Denver Urban Gardens
 Our mission at Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) is to empower disadvantaged Denver Metro neighborhoods by helping to transform their derelict vacant lots into community gardens and other useful and meaningful open spaces. Our goals and objectives include:
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. |
