Our Vision

The DIY Home Gardening Project was born from a simple belief: everyone deserves access to fresh, nutritious food—and the knowledge to grow it themselves. Rooted in community care, sustainability, and self-empowerment, our initiative helps individuals and families transform their spaces—no matter how small—into thriving gardens.

Whether you’re planting your first seed or expanding your backyard oasis, we’re here to guide you. Through hands-on workshops, culturally rooted gardening practices, and one-on-one support, we help people reconnect with the land, reduce food insecurity, and nurture healthier lifestyles.

Our vision is a world where gardens are everywhere: on porches, in windows, along sidewalks, and in backyards—each one a small act of resistance, nourishment, and joy.

Grow with us. Thrive with us. Reclaim your food and your future.

Starting a Garden

Tips and Advice

Who we are

In 2024 a small group of friends and acquaintances started meeting to discuss mutual concerns about climate change and food security in Lincoln/ Lancaster County, Nebraska. We wanted to take action for positive change.

Inspired by the success of Hawley Hamlet and the principles laid out in the Mayor's Office, we decided that our focus would be home gardens, and that we would work to support people new to gardening so that they would have the tools and resources to be successful. Furthermore, we decided to start a pilot project with a neighborhood association because of the advantages the administration and proximity would afford. After some deliberation, we called our project DIY Home Gardening.

As gardeners ourselves, we understood the benefits of growing and sharing one's food and the joy of having one's own garden right outside the doorstep. Our collective experiences were similar, in that gardening:

created or enhanced friendships and the sense of security in our neighborhoods;
increased the likelihood of mutual aid among our neighbors;
increased our satisfaction with life and our human connections;
provided an ever-unfolding appreciation and empathy for the natural world; and
increased and satisfied our curiosity about the world.

DIY Home Gardening Project Hosts Street Dance Sept. 21 st

The DIY Home Gardening coalition was established in cooperation with the Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln to improve food and nutritional security in Lincoln by helping more people garden at home. We provide resources for future and existing home gardeners at any level of experience. Partner organizations include: Asian Community and Cultural Center, Bryan Health, Center for People, Center for Rural Affairs, Civic Nebraska, Family Service Lincoln/Community Crops, Food Bank of Lincoln, Grateful Growers, Hawley Hamlet Neighborhood Garden, Lincoln Alliance, Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department, Mayor’s Community Committee on Local Food, Near South Neighborhood Assn., Nebraska Children, Nebraska Extension/UNL Master Gardeners and Backyard Farmer, and Nebraska Interfaith Power and Light.