Gardens & Green Spaces
Gardens and green spaces provide many life-enhancing qualities to people and our environment, and ScottsMiracle-Gro wants to spread the word as far and wide as possible. That’s why we have taken a leadership role in getting gardens and green spaces installed, joining with local and national groups to bring gardens and green spaces to more neighborhoods through grants, volunteer support and in-kind product donations.
We’re excited that our gardens and green spaces have been used to produce food for the hungry, to help with the healing process for challenged individuals, to create leaning opportunities for children and to provide open spaces for play and recreation.
We also support community involvement in creating gardens and green spaces through our annual GRO1000 Grassroots Grants.
Below are just a few examples of gardens and green spaces that ScottsMiracle-Gro has led in installing:
Learning Gardens
Gardens are great places for children to learn, grow and explore. We are working with educators and community organizations to develop a variety of learning gardens on school grounds and in city parks.
Brampton, Ont., Canada
Children in the Ontario city of Brampton are discovering nature through a neighborhood garden focused on children’s education.
The Chinguacousy Park Children’s Garden is a place where young people can learn about nature, plant life and gardening. Area students, community members and ScottsMiracle-Gro associates created an edible teaching garden, vegetable and herb gardens, as well as butterfly gardens and an artistic picket fence maze.
Bentonville, Ark.
Students at R.E. Baker Elementary School can experience hands-on learning in the garden through grant support from ScottsMiracle-Gro. Grant funds were used to expand the school’s garden-based learning curriculum, which includes activities such as tagging butterflies, learning about the lifecycle of plants and harvesting produce to donate to local food pantries.
West Palm Beach, Fla.
The Coleman Park Community Garden is the setting for a variety of life lessons for children in the area. During the school year, the Coleman Park garden is a classroom for neighborhood middle school students to learn about plant growth, healthy eating and food nutrition.
Healing Gardens
Gardens have the ability to heal and provide many physical, emotional and psychological benefits. From helping soldiers recuperate from traumatic injuries, to giving students with learning challenges a way to connect with nature, healing gardens have strong restorative powers.
Surrey, England
The Walled Garden Project at the Defense Medical Rehabilitation Centre Headley Court provides occupational therapy for convalescing troops. Multiple research findings continue to show that horticulture provides physical, neurological, cognitive and psychological rehabilitation, testing patients’ motor skills, plus their strength and endurance.
Los Angeles, Calif.
The gardens at Roy Romer Middle School in Los Angeles enable students with physical and learning disabilities to engage with nature and experience the outdoors. The calming and healing properties of the garden help improve the students’ ability to focus and concentrate.
Edible Gardens
Growing fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs is not only good for the individual gardener, but it can help those in the community at risk of hunger. People around the country are growing their own produce and committing to help the hungry in their own backyard.
Dallas, Texas
Gardeners in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas have embraced community gardening to help those at risk of hunger. With 90 garden plots and a 1,400-square foot donation garden, the Lake Highlands Community Gardens are providing Dallas’ hungry with fresh-grown produce.
Atlanta, Ga.
Families in DeKalb County, Georgia are growing a new sense of pride, along with tomatoes and cucumbers. The DeKalb Memorial Park Community Garden is a food source for residents and area community programs. Classes held in the garden are helping residents learn about what to plant, when to plant and how to eat healthy. The community garden has been a force for good in the neighborhood and has created a greater sense of community.
Charlotte, N.C.
An expansion of the Little Sugar Creek Greenway Community Garden has helped more area residents who are at risk of hunger. New edible garden plots installed in the garden now give more than 500 families and individuals direct access to fresh vegetables.
Community Green Spaces
From cleaning the air around us to providing a place for kids to be kids, green spaces offer many benefits to our environment and communities. Through public and private partnerships, ScottsMiracle-Gro has helped to create community green spaces in neighborhoods as part of our commitment to encourage healthy lawns and good environmental stewardship best practices.
Washington, D.C.
A once blighted area in Washington, D.C.’s Marvin Gaye Park was transformed into a tree-lined green space. We joined forces with Keep Washington, D.C. Beautiful, the District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation and Washington Parks & People, to create a place where area children and residents now can gather, relax and enjoy the outdoors.
Atlanta, Ga.
A community green space in Atlanta’s Oakland City gives local residents a chance to experience the serenity of nature amidst the backdrop of an urban environment. Atlanta residents, alongside ScottsMiracle-Gro and its partner groups, worked to create the green space and botanical walkway.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Overgrown with weeds and years of neglect, neighborhood leaders reached out to ScottsMiracle-Gro and local partners to reclaim the Community Gateway at Stenton and Mansfield Avenues in Philadelphia. The green space is an oasis in a community with very little greenery. The Community Gateway also provides a green buffer between commercial and residential spaces in the neighborhood.
