In partnership with Oakland Food Connection, Bay Localize is proud to support the edible rooftop garden at E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in east Oakland. This inspiring project broke ground in summer 2007, and has since served as a living classroom for students learning how to prepare simple, healthy meals from the food they grow onsite! See photo set at right from a fall 2009 volunteer workday.

At the garden, students from Unity High School teach K-8 students about food growing and nutrition. After starting out with only seven beds, the garden now consists of 35 beds, a worm composting system (vermiculture, compost tea), a green house, and 20 hanging herb beds. A basic drip irrigation watering system will soon be installed. Every week, student participants share the produce they harvest with their families.

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM: An after-school garden program will be held Tuesdays (4-6 pm) and Thursdays (4-6 pm) at EC Reems, 8425 MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland. For more information, or for volunteer opportunities at the garden, please contact Tori at tori [at] foodcommunityculture [dot] org.

Project History

For the first phase of this project, we partnered with Oakland Food Connection's Executive Director and Founder Jason Harvey, his dedicated youth staff, school principal Lisa Blair, New Voices Are Rising, and Bay Localize intern Ariane Mohr-Felsen. To see the construction process in action, check out the video blog at RyanIsHungry.com.

Bay Localize and Oakland Food Connection are grateful to MacFarlane Partners, a real estate investment management firm headquartered in San Francisco, for their generous contribution to the project. Other supporters include: The San Francisco Foundation, Laurence Levine Charitable Trust, and the E.C. Reems Academy of Technology and Arts.

The Garden Plan

As the graphic below illustrates (drawn by Bay Localize intern Maya Donelson), the complete garden will stand as an ecosystem on the roof, with 35 garden beds of seasonal plantings, several small trees, a green house, compost and a worm bin, as well as a vertical garden on the east-facing wall.

How Was The Garden Designed?

The E.C. Reems garden model exemplifies all the requirements of an accessible roof garden system. There are two fire exits, the roof is bordered with a 42-inch high guard-rail, and the garden is designed to fit within the limit of the roof loading capacity, as per building engineer's evaluation. To allow for tending of the garden and for standard access, the garden covers about 60% of the roof space. The E.C. Reems garden is a hand-crafted, affordable and locally sourced system, with garden beds constructed of reclaimed wood and regional soil amendments.

Want To Know More?

Feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about the garden design and future plans. We are interested in supporting future projects of edible roof gardens and rainwater catchment systems.

Background on Bay Localize's Use Your Roof! Project

Given that those of us living in the Bay Area already face ever-growing constraints on our energy and water supplies, and the destructive and highly concentrated corporate agribusiness model leaves many food insecure, Bay Localize considers it imperative that we assess and utilize all open, workable space for the development of sustainable, supplemental rooftop garden, rainwater catchment and renewable energy systems. As it now stands, the majority of urban rooftops are simply unused, lost space.

With sufficient incentives and local initiative, this space could be harvested for produce from community or commercial gardens, for clean electricity from renewable energy systems, and for greywater and even potable water from catchment systems. The implementation of such systems hold great promise in creating a wide range of economic, environmental and social benefits.

The EC Reems Academy Rooftop Garden Project is part of Bay Localize's Use Your Roof! Project. In addition to assessing the environmental and economic benefits of rooftop gardens, renewable energy, and rainwater catchment systems, the project has developed models and tools that designers and neighborhood groups can use to implement their own projects.