This is an exclusive web article from the PHOENIX magazine January 2010 web site.

Instead of growing weeds, an empty lot in downtown Tempe will grow fresh herbs and produce for local neighborhoods and restaurants.

The community garden opened last month on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Forest Avenue. Restaurants such as La Bocca Urban Pizzeria + Wine Bar, Caffe Boa, Chronic Tacos and House of Tricks have already signed up to participate in the garden, a Downtown Tempe Community spokeswoman says.

“The goal is to get back to being local, doing things as a community and making Downtown Tempe a place with lots of vitality and lots of things going on,” says DTC spokeswoman Casaundra Brown.

The garden occupies prime real estate downtown. The location was purchased in 2007 by Miami-based Finvarb Group, who had the Bandersnatch Brew Pub bulldozed with the intent of building an 11-story Marriott hotel on the site.

But with Valley real estate in the dumps and the hotel project on the sideline like so many others, downtown interests sought a feel-good gap filler. In late October, all sides agreed to a temporary community garden, which was designed to be easily removed and installed at another downtown location once the hotel project is back on track, Brown says.

Tempe City Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian says she hopes the garden idea catches on around the Valley. But as every gardener knows, the harvest gets picked one pepper at a time.