Tricycle Gardens Engage Community, Beautify Richmond

Richmond is often recognized for its ever-flowing traffic, high crime rates and polluted streets. But one nonprofit is attempting to change that image – one garden at a time. Tricycle Gardens, founded in 2002, is working to beautify the city by planting gardens in urban areas across Richmond. 

“Tricycle Gardens has done a really good job of getting our gardens started here and other gardens around the city,” Emily Francis, manager of the Humphrey Carden garden, said. “When I’m out and people are walking by, walking their dogs, just going for a run, they’ll stop and say, ‘What is this? What’s going on and how do I get to be a part of this?’ so I think people are pretty receptive to it.”

Tricycle Gardens offers several ways for the community to get involved. Formal workshops teach how to create a healthier lifestyle and community through urban renovation. But perhaps the most popular are the four community gardens, in which community groups develop the resources, plant and maintain their own plot of land.

Scattered throughout Richmond, these gardens allow up to 30 residents to rent a plot for $50 a year to grow vegetables, fruit or flowers. Participation has been high and gardeners are appreciative of the ample space.

“I live in an apartment,” Francis said. “I have no patch of grass, so for people like me who don’t own a house with a yard, [this garden] gives me an opportunity to be able to grow things and actually eat what I grow which is pretty nice from a health perspective and also just being able to get out and enjoy nature here in Richmond.”

Tricycle Gardens has also established an urban farm, located on the corner of 9th and Bainbridge Streets, which is Richmond’s first urban, year-round, highly productive farm. The farm grows more than vegetables; it also nourishes the minds of both adults and children who can learn about farming, soil improvement, nutrition, organic growing and more. 

Among the crops grown are collards, kale, Swiss chard, mustard greens, lettuce, beets, green tomatoes, basil, parsley and sage. Produce isbeets, green tomatoes, bail, parsley & sage available to the public at an on-site farm stand, and it is also distributed to local business partners, like Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market.

One shopper at Ellwood Thompson’s, Tuesday Stodd, supports the community gardens in Richmond and noted the impact of organic markets.

“I think they’re so important,” Stodd said. “I think it brings people closer to the food in its organic state as it’s naturally found.  I think it makes people more aware of what they can get that ‘s close and local and fresh and food that’s just made of food.”

Similar to the community gardens are Tricycle’s learning gardens, which are associated with community centers and schools and offer weekly programs. Their goal is to work with an organization for three to five years to help the volunteers develop the tools needed to sufficiently maintain the garden and eventually take full ownership of it and its educational programs.

These types of programs are particularly effective for children age 5 and older because of the hands-on nature of the curriculum. Teaching inner-city youth where the food they eat comes from and how to grow it on their own helps promote a healthy diet as well as provides for an educational, fulfilling activity.

Stodd said, “I think it’s a great opportunity to teach our children, or in my case my nieces, about how to eat healthy and how there’s so much available nearby.”

Francis agreed, recognizing the family bonding time that gardening encourages. 

“There are people out here who have plots with kids and so kids being able to grow their first vegetable – I think that’s pretty cool for a young person to be able to have a part in and then for adults who maybe have never grown anything either or did it a long time ago and wanted to get back to it.  I think hands-on for any issue is the best way to do it.”

Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rice Center is a field station devoted to environmental research, which takes a similar approach to learning as Tricycle Gardens. The Rice Center’s Life Sciences Outreach Education Coordinator Anne B. Wright emphasized the importance of getting involved with one’s environment.

“I think that all of us, from children to adults, are becoming more and more removed from nature,” Wright said. “The educational and research activities that we have developed at the Rice Center are focused on getting people outside and involved, connecting us to plants, animals and the natural history of the world around us.”

However, to see the fruits of one’s labor, a good amount of time and effort must be put forth.


“For plot owners, I think the challenge is just coming out every day or every other day to take care of the plots,” Francis said.

Because some gardeners neglect the upkeep during winter months, their plants have suffered.  On the other hand, some of the plants that do survive are being stolen.  Despite these small issues, there is still a long waiting list to rent a plot within Tricycle Gardens.


For information on how you can get your name on a waiting list, visit http://tricyclegardens.org/. 

Tricycle Gardens Addresses

Church Hill/Union Hill Jefferson Avenue Community Garden	Jefferson Ave. between 23rd and 24th Streets
Carver Community Garden	1321 W. Leigh St.
The Museum District Humphrey Calder Community Garden	On the corner of Patterson and Thompson Streets
Chimborazo Playground Park Community Garden	In Church Hill, between 29th and 31st Streets
Fulton Hill: Neighborhood Resource Center Learning Garden	1519 Williamsburg Road
Winchester Greens Neighborhood Center Learning Garden	2801 Creekview Dr.
Peter Paul Development Center Learning Garden	1708 N. 22nd St.