As an intern for “Gardening the Garden State”, a grant funded community gardening research project, I worked closely with local community gardens, implementing improvements through participatory design. Our work began with analyzing the planning and function of community gardens, gardening practice and historical and current land use in the city of New Brunswick.   For the latter portion of the internship I focused on the design and construction of two raised beds built using recycled materials outside of the garden. I also designed two planting schemes for the beds; the first featuring perennials and native plants, the other a shared community bed of vegetables and herbs.