Volunteer-led, accessible garden is up and growing near Unity Park.
on October 11, 2026
When Josh Detius first learned that a community garden was opening this fall along the Richmond Greenway near Unity Park, he was excited for the opportunity to put his skills to use.
“I’d learned to garden and take care of plants at Diablo Valley College, so I knew what to do,” said Detius, who volunteers at the garden through VistAbility’s Commercial Support Services program in Richmond, which serves adults with developmental disabilities.
Created in partnership with Richmond and agricultural nonprofit Urban Tilth, the Joe Lee Fisher Sr. Universally Accessible Community Garden has 13 plant beds for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers. Once harvested, the produce will be available at Urban Tilth’s free farm stands at Unity Plaza.
The garden features wide paths that can be navigated by those in wheelchairs and water stations for service dogs, among other amenities.
“It’s a project we get to take pride in doing,” said Blake Ohlig, program coordinator assistant at Commercial Support Services, who works with Detius and other volunteers. “Our volunteers are driven, with hopes and dreams just like everyone else. They all want to achieve mastery and give back to the community, and this allows them to do that.”
This is the first accessible garden in Urban Tilth’s 21 years, said Arleide Santos, park equity community projects director with Urban Tilth. “We just realized that it’s time to include all abilities and all ages.”
Guided by a survey
The city funded the garden’s design and construction with a $955,044 Transformative Climate Communities grant in August 2023.
City Council member Doria Robinson, who is Urban Tilth’s executive directly, recently was fined $400 by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to properly recuse herself in the 2023 grant vote. While the FPPC did not find that Robinson had participated in a decision which she had a financial interest in, it did say that in recusing herself, she should have stated her financial interest in Urban Tilth.
Urban Tilth surveyed more than 100 older residents and people with disabilities to find out what they would like the organization to build, Santos said. The garden reflects their response.
The garden, which opened on the Greenway at 17th Street on Sept. 29, was named after Fisher, a local businessman and community leader who died in July. Created to be used by residents of all ability levels, it was built by Richmond-based Kellman Construction, and the first beds were planted by volunteers.
Throughout the opening event, Fishers remembered for his dedication to community building. A cherry plum tree — Fisher’s favorite — was planted just outside the garden in honor of his memory.
“This garden is a generational legacy that he is passing on not only for his family, but for us as members of this community that saw his work,” Santos said. “We are building a special garden for people and making small steps toward building community.”
Urban Tilth plans to look for funding to introduce art in the garden, hire more people to maintain the plant beds and buy additional tools. Community members can volunteer by contacting Santos at greenway@urbantilth.org.
New California laws aim to protect detainees and make it more costly for ICE to operate here
Richmond Confidential welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Richmond Confidential assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
