The Giving Garden>>Mission & Story
The Mission of the Giving Garden (of Cincinnati) is to:
  • Reclaim disused, vacant, blighted property,
  • Provide gardening education and programming,
  • Foster the beautification of public spaces,
  • With a greater consciousness for the environment and our community


    • Our Story:
    On February 1st 2009, three Kennedy Heights residents assembled and founded the Giving Garden (of Cincinnati). They shared a common vision of desiring to serve our community and environment via reclamation of disused, vacant or blighted property and then transforming that property into usable, beautiful public space where citizens can come and learn about sustainable, environmentally friendly gardening and in turn take the knowledge and insights gained to beautify their gardens and surroundings.

    Martin Wagner, BJ Gardner and Eric Bertelsen are the incorporating members and founding Board Members of the non-profit organization they are calling the Giving Garden. Their first reclamation project will be located at the vacant property at 6523 Tyne Avenue in the City of Cincinnati’s most north-eastern neighborhood of Kennedy Heights.

    The founding trio has laid out the plans for significant amount of work and support needed over the next six months.

    These include:
  • Removal of environmentally unfriendly rubble, trash and waste
  • Soil testing to determine intervention needed to restore nutrient content
  • Sourcing and addition of organic materials to enrich existing soil
  • Installation of raised beds using materials from recycled milk jugs
  • Planting of various themed, raised beds for specific educational purposes
  • Creation of a living green perimeter fence
  • Development of an initial schedule of gardening classes and content


    • For more information email: marty@givinggardencincinnati.org