Building a public botanical garden is not an easy feat. So far, McIntire Botanical Garden (MBG) has been driven by the community’s input, aspirations, insights, and desire to be a place of healing, unity, education, and beauty.  But the input phase of the garden design process is not complete and through reaching, we are hoping to gather more feedback to ensure the built garden will represent the hopes and dreams of the entire community.   This lecture will outline what has already been achieved in the process toward building the garden, give insight into the road map ahead, and provide information about how the Garden is responding to community needs in the time of COVID.