Even in Silicon Valley, software engineers do not live by code alone. Built in 2013 by South Bay-based StartOrganic, the garden started as a small-scale project on a shoestring budget.
Photography courtesy of StartOrganic.
“We built the garden back when Paypal and eBay shared a campus and we originally met with the leader of eBay’s green team,” says Smothermon.
Nowadays employees have to sign up for one of 24 raised beds (the other six beds are maintained as a demonstration garden for educational purposes) and pay a $30 fee twice a year for plants and seeds.
The waiting list for one of two dozen 4-by-8-foot garden beds “is as long as the number of people in the program,” says Smothermon.
In addition to running monthly how-to workshops, Smothermon and team are on site once a week to maintain the garden beds.
“There are two big planting seasons, and the next one is coming up really soon,” says Smothermon.
This month StartOrganic will fix any problems in the automatic irrigation system, compost plants, till, and add soil amendments to the employees’ beds.
Smothermon (R) at work in the garden. Employees can fill watering cans to give individual plants more water as needed.
“We give them a seasonal list of plants and seeds they can buy—including tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, carrots, beets, and radishes,” says Smothermon.
Peas grow on metal cages in a garden bed.
A tomato ripens on the vine. “We’re we’re not able to feed the masses with what we’re producing there, but it really is educational.”
“A corporate garden is a great thing for people who are working 40 or 60 hour work weeks and don’t have the time or energy to garden at home,” says Smothermon.
“For the last five generations, we’ve have been robbed slowly of the most important thing people can do, which is to grow your own food and know where it comes from,” says Smothermon.