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Ron Finley is the founder and CEO of the non-profit Ron Finley Project which teaches communities how to transform food deserts into food sanctuaries. Finley grew up in an impoverished South Central Los Angeles neighborhood that would today be considered a food desert. He inspired individuals in South Central to regenerate their lands through gardening, which he argues becomes a symbol of empowerment. Through this work he became known as the Gangsta Gardener.
Finley was born in South Central Los Angeles to a single mother who worked in the aerospace industry and who had seven other children. He studied tailoring and took fashion design classes at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. In 2000, Finley began his fashion design career by creating the Dropdead Collexion in his garage. It soon became popular with high-end stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, and Neiman Marcus. Finley also collects Black entertainment memorabilia which includes movie posters from various time periods that enable visitors to see the progression of Black people in the movie industry.
In 2008, Finley began gardening at his West Adams neighborhood home. He began planting fruits and vegetables on his parkway, that strip of land between the sidewalk and curb owned by the city. Two years later, in 2010, he began teaching his neighbors how to plant gardens in their parkways and the movement spread even as it challenged Los Angeles City laws.
Finley and his neighbors transformed unused land into vibrant fruit and vegetable gardens and inspired a new wave of urban Gardening. He also organized opposition to city regulations that prevented Angelenos from engaging in curbside Gardening. Finley created an online Masterclass in Gardening in 2020 partly in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing and the more generalized outrage over police violence and systemic racism. The online class brought him a new national audience.
In 2021, Finley launched his first fragrance, ‘A Flower for You.’ This unique scent, made in collaboration with Los Angeles-based Fiele Fragrances, captured the aroma of his vibrant gardens. Two years later Finley’s Ron Finley Project partnered with Seedlip in Los Angeles, the leading non-alcoholic spirits brand, to educate impoverished and working-class communities on regenerative gardening practices. A portion of the proceeds from his business partnerships support 1% for The Planet, a non-profit committed to donating one percent of global annual revenues to environmental charities dedicated to celebrating and protecting the planet.
Finley and his wife, Blanca are parents of three adult sons, Delfin, Kohshin, and Azzedine. For over a decade, Ron Finley has lectured on food access and gardening while demonstrating how individuals can plant and maintain their own vibrant vegetation spaces. Declaring “Gardening is my graffiti,” his TED talk on YouTube has been viewed by over 700,000 people.
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Charlotte Hausemer, “Ron Finley: Le jardinier le plus gangster de Los Angeles,” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ron-finley-le-jardinier-plus-gangster-de-los-angeles-hausemer-/;
Holly Garrad-Cole, “Meet Ron Finley: The Gangsta Gardener,” https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/meet-ron-finley-gangsta-gardener;
Jeanette Marantos, “For Masterclass’ Ron Finley, growing a garden is a revolution,” https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-07-10/gardening-with-gangsta-gardener-and-masterclass-teacher-ron-finley.
Ron Finley, “’In the city with: Ron Finley’ Presented by TakePart & IBM People for Smarter Cities,” 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8rhAbX45Cg
