How to find a community garden near you

Start with the directories

The quickest route is a directory search. The American Community Gardening Association keeps a national Find-a-Garden database you can search by ZIP code. Many cities and horticultural societies also publish their own maps, such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's community garden locator for Philadelphia, a city garden map for Rochester, NY, and community garden listings for Metro Vancouver.

Search your city or county name together with "community garden" and check the parks and recreation department's website, since many cities run or list garden programs there. Directories are not always current, so treat a listing as a lead, not a confirmation.

Look beyond official lists

Many gardens are run by a church, school, library, housing complex, or neighborhood association and never appear in a directory. Ask at your local library or community center, check neighborhood message boards, and look at local gardening club pages. On a map, look for fenced green lots with raised beds, then look for a sign with a contact name.

Growers Ground maps community gardens in 33 US and Canadian metros using OpenStreetMap data. Browse the city pages on this site for a preview. These pins come from public map data, so confirm details with the garden before you visit.

What to ask before you join

Contact the coordinator and ask: Are plots available now, and how long is the waitlist? What does a plot cost per season, and are there volunteer hours? What size are the plots, and are tools, water, and compost provided? Which crops or practices are restricted? When does the season start and end? Is the garden accessible, and is there a shared area if you do not want your own plot?

Ask to visit before committing. A walk-through shows you how well the garden is kept and how the members get along.

If there is a waitlist

Waitlists are common, and their length varies by garden and city, so ask each garden directly instead of assuming. While you wait, you can put your name on more than one list, volunteer at a shared bed (many gardens welcome helpers), or look for an informal option such as a neighbor who is willing to share part of a yard. You can also ask about a shared plot with another gardener, which some gardens allow.

Another option: a neighbor's yard

If no community garden has room, yard sharing can fill the gap: a homeowner with unused space and a gardener who needs it agree on terms directly. Our guide to how yard sharing works explains how to structure it safely.

Finding people, not just plots

A garden is also a group of people. Growers Ground is a map-first app for finding gardeners and hosts nearby, with local groups, growing journals, and community spots such as seed swaps and compost sites that anyone can add to the map. The app is not yet in the app stores. Join the waitlist on our home page and we will let you know when your area opens. We are launching city by city across the US and Canada.