Charlotte Saenz, Vickie Jo Sowell and I are working with CIIS students to build a milpa in Big Daddy’s Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden in Emeryville as part of the Techno-Tamaladas. We will be planting organic corn, companion plants, and sharing technologies of life.

Vickie Jo Sowell is a public artist and master gardener who founded Big Daddy’s Complete Rejuvenating Community Garden as an inspirational force for an urban resurgence. Now a multi-use space that hosts events alongside organic gardening and composting, it is featured by the Smithsonian Institution in their community gardens collection.

Master gardeners receive training in soil health, plant pathology, cultural growing requirements, sustainable gardening, and more. In return, they volunteer to provide guidance and help to others to create and maintain gardens. Sowell received her training at the UC Berkeley master gardener program.