Leicester Library Giving Garden
A giving garden with an educational focus, nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.
The Leicester Library Giving Garden aims to connect and strengthen our community through growing and sharing food.
OUR VISION
A permaculture design team created a vision to transform the Leicester Library grounds into a productive and beautiful edible landscape. A multi-phase installation established perennial tree and nut crops, pollinator habitat, and annual gardens integrated into the landscape. The gardens are accessible to the community gathering areas, peaceful seating, and in-garden educational areas.
2021: Phase One – building garden rows, installing wheelchair-accessible cedar raised beds, planting fruit & nut trees along the fence lines.
2022: Expanding the garden with the construction of a greenhouse, sharing the garden’s bounty of fresh produce & herbs with our community.
2023: Breaking new ground to install an orchard of fruit and nut trees, on land generously shared with us by the Leicester Volunteer Fire Department.
Come grow with us!

Upcoming Events
October 13, 2023
Dinner & A Movie
Join us for an outdoor family friendly movie night with Super Mario Bros!
Dinner @ 6:00pm
Movie @ 7:00pm

DIG IN!
Garden Work Days
We meet every other Thursday evening & Saturday afternoon, weather permitting.
Just bring your gardening gloves, water, and sunscreen!
- Thurs 9/28 – 5:30pm-7:30pm
- Sat 10/7 – 1pm – 4pm
(Seed Saving Workday!) - Thurs 10/12 – 5:30pm – 7:30pm
- Sat 10/21 – 1pm – 4pm
- Thurs 10/26 – 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Latest from the Garden Journal
Follow along with our community garden journey to see what we grow and how we grow it. Learn about educational and community events, as well as other opportunities to get involved and grow!
New Year, New Greenhouse, New Orchard!
If you’ve visited the Leicester Library recently, you may have noticed something BIG out in the garden! We are so excited for this project that will bring food to our community for generations to come. Please contact us if you have wood chips to donate!
Summer Greetings from the Garden!
JUNE We kicked off the summer season with "An Evening in the Garden", our first official garden party! We invited our community out to the library to celebrate the hard work & collaboration between all who have made the Leicester Library Giving Garden possible. It...
Building & Growing in 2021
Grew & harvested lots of corn, okra, collards, salad greens, herbs, and squash to give to our community…And saved enough seeds to plant again next season with plenty of extra to share with our neighbors!