Community Gardening for Everyone
A series of interviews with community gardeners across North America.
What is Community Gardening?
People working together, collaborating to plant, nurture and grow food, feed pollinators, and restore natural spaces are just some of the elements of community gardening.
Every year, Gardening Know How awards up to 20 school or community garden projects a Community Garden Sponsorship. The program supports our belief in the idea of cooperative gardening of all kinds. Community gardens are inherently beneficial to neighborhoods, students, veterans, those with housing or food insufficiency, and to the planet itself. Tending gardens at a group level lets us collectively experience the true joys of gardening.
Learn more about the program here
Each guest in our new series is an organizational leader of a thriving community or school garden, and a past recipient of our Gardening Know How Sponsorship. They have a lot to teach all of us all about gardening, whether we’re home gardeners, urban or country gardeners, or interested newbies.
Sign in to this free series of interviews to hear how these amazing gardening activists have learned ways to revive soil, resolve watering problems, deal with harsh climates, and work as a group for the greater good.
Midtown Community Urban Farm
New York, NY
Inspired with the combined energy and motivation of John Mudd and Sharon Jasprizza, the multi-layered Midtown Community program assists thousands of less fortunate folks whose lives are lacking in the basic needs of daily living. Midtown’s Urban Farm is a splash of burgeoning verdant life in the very heart of New York City’s concrete jungle. The garden supplies fresh food to a wide range of people, including seniors, those in shelters and on the street.
Richey Elementary School
Newport, DE
Former Donald J Richey Elementary School principal, Dr. Stephanie Armstrong, thought a school garden might be the perfect link for connecting students, their families, and the school. She found a great way to jump-start parental interest and involvement in what is now a thriving garden, with the help of horticulture therapist, Kathy Andrezjewski and current principal, Gregg Johnson.
The White Mountain Community Garden
Show Low, AZ
In a town named after a poker game, Show Low Arizona’s community garden serves its local residents who might otherwise have no space to raise fresh produce of their own. Starting from scratch with one source of electricity, one solar battery and some fairly tough terrain, and with help from grants, donations and community support Michele Sgambelluri and a team of volunteers have worked hard to establish garden beds (raised and in-ground), an impressive high-tunnel, an herb garden and a children’s garden.
ReWild Showcase Garden
Port Washington, NY
The Thomas Dodge House, built in 1721 is the site of a “showcase” garden, a model for how we can all create a sustainable landscape using native plants and regenerative gardening methods. Visitors to the garden get a hands-on experience of how a residential yard and lawn can be transformed into a natural space that’s healthier for humans, a haven for pollinators and a welcome relief for our ecosystem through native plantings, composting and zero waste practices.
The Charles Henry Chapman Memorial Community Garden
Savannah, GA
There’s a community garden in Georgia, just a short walk from the Savannah State University campus, with quite an interesting backstory. On a plot of land where a bar once stood, there is now a thriving community garden, thanks to Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity member and Georgia Master Gardener Geoffrey Johnson. Learn how the garden went from an abandoned lot, overgrown with weeds and littered with trash, to a flourishing community resource.
Heroic Gardens
Philadelphia, PA
Discover how one community gardening organization in the Delaware Valley is working to improve the quality of life of veterans through gardening. From educational programs catering Philadelphia-area veterans to efforts to beautify the region’s VFW halls, founder Collie Turner is on a mission to give veterans a renewed sense of service. Meet Collie and learn more about this amazing organization.
Caridad Gardens
Las Vegas, NV
Humanizing the Homeless since 2010. Just beyond the world famous Las Vegas Strip lies a community garden proving itself to be just as vital to the city’s homeless population as it is to the millions of tourists visiting Sin City every year. Hear the amazing story of Caridad, its founder Merideth Spriggs, its hydroponic garden, and how the glitz and glam of Vegas is benefitting from this program, designed to teach and empower those living on the streets.
Meet LaManda Joy
Our host LaManda is an author, speaker, master gardener, and a firm believer that the world is a better place with more gardeners in it.
LaManda is the founder of the award winning Chicago-based nonprofit food gardening education program, Peterson Garden Project, and the author of Start a Community Food Garden: The Essential Handbook by Timber Press. She frequently speaks on the importance of community and gardening education across the country in both public and business settings. She is co-founder of the Great Grow Along - a virtual spring garden festival dedicated to bringing together the worldwide community of gardeners with great education, connection and joy.
Coming Soon
Front Steps Housing and Services
Cleveland, OH
Matthew Anderson, Director of Development at Front Steps Housing & Services, spends much of his time working in the program’s burgeoning Serenity Garden, an environment that Matt feels offers spiritual healing for the homeless community in Cleveland. With great understanding and compassion for the many life stories of residents at the Front Steps facility, Matt’s work here is a shining example of how we can, as a society, support one another in our greatest times of need.
