On Wednesday afternoons in summer, a small army of volunteers typically descends upon a garden’s raised beds, harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, green beans, kale, onions, potatoes, and every type of pepper imaginable. They might gather 800 or 900 pounds of produce — most of it destined for a local food pantry.  

Does this sound like a well-oiled community garden? It is. 

It also happens to be the Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) Associate Garden at headquarters in Marysville, Ohio: one of the company’s most beloved perks. Over the course of the growing season, hundreds of employees will help in the garden, growing and donating as much as three tons of fruits and vegetables. What’s more, it provides a blueprint for how any workplace with a patch of soil can bond its team, build employee satisfaction, and benefit the community.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro garden has been providing fresh produce to the community — and a place for employees to unwind and recharge — since its launch in 2009. Melissa Bond, a content manager, has, along with plant scientist Amy Enfield, PhD, managed it for the past 13 years. Its roots grow deep. Scotts had encouraged associates to garden on company property since 1943, in support of the World War II Victory Garden movement. 

The Associate Garden, Bond hoped, would spark a revival of employee gardening. She had no idea how successful it would be. “My goal was to increase participation to over 100 people,” she says. “That first season, we had so many employees from across the organization! It was amazing.”

It may be no-brainer that Scotts has a few avid gardeners on the payroll and that a community garden is “on brand” for the business. But many U.S. firms — including L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Intuit, Google, LinkedIn, and PayPal — tout their employee gardening programs. There are even organizations (Bay Area nonprofit StartOrganic and New York City-based Project Petals, to name two) that specialize in helping corporate gardening efforts take root. Research shows these gardens contribute meaningfully to employee well-being, productivity, and workplace morale. In one survey of workplace gardening programs, 92% of participants reported less stress, and 96% said they experienced positive life changes.

Corporate community-gardening programs also make sustainability and social-giving goals tangible. SMG associates who worked on the community garden were initially encouraged to pledge 25% of their harvest to a local food pantry. But during COVID, when those pantries were hurting, the company began donating about 90% of its harvest to such organizations as the Marysville Food Pantry, and that stat is holding steady. 

“We want to make sure people get their leafy greens,” says Bond, which means growing lots of chard and kale. Shelf-stable root crops — onions, beets, carrots, and potatoes — are winners as well. But experimentation is applauded. “Okra isn’t really a traditional crop in Ohio,” says Bond. “But so many associates said, ‘My grandma used to grow this’ that we added it.”

The garden has been a vital, visible lifeline for neighbors. Last spring, when a pause in federal food-assistance funding meant local pantries were short on vegetables, programs got “all of their produce from our garden,” says Bond.

Obviously, a thriving community garden at work needs a site (but not a huge one) with good soil, decent drainage, and sunlight. Then, a couple of interventions: When Bond began reinvigorating the company’s old gardening plots, weeds and pests were plentiful. Building raised beds changed everything. “You can use 2-by-12s from the hardware store and corner brackets,” says Bond, who recommends pricier cedar to avoid rot. 

Add light, fluffy soil, she advises, so most digging and planting can be done with just one’s hands (so easy for beginning gardeners). “We only use the shovels and the forks when we mix in new soil and plant food in April, and when we’re digging up our potatoes at the end of the season,” Bond says. “The biggest tools we use are scissors and garden shears for harvesting.”

You’ll need water — for plants and people (it gets hot out there!). The SMG garden added a station with potable water a few years ago. “Before, we had to run over to the fitness center across the parking lot to refill a water bottle,” says Bond. “Now we have a refrigerator, too. We add little fun things every year.”

But what about getting employees to leave their desks and head outdoors, especially when deadlines are looming? Bond’s strategy: She asks departmental teams to sign up for a couple of weeks during the growing season to water every day and help with the Wednesday harvest. “It not that everyone has to commit to every week,” says Bond. “We're asking for a half hour a day from somebody, and then give us five to 10 people on Wednesday to help harvest.”

It hasn’t taken much to get associates to raise their hands. “When people are in the garden, any stress just melts away,” Bond says. “It’s a moment away from the desk. Even if people are listening to meetings while they're watering, it’s still their time to get outside and breathe.”

Not to be overlooked: A community garden at work is also a form of staff development. “People will take what they learn and apply it at home and beyond. It's teaching people to grow.” And in more ways than one.