The Big Garden began in 2005. Initially funded by the USDA's Community Food Project, the Big Garden had a goal of creating 12 community gardens in three years. Five years later the Big Garden included 26 gardens in the metro-Omaha area and added a sister project, the Big Rural Garden, in Southeast Nebraska. Today, the Big Garden is a network of over 70 community gardens in metro-Omaha and rural and semi-rural communities in Nebraska and Kansas.