Chard Your Yard is a program that provides 3' x 5' x 12" installed garden beds for residents of and around the Greater Longfellow neighborhood.  The gardens are provided at-cost to residents, and construction and delivery are provided by volunteers.  To find out more about the gardens and the installation process, visit our Gardens page.  If you want, you can even Build Your Own!

Garden Location Eligibility

To be eligible to receive a garden, the garden must be installed in one of the following neighborhoods: Cooper, Corcoran, Ericcson, Hiawatha, Howe, Longfellow, Seward, Standish. A limited amount of subsidized beds are available for households who are low income.  There are also a limited amount of double high beds available for those with physical disabilities. If you have questions about your address eligibility, please check the Delivery Area page.

Limit of One Bed Per Address/Household

Because of the limited size and scope of our project, we are limiting garden bed sales to one bed per address/household.  We want to encourage as many gardeners as we can.  

Program Dates - 2025

Here are our program dates for this year.  

Garden Orders

• March 28 - noon - Registration Opens
• Open until sold out

Soil Orders

• March 28 - noon - Registration Opens
• Open until sold out

Build Nights

• Tue April 22 | 5:30p - 9p
• Tue April 29 | 5:30p - 9p

Install Days

• Sat April 26
  9a - Noon | 1p-4p
• Sat May 3
  9a - Noon | 1p - 4p

Garden Prices - 2025

Garden Prices for 2025 be available soon, so check back soon!

For 2024, the price for an installed bed is $70!  That's the same price as 2023 and $15 LOWER than 2022!!! This covers the cost of the lumber and fastening materials, and for the soil/compost mix to fill the bed.

The Longfellow Community Council and Chard Your Yard will provide subsidies for Low Income persons, and for persons with physical disabilities.  Prices for these beds are as follows:

• Standard Bed - $70.00
• Low-income beds - $35.00
• Persons with Disabilities - $70.00
  (This is a double-high bed, so more than twice the materials - greater than half price discount)

For more pricing details, visit our Gardens page.  

Program Motivation

Fresh food from a home garden improves a family's health and a community's food resilience. That's why victory gardens were promoted in WWII and it's the same reasons we promote gardens today. Add in the benefit of reducing the miles your food needs to travel (its carbon footprint) and the improved taste and nutritional value of a vine-ripened tomato, a sun-warmed strawberry or a super-sweet carrot and that's why Transition Longfellow created the Chard Your Yard program!

Chard Your Yard was the signature food-resilience project of Transition Longfellow. We are a group of volunteers who promote gardening in our community by installing ready-to-plant raised garden beds for our neighbors. We have been doing this since Chard Your Yard was launched in 2013; since that time our group has installed about 290 raised garden beds in the greater Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis!

We have been successful by using economies of scale to create affordable garden beds for our neighbors, providing them with a quality finished product at cost. We are able to complete installation by activating volunteers to do the heavy lifting, cutting and assembling beds, delivering the beds and then returning later to fill the beds. The hard work of hauling dirt and wielding cordless drills does more than build a garden, we also improve our neighbors health, and create more sustainable communities.

Chard Your Yard has received financial assistance every year from the Longfellow Community Council to make the project more affordable for at-risk neighborhood residents -low income and persons with physical disabilities.