In the Beginning, All Weeds and Asphalt

In November 2007, I was having lunch with my friend and fellow community gardener, Bob Curry. Bob and I had been friends since 2003 when we were volunteering with Gardeners in Community Development, helping to start the Hope Garden and improve the Our Savior Garden. Bob, a City of Dallas employee, told me that the city was planning to start a community garden to get an extra “brownie point” on their EPA “score card.” The city had hired a consultant to complete the project, the only problems was that the consultant was not a gardener and had never been to a community garden. Needless to say, after several weeks there had been no progress. Bob asked if I would see what I could do to help it move along.

After several meetings with the consultant, it appeared her lack of experience and inability to entertain any form of good advice from any source was dooming the project. The project was being coordinated through the City of Dallas, Office of Environmental Quality. I spoke to the Director and asked if I could move forward without the consultant. I was reluctantly granted permission.

In early 2008, Bob and I stood on the hill which is now the donation garden and decided that was going to be the best place available. I went to our City Councilman, Jerry Allan, and told him of our plan.  He was excited and said we should move forward as soon as possible.

I called Bob to give him the good news and he asked me if I would like to check myself in to a mental ward for evaluation. In early 2008, Bob and I stood on the hill which is now the donation garden and decided that was going to be the best place available. I went to our City Councilman, Jerry Allan, and told him of our plan. He was excited and said we should move forward as soon as possible.

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One hurdle that I had not cleared was that to get a grant, the garden had to be a 501 c(3). My wife, Linda, was working with the Lake Highlands Area Improvement Association and they were a tax-exempt non-profit. I spoke to the LHAIA board meeting one night and they were on board in a partnership where the garden would be a branch of their organization.

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By the time our grant was approved, I had about thirty people signed up as gardeners. I told Bob about the success of getting gardeners.  Only problem, we now needed a bigger space.

Over the next few weeks, I spoke at numerous HOA meetings, garden clubs and the LHAIA annual meeting. I had hoped to get at least eight to ten other people to be community gardeners. By the time our grant was approved, I had about thirty people signed up as gardeners. I told Bob about the success of getting gardeners. Only problem, we now needed a bigger space. That’s when we moved to the north side of the parking lot where the garden is located today.

On April Fool’s Day in 2008, we had our first gardener work day.  The original garden consisted of thirty-five plots.  We still have four families that have been active since the first day.

On April Fool’s Day in 2008, we had our first gardener work day. The original garden consisted of thirty-five plots. We still have four families that have been active since the first day. We cleared the weeds, built garden boxes, added soil and planted some plants. The official opening date of the garden was April 8, 2004. Our grant was from Miracle-Gro. Many of their upper-level marketing staff attended, we had media coverage, Make American Beautiful local and national chapter members attended along with our City Councilman, Jerry Allan. It was a really big deal!

In 2009, Miracle-Gro gave us another grant and we added fifty-eight plots, the donation garden and the butterfly garden. We still have many gardeners with us from the expansion. Since the expansion, several of the larger plots have been divided in two to help meet the demand for more plots. Since 2008, we have added a donation garden, a rain garden, a bee aviary, an herb garden, pollinator beds and a demonstration garden. We have about one hundred plots and around one hundred-fifty active gardeners.

On April 8, 2024, we celebrated our sixteenth year as the only community garden in Dallas on city owned property.

Blog written by Board member and original founder: AL Nickerson

Thank you to AL Nickerson for sharing this first person history of our wonderful community garden. Your persistence and foresight helped shape the LHCG to what it is today.