Why Sunday’s Open House at the Eagle Rockdale Community Garden Promises to Be a Hit

Most community gardens tend to be wall-to-wall plots of land squared off from each other. Did you know Eagle Rock has a community garden where the plots are so spread out that not only is it possible to meander in the empty space between them but drive a 10-ton truck in the area?

On Sunday, April 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., one of Eagle Rock’s best-kept secrets—the Eagle Rockdale Community Garden & Art Park—will host an open house for the first time in its seven-year existence. It’s a wonderful opportunity to visit one of Eagle Rock's great "hidden treasures" and learn about vegetable gardening.

Besides talks and on-site tours, garden members will offer hundreds of organic seedlings for sale. Everything from seedlings of rare heirloom tomatoes and squash to lettuces and jalapeno peppers will be available.

(The seedling sale will continue on April 21 at the Northeast Trees Earth Day Art & Environmental Festival at the Los Angeles River Center as well as at the Eagle Rock Certified Farmers Market in subsequent weeks.)

Los Angeles Bread Bakers, a group of amateur bakers who built an outdoor cob oven at the garden, will sell fresh artisanal bread and pastries. There will be live music throughout the six-hour event.

“People should come to the garden because it will be a beautiful day in a place that most people in Eagle Rock don’t know exists,” says garden manager Mike Woodward. “With much sweat and mulch we have changed an ugly little eyesore into a productive and beautiful garden.” (The area occupied by the garden once served as a trolley thoroughfare for Southern California Edison, which still owns the land.)

The open house is aimed at raising funds to install new garden beds in the garden, Woodward said. After seven years, the wood in the existing beds has begun to rot because of contact with soil.

The garden is located at 1003 Rockdale Ave. in a residential neighborhood just south of Shelby-Lanark Park, off Figueroa and La Loma.