The Vermont branch of Garden Way was interested in finding ways to promote vegetable gardening and improve garden access for city dwellers who did not have a suitable garden place of their own. This ad seeking community garden participants and volunteer organizers was placed in the Burlington Free Press in August 1971.
In September 1971, Lyman Wood drafted a Garden Way Programs for Communities document. The sweeping vision included model gardens, publicly and privately supported community gardens, garden-based education programs for schools and adults, Garden Way markets for produce, and composting operations.
The former WWII Victory Gardens served as their model for a plan to create a community garden program on a smaller scale for Burlington residents.
