In 2008, then-Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin worked with Montgomery Parks to establish a community gardens program in the County. This summer – 8 years later – Montgomery Parks is opening their 12th location. One of our Montgomery County Food Council interns spoke with Pat Lynch, the Community Gardens Coordinator for Montgomery County, who is a part-time County employee, Master Gardener, and took this position as her “retirement job”.
In the 12 locations across the county, there are all types of gardens: container gardens, in-ground gardens, small gardens with 16 plots, large gardens with 118 plots, with costs ranging from $25 a year to a 625 square foot plot for $85. Montgomery Parks provides deer fencing, water meters, woodchips to keep weeds down, and compost when available to every location.
According to Pat, the gardens are wonderful in their own way, but each garden has its own challenges. To start a new garden, Pat has to ensure a proposed location meets fairly rigorous criteria, including sun exposure, walking and parking access, and water availability, to name a few. Once a potential site is found, a community meeting is held to gauge interest, to assess whether a garden would adequately meet the needs of the community, and to answer any questions community members might have.
When the gardens do get built, most people are thrilled to have a place to garden. Garden furniture like an adirondack chair is also included so people have a place where they can just relax.
In some communities, the gardeners will organize an open house where they host tours of the gardens, talk about what they’ve been growing, and provide activities like face painting to engage the greater community. Others will have a potluck meal where everyone brings a dish made with what they’ve grown that season. These types of activities are not organized by Montgomery Parks, but emerge organically out of the communities that form and grow through their gardens.
There are waitlists for 10 of the 11 gardens currently open in the County. When the garden program first started there were empty plots that needed to be filled. Now, some years there are no empty spaces in any of the gardens. Pat is encouraged by the number of people who are interested in the community gardens, and fascinated by the number of people who bring their children and grandchildren with them and make gardening a family affair. Renters that remain in the program year after year plant perennial fruits and vegetables like asparagus and berries, and construct low tunnels so that they harvest well into November. Pat excitedly recounted how one of the renters had gone out to pick garden-fresh vegetables for their Thanksgiving dinner thanks to the low tunnels they constructed on their plot.
These community gardens not only offer a place for Montgomery County residents to connect with their food, but also offer a space that bolsters communities by encouraging families and friends to spend time together outdoors and in their neighborhoods.
We are happy to announce that Pat will be getting help running the existing 12 gardens and hopefully more to come. The County Council recently approved a full-time career position for the Community Gardens Program Coordinator. Apply here.
Learn more about Montgomery Parks Community Gardens Program here.
See a list of community gardens in Montgomery County here.
Check out University of Maryland Extension’s page on Community Gardens here.