A year ago, our media and marketing firm planted a company garden to deepen our understanding of the challenges facing our clients who produce organic food.

The concept was simple. Our employees worked the soil, split the bounty and shared with people in need; we foot the bill for seeds, land use and wages for others to help tend the garden when we were away. Within months of planting 70 hills of potatoes, we’d experienced the spectrum of gardening, from crop failure (one small bowl of peas) to abundance (400 pounds of tomatoes).

We’re not alone. Gardens in many forms are sprouting up and grabbing attention nationwide at such companies as Aveda, Google, PepsiCo, Kohl’s, Toyota and Best Buy – a trend the New York Times recently dubbed “The Rise of Company Gardens.” The Wall Street Journal called company veggie plots morale builders. HR Executive named our garden among the “Best HR Ideas for 2010.”

The reasons behind the gardens range from the practical (healthy food for the cafeteria) to the philanthropic (donations for food shelves) to advocacy (educating a new generation of locavores). Our garden quickly became one of or most popular benefits, leading us to believe that if more workers nationwide had access to healthy food grown at work, we could all reap reduced healthcare costs.

Ditch your pinstripes and don some gardening gloves today. Join us and other companies with gardens planted at the convergence of food, health and corporate social responsibility. If we can do it, so can you. All you need to start your own employer garden are seeds, dirt and some gumption.