Press Release

DALLAS, April 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Dallas' La Bajada Urban Youth Farm received a grant from The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and The U.S. Conference of Mayors to create a new urban farm where area students can learn about horticulture and nutrition, while gaining job-training experience. The funding for the project is part of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company's national GRO1000 gardens and green spaces program.

GRO1000 is ScottsMiracle-Gro's commitment to support the creation of more than 1,000 community gardens and green spaces in the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2018, in conjunction with its 150^th anniversary. To date, hundreds of community projects have received GRO1000 funding.

The La Bajada Urban Youth Farm will be created from a 4.5-acre vacant lot that will be transformed into an education and recreation zone for area youth and their families. The green space project will provide important educational and job training experience for youth, as well as address the issue of public health in a food deserted neighborhood by providing healthy food for the community. With the help of GRO1000, the completed urban space will have a little league baseball field, office space and a commercial kitchen for ongoing teaching opportunities.

"We are delighted that The U.S. Conference of Mayors and ScottsMiracle-Gro have chosen the Urban Youth Farm as a GRO1000 site in the La Bajada community," said Mayor Mike Rawlings. "As we showed when we hosted The U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Summer Meeting last June, big things are happening in Dallas, and it all begins with thriving neighborhoods. The La Bajada Urban Youth Farm shows that great things can happen when we work together."

The GRO1000 Dallas event at the La Bajada Urban Youth Farm kicks off at 2 p.m. on April 7 at 3232 Bataan Street, Dallas, Texas 75212. Area residents and youth will join volunteers, including ScottsMiracle-Gro associates, city officials, and GRO1000 national and local partners, in garden-related educational activities. A group of deserving students will be presented with the ScottsMiracle-Gro Give Back To Gro Youth Gardener Award.

"We are honored to work with the City of Dallas on this important environmental outreach project," said Jeff Peterson, Vice President, ScottsMiracle-Gro. "With the creation of the La Bajada Urban Youth Farm, we hope to revitalize the West Dallas community and give its young people a chance to connect with nature and the outdoors."

GRO1000 Dallas was made possible through the combined efforts of local partners, including the City of Dallas, and national partners including The U.S. Conference of Mayors, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Plant A Row for the Hungry, the National Gardening Association, the Garden Writers Association, and Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The Dallas GRO1000 event is one of several public installation events being held in the U.S., Canada and Europe in 2015. For more information, visit www.GRO1000.com and follow ScottsMiracle-Gro on Twitter at twitter.com/Scotts_MGro.

About ScottsMiracle-Gro

With more than $2.8 billion in worldwide sales, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company's brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In the U.S., we operate Scotts LawnService®, the second largest residential lawn care service business. In Europe, the Company's brands include Weedol®, Pathclear®, Evergreen®, Levington®, Miracle-Gro®, KB®, Fertiligène® and Substral®. For additional information, visit us at www.scotts.com.

About The U.S. Conference of Mayors

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,210 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Find us at usmayors.org, on facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.

CONTACT: Su Lok
         ScottsMiracle-Gro
         Su.Lok@scotts.com
         937-578-5169 (work)
         937-309-5616 (mobile)

         Scott Goldstein
         City of Dallas
         scott.goldstein@dallascityhall.com
         214-670-7977 (work)