Bay Meadows

We’re pleased to introduce you to Troy Smothermon and Josh Levine, our Persimmon Park community garden partners and the founders of StartOrganic! At Bay Meadows, creating community is important to us. We start with a design centered around connection and growth. Sometimes this includes individual growth and education. That’s why we bring in specialists to help educate resident plot holders how to successfully grow food while building a deeper connection with nature and their foodsource.

If you are new to the neighborhood or simply find yourself longing to get into the garden, send us a DM on Facebook or Instagram with your contact information to learn more about how you can reserve your very own garden container!

An official in-person program will launch this spring – date TBD. StartOrganic will lead a class demonstrating basic garden setup, planting advice, and plant spacing.  Each resident participant in the garden will receive a subscription to the Home Gardening Series, which will feature classes throughout the year to coach new gardeners through a successful harvest.  Following along with these classes will give Bay Meadows garden participants the timely information they need to grow the best produce ever.

StartOrganic believes the healthiest food on earth is grown at home, and so do we! “Studies show that homegrown produce is better for you and more flavorful for many reasons—#1 is that there is never shipping time so your food will never lose vital vitamins & minerals that your body needs to thrive! Immunity is crucial during these times, a home garden ensures that you are getting the highest amounts of the most important supplements—zinc, vitamin c, and of course vitamin d!”

Get to know the faces and inspired beginnings behind our partners:

“During the winter of 2009 / 2010 Josh and I quit our jobs to move to Tahoe and be ski-bums.  We came up with the idea after extensive talks about what we wanted to do for work the next year.  We decided to start our own business together.   First, we grew veggie starts under lights in the laundry room of the house.  When Spring came around we returned to the Bay Area and started marketing to find our first set of clients.  We used the laundry-room veggie starts to plant our first gardens that year.  Since then we’ve started thousands of residential gardens all over the Bay.  Now, we use in-person and virtual classes to further our mission:  Teach everyone how to grow their own food!”

What’s your personal favorite class to teach?

“I like the Pest Control class.  We get to commiserate with participants and share our stories of lost produce to all kinds of critters.  Sharing our failures is sometimes more important than our triumphs.”

“Vegetable gardening is more than a hobby. Planting, growing, and eating your own food connects you with nature and the rhythm of life.”  -Troy Smothermon, StartOrganic Co-founder

Describe the class to kick off the season and dangle a few other subjects that’ll be covered sprinkled throughout the year:

“I’ll lead a class demonstrating basic garden setup, planting advice, and plant spacing.  The intro class is really important because it sets the stage for the virtual classes to follow: caring for young plants, watering advice, organic pest control, Earth Day special, pruning & training your veggies, and how to preserve your harvests (a class on pickling / canning).”

Follow @startorganic on Instagram and Facebook for tips and inspiration.

Do you DIG IT? Get into the community garden at Bay Meadows with our new partners! Conveniently located between San Francisco and Palo Alto in San Mateo, Bay Meadows offers housing within walking distance of Caltrain. Ease of transportation is only one reason you’ll fall in love with Bay Meadows. Smartly-designed, high-quality new homes and apartments sit among 18 acres of open space, which includes parks, a community garden, public art, ball fields, bocce and basketball courts and a new playground. All this just a walk from Hillsdale Shopping Center, Whole Foods, Blue Bottle Coffee, Humphry Slocombe, Slices San Mateo, ROAM Artisan Burgers, Fieldwork Brewing Co. and more. Learn more about what Midurban life offers by joining us on Instagram.