POCATELLO — In the years following World War II, the Gate City community built a 140-acre “victory garden” divided among 140 families — one of the largest in the western United States.
More than 80 years later, a one-acre stretch of land near the Portneuf River will be developed into a brand-new community garden. Once completed, it will give area residents and their families a place to gather, grow and share in the bounty of fresh, organic food. But organizers need the support of the community to transform the bare plot into a thriving green space.
Portneuf Valley Partners, a nonprofit focused on beautifying the area, is developing the garden on land near North Arthur Avenue and King Road, close to the river trail. The city of Pocatello bought the property in May 2025 and agreed to lease it to the nonprofit for $1.
“They loved the idea and are on board and very supportive of us doing this,” said Brittani Hobson, chair of the garden committee.
The project began about 18 months ago during a Portneuf Valley Partners brainstorming session, Hobson said. Both Pocatello and Chubbuck had long listed a community garden in their comprehensive plans, but the group first needed to find the right location. Hobson pitched the idea and became committee chair. She now co-chairs the effort with Karl Pettit, and the committee has grown to about 15 members.
The one-acre site will be developed in two phases. Phase 1, closer to the river and the King Road path, will cover about half an acre and include 30 individual garden plots ranging from 10-by-10 to 10-by-20 feet, plus four community plots that make up “Lexi’s Garden,” named for Alexis “Lexi” Jorgensen, who years ago, at age 12, convinced former Mayor Brian Blad to let her start a garden of her own.
Sign-ups are already underway online for the first 30 plots, with organizers aiming to fill them for the 2027 growing season.
A shed donated by NeighborWorks will sit at the center of the garden, where gardeners can leave surplus produce for anyone in the community to take. Each individual plot will have its own water spigot for hoses, drip lines or timers.
Phase 2 will add 30 to 40 more plots extending toward North Arthur, along with a seating area, a gazebo and benches. Students from the Portneuf Valley Technical Education and Career Campus, known as PV-TEC, have already volunteered to help build some of those structures. Six Pocatello neighborhood associations — with a seventh expected to join — are each donating a fruit tree, creating a small grove gardeners and community members can pick from.
A roughly 7-foot fence, made of natural wood posts and black hog-wire panels, will enclose the property to keep out deer and other wildlife, such as yellow-bellied marmots, without blocking the view. The initial fencing bid came in at $18,000.
Organizers estimate Phase 1 will cost about $81,000, covering a wide scope of essentials such as electrical service, water infrastructure, excavation, soil preparation, garden beds and other materials.
The group was awarded a $10,000 grant in March from the Ifft Foundation Fund, a donor-advised fund at the Idaho Community Foundation that supports beautification and public recreation projects in southeastern Idaho. That money is funding ground leveling and initial water costs, and Hobson said the group has applied for five more grants that are still pending.
Infrastructure costs — specifically bringing electricity to the site for the planned shed, lighting fixtures and irrigation system — are expected to total around $10,000. Water lines and spigots for each plot are the largest expense, estimated at approximately $13,000.
Bannock County commissioners have approved donating up to 20 tons of compost from the county landfill, to be mixed with topsoil ahead of spring planting, which will help offset topsoil preparation costs.
While the United States is not entrenched in a global world war, the community garden is an echo of past efforts within the Gate City. The federal government at the time encouraged Americans to plant “victory gardens” during World War II to boost food production. Hobson said that nationally, those gardens produced more than 40 percent of the country’s fruits and vegetables during the war.
With help from the Marshall Public Library, Hobson and other organizers found that Pocatello had its own victory garden from roughly 1943 to 1948, located off Yellowstone Avenue near where WinCo Foods now stands. It covered 140 acres and was divided among 140 families, who were each allocated an acre to farm.
While only a fraction of the size of the victory gardens that came before it, the upcoming community garden will soon provide a space where residents can get in touch with city history, planting seeds of growth that prosper both within the soil and within their hearts.
Crews are currently waiting on final city permits to begin grading, which Hobson said should happen within the next few weeks. The goal is to have paths, the water system and electrical trenching finished by the end of September, with fencing and lighting to follow.
While naming rights are still being considered, organizers have proposed “King Arthur Garden” or the “Arthur and King Legacy Garden.”
The public can donate or sponsor specific project costs through tiered giving levels on the Portneuf Valley Partners website:
Seed Sponsor — $1 — $499
Sprout Sponsor — $500 — $999
Cultivator Sponsor — $1,000 — $2,499
Bloom Sponsor — $2,500 — $4,999
Harvest Sponsor — $5,000 — $9,999
Legacy Orchard Sponsor — $10,000 +
Organizers are also planning free gardening classes in partnership with the Marshall Public Library this fall and winter, covering topics from planting to food preservation.
“It brings people together,” Hobson said. “It’s education, but it’s also learning to work together as a community to grow things ... and get to know other people that you might not have gotten to know. It helps to strengthen our neighborhoods, our communities, by healthy learning, healthy lifestyles, being active outside, learning to grow something, and why it’s important to grow things in the ground. We want people to learn about the importance of growing your own food and how that builds the bonds of communities.”
More information, including how to sponsor the project or reserve a garden plot for 2027, is available at portneufvalleypartners.org/community-garden.