DIY Home Center and zoo friends grow a three-year partnership — one donated plant at a time

Friends of the Big Bear Alpine Zoo (FOBBAZ) and local hardware retailer DIY Home Center have quietly built one of Big Bear Valley's more unusual community partnerships: for three years, the two organizations have been converting damaged, unsellable nursery plants into colorful zoo entrances, a thriving vegetable garden, and — ultimately — food for the animals that live there^[1].

The arrangement started when Marge Schwab of the FOBBAZ garden group approached Linda Wright, who oversees DIY's garden department, to ask about sourcing plants for the zoo^[1]. What followed has amounted to thousands of dollars in donated plants, including the flowers visitors now see at the zoo entrance and a new vegetable garden installed near the grizzly bear exhibit^[1].

The model is straightforward: rather than disposing of plants too damaged to sell, DIY hands them off to the garden group's volunteers, who nurse them back to health. "They give us their damaged plants that won't sell and we rehab them," Schwab said. "So we rehab plants and we rehab animals at the zoo."^[1]

This season, the results are visible — and edible. The garden is currently producing peas, carrots, tomatoes, corn, and lettuce. Sunflowers have shot up unusually tall, and the squash has outgrown its raised bed entirely^[1]. Blair noted that children visiting the zoo are often drawn to the garden, sometimes as much as to the animals themselves.

Jennifer Blair, who has taken over day-to-day leadership of the garden group from Schwab, joined her predecessor on Sept. 15 for a small ceremony to formally thank Wright and DIY Home Center, presenting Wright with complimentary zoo tickets^[1]. "Since Linda helps us so much with getting our garden running, we got some tickets so she and her partners can go have a zoo day," Blair said.

Wright, for her part, credited the volunteers. "Sometimes when our plants start to get a little tired and people won't buy them, Marge has got such an awesome green thumb she brings them back to life and/or feeds them to the animals," she said. Wright has already promised more plant donations for spring^[1].

A perspective from Big Bear Alpine Zoo staff on which animals benefit most from the garden's harvest — and how the fresh produce fits into their care — was not available for this story.

To learn more or support the zoo, visit friendsofthebigbearalpinezoo.org (opens in a new tab).