Friends of the Garden is dedicated to supporting and promoting the Faulkner County Urban Farm Project (UFP). The Urban Farm Project is located behind the Faulkner County Public Library on 1900 Tyler St, Conway AR. 

The idea behind the Urban Farm Project was born in a community forum hosted by the Faulkner County Supporters of Sustainable Communities (FCSSC) in 2009. Cliff Beacham, former UCA professor, and Jaques Pollini, former Hendrix College professor, envisioned a garden that would educate, promote urban farming, provide produce for food banks, and foster community. 

In the spring of 2010 the Urban Farm Project began as a gardening competition between Conway’s three colleges. As students, professors and members of the community turned a grassy yard into a blossoming vegetable garden, it became clear that this was no competition, but a collaborative effort towards a greater good. Through natural, local food production, this garden is an effort to foster sustainability and a sense of community in Conway.  We can't thank enough everyone who has supported this effort throughout the years and helped make this possible, we would especially like to thank our garden super heroes: Cliff Beacham, Alicia Allen, Lacey Starkey, Crystal Bowne, Emily English, Kim Doughty, Austin Yockey, Sean Ott, John McGraw, Ruth Voss, Nancy Allen and all the volunteers who have made this garden what it is today.

From 2011 to 2017 the Urban Farm Project was adopted as a program of La Lucha Space, with the mission to demonstrate sustainable home gardening practices and connect the community with fresh, healthy, seasonal local food. In 2014 the organization applied to become part of the Arkansas GardenCorps program, which provided a service member to help maintain and develop the garden and its programs. Thanks to this program the Urban Farm Project was able to start a weekly children's garden club, an annual seed swap event, a book club, garden sketch hour and many more educational activities. The garden slowly started becoming an important part of the library's educational resources.

In 2016 the Faulkner County Library hired its first ever garden programmer to work at the garden, and in late 2017 the garden officially became part of the library. As the Urban Farm Project became institutionalized within the Faulkner County Library, La Lucha Space transitioned its Urban Farm Project program to the Friends of the Garden program.

The Friends of the Garden continue to provide support for the garden through special projects, volunteering, and fundraising.

To see a list of programs and events the garden has to offer visit http://www.thelocals.be/ufp_programs

For more information contact: [email protected]