Growing self-reliance

In addition to giving out rations of food to the area’s needy, Share Our Selves, a Costa Mesa nonprofit, will give out vegetable plants to its patrons in the coming weeks as part of an initiative to get people started growing their own food in their gardens.

An alley near the charity’s administrative building now houses about 200 small pots holding newly sprouted plants of several varieties, including tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra and broccoli. In most cases, the green stems and leaves are just popping up from the soil, and the vegetables have yet to appear.

By nursing the plants themselves for four or five weeks before giving them out, staff and volunteers hope to make growing vegetables at home less daunting for their clients. Share Our Selves provides a variety of services to the area’s needy such as food, clothing, medical and dental help, and financial assistance.

The woman who spearheaded the project, Share Our Selves Special Events Coordinator Ashley Carlton, had little gardening experience going into the endeavor, but has been helped along by volunteers and a lot of trial and error.

“It’s sort of a work in progress, but I think it could grow into something really neat,” Carlton said.

The idea came from a conversation she had with a county Democratic official charged with promoting environmental programs who was touring the facility. After committing to the venture, Carlton went in search of donations and managed to get a company and a gardening association to provide seeds.

The pots and soil mostly came from fellow staff member Elizabeth Evans’ uncle, who is in the industry.

Caring for the plants has been a welcome, if a bit unusual, additional responsibility for the women during the workday. On Friday, they moved the plants from inside the office, where they had been growing in smaller pots, to bigger pots in the outdoor alley.

“The goal is that people will take them home and replant them,” Evans said.

Share our Selves plans to start distributing them next week. Although the varieties and quantities of vegetables the charity is giving out aren’t enough to feed families who need assistance, the coordinators hope the program will provide a launching point for more extensive gardens.