Community Gardens

Welcome to Richmond Grows Gardens

Under the leadership of Mayor Levar M. Stoney, our City Administration recognizes that community gardens provide economic benefits, increase social equity, strengthen our community, and promote environmental stewardship.

The goals of Richmond Grows Gardens are:

• To support the sustainability goals for the city of Richmond: improve the quality of life for residents, create a healthy environment and enhance economic development and job creation opportunities.
• To increase the public’s understanding of the value of community gardens and the need for community gardens in the city.
• To encourage and facilitate local urban agriculture which increases access to fresh, nutritional food for residents-particularly those in under resourced communities.
• To transform vacant and underutilized city parcels into productive gardens.
• We support the development of community gardens throughout Richmond. We define a community garden as: City property used in accordance with the provisions of this division to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, wood products or native or ornamental plants.
• We offer city property for community gardens to incorporated organizations, unincorporated organizations, and governmental organizations through an online application process. These Garden Groups are encouraged to engage with individual gardeners by creating their own policies to allot garden plots or otherwise let individuals use their parcel. Additionally, garden groups are encouraged to engage with community members by providing opportunities to participate in cultivation of plants and community relationships. 
• All garden groups and individual gardeners must follow the Richmond Grows Gardens Rules and Guidelines.
• Richmond Grows Gardens provides city-owned parcels for community-led agriculture and horticulture projects as well as programming support in order to cultivate green spaces for growing food, community, and environmental resilience.