Economic Gardening is a long-term economic development strategy focused on entrepreneurs of companies with high growth potential.  Second Stage CEO’s, Presidents and owners of existing companies are served through a variety of tools designed specifically to address their common growth concerns.  Economic Gardening is a strategic element of the EDC 5-year plan.

Economic Gardening was created in Littleton Colorado in 1989 and has been catching on in communities throughout the United States since.  The state of Florida created an Economic Gardening program in their last legislative session, in 2009, that provides $8.5 million in financial assistance to second stage growth companies and $1.5 million for technical assistance to those companies.  Since then the Florida Economic Gardening Institute (FEGI) was created at the University of Florida to pilot the technical assistance program in six regions across the state of Florida, and Collier County was selected to be one of those programs.