Growing Gardens was originally inspired by the legacy of Dan Barker’s Home Gardening Project that built over 1,400 Home Gardens in Portland between 1983 and 1996. When Dan transitioned from building gardens to building a foundation supporting the start-up of programs across the country, a new and separate organization was incorporated in 1996 as the Portland Home Garden Project. Building home gardens and responding to local demand for school gardens and other organizations creating garden-based.