Grow Food

Henkeeping

Cambridge overturned a ban on backyard chickens and formally permitted henkeeping in certain zones – primarily residential – in 2023. Residents want to produce their own food, and the City agreed that the Cambridge Public Health Department could regulate henkeeping to prevent unsanitary conditions, pest problems, and the spread of disease.

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Beekeeping

In 2017, the Cambridge City Council approved its first urban agriculture zoning amendment, specifically making beekeeping legal in the city. The Commissioner of Public Health developed beekeeping regulations and a permit process to protect the safety and health of all the city’s inhabitants: including the bees. In order to keep bees in the city, you must obtain an annually renewable permit from the Cambridge Public Health Department.

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Community Gardening

For nearly half a century, hundreds of neighbors throughout Cambridge have cultivated their own tomatoes, lettuces, roses, zinnias, basil, parsley, and all kinds of other plants in community garden plots. Today 550 residents tend plots in 14 community gardens in the city, managed under the Department of Public Works. More perennials than edibles fill Cambridge’s oldest community garden on Sacramento Street, which started in 1975 near Harvard Square.

Many of the gardeners there have tended their plots for years or decades. Members at each of the 14 gardens decide on their own rules, but there are a few general guidelines. The city provides free unmetered water. Herbicides and pesticides are not permitted.

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