Juvenile Justice Center Lemon Grove

The first phase of planting was completed in 2014: We now have 23 lemon trees planted and growing at the Juvenile Justice Center! See the pictures from the work day below. In addition, 4 trees were planted in the interior garden with a classroom of girls who grow vegetables in boxes with Urban Sprouts as their project leader.

Thanks to Jack Webber and Boy Scout Troop 14 for all their hard work, Tom Bressan and Urban Farmer for the irrigation system installation, SF Parks Alliance for providing the trees, The Garden Project for labor and compost, DPW for soil and mulch, and Success Center SF for fabulous helpers!

The next phase for JOT will be the planting of approximately 44 trees planted around the entrance to the Justice Center hopefully in 2015.

September 2014

Check out this awesome video about our project at the JJC!!

March 24th 2014

JOT just planted four more beautiful dwarf Meyer lemons at the Juvenile Justice Center, this time in the interior courtyard where they will be tended by the class of Biology Instructor Constance Walker and the nonprofit gardening gurus, Urban Sprouts.

Audrey Roderick, program director of Urban Sprouts is watering the new trees.

January 25th-26th 2014

The first phase of planting is complete: We now have 25 lemon trees planted at the Juvenile Justice Center! See the pictures from the work day below.

Thanks to Jack Webber and Troop 14 for all their hard work, Tom Bressan and Urban Farmer for the irrigation system, SF Parks Alliance for providing the trees, The Garden Project for labor and compost, DPW for soil and mulch, and Success Center SF for fabulous helpers!

The next phase will be the planting of 16 trees in the courtyard inside the Center by August of this year. The final phase is 44 trees planted around the entrance to the center by December of this year.

Using Public Land Effectively

JJC pic

Many city agencies have land that could be used for productive purposes such as growing fruit trees. The Department of Public Works estimates that there are more than 400 acres of open space just in the property under

their jurisdiction. We need only 12,000 lemon trees to become fully self-sufficient in lemons in San Francisco. Public lemon groves can offer beauty and fruit and creative space to help us achieve our target.

The Juvenile Justice Center offers a great site for lemon tree planting and to work with a new gardening program for youth connected to the Center. Our first estimate is that we may be able to plant more than 40 lemon trees at this site. Once the lemons are established (with an understory of lavender), Success Center SF will train their participants to help maintain the trees and ultimately harvest them for use on site and elsewhere. In addition, JOT’s further program objectives are to: 1) promote the development of small-scale business opportunities with the creation of added-value fruit products ; 2) provide vocational training in gardening and fruit tree care for volunteers.

How You Can Help

Our fundraising goal for Phase 2 of this project is $2500 toward the cost of trees, irrigation equipment, soil amendments, and stakes. We also need volunteers to help with planting and maintenance/harvesting. Kindly visit our Donate Page if you can help or contact us if you’d like to volunteer.