Now that spring is around the corner we’re here to herb your enthusiasm with a roundup of community gardens to cultivate your green thumb.
Whether you’re looking to work with a group and share the fruit or solo grow your harvest, these local spots are tilled and ready to turnip this growing season. 🍅
Many community gardens offer seed share programs and community shared tool sheds, but check with each garden for specifics.
🌿 Eastover Community Garden, 105 McGrath St., Eastover
This community garden was originally founded in 2014 and revitalized in 2021 by Michael Dantzler. Thanks to a $70,000 grant from the USDA, this 1,800 sqft garden will expand to 9,000 sqft with 75 percent of the new land already plowed.
- Season: This garden is heading toward reserved plots and a growing + planting season Feb.-Nov.
- Cost: To be determined when reserved plots become available.
- Getting started: Keep up with the garden’s expansion + progress here or donate.
🌿 Hyatt Park, 950 Jackson Ave.
In 2018, the City of Columbia hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch a new pollinator garden to boost the bee population.
- Season: This is a year-round garden.
- Cost: $20 a year (including water)
- Getting started: Fill out a Community Garden Application, and if full, fill out a Waiting List Application.
🌿 NOMA Community Garden, 2714 River Dr.
The NOMA Community Garden on River Drive houses 50 garden beds on an empty plot of land that was initially planned to be a six-lane connector between 277 and I-26.
- Season: This is a year-round garden
- Cost: $20 a year (including water)
- Getting started: Fill out a Community Garden Application, and if full, fill out a Waiting List Application.
🌿Rosewood Public Orchard, 1401 Jim Hamilton Blvd.
Columbia Resilience — a nonprofit organization that creates + supports local programs to strengthen the local community — has overseen the community garden since 2013 and is maintained by local volunteers on a rotating basis. Read the full origin story of this community garden.
- Season: You can participate in this community garden year-round.
- Cost: Columbia Resilience has created The First Time Bank of Columbia where volunteers and community members can exchange services by tracking their time spent helping rather than money. Sign up here.
- Getting started: Volunteer at Community Garden Days Pro tip — bring gloves, water, and a mask — every Sat. 10 a.m.-12 p.m. or every Mon. 4 p.m.-dark. Don’t have a green thumb? You can always donate.
🌿 Ever thought about starting your own garden? The Richland Soil and Water Conservation District’s Seed Sanctuary will provide you with free seeds, so you can start your own community garden at the Richland Library Eastover branch, located at 608 Main St. Residents can pick up to four packets of vegetable, herb, and wildflower seeds for free at one of its pop-up events.
- Season: To find what’s in season, check out Certified SC’s website. To see what to plant + when, check out Richland County’s website.
- Cost: Grab up to four seed packets for free.
- Getting started: Go pick up your seeds or become a Seed Sanctuary volunteer.
For more info + to see a full list of local community garden locations, visit Columbia’s Parks and Recreation website. Pro tip — if you don’t really know where to start, join the South Carolina Native Plant Society — a nonprofit dedicated to preserving, protecting, and restoring native plants in our communities.
Above is the info we’ve dug up about community gardens. If you have more info we can share, shovel it our way.
