Good Neighbor Gardens

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United States
San Diego, CA
Good Neighbor Gardens

Neighbors farming the city, sharing the harvest. Our space-efficient, eco-friendly and community minded operation is one from which everyone stands to benefit.

OUR MODEL

We farm yards and schools in San Diego homes to deliver organic, locally grown, pesticide-free produce through a CSA model. Our goal is to create a community of neighbors sharing their resources to ensure that everyone has access to the healthiest, freshest food at an affordable price. We want to teach the benefits of eating seasonally, promote an alternative way of feeding our families

, and expose you to new and beautiful vegetables! "To waste and exhaust the land instead of using it to increase its usefulness will result in undermining, in the days of our children, the very prosperity which we ought to hand down to them amplified and developed."

-Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

08/12/2025

Happy first week of school, San Diego! 📝

We can’t wait to get back into the schools to keep sharing about the love and joy of growing food! Our robust garden curriculum includes service-based and community oriented projects, as well as field trips that correspond with each grade level and their learning objectives.

This photo was taken at our 2nd grade field trip to where the students got to visit a real, working farm so that they can see where real food comes from. At the end of the year, they even put on their very own student-led farmers market for the whole community.

We’ve been taking the summer to make sure that our projects are as meaningful, effective, and community-oriented as possible. We can’t wait to see our wonderful students soon! 🌱

08/05/2025

It’s a privilege to lovingly curate harvest boxes twice a month for our subscribers. Neighbors graciously sharing their surplus harvest make these beautiful bounty boxes a blessing to folks who want eat well and share the love with others who join them at the table. A portion of subscriber revenue goes to local regenerative farm partners who share our growing practice ethics. Their same-day harvest is essential to ensure the boxes are full and sometimes overflowing.

A huge shout out to everyone past and present who shares their growing talent to maintain the home gardens. This is the in action. Everyone has something to give. Special thanks to all our non-human living partners who make it possible - microbes, fungi, pollinators, birds, 2 and 4-legged critters. We want to do our best to support you to continue to flourish so we can too.

07/30/2025

Finding homes for surplus cukes is no joke. They will grow from pencil size to baseball bats in a matter of days 🥒

Happy cucumber season!

07/29/2025

Garden educator and GNG team member Talia is getting a drip irrigation lesson from Walt— irrigation specialist and SGP mentor💧

A good irrigation systems is critical to the success in your garden. Without consistent and ample water, your garden can face all sorts of challenges including disease, wilting, stunted growth, and reduced food/flower production.

Want to learn how to install and maintain irrigation systems too? Check out our Soulful Green Practice apprenticeship program. Link in bio 🌱

07/24/2025

CALLING SAN DIEGO EDUCATORS! We’re offering three funded field trips to Paradise Found, an innovative zero-waste hydroponic farm in Bonita, CA 🌱 Students will experience firsthand the magic of compost, worms, and regenerative growing systems.

This is a unique opportunity for your class to explore lifecycles, sustainability, and the future of farming.

📍Open to classes in SD County schools from grades 3-12 🌿 Complimentary compost orientation lesson with Mia Vaughnes, founder of Good Neighbor Gardens 📆 Trips will happen between Sept 2025–March 2026
👉 Tag a teacher or apply now (https://tinyurl.com/ycy3tjty)

07/22/2025

We are very excited to officially announce our partnership with 🌱

Living 4 2 Day Ranch empowers people, regardless of physical or mental disabilities, by enhancing their daily living and independent skills through hands-on, purposeful activities, focused on education, skill building, and fostering mental well-being through urban agriculture.

At Good Neighbor Gardens, we have a demonstrated history of cultivating food as well as inspiring others how to grow their own food at home for their own consumption. Through this partnership, we hope to enhance the Living 4 2 Day clients’ daily mental and physical wellness by helping them develop the independent skills of food cultivation, preparation, and distribution in order to foster healthy, contributing individuals who are capable of self care and service to others.

We want everybody to get in where they fit in, regardless of ability, because every person should have the right to be a healthy and contributing member of society. Cultivating and consuming good food is paramount to that goal.

07/17/2025

Last week we have the privilege of hosting 9 girls ages 14-17 from for a 3-day service learning garden experience. They built soil, top-dressed, plot planned and companion planted in preparation a container garden session they hosted for a senior living community in Spring Valley. Each of the girls were paired with a senior resident for some “companion planting”, how sweet is that?!

Afterwards, they enjoyed a meet and greet in the senior community’s theatre to watch an educational cut of Common Ground that features Good Neighbor Gardens. The next day, Mia met them at the garden nursery for a guided shopping experience so they can build their planting kit.

We love cultivating capable stewards of the land of all ages. Gardening together builds friendships and new memories! Bringing people together with shared ethics is what makes the garden worth growing.

07/11/2025

Mia participated in the Acorn School’s Herbal Medicine Garden Making 2 Day Intensive Workshop in Nevada City with her mentor led by one of Cindy’s mentors Heather of . Mia was so inspired that she made sure every and our June apprentices were blessed with the opportunity to make their own infused honey.

Honey has long symbolized the bridge between realms—born from flowers, transformed by bees, and shared with humans. This golden nectar carries the spirit of earth and sky, connecting plant, pollinator, and person in a sacred cycle.

Across cultures, infused honey has been used as a love charm.

In Ayurveda, honey is called Madhu, meaning both “sweetness” and “essence.” When infused with tulsi, ginger, and turmeric, it becomes a potent remedy to balance the body, promote longevity, and ease inflammation.

An extra special shoutout to Gracious Neighbor Madhu from Mission Hills who generously cooked for all the farmhands for weeks during the pandemic when we were most busy and vulnerable. You are true to your namesake!

07/10/2025

This 4th of July, we celebrated INTERdependence day our way with an emergency fruit recovery party! All over the city fallen fruit is going to waste, so we invited our co-op friends and neighbors to come enjoy an evening of homemade apple pizza and square dancing at a Gracious Neighbor’s house. We all share a common thread of valuing good food and desire the company of our fellow community members, regardless of orientation or background. We must love our neighbor not only on this day but every day. Now more than ever, we all need to engage in order to protect the possibility of freedom in this country.

We want to say a hardy thank you to Alex, Melissa, and the band .stringband for their hospitality and talent. Alex made 24 pizzas in his ovens!! He started at 9:30 am and used the apple and tomato surplus from his yard for the pizzas and they turned out amazing. Our farmhand Megan was the band leader playing the banjo and doubled as our square-dance caller! We have such multitalented gracious folks in our neighborhood, no wonder it was a happy INTERdependance Day. 🍎

07/02/2025

Isn’t it amazing how the foods that grow in the summertime are meant to cool our body down, hydrate us, and give us the sugars that we need to have energy?! We are so loved 🙏🏼🍅

06/30/2025

“I grew up with okra. I love the tomato garlic onion bacon roux that smothers these hexagonal spears so well drenched over white rice. As Dad would say, ‘Makes your tongue wanna slap your brains out!’ It’s one of my comfort foods because it tastes like my people are from somewhere delicious and it makes me want to find that place and walk barefoot with those people. Thank you, Mom & Dad for never using the word ‘slimy’ to describe something so good.“ - Mia Vaughnes, Co-Founder of Good Neighbor Gardens 🌱

Address

San Diego, CA

Telephone

+18583756121

Website

http://www.goodneighborgardens.com/

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