Denver Urban Gardens

DUG serves neighborhoods that desire a garden by helping with design, organization, construction and maintenance; negotiating land agreements; and educating participants. We currently provide support to nearly 70 inner-city gardens in the metro area.

Every garden is multi-purpose in design and unique to the needs and requests of that particular community. Some of the components that make up a garden are: shaded gathering spaces, benches and/or picnic tables, amphitheatres or education venues, xeriscape learning landscapes, compost bins, and plots to grow produce, flowers or herbs, and much more.

Community gardens act as catalysts for long-term fundamental change in under-served neighborhoods. Gardens produce healthy food and lifestyles, and provide beauty in a severe urban environment. They are places of refuge and learning; oases where people of diverse cultures gather to work and interact; and for many, gardens offer another step toward economic self-sufficiency. Gardens stage community-based youth and adult programs such as skills training, hands-on environmental education and intergenerational mentoring. Gardens are unique, in that they attract all ages and cultures to a "common ground" where understanding and respect is the root of a community garden's purpose.

In many neighborhoods, the local community garden becomes the most visible and on-going example of neighborhood achievement and restoration. We strongly believe in the magic of a garden to foster in residents the essential lessons and experiences of life - growth, nurturing, respect, patience, stewardship, self-sufficiency, and the benefits of hard work and healthy lifestyles.