Apartment garden to open in South St. Pete

A new apartment garden project is underway at an apartment complex in St. Petersburg. 

Local female-owned business Peas & Love Edible Gardening has partnered with development company Stoneweg to bring an urban agriculture initiative to life at Lake Maggiore Apartments. Desireé Sims, owner and lead consultant of Peas & Love Edible Gardening, lives in the area and saw potential “green” opportunities when the apartment complex on 32nd Ave. S. broke ground a few years ago.

“I went to [Stoneweg’s] website, and I saw they had a sustainability section, and I thought, ‘Wow, here’s an international real estate developer that has sustainability as part of their core,’” Sims recalled. “So I reached out to them, introduced myself and said, ‘Would you guys be open to putting in edible landscaping?’ They contacted me the next week and said they had a quarter-acre reserved for doing a project just like that.”

The main feature of the organic garden is raised garden beds, some of which will be grown and managed by Sims and some that can be reserved by Lake Maggiore Apartments residents. Sims plans to grow vegetables, herbs, edible flowers and native plants. The garden will also feature a walkable fruit tree orchard, a meditation area and an educational space.

In addition to creating the vision for and building out the garden space, Peas & Love Edible Gardening will host a range of activities, including school tours, gardening workshops, composting classes and more. Sims says the project offers a one-of-a-kind amenity to residents and has the potential to serve as an educational hub for the broader St. Petersburg community.

“I want this to be a space that everyone can utilize,” Sims said. “That’s why I wanted to create different spaces for people that have different interests. So, my forte is the portion of the garden that’s producing the fruits and vegetables, but not everybody is going to be interested in that. We’re planting natives so that we can educate the public about the importance of environmental sustainability and being regenerative. But then we also have the meditation area and open space where we can host classes and even yoga.”

Sustainability is a key focus of the project, as well as Lake Maggiore Apartments as a whole. The complex was built with green features in mind, including a net-zero clubhouse powered by rooftop solar panels, water and energy-saving features in the units and 20 electric vehicle charging stations on the property. 

Desireé Sims, owner and lead consultant of Peas & Love Edible Gardening, said she’s always loved gardening but finally took on her passion full-time when her day job became obsolete during the Covid pandemic.

Sims will manage the bulk of the community garden, aside from the resident-reserved planters. In addition to the traditional gardening spaces, Sims also plans to install a composting area and a children’s sensory garden. She hopes to engage little ones with different sights, smells, textures and experiences they may not typically have a chance to explore.

“I feel like kids so often are always being told, ‘No, don’t touch that or don’t mess with this, don’t step here or don’t get your hands dirty.’ I wanted a piece of the garden that’s theirs,” Sims explained. “This is a place they can go stick their hands in the dirt, play with the rocks and engage all those different senses.”

As the garden installation and planting near completion, Sims hopes this innovative apartment garden will set a new trend for the Tampa Bay area’s urban agriculture initiatives. St. Petersburg has seen an increase in community gardens and urban farms in recent years, with organizations like the St. Pete Youth Farm and 15th Street Farm already making significant contributions to local food production and education.

“I hope this catches on, with new complexes that come up and even existing ones. It doesn’t have to be the size; it can even a quarter of this, or just a few beds,” Sims said. “I just want people to have the benefits of being out in nature and enjoying it in whatever way that brings them joy. I hope this definitely starts a new trend.”

A resident ribbon cutting for the garden will be held in early 2025.

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