“Touch grass,” the saying goes, exhorting us to step away from our screens and get outside. One woman, Barrie Cohen, has made it her mission to give her community a place to do just that—or “touch dirt,” to be precise—and grow some food in the process.

Cohen is the owner and founder of the Meiners Oaks Community Garden on South Padre Juan Avenue, a 7,800-square-foot property whose entrance is flanked by a Little Free Seed Library and, at the time of my visit, a thatch of exuberant California poppies. Inside are 38 olive-green VEGO™ raised beds in various stages of planting and a garden shed built by Genuine Sheds and emblazoned with a mural by artist Blaise Danio.

The edges of the lot are still coming into their own with perennial and native plants, and one each of young but thriving pomegranate, persimmon and apricot trees donated and planted by Ojai Trees. Cohen and I take refuge from the April afternoon heat under a picnic-table umbrella at the back of the property where I ask her to tell me its story, which is inextricably linked to her own.

Growing up in New York City, Cohen first fell for the community gardens there that appear between buildings like little oases. She spent her 20s farming in New York, Oregon and at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. After another stint back in New York City, she set off on a multi-year van-life adventure, looping from Baja to Alaska and back again, WWOOFing (short for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) and visiting community gardens along the way.

“As somebody who was traveling alone, it was such a nice way to meet people,” she tells me.

When she finally settled in Meiners Oaks in 2023, she didn’t know it would be the longest she’d stay anywhere in her adult life, nor that she was about to start a much more local—but no less adventurous— project than her solo West Coast loop. Cohen spotted the lot that now comprises the community garden while on a dog walk, back when it was just an offshoot of a disused oak and citrus orchard. Still, she saw its potential.

“I was looking for a community garden to be a part of and realized that we didn’t have any in Meiners Oaks.” So, she made one herself— although she is quick to note “so many people were so gracious in donating their time and their services … to make this happen.”

Cohen bought the lot in 2024, cleared it, fenced it, ran irrigation and was up and running about a year later. Ironically, “it might have been more complicated to zone it for a park than for building.” The garden is now in its third season of renting beds (each lease lasts six months and costs $120) and, as of May 2026, for the first time there’s a wait list.

Of the 38 beds, eight are elevated for people with accessibility issues, and six are offered on scholarship. Renters include neighbors who need garden space with more sun, apartment dwellers craving outdoor space, and one homeschooling group. While Cohen and I were talking, two gardeners arrived to tend to their beds.

Tom Entwistle, an Oak View resident, maintains one of the neatest tubs in the garden, and he gamely walks me through his selection of crops, which he plans to make use of as an avid home cook. His bounty includes “meaty” dragon-tongue beans, yellow French beans, crookneck squash, red and purple radishes, and Prairie Fire and White Currant tomatoes, the latter of which he explains tastes like Concord grapes.

Meanwhile, Chantal Chartrand, an Ojai resident and professional cook, arrives with some seedlings for her still-empty bed—save for a “volunteer bean,” which Cohen helpfully identifi es as such using a plant identifi cation app. As proprietor of From Seed to Yum, Chartrand makes food for people with special dietary needs and tells me she wants to create an organic soup business. Today she is planting eggplant, cucumber, kale and her favorite, peppers, all for her personal use.

Beyond the gardeners who rent plots, Cohen is keen to make the space a community hub. Th e very next day she is hosting a skill-share event, a joint eff ort with the Ojai Valley Green Coalition. Local teachers and community members will share their expertise on topics ranging from irrigation to herbal medicine. Th e garden also hosts quarterly volunteer days, workshops and book clubs, and until recently, donation-based Qigong every Sunday. Plans are underway for a book swap, garden journaling and an ethical foraging workshop.

The garden recently received fi scal sponsorship through Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a 501(c) (3), enabling tax-deductible donations. Cohen’s upgrade list for the property includes a demonstration kitchen for school groups and members, more shade and a bathroom. But her long-term vision goes beyond this plot of land: She wants the garden to become a resource for converting vacant green spaces into community gardens—a hub for the idea that an empty lot doesn’t have to become a building.

“If somebody can see this space and say, ‘Instead of developing it, how do I preserve it and how do I grow a garden?’— then I’ll be really happy.” Th e wait list suggests she’s not the only one.

Meiners Oaks Community Garden is at 307 S. Padre Juan Ave., Ojai. For information about how to rent beds and organize events, visit MeinersOaksCommunityGarden.com.