How exactly do you go about developing a botanical garden? We get a lot of questions about how to help, what progress we’ve made, and what comes next. The way we see the development occurring is in three stages, which we’ve been calling Establish, Envision, and Empower. We believe it’s important to build a solid foundation on which to stand, and we also want to create a crystal-clear vision of what we hope to build in the future.
Establish
Our first phase entails getting established as a formal and legal entity, being approved as a nonprofit, and making sure we have all of the legal things in order. This stage isn’t as exciting, but it’s important to show the community and our sponsors that we are serious about building this idea! As of February 2026, we’ve finished this step–we’re a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit and a business within Chattanooga and Hamilton County.
Envision
The next phase we embark on is the daydreaming phase. Not only do we want to explore our identity and values in this stage, but we are also looking to partner with other businesses to bring our vision to life. Who is Chattanooga Botanical Garden, what is important to us, and what service do we want to provide our community? What story do we want to tell with our architecture and gardens? What gardens do we want to plant for the public? We also will explore various architecture firms and landscape designers to create CAD drawings and renderings of the buildings and gardens we want to build. At the end of this phase, we hope to have a public website that serves as a portfolio of what we’re hoping to build, as a central resource for the public to see exactly what we’re all about. We plan to spread the word about ChattBG through word of mouth at this stage.
Empower
Once we have Established who we are and Envisioned what we could be–the last phase is to Empower the vision! Our hope is that by having the legal foundation and a fully realized sense of brand identity, values, and visual examples of what we aim to build, our community will trust us to bring the vision to life. We plan to really get out there and spread the word, but we will also be soliciting for grants and donations to help fund our first phase of real, groundbreaking development. We will establish a monetary goal for land acquisition, facilities, and our first round of gardens–and we won’t stop until we finally break ground for the Chattanooga Botanical Garden!