Welcome to Project Grow

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ABOUT PROJECT GROW

What is our mission?
Project Grow Community Gardens provides the space, education, and inspiration to make organic gardening accessible to all.

Growing Tips from our gardeners (local folks like you!)

Who manages Project Grow?
Project Grow is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors.  Day-to-day business and program management is carried out by a Managing Director.  Every community garden has at least one Site Coordinator, who serves as a vital link between the gardeners and the organization. Volunteers play an essential role in fulfilling our mission, from garden support and management to special events planning and program facilitation.

What services does Project Grow provide?
Community Gardens
Project Grow manages 14 community garden sites, enabling hundreds of local gardeners to green their thumbs every year. Our Discovery Gardens, located at the Leslie Science & Nature Center and County Farm Park, provide unique and inspirational garden communities for seniors, children and gardeners with disabilities. 

We are proud of the fact that all of our programs are based on sustainable methods, enriching the land through soil improvement, landscaping, plantings and careful stewardship.

Gardening Education
Project Grow conducts community-based education classes and programs on gardening-related topics for adults, senior citizens, children, schools and groups. Classes apply organic gardening methods to topics that vary each year.  For 2010, look for subjects on heirloom vegetables, composting, raising chickens, bee keeping and the like.   Project Grow also sponsors an Organic Gardening Certification Program in partnership with Washtenaw Community College.

We are proud of the fact that our community-based classes are generally free of charge, so that anyone wishing to learn about organic gardening can do so easily.  Where fees are necessary, they are set at as low a level as possible, to cover the costs of putting on the class.

Community Partnerships                                                                                               Project Grow collaborates with numerous community organizations to fulfill its mission. Partnerships with local schools, businesses, government agencies, and
non-profit organizations provide innovative organic gardening programs, resources, and mentorship to community members most in need.  Project Grow gardeners donate many pounds of fresh produce each summer to local organizations, including Food Gatherers, Safe House Domestic Violence Center, and others. Our volunteer program welcomes individuals and groups to lend a hand throughout the season. It's a great chance to start or continue greening your thumb!

Every one of our partnerships gives us pride.  However, a partnership has developed over the years between the Eagle Scouts program of the Boys Scouts of America and Project Grow that warrants public recognition.  At different times, individual scouts have built permanent wooden fences, raised beds, and a pergola for the Discovery Garden in their bid to attain that coveted rank. Mitchell Lichtenberg has just achieved that high status by completing his project of designing and building wooden signs for the many beds at the Discovery Garden.  This spring, Andrew Best, future Eagle Scout, will be repairing many of the raised beds in the Discovery Garden.!

General Information

Cynthia Rutherford, our new Managing Director, can be reached by telephone at 734-996-3169 or via email at info@projectgrowgardens.org