GRO1000 and the 2015 people's-choice garden vote: a cited history

By Gro1000Vote.com · Updated September 25, 2026 · Sources listed at the end

GRO1000 was a community garden and green-space initiative of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, launched in 2011 with a goal of helping create 1,000 community gardens and green spaces by 2018, the company’s 150th anniversary.^[1][7] In the winter of 2014–15 it included a people’s-choice public vote, and that vote was hosted at this web address, gro1000vote.com.^[1][2]

Timeline

• 2011. Scotts Miracle-Gro launches GRO1000, aiming for 1,000 community gardens and green spaces by 2018.^[1][6]
• 2014. According to CBS Detroit, GRO1000 awarded 132 garden grants and installed six community gardens that year, and donated more than 9,000 bags and bottles of product.^[5]
• Dec. 26, 2014. Under the official rules, the promotion begins when four municipalities selected by the sponsor are notified. Each receives a $1,500 initial grant and a trip for two representatives to the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena.^[2]
• Jan. 1, 2015. Finalist representatives ride Miracle-Gro’s “Life Starts Here” float in the 2015 Rose Parade while campaigning for votes.^[3][4]
• Jan.–Feb. 2015. The public votes at gro1000vote.com. The rules allow one vote per person per day and ban automated voting.^[2]
• Feb. 10, 2015. Miracle-Gro announces that the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative won with more than 55% of all votes, earning a $40,000 grant for a children’s sensory garden. The three runners-up each receive a $1,500 grant and a product donation.^[3]
• June 12, 2015. The Children’s Sensory Garden is built in Detroit, described as the 644th garden since GRO1000 launched.^[6]
• Mar. 20, 2018. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation announces its final GRO1000 Grassroots Grant recipients: 34 nonprofit organizations.^[7]
• May 2018. The thousandth GRO1000 garden, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation Children’s Garden at Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio, is dedicated.^[8]
• Feb. 14, 2019. The company launches Gro More Good, a successor initiative aiming to connect 10 million children with gardens and green spaces over five years.^[9]

The four 2015 finalists

Project descriptions are summarized from the archived 2015 voting page.^[1] The finalists were also reported by local media.^[4][10]

How the vote worked

The archived official rules set out a narrow structure. Only the four selected municipalities could take part as entrants. Members of the public could vote for one of them during the voting period, no more than once per day, and the entrant with the most eligible votes, as counted by the sponsor, would receive the $40,000 grant for its proposed project. No purchase was necessary.^[2] Our explainer on how people’s-choice garden grant votes work looks at this format more generally.

What GRO1000 reported overall

In its final-year announcement, the Foundation said that GRO1000 projects had revitalized more than 12.8 million square feet of green space, created 15,000 new garden beds, donated an estimated 560,000 pounds of produce a year and connected more than 205,000 young people with hands-on nature experiences. The Foundation noted that these figures came from data collected from previous grant recipients.^[7] We have not independently verified them.

What happened to this web address

Archived snapshots show gro1000vote.com serving the official voting page in early 2015, with a Scotts copyright footer.^[1] Later snapshots, from 2024 onward, show unrelated content published by other operators. The domain is now run as this independent informational site. We have no connection with Scotts Miracle-Gro, its Foundation or any GRO1000 grant recipient, and we cannot answer questions about their programs. For current information, contact the company directly through its official channels.