Topeka Common Ground

Come Grow With Us!

Community gardens help to grow stronger, more vibrant communities, and we work to encourage and support community gardens in Topeka and Shawnee County, Kansas. 

We define a community garden as a shared plot of ground gardened by multiple households or groups of community members. Some community gardens assign individual plots where participants grow foods for their own use, while others work a communal plot and may divide the produce among the gardeners or donate part or all of the garden's bounty to a local food assistance organization. Some gardens work with youth, and may include a structured educational curriculum. Others grow food just to be able to share it with their neighbors.  No matter what their structure or purpose, community gardens provide numerous benefits to their gardeners and their community.

Benefits of Community Gardens:

• Health - Gardening provides physical activity and helps to relieve stress and improve mental health. People who garden tend to eat healthier diets, including more fruits and vegetables.
• Household Economics - Growing your own food can help to save money on purchases of fresh produce.  Donations of food produced by community gardens help to alleviate food insecurity and hunger among at-risk households.
• Environment - Producing food locally reduces the "food miles" and carbon footprint associated with food production and distribution.  Gardening with environmentally sustainable methods reduces pesticide use and helps to build healthy soils. 
• Community Building - Community gardens provide a place for neighbors to connect with one another, and for gardeners to share their knowledge and skills. Community gardens build community pride and may eliminate blighted areas, reduce vandalism problems and increase property values. 

Topeka Common Ground is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that coordinates community garden resources for schools, places of worship, social service agencies, community centers, other nonprofit organizations, and groups of individual community members in the Topeka and Shawnee County vicinities. Our mission is to support and promote the establishment and maintenance of sustainable, environmentally friendly community gardens in all of Shawnee County. 

What We Do:  

We help to establish new community gardens support existing ones through: 

• Providing educational programs and access to educational resources
• Distribution of free garden seeds and seedlings to our affiliate community gardens
• Offering mini-grants to local community gardens (dependent upon our having funding available).

Grants and donations are our only source of income - we need your help!  

If you share our belief that community gardens are an important part of our community, please support us with your generous donations. The more money we have to work with, the more support we can provide to community gardens in our area. Help us to build a stronger community through community gardening!