Urban Garden Project
Houston Parks and Recreation Department
2999 South Wayside
Greenspace Management Division, Houston, Texas 77023 (map)
(713) 516-1420
Citizens who dwell in condos, apartments and townhomes can use this land opportunity to develop and maintain gardens.
Community gardens offer opportunities to grow healthy and more nutritional food
Community gardens are one solution to combating the rising cost of food in particular fresh produce.
Food banks can offer more fresh produce to its clients.
Communities can establish fresh produce markets in the neighborhood.
Community gardens make excellent teaching tools for the young to cultivate interest in growing food.
Benefits to the City
Redirect taxpayer funding to other services by reducing the quantity of vacant lots that require city maintenance.
Encourages neighbors to become active stakeholders in their neighborhoods
Community involvement in gardens can help in crime prevention based on studies of green spaces and its impact on crime.
Community gardens have been shown to actually increase property values in the immediate vicinity where they are located.
Urban Gardens
Imagine transforming vacant lots in your community into a urban gardens that produce tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and a cornucopia of other produce to feed families.
Through a partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, community and non-profit groups and local businesses, city-owned vacant lots can be transformed into urban gardens.
The Parks Department's Urban Gardener will determine available lots in your community that meet the criteria for approved areas to garden.
Eligible participants can lease vacant lots not used by the city for use as urban farm gardens. The Urban Gardener will help community gardeners navigate through the process to complete the leasing agreement and get started with planting a garden.
Lots will be leased for a nominal fee on a first-come, first-served basis.
Community gardeners must use the lots for gardens or farming.
Types of Gardens
Community groups can lease the entire lot and maintain the urban garden project as a group.
A lot can be leased in sections, and each community gardener is responsible for their area.
Types of Produce
Community gardeners can grow all types of vegetables; fruits; flowers and herbs. The Urban Gardener can arm new farmers with information on the 101's of growing vegetables - when to plant, what to plant, how to maintain your garden and when to harvest and tilling your soil and rotating types of crop.
How do I get started?
Contact the Urban Gardener
To see if there are other members in your neighborhood interested in community gardening.
To identify available lots in your neighborhood to be considered for program participation.
The Urban Gardener will walk you through the lease process.
How do I water my garden?
There are several methods community gardeners use to water their gardens: water hose, irrigation system and portable water.
Irrigation system do require water meters
