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About Green the Strip

Why This Exists

People go hungry while we water grass. In Greene County, Missouri, 1 in 7 people experience food insecurity. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles of hell strips — those narrow bands of grass between sidewalks and roads — sit unused across Springfield.

These strips often get full sun, have road access for watering, and are visible to the entire neighborhood. They could be feeding people, supporting pollinators, or growing native plants that actually belong in the Ozarks.

The problem isn't that people don't care. It's that nobody knows the rules, nobody knows who to call, and doing it alone is super difficult. Green the Strip was made to try to solve all of these barriers.

Wait, What's a “Hell Strip”?

It's that strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road. You probably know it — you just might call it something different. Across the country, this little piece of land goes by dozens of names:

Tree lawn (Ohio), parkway (Chicago, LA), devil strip (Akron), tree belt (New England), verge (UK, Australia), berm (parts of the Midwest), boulevard (Canada), curb strip, planting strip, sidewalk buffer, road shoulder garden, and of course — hell strip.

We went with “hell strip” because it's fun, memorable, and honestly? Gardening in one is a little hellish — reflected heat from pavement, drought, road salt, and everyone's dog. But that's what makes it rewarding when it works. If you're in Springfield and you call it something else, that's cool — we know what you mean.

What It Does

Green the Strip is a map-first civic web app that helps Springfield neighbors:

  • Add a hell strip by drawing its boundary on a satellite map
  • Rally neighbors — when 3 people express interest in the same strip, the app connects them
  • Get free expert help from the Master Gardeners of Greene County
  • Learn the rules — Springfield ordinances, planting guides, and seasonal calendars are built in
  • Contact the homeowner with a printable letter explaining the project

Who Built It

Green the Strip was created by Nikki Schwartz during the Springfield Vibeathon 2026, a 3-day community hackathon focused on building technology that makes Springfield better.

Nikki is passionate about food insecurity, community coordination, and the idea that small changes to underused spaces can have outsized impact. She took a class with the Master Gardeners of Greene County and saw firsthand the gap between people who want to garden and the knowledge they need to get started.

She also knows firsthand how hard gardening can be. She's started her own garden projects, gotten overwhelmed, and watched them fall apart — which is exactly why Green the Strip requires at least three interested neighbors before unlocking the tools to easily reach out to the Master Gardeners. Gardening alone is tough. Gardening with neighbors who show up to help weed, water, and plant? That's how gardens actually survive. The three-person threshold isn't arbitrary — it's the difference between a project that thrives and one that becomes an abandoned mess.

The Technology

Green the Strip is built with Next.js, Supabase, Mapbox GL JS, and Tailwind CSS, deployed on Netlify. The entire project — from the initial idea through every line of code — was built from scratch during the 3-day vibeathon. No pre-built templates, no prior work, no head starts.

The app is designed to be Springfield-specific — with local ordinances, real Master Gardener contact information, and planting guides calibrated for USDA Zone 6b — but the architecture supports expansion to other cities.

What I'd Love to See Next

Green the Strip is just getting started. Here are some things I'd be thrilled to see happen:

  • Partnerships with local nurseries — imagine if nurseries donated starter plants or offered discounts to Green the Strip gardeners
  • Mulch and soil donations — partnering with services like Chipdrop, local arborists, or composting operations to get free materials to gardens that need them
  • Conservation organization partnerships — groups like the Monarch Joint Venture and Xerces Society want people planting milkweed and native pollinator plants. Our maps could show them exactly where it's happening.
  • Seed company partnerships — seed companies often have slightly expired stock they can't sell but that still germinates just fine. We'd love to connect with companies willing to donate or discount those seeds for community gardens.
  • Springfield-Greene County Library Seed Library — deeper integration so gardeners can browse available seeds right from the app
  • Community garden plan sharing — a place for gardeners to upload their own planting plans so others can learn from what actually worked
  • QR code garden signs — partnering with a local sign-maker to create durable weatherproof signs for each garden. Passersby scan the QR code and see the garden's page, who's involved, and how to help.
  • Business sponsors — local businesses adopt a garden, provide funding for materials, and get a sign acknowledging their support. Good for the garden, good for the business, good for the neighborhood.
  • Grants for equipment and labor — let's be honest: removing a 50-foot stretch of established turf grass is hard work. Having funding to hire real people with real equipment to do the heavy initial conversion would be the difference between a project getting done and getting abandoned.
  • Before-and-after photo timelines for each garden
  • More Springfield neighbors adding gardens to the map — every strip counts
  • Expanding to other cities across Missouri and beyond
  • Harvest guides for each garden — clear instructions on when and how to pick, so neighbors don't accidentally hack off lettuce at the root instead of cutting it back for regrowth, or harvest seeds before they're ready. Community gardens only work if everyone knows the etiquette.
  • Master Gardeners workshop calendar integration

Expert partnerships I'd love to build

  • An entomologist — someone who researches insects and could help us understand which gardens are actually supporting beneficial bug populations, and how to make them even better
  • A stormwater specialist — someone who cares about water runoff and flooding (like the area on Battlefield between Scenic and Golden, for example) who could help identify which strips would benefit most from deep-rooted native grasses and plants that act as natural flood infrastructure
  • An arborist or urban forestry expert — to help us figure out when it's actually OK to plant a tree in a hell strip, which species work, and which are least likely to destroy sidewalks, sewer lines, roads, or foundations. Springfield summers are brutally hot, and more shade on sidewalks would make the city more walkable — but trees in the wrong spot cause serious damage. We'd need real, Springfield-specific expert guidance to do this responsibly.

The long-term dream

If Green the Strip grows the way I hope it does, I'd eventually love to see it become a real organization with at least one full-time paid coordinator — someone whose job is to visit gardens, deliver supplies, get their hands dirty, and help neighborhoods stay engaged over time. Plus the budget for a grant writer to fund the whole thing sustainably.

Because here's the thing: starting a garden is exciting. Maintaining a garden is work. Teaching whole neighborhoods how to stay involved, season after season, year after year — that takes dedicated people and real resources. We do not want these gardens to fall into disrepair. That's worse than never starting.

And if we're really, truly dreaming? I'd love to get Piet Oudolf — the legendary Dutch garden designer behind the High Line in New York — to design even just one garden here in Springfield. A girl can dream.

A note about funding

Right now, Green the Strip is entirely self-funded — hosting, the domain, email services, map tiles, and all the tools are paid for out of my own pocket. I'm happy to do it while the project is small, but if this grows, it would be wonderful to find sustainable funding to cover operating costs and eventually support the coordinator role and grants described above.

Get Involved

The best way to support Green the Strip is to open the map and add a garden. Every garden starts with one person saying “this could be better.”

Have an idea, a question, or want to partner with us? Get in touch — I'd love to hear from you.