Maryland Day: Saturday April 28th

Visit the Public Health Garden on Maryland Day 2012 to check out all the amazing progress we've made in a single year (and all the other exciting, free, educational, agricultural, conservationist, delicious, etc - things happening on campus). We hope you will still be able to stop by and celebrate the success of this project with us!

The university has a great Plan Your Day feature on the Maryland Day website that you can visit in order to narrow down which activities you don't want to miss and print out your own itinerary. The Public Health Garden is listed under the football icon "Sports and Rec Row."

Parking is free anywhere on campus all day and events run from 10:00am - 4:00pm. And remember, the earlier you come, the better chance you have at snagging one of our plant giveaways :-)

New Site is Under Construction

After a rewarding year building the Public Health Garden alongside fellow sustainability steward and founder of Adventures in Container Gardening (and Local Eating), Allison Lilly, it is an honor to announce that our official blog merge is underway and coming soon.

As we iron out the details of the site, one thing is certain: it is going to be an awesome one-stop-shop for thinking globally, acting locally, growing, cooking, eating and learning about Maryland's food and farming foresight and initiatives.

While we are busy brainstorming and building, we encourage interested bloggers, developers and content creators to email us resumes and work samples.

University of Maryland, College Park

The community gardens on the University of Maryland, College Park campus are hosting an event on Food Day, Monday October 24th, that includes tours of the edible gardens popping up on rooftops and hillsides throughout the campus and great discussions about future initiatives for sustainable agricultural systems in our region. Stay tuned to the Public Health Garden Blog for more details. Hope you can make it!

Yum!

I know everyone is dying to see pics of the snakehead dinner but I haven't had a chance to scan in the menu and write the full post so... in the meantime, please enjoy this picture of our delicious University of Maryland Public Health Garden grown watermelon.

Public Health Garden at University of Maryland, College Park

If you haven't stopped by the garden site or blogspot of the new University of Maryland Community and Teaching Garden lately, we've got lots of new fruits, vegetables, flowers, friends and projects in bloom for you to check out and enjoy. In a few short months we have produced an average of ten pounds of produce weekly, overseen the installation of permeable pavers, hosted hundreds of eager TerpQuest campers, learned quite a bit about pest management, gratefully welcomed tons of donations and most recently begun the construction of beautiful raised beds.

In fact, we've had so much fun and success with the growing hillside farm that several news publications have picked up on the enthusiasm. The PHGarden recently appeared in CollegeParkPatch and has been a mainstay on the University Homepage.

For regular up-to-date details, please visit the Public Health Garden website. Feel free to 'like' the Public Health Garden on Facebook and browse our Flickr pictures as well. Stay tuned for details about new volunteer days/hours and crops come September.

The Public Health Garden at College Park

The University of Maryland's latest, greatest community gardening initiative "demonstrating sustainable agriculture and environmental best practices in support of public, environmental and community health" has officially kicked off. MPH student, gardener, blogger and project coordinator, Allison Lilly, has been working with Facilities Management, the School of Public Health, the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, the Office of Sustainability and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to coordinate land plans, generate funds and interest, and gather enough plant and seed donations to get started this spring.

Seeds will begin germination today in the university greenhouse with help from several Institute of Applied Agriculture students and staff. There is even talk of incorporating a goat or two for sustainable, herbicide-free weeding of the plot before planting so be sure to join us and watch the garden grow on the official Public Health Garden blog. And if you are on facebook, "like" the Public Health Garden facebook page.