Friends and admirers of Jillian Johnson claimed a small victory Sunday, two months in the wake of her tragic death in a Lafayette movie house.

Townfolk, a non-profit community organization, broke ground on a “Victory Garden” at the corner of Olivier and South Pierce streets, fulfilling a five-year dream that Johnson, 33, held for the neighborhood.

“Jillian would want us to be victorious,” said Caroline Helm, a close friend who addressed a crowd of some 150 people who gathered Sunday evening for the ground breaking. “Do good work, try hard and be nice,” she said, recollecting words that Johnson, a businesswoman, musician and community activist, lived by.

Johnson and Mayci Breaux of St. Mary Parish were killed July 23 when a lone gunman fired repeatedly into a crowd during an evening movie at the Grand 16 Theatre on Johnston Street. At least nine others were injured; the gunman later took his own life after police blocked his escape.

The garden is located on a 56-foot-by-100-foot lot leased to Townfolk from the Lafayette Public Trust Financing Authority for a dollar a year, as long as Townfolk uses the property for a garden. Friends said Johnson had drawn out plans for a victory garden at a nearby lot five years ago, but the plan was never executed. Gisele Menard of Townfolk said friends decided days after Johnson’s death to honor her by bringing garden plans to fruition.

Organizers raised some $15,000 in eight weeks to put the plans into effect, Menard said. On Sunday night, Townfolk planted pomegranate and blueberry bushes, the first plants at the garden.

Marcus Descant of The Urban Naturalist said the garden will include “exclusively edible landscaping.” Purple kale and lettuce will be among the next items planted; other vegetables and herbs will grow in the spring and planting will be done according to seasonal possibilities.

The Victory Garden was described on a sign at the site as a “communal, urban garden” envisioned by Johnson, who “had a dream of a gardening place providing fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs for the friends and residents of LaPlace neighborhood.”

Descant said the site will include an “edible tunnel,” located on about 100 square feet that, extending upward, will include about 600 square feet of gardening space. It will also include a central pavilion, garden shed and food truck area. He said he designed the garden, inspired by Johnson’s vision for such a place.

He said the garden differs from those where people “buy a plot.” At Victory Garden, he said, neighbors who need fruits or vegetables will be able to find them and take them.

Menard said the land — it had been empty about three years — would yield vegetables, root trees, shade trees and sun flowers, which were Johnson’s favorite. She said numerous people — perhaps two dozen — worked to make the garden possible.

The Rev. Robert Seay, pastor of St. Paul Catholic Church, said seeds of community cooperation in the neighborhood were launched at his church about 15 years ago, but the garden represented action.

Helm said the garden represented an opportunity to “celebrate Jillian” rather than to grieve.

She said when she visits the garden, she will “get reminded of Jillian’s values.”

“That will make us strive for victory and to be exceptional,” she said.

Sunday’s celebration included music by Johnson’s group, The Figs, and by singer-songwriter Johanna Divine. Johnson’s favorite movie, “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” was also scheduled to play.