Surprise surprise: The Giants Are Adding a Giant Garden Behind Centerfield in AT&T Park

Author:
Tim Newcomb
Publish date:
Jul 31, 2013

"Huckleberry and kumquat salad" has a nice ring to it, doesn't it, especially alongside nachos and hot dogs at a ballpark concession stand? (Eh, it's an acquired taste.) Should your palate be adequately refined, you'll be able to find such delicacies (and other less-adventurous ones) at AT&T Park next season. So say the Giants, who used a team visit to the White House this week to let President Obama announce plans for Giants Garden, the first large-scale garden in a stadium.

Plans have the team transforming 3,000 square feet of concrete beyond the centerfield wall—currently used to grow replacement sod because of its sun-drenched setting—into an organic garden featuring up to 40 different types of edible plants, all for eventual use in stadium concessions. Bok Choy and kale salad, anyone? How about a nice Persian cucumber and arugula pairing? Maybe all you're feeling are some strawberries and avocado? It’s all coming by Opening Day 2014 thanks to EDG Design and Blasen Landscape Architecture.

"There all all kinds of crazy things in center fields around the country," EDG's president, Jennifer Johanson, says. "Everyone from around here goes to farmers markets all the time, so this seems pretty logical."

The Giants will partner with concessioners to use the produce within the park, all while making the garden available as a year-round community space complete with classes and kid-friendly tours. It's a concept so resoundingly West Coast that you can almost hear folks in Portland complaining that they didn’t think of doing this for Jeld-Wen Field first.

Here's a short gallery of renderings of the green room: