Benson Community Garden

10/12/2026

🎃 2ND ANNUAL TRICK-OR-TREAT IN THE GARDEN! 👻
We are thrilled to bring back Trick-or-Treat in the Garden (1302 N. 60th Street)! Our first annual event last year was a huge success, welcoming approximately 300 children from our wonderful community.
As a volunteer-run space operating on a tight budget, we need your support to keep this new tradition growing and make it another sweet success for neighborhood families! 🧑‍🌾🍬

How You Can Support Us:
🍬 Candy Donations: Bring sealed, unopened, individually wrapped bags of candy to the garden (message us to meet you).
💵 Monetary Donations: Venmo us at (Last 4 digits: 0290).

Where Your Giving Goes:
First, to buying candy for the neighborhood kids.
Extra funds go directly into next season's budget for soil, seeds, and tools.
Any leftover candy will be donated to a local Omaha food pantry so nothing goes to waste!
Thank you for supporting your local community garden!

Call now to connect with business.

09/22/2026

Tonight is the night. Talk to a Neighbor Tuesday is happening right here at Benson Community Garden from 6 to 8 PM, and the timing couldn't be better. Autumn officially begins at 7:05 PM tonight, so we'll welcome the new season together right in the middle of our gathering.
Come anytime that works for you. Stay 15 minutes or stay the whole two hours. Meet your neighbors, take a stroll through the garden, and enjoy a beautiful evening as summer hands things off to fall.
No agenda. No pressure. Just good company and a good garden.
See you tonight.

09/21/2026

Repurposed drum planters are one of our favorite tools here, and right now the wider community has a great opportunity to grab some for FREE!
American Laboratories has 100 blue 25-gallon drums with lids available this week at their 5036 South 33rd Street location. These are the exact style of drum we use for our own shared herb garden, and they make excellent planters for homes, schools, and community spaces alike.
Please note, these drums are NOT located at our garden. We are simply sharing the opportunity on behalf of American Laboratories. If you are interested, you must contact them directly to arrange a pickup time. Reach out to [email protected] to coordinate.

A few details worth knowing. The drums measure 18 inches tall and 16 inches in diameter. They previously held food-grade material.
If you have ever wanted an easy, durable, low maintenance way to grow herbs, flowers, or vegetables, this is a fantastic place to start.

09/19/2026

This weekend we are laying cardboard and covering it with 6 to 8 inches of mulch to prep the Discovery Garden. We need help, especially some strong hands to temporarily move planters onto the grass so we can get the area cleared and covered. Any help is appreciated. Thank you for always showing up for this garden. We hope we are a good neighbor to you too.

09/18/2026

Volunteers needed this weekend. If you are interested in helping or know a service group that can lend a hand, please let us know. Thank you!

Email from Benson Community Garden Volunteers Needed Sunday, September 20th Join us for "Talk to a Neighbor Tuesday" Benson Community Garden is proud to take part in the inaugural Good Neighbor Week w

09/18/2026

They say if you put a positive request out into the universe, sometimes it gets answered …but, twice in one week?
Make a wish.
A little while back we posted that we needed clean cardboard boxes to help control w**ds in our upcoming Discovery Garden. Longtime friend and supporter of the garden, Tony Wingate, saw the post and told us he had access to plenty, saving them from the compactor at his workplace instead of letting them go to waste. He packed up a huge load and delivered it to us over two nights. We are fully stocked now, and ready to put them in place.
Then this morning, something unexpected happened. We noticed a tree company working across the street, cutting down and grinding branches, and we walked over to ask a simple question: were they planning to dispose of those wood chips, or could we take them off their hands? Mike, the owner of A&C Tree Service here in Omaha, said yes without hesitation and dumped a generous pile right in front of our garden. Awesome!
So now the real work begins. We will lay the cardboard down thick across the Discovery Garden site, then top it with a solid layer of wood chips. This combination controls w**ds naturally, creates comfortable, stable footing for visitors, and is going to look fantastic once it is finished.

It is exciting news, even if today’s heat is keeping us from diving in immediately. This is shaping up to be a weekend project, and if anyone wants to lend a hand, we would gladly take it.

Thank you to Tony and to Mike at A&C Tree Service for two acts of generosity that landed in the same week. And thank you to everyone out there doing small, good things for the people and places around them. It genuinely does not go unnoticed.

09/17/2026

Today is National Pawpaw Day, and we could not let it pass without celebrating one of our favorite unusual plants growing here at Benson Community Garden.

We have four pawpaw trees on our grounds. They are still young, so we have not seen blooms yet, but we have foraged and tasted the fruit elsewhere, and it is genuinely special. Think sweet banana and mango with just a touch of caramel. Once you try it, you understand why people get excited about this fruit.

The pawpaw is actually the largest edible fruit native to the United States, and it has deep roots in American history. Native American communities relied on it long before European settlers arrived, and it is rumored to have been George Washington’s favorite dessert. Thomas Jefferson grew pawpaw trees at Monticello, and Lewis and Clark leaned on the fruit to survive when other provisions ran low during their expedition. One quirky note for later, the flowers themselves actually smell a bit unpleasant, which is unusual for something that produces such a sweet fruit.

We love growing things like this at Benson Community Garden. Part of our mission is showing our members and neighbors what is possible in a home garden or a plot here, and unusual native fruits like the pawpaw are a great example of something worth trying.

Happy National Pawpaw Day from all of us here in Benson.

09/15/2026

Needed: Clean Cardboard Boxes!
We need medium and large boxes for Benson Community Garden. Plain brown corrugated only. One-color print boxes (like Amazon's) are fine, but we can't use glossy finishes, wax coatings, or colored printing.
Break them down flat and drop them by the picnic table any time. The garden is open sunrise to sunset daily.
These boxes will be used for w**d control in our new Discovery Garden, starting soon!
Unfortunately, we cannot pick up, but we will absolutely put your boxes to good use. Thank you! 💚