At the end of an industrial stretch of Euclid Avenue, San Diego, occupied by an equipment rental yard, a liquor mart, and an auto repair shop, City Farmers Nursery is a verdant surprise. But even if this were an affluent area, City Farmers would be a striking departure from the typical corporate garden center.

Small plants that will someday bear Early Girl tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, and chili peppers sit in trays near the parking lot. Not far from burbling tanks of baby koi and albino channel carp, a yellow-and-black mutt named Abby sleeps beneath a table full of petunias and marigolds.

Inside the store, a bowl on the counter holds eggs, free for the taking. A high-backed chest is filled with jars of seeds and baskets of Yellow Finn, Purple Peruvian, and Bintje potato tubers waiting to be planted.

There’s an old upright piano with ivory keys and a hammock strung across the room, not far from a poison-green parrot with orange shoulders and a yellow head. Presiding over it all from behind the counter is owner Bill Tall, ringing up sales and dispensing advice on growing plants of all kinds, pretty much the same way he’s done it for the past 36 years.

Through his advice, free classes, school tours, and community events, Mr. Tall is a grass-roots advocate for self-sufficiency and the importance of growing fresh organic produce at home, even if you live in the city. “There’s a uniqueness to being able to eat something you grew,” says Tall. “This is a place for city kids to come and learn something different … to plant a seed [that will help them] later on in life to appreciate gardening.”

For example, Tall shows around a class of 3- and 4-year olds from a local Head Start class around the nursery. In the herb section, Tall invites the children to pinch a mint leaf between their fingers and gently rub it. “See, this one smells like toothpaste,” he says.

While half of the class plants flower bulbs in pots, Tall takes the others on a tour. They marvel at Clyde, the Welsh pony, who wanders around the same pen as black-and-scarlet roosters, chickens, a flock of geese, and a pygmy goat. Walking up a slope to the fruit-tree nursery, Tall points to the plants growing in shallow beds on the roof of his shed.

“See the vegetables growing on the roof?” he asks. “You can grow vegetables on top of your roof. But be sure to ask your mom and dad first.” With older kids, he might talk about conservation or show them how to start a compost pile at home.

Today, City Farmers specializes in those hard-to-find items that big box and chain stores just aren’t interested in. Further, they organically maintain every plant, bush and tree "as Mother Nature intended."

One of the most important aspects of City Farmers is the community involvement. The Nursery is partners with a wide variety of schools, neighborhood associations and civic groups.