A Walkthrough Spaces of Opportunity

The mission of Spaces of Opportunity is to enable all South Phoenix families to have affordable access to nutritious food, active lifestyles and strong ties to their cultures.

On a warm spring day, I step out of my car at 1200 W. Vineyard in South Phoenix. I’m immediately greeted by a loud chorus of birdsong—mockingbirds, doves and ravens—and the sweet smell of citrus blossoms. This garden oasis called Spaces of Opportunity is surrounded by densely packed tract homes. My guide arrives—Farm Manager Bruce Babcock, driving a bright orange Kubota tractor. Bruce is a lean, bearded, farm-style elder who appears to be in control of everything in an easygoing way. He has been part of Spaces since its inception.

That was in 2015, when this space was a trashed, burnt-out, over-chemicalized, industrial-agriculture field. Back then, Bruce says, even weeds wouldn’t grow. Now it’s a local, sustainable Eden with over 200 garden plots tended by 55 small-scale urban farmers.

Nine years ago, a group of nonprofits (Desert Botanical Gardens, TigerMountain Foundation, Unlimited Potential, Orchard Community Learning Center and Roosevelt Elementary School District) came together to transform this wasteland into a vibrant source of health, wellness, economic opportunity and community strength. That’s what I have come to see—starting with the community gardens.

Bruce—a former surveyor—laid out the splendidly complex property; it’s like walking through Wonderland. The garden area fans out in multiple 5- by 50-foot beds. Gardeners rent and care for one or more beds and each plot shows a distinct style. Some are thick with colorful lettuce, stout broccoli, fat fava beans and bright flowers; others are more sparse. A gardener from Congo favors a single crop: okra, a heat-loving vegetable that originated in Africa. Some beds are newly prepared for planting, their dirt freshly turned; others are still in transition.

Rent for a community garden bed at Spaces of Opportunity is $5/month. This fee covers water, garden bed prep, compost and access to shared facilities, such as a vegetable washing station and cold storage. Bruce designed the gravity-fed drip irrigation system and manages the garden’s water distribution. Additional water is available from several 2,500-gallon tanks distributed around the acreage. People can apply for community garden beds online (see link at the end of this story), although there is a waitlist, with some waiting up to a year for this opportunity. While waiting, they are invited to join in the regular volunteer and training opportunities.

“The gardeners,” Bruce says, “are extremely diverse.” Some come from the V.H. Lassen Academy of Science and Nutrition, the elementary school right across the street. Gardeners come from differing ethnic and cultural backgrounds—Hispanic, Black and Asian; African, Burmese, South Korean, Pakistani, Iraqi and many others—which helps explain the diversity of the individual plots. Supporting cultural traditions is one mission of Spaces of Opportunity. Some community garden beds are rented by nonprofits to provide gardening experiences for mental and physical health benefits.  

We’re standing under a 30-foot-tall moringa tree—all of these trees have been planted since 2015. This large “tree of life” has edible leaves, pods and seeds. Bruce tells me that participating gardeners take different foods from that tree according to their customs. Some make tea from the leaves; some cook the green pods in traditional recipes; and some toast and eat the dried seeds like peanuts. Spaces of Opportunity interior roads are lined with more edible fruit trees like orange, lemon, peach and mulberry. Gardeners and visitors are invited to enjoy some fruit, but not to harvest buckets full; the harvest is shared.

As we stroll the roadway and Bruce points out the heavy wood chip layer underfoot, a dump truck pulls up with another load of chips. He explains that arborists usually must pay to dump their loads. Here, they are welcome to dump a heavy layer of chips on the garden roads at no charge, creating a mud-free, weed-free roadway. After a year or so, the wood chips break down and are moved to walkways and garden bed margins where they hold moisture throughout the property. It’s a brilliant, win-win, compost-in-place solution.

As we walk around the property, Bruce points out the Nature Play area (funded by a USFS grant), the University of Arizona Extension demonstration farm plot and the Edible Desert and Healing Herb Gardens (set up and maintained by the Desert Botanical Garden). Between these gardens and the adjacent tract homes, a dividing wall is painted with a colorful 600-foot mural depicting the long, long history of this spot. Both Cesar Chavez and Bruce Babcock are prominently featured. The artist and designer is Isaac Caruso, a master muralist (isaacncaruso.com).

So far, we’ve been wandering through a rich paradise of garden spaces, but that’s not all Spaces of Opportunity offers. We’ve explored less than half the property. Most of the acreage is used by the incubator farmer program, providing training, mentorship and resources for small-scale urban farmers. Start-up farmers join with an eighth-acre plot, and a required apprenticeship and training program. After one year these trainees can rent quarter-acre plots for $650/year. This is a popular program; currently all beds are claimed. Produce from these small farms is distributed locally as much as possible, supplying fresh vegetables to this former food desert.

In the farming spaces we meet Farm Manager Hussein Alhamka, who shows us his current harvest—tight heads of cauliflower and large blood-red beets. Hussein has a long history of farming in his native Iraq and in Southern Arizona. He’s glad to be in a place where he can share his gardening expertise, build community and improve the soil. We chat about growing garlic interplanted with carrots, heritage tomatoes and his family’s variety of cucumber that tolerates desert heat. The motto of the incubator program is “everyone is a teacher and a learner”—Hussein is a great example.

As we head back to our car, we pass other garden opportunities—the Sonoran Desert Museum community vegetable garden tended by 30 volunteers, and the Project Roots Garden, founded by former WNBA player Bridget Pettis. This half-acre nonprofit garden provides gardening space and classes to build health and food resiliency. I ask Bruce if Spaces of Opportunity pays for itself. “No,” he answers, “we receive several grants and sponsorships and have support from many organizations. We always need volunteers and financial support.” (By the way, Bruce needs a flail mower. I told him I’d mention it in this story. If you want to donate, contact him at bruce.babcock@tigermountainfoundation.org).

Spaces of Opportunity is open 365 days a year from dawn to dusk. It’s a friendly, welcoming space with lovely birdsong, seasonal bounty and local gardening knowledge. My husband, who came along as the photographer, said “This place is just golden.”

What else is happening at Spaces of Opportunity? To view upcoming events visit: https://www.spacesofopportunity.org/events.

• Spaces of Opportunity farmers market; second Saturday of each month, 9am–1pm January–April; 7–11am in summer.  
• Vernal Market the second Saturday of every month, 9–11am.
• Community Work Days, 8–11am Wednesday mornings and second Saturday of each month.
• Beginning Gardening Classes with Blanca; Farmer Rancher Development classes; “Follow the Sun Tour” of the agrivoltaic system that extracts water from the air.
• Second Saturday Celebrations, yoga classes, and many more events.
• Rent a garden plot, join the incubator farmer program, volunteer or make a financial donation, and learn more here: https://www.spacesofopportunity.org