Every garden has a beginning. Ours came together on a single rainy day in September 2011 — built by an army of neighbors, students, and volunteers on a wide-open piece of Alief ISD land.
Three Days Before: Laying It Out
On the evening of September 14, a group of volunteers came to help lay out the positions of the 25 raised beds we planned to build. Guiding us was Gary Ray Sher, our Urban Harvest leader, who stayed with us for three months and walked us through every step. With his instructions, we got all the stakes and string in place before it got dark. Looking back at the photos, what stands out most is just how wide open the land was.
Build Day: September 17, 2011
At 7 a.m., an army of volunteers gathered on the land. Ray Sher — in green for the big day — started training teams right away. Our workers were of all ages and cultures: neighborhood folks, event sponsors, and the Boy Scouts, who came to work and never stopped. It looked like a well-trained, productive army.
When only a few beds were left to fill with soil, a few raindrops fell — followed by a downpour. Some volunteers found shelter; many just kept working to finish the remaining beds. At 12:55 p.m., the Alief Community Garden was born. That rainstorm broke a terrible drought that had lasted nearly a year.
Build Day, in Photos
From 25 Beds to Today
From those first 25 beds, the garden has grown into one of the largest community gardens in Houston — 85 plots tended by around 40 active members, a tree farm that has greened medians across Alief, a university-designed pavilion, and a young orchard, with a greenhouse on the way.
This is just the beginning of the story. Watch this space — we’ll keep sharing photos and memories from the years since our garden took root in 2011.
