshares is doing something right—it’s 55 reviews average 4.5 stars each. Positive comments make mention of personalized service, plants that aren’t found at big box stores, reasonable prices and knowledgeable staff.

“We are part of the community here in Alameda; most of the school gardens have used our plants [and] we have educated a generation of new gardeners about growing food and using less resource intensive plants,” Jeff writes. »

«“Our plant selection has grown quite a bit, and our sales go up every year. But our main goal is to help residents of our formerly homeless community to obtain job training and references. When a local peep decides landscaping or gardening or environmental justice is going to be their career path in part because they worked here, then I get all red-faced and goofy-happy.”

Alas, my own West End urban farmstead adventure ended long ago. The windy microclimate in my backyard made it difficult to grow many types of plants, though lemon cucumbers always did well. My beloved kitty cat, Shadow Cecilia, who made the garden her home, has moved on to the Happy Hunting Grounds. I still wonder what became of the wild opossum who used to nightly climb my back fence with her babies clinging tightly to her back. Nowadays I garden farther north, in sunny Sebastopol. But my gardening experience was indelibly affected by Bridge’s guidance and Ploughshares’ amazing plants.

And Jeff’s final, Zen words on the subject? “I’m a plant nerd. I think the world needs more plant nerds.”

Truer words were never spoken.

URBAN BLOOM Ploughshares’ sales support housing and services for formerly homeless families and individuals living on the old Alameda Naval Base.

Ploughshares Nursery, 2701 Main Street, Alameda. Open Monday through Sunday, 10am to 5pm. 510.755.1102. Ploughsharesnursery.com