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Vista Gardens, located in Carrollwood Village, promotes sustainability and organic fruits and vegetables in a roughly three-acre space.

VISTA Gardens promotes sustainability in Carrollwood Village

TAMPA, Fla. — A community garden in northern Tampa is using sustainability to produce vegetables and local plant life on their roughly three-acre plot of land.

It’s called VISTA Gardens, which stands for the Village Institute for Sustainable Technologies and Agriculture.

It was started by few people in Carrollwood Village about 11 years ago with very little gardening experience.

What You Need To Know

• VISTA Gardens, which stands for Village Institute for Sustainable Technologies and Agriculture, has been in the Carrollwood neighborhood of Tampa for over ten years

• They have hundreds of volunteers with partnerships with local schools, churches and the food pantry and offer education in gardening and, of course, sustainability

• The gardens recently won two different awards from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and the Florida Wildflower Foundation, the latter of which rewarded the organization three thousand dollars

Originally, they planted in the founder’s backyard until his wife said she wanted her yard back, so they eventually found a county-owned vacant lot near the Carrollwood Cultural Center, according to Jennifer Grebenschikoff, the president of VISTA Gardens.

“We planted together,” Grebenschikoff said, “We maintained together, and we shared the produce that came out of those six beds.”

Six original vegetable beds on over three acres turned into 65.

“We still have people who say, 'Could we create some more beds?' 'No, we can't create more beds,'” Grebenschikoff said.

They have hundreds of volunteers now, partnerships with local schools, churches, a food pantry and offer education in gardening and, of course, sustainability.

“We are not connected to TECO,” Grebenschikoff said. “We are not connected to the county water system. So all of our power comes from solar. We have a number of solar panels that power the pump that brings the water from the well that we dug 15 years ago up into the garden.”

They have their own seedlings here too.

It’s all about sustainable living and gardeners who find their way here adopt that lifestyle pretty quickly.

For example, Evans Bostick had never gardened before finding VISTA Gardens.

Now, he and his wife compost, they eat organic and have drastically changed how they lived after learning what the members of VISTA Gardens do.

“Some people call this their happy place,” Bostick said, “where they can come over here and just enjoy gardening or being with people, nature.”

It certainly seems to be that place for folks like Bostick and Grebenschikoff who, even in the heat, see the lush gardens produce some delicious things.

Planting, composting, and living sustainably so the next generation can enjoy the hard work they’ve put in this three-acre space.

VISTA Gardens currently has a wait list for people to plant their own vegetables.

The gardens recently won two different awards from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and the Florida Wildflower Foundation, the latter of which rewarded the organization $3,000.