Virginia Paca’s backyard garden is more than a feast for the eyes. It provides food for friends, for families on the economic edge, for the homeless at a Pasadena food bank.

When Paca, a Pasadena architect and garden designer, bought her Pasadena house two years ago, she decided to take advantage of its sunny backyard by turning it into an organic garden. After a year of experimenting with a few plants, she decided to triple the size.

The first beds to go in were tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. In between all the plants, Paca placed non-hybrid marigolds, which helped to keep pests away. After that came three varieties of squash, artichokes, cucumbers, watermelons, green beans and corn, all grown from organic seeds.

“When I started growing all this food, I knew it would be way more than one person could eat,” Paca says, standing amid a garden bed planted with eight varieties of tomatoes. “I read about people losing their homes and jobs in this economy, and one day, I was walking around the neighborhood, wondering what to do with the produce.”

A few blocks away, near Washington Park, she came across her answer: a building with a sign that said, “Friends in Deed, Food Bank today.”

Now, every other week, she takes baskets of produce to Friends in Deed, a service organization for low-income and homeless people in northwest Pasadena. The group is run by the Ecumenical Council Pasadena Area Congregations.

“It’s a structure in our community that’s almost unnoticed,” Paca said. “They have a lot of processed foods and bread, so they were thrilled to get fresh produce. I was going to donate every week, but I found that some weeks I would know of friends who were having a hard time, so I’d drop a basket of fresh produce at their house.”

To learn more about Paca's garden, keep reading ...