Common Ground
Established in 2012, Common Ground is a community gardening and urban agriculture program that connects residents with underutilized properties for use as community gardens and farm land for minimal cost.
The Common Ground program strives to remove barriers to growing local food; to promote access to fresh produce for all; to provide and sustain green spaces for a healthy urban ecosystem and to build an equitable community.
There are currently 11 sites—ranging from gardens and orchards to an incubator farm—supporting beginning farmers, more than 230 gardeners, as well as hundreds of community members that benefit from food donations and opportunities for physical activity.
Locations
The Common Ground program provides 9.5 acres of public land for community food production across 11 sites in the City of Lawrence:
Garden Incubator at John Taylor Park—7th & Walnut Street
PermaCommons—1304 Pennsylvania Street
Penn. St. Community Garden—1313 Pennsylvania Street
Pearl Clark Community Garden—639 Illinois Street
Little Prairie Community & Donation Garden—Peterson Road & N. Iowa Street
Just Food Community Garden—817 Oak Street
The Lawrence Community Orchard—830 Garfield Street
Oread Friends Garden—1146 Oregon Street
Incubator Farm—Highway 24/40
Growing Together Community Garden—3rd & Alabama Street
Broken Arrow Community Garden—31st & Louisiana Street
Common Ground Farm Apprenticeship Program
Love being outdoors? Interested in gaining farming experience and learning about land stewardship? This Apprenticeship may be for you!
As an Apprentice you will:
• Gain practical hands-on experience with farming and land stewardship.
• Work side by side with establishing farmers at the Common Ground Farm in North Lawrence.
• Have exposure to a variety of cultural food producing and land stewardship practices, and conservation agriculture techniques.
• And more!
Pay Rate: $15.35 / Hour
Flexible Hours: Your schedule is coordinated with your mentor farmer(s) to work for both of you. Evening and weekend hours may apply. An apprentice learning experience is estimated at 100 hours over the growing season, however, more or less hours may be available.
Applications are closed for 2025. Check back in early 2026 to apply for next growing season!
History
The City of Lawrence, with leadership from the Lawrence-Douglas County Sustainability Office and Lawrence Department of Parks and Recreation, established the Common Ground program in 2012. By enabling underutilized public properties to become community gardens, Common Ground minimizes barriers to growing fresh produce, promotes access to fresh, locally grown food, sustains a healthy urban ecosystem, and builds community.
Common Ground is currently supported by the Douglas County Sustainability Office, in close collaboration with several City of Lawrence departments.
Workshops
With funding provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Common Ground is offering a series of educational workshops and demonstration projects on six sustainable agriculture topics—cover crops, season extension, pollinator habitat, water conservation, soil fertility and sustainable weed management.
Previous topics are featured below in fun and informative videos.