IDEA TAKING ROOT; COMMUNITY GARDEN EFFORT IN FULL BLOOM.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

These days, Don Jacobs' gardening endeavors are limited to a few flower pots and a four-foot-long vegetable and herb box resting on the balcony in his apartment.

``All I've got is some limp Swiss chard growing,'' quipped Jacobs, a 63-year-old Thousand Oaks man who gave up a more fruitful vegetable garden after selling his home this year.

Though Jacobs may have given up his garden, he certainly hasn't given up on his green thumb. He and his wife, Ann, are spearheading a grass-roots effort to found the first area community garden.

Called the Conejo Valley Organic Community Garden Club, Jacobs' group is working with the Conejo Recreation and Park District and other local agencies to locate a strip of unused land for use as a community garden.

The cost of water and security for the land would be paid by area residents who use it, Jacobs said. He hopes to locate a half-acre site that would provide hundreds of area residents with 10- by 20-foot plots on which each could grow a selection of vegetables, fruits and herbs.

In addition to providing open space for people like himself who enjoy gardening, Jacobs said he hopes the community gardeners will participate in a program to assist Manna, a food bank in Thousand Oaks.

``Part of the purpose of a community garden is to serve the public,'' said Jacobs. ``We hope to provide extra vegetables in the garden to the food bank so people who are hungry can have some food.''

On Sunday, the group will travel to a vacant lot suggested by the park district for use as a community garden, Jacobs said. An open area near the Moorpark Freeway and Janss Road, the lot has access to water and nearby public transportation. Jacobs said the site is a good proposition but that the group will continue to look for other areas both on public park and city land as well as on private and church grounds.

There are more than 150,000 community gardens across the country today, according to Sally McCabe, vice president of the Philadelphia-based American Community Gardening Association. Most are growing in urbanized and developing areas, she said.

``What it means is that people are having a say in the management of open space or are preserving some of it for their use,'' she said.

In pockets throughout Ventura County, community gardens have been growing. In Moorpark, a community garden is thriving on church ground at least temporarily, before the church goes ahead with plans to expand its parking lot.

In Santa Barbara, several such gardens have been growing under the direction of ecological associations.

``I think it's a good idea,'' said Bob Marchesano, parks superintendent with the Conejo Recreation and Park District, which is working with the Conejo Valley residents to find a suitable piece of land. ``A lot of these community gardens have worked out well.''

Janna Orkney was living in the midst of an avocado grove in Ojai before she moved into a condominium in Westlake Village. For the past several months, Orkney said, she has been hauling pots onto her balcony and planting flowers to keep her green thumb thriving.

``I just enjoy being out in the dirt,'' Orkney chuckled. ``It's very therapeutic for me. More than the actual fruit or the plants, I just enjoy working outside in the sun with growing things.''

The group is scheduled to meet again Aug. 20, but Jacobs said the location of the meeting is still undetermined.

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Photo

PHOTO (color in Conejo edition only) Don Jacobs waters his Swiss chard in a flower box on his balcony as his wife, Ann, observes.

Michael Owen Baker/Daily News