Seven years ago, a video titled “Westbury Community Garden – Master Plan Implementation Phase 1” was posted to YouTube.
The actual master plan mentioned in the video was developed years before that.
Debbie Gordon, Westbury Community Garden President (Photos by Dorothy Puch Lillig)
“We developed our master plan in 2015 with Asakura Robinson Landscape Architects, but the defining big pieces — the driveways, walking paths and drainage swales — have been out of reach financially,” said Debbie Gordon, president and community outreach/fundraising chair for the Westbury Community Garden.
Until now.
The Office of Commissioner Rodney Ellis today announced a large grant — $845,000 — to the garden to fund engineering work, City of Houston permitting and, finally, construction of a new large circle drive, walking paths and a new farm access road.
Additionally, the grant will cover moving the Plant It Forward teaching farms about 50 to 60 feet south to accommodate a wide east-west flood detention zone and a meandering system of swales running north-south to collect water during heavy rain events and keep it on the property.
The timeline is approximately 18 months, with construction occurring in the third and fourth quarters of 2027.
The cost of the original master plan was split between the Brays Oaks Management District and the community garden.
For Gordon, who has been a member gardener since 2013 — three years after the garden was established — it’s about sharing a love for growing things with the community.
“I love growing my own organic food and also love teaching others how much you can grow year-round in a small plot,” she said.
Ironically, Gordon’s name is just two vowels away from “garden.”
(Photos by Dorothy Puch Lillig)
The Westbury Community Garden is one of the largest, most successful community gardens in Houston.
How does it work? Gardeners rent a space, or an allotment, under one-year contracts. They buy their own seeds and plants and work in their gardens every week, later harvesting their own produce.
Guided by its slogan, “Growing Community through Gardening,” it truly lives up to that mission. The garden has received recognition at both the local and national levels.
Gordon said the WCG Fundraising Committee has presented its master plan infrastructure needs to Harris County Precinct 1 Engineering & Planning several times over the last three years.
“We were encouraged by the engineers, who said our project fit the county’s requirement for the use of toll road dollars because it includes driveways and walking paths,” Gordon said. The engineers also noted that WCG checks several boxes the commissioner favors, including:
- an underserved location in Westbury
- food production in an FDA-designated food desert
- green space in an area with few parks
- a diverse community in race, ethnicity, gender and age
- flood mitigation and water conservation in the master plan
- native plantings and habitat restoration
- robust volunteer, education and outreach programs
- walking paths that could connect to future neighborhood trails
(Photos by Dorothy Puch Lillig)
“This huge project will be the start of many new improvements as we approach the garden’s second decade,” Gordon said.
A joint project of the Westbury SuperNeighborhood, the Westbury Civic Club and the Westbury Area Improvement Corporation, the 7-acre site at Dunlap Street and Fonmeadow Drive is owned by the City of Houston.
(Photos by Dorothy Puch Lillig)
In 2009, a group of volunteers seeking to build a community garden in the Westbury area discovered the site. Thanks to Keep Houston Beautiful, Keep America Beautiful and Scotts Miracle-Gro, the first garden beds were constructed in March 2010. Today, there are 62 raised beds, an outdoor learning pavilion, orchards, compost areas, an apiary, a naturalized Gulf Coast Pocket Prairie and a certified butterfly garden with native plants.
In 2014, WCG partnered with Plant It Forward, which teaches new farmers how to farm in the Houston climate and market their produce.
“We have successfully created a space where residents of area single-family homes garden together with residents from nearby multi-family housing,” the organization states on its website. “Our gardeners are as diverse as the produce they grow, and they come from all over southwest Houston. People from different backgrounds, cultures and circumstances come together as gardeners.”
And they are looking for more community members to join the effort.
Is your group looking for a community service project? WCG works alongside church groups, neighbors, scouts and school groups on various gardening, building and maintenance projects.
The garden has regular monthly workdays and relies on donors to carry out its mission year after year.
With the announcement of grant dollars flowing into the garden, Gordon, other board members, the gardeners, volunteers and community can look forward to an era of growth — in more ways than one.
— Dorothy Puch Lillig
