In the 1950s and ‘60s, I was one of four children in a small, three bedroom ranch on the edge of town. My mother was the gardener with her daylilies, tulips, mint, Touch-me-not, roses, portulaca, and marigolds. I’m sure there were others. In the mid…
Located in the neighborhood of Central Tacoma, Washington, Franklin Park serves its community well—there are numerous opportunities for recreation for children and adults, including a community garden. It has served its purpose for the elementary…
I am a gardener at a community P-Patch garden in Seattle, Washington. I also volunteer/write for the P-Patch Post, which is a free bi-yearly newspaper that is mailed to each gardener in the P-Patch program. I wrote the below article, which appeared…
Opened in 2007, this “People’s Garden” invites visitors of all ages and abilities to create and to explore meaningful connections to plants and nature at their own pace. The journey began in 1991 when a small group of midcoast Maine residents dreamed…
During the fall and winter of 2012 and 2013, Ryan W. put together a proposal to build an urban farm, which later became North Brooklyn Farms. He presented it at a Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning meeting, where two neighbors…
My name is Maryanne Kuzniar. My second community garden experience began in 2009 in and continues to this day at La Guardia Corner Gardens. I came back to New York City in 2009, and having had a large garden in Italy, I was a little bit worried that…
Haja: My name is Haja Worley. I am the husband of Cindy Nibbelink Worley. I’m from Patterson, New Jersey by way of North Carolina. Growing up, my parents had a garden in the backyard. I'm sure the garden was not as big as it seemed to be when I was…
The Garden Path ~ Green, Growing, and Blooming Project emerged as a tangible remembered connection and, consequently, a pathway to engagement following my mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, thereby, enlarging her narrowing view of her world. She had…
Ours is a story of how the two communities of Algonquin and Lake in the Hills came together to build vegetable gardens that feed local families in need, educate new gardeners, and provide a peaceful artistic space.
In 2012 the Algonquin Lake in the…
The Many Faces of the Albuquerque BioPark Botanic Garden Our Botanic Garden consists of about 13 recognizable gardens: Pollinator, Spanish-Moorish, Jardin Redondo, Xeric, Curandera, High Desert Rose, Japanese, Children’s Fantasy, G-scale Railroad,…
An essential part of a public botanical garden is visitor education and being a docent is my small way of helping with that mission. It is about as stress-free as anything could be. But it was with some trepidation that I heard Cheri V., our…
The Farm Bureau/Extension Community Garden was established in 2004 with the help of the Woodstock (Illinois) Noon Rotary, who paid for the materials to build sixteen raised beds on the property owned by the McHenry County Farm Bureau. The garden is…
The Taneyhills Library Garden was a bare landscape. With a grant from the Master Gardeners of the Ozarks and donations from supporters of the library, new gardens were established. One of the Master Gardeners and a Library board member helped…
Omar B., a zone gardener with the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), shares entries from the journal he keeps about his work with the environmental non-profit founded by Bette Midler in 1995 to preserve and transform public green spaces in New York…
Libby Area Community Garden is a grassroots project (founded by Linda Alkire), now in its fifth growing/thriving season with a membership of over seventy active members on about a quarter acre of school property in beautiful Libby, Montana. The…
Have you ever judged a neighborhood by its trees? I have. Without even realizing it, I've felt happy walking down an alley of green trees in the summer, in the filtered light of their giant canopies. I've also felt that a block is gloomy or deserted…
It started because of a shared problem: the drug activity and prostitution in the abandoned double lot on Saltonstall and Lloyd. Adeli D. lived next door at the time, and remembers having to yell at the dealers who wandered through her driveway past…
Note from the Artist and founder:“Before you read the story of the Please Touch Garden I would like to dedicate this story with a thank you to the many that helped make it possible. I did pour my heart into making the Please Touch Community Garden a…
Sunflower Village, a community garden in the Franklin Square neighborhood of Baltimore, has been growing strong since 2010, when the Franklin Square Community Association decided to take over a large abandoned lot. Several years before, five houses…
My oldest and I have been eyeing the Kirk of Kildaire Community Garden for a while now, and finally took the leap to volunteer there last weekend. The garden is on the property of Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church in Cary, North Carolina.…
