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Best Community Gardens In Baltimore

Baltimore happens to be the home of a number of well-managed community gardens. Community gardens serve a number of functions beneficial to communities and the environment. Not only do they allow a group of people to come together in pursuit of a common goal, they connect those people back to the earth and green up the environment as well. And the produce from community gardens frequently becomes delicious home-grown items available at stands and your local farmers' market. Here are some of the very best community gardens in Baltimore.
UMBC Community Garden
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
(410) 455-1000
my.umbc.edu/groups/umbccg

Resting at the edge of the UMBC's beautiful campus sits an even more beautiful garden. "The Garden," as its caretakers call it, was a project started several years ago by the campus and teams of eager students composed of community workers, engineers and designers, creators and storytellers, academics and agriculturalists. The common goal of all of these teams was to create a functional, efficient, educational, beautiful and purposeful garden to be tended by students and by community residents in need. You too could participate. Follow this link to find out how!

Baltimore Free Farm
3510 Ash St.
Baltimore, MD 21211
www.baltimorefreefarm.org

A rescued lot which once housed trash and weeds has now been turned into a half-acre of well-tended greenery and goodness which is managed by the community and for the community. Anyone can become involved by simply visiting the website. Volunteers work on the weekend in order to support the work of the garden and receive a say in all garden-related decisions. The Baltimore Free Farm not only grows food for the community, but hosts a number of other community projects, such as educational workshops, music shows and the Food Rescue program.

JHU Community Garden
Johns Hopkins Eastern
1101 E. 33rd St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
jhucommunitygarden.wordpress.com

On the eastern part of the Johns Hopkins University campus sits The Blue Jay's Perch: a beautiful stretch of land which has been adopted by JHU staff, students and community members in order to create a garden lovingly tended together. The purpose is to practice green methods for food production and to promote education and a sense of community between the campus and residents of Baltimore. An entirely volunteer effort, anyone can visit the website and submit their interest in order to receive the newsletter, take part in the events and volunteer their efforts. If you show up during one of the designated harvest days, you get your share of whatever you pick. Any unclaimed food goes to a local charity.

Related:  Best Farmers' Markets Near Baltimore

Upper Fells Point Community Garden
E. Pratt St.
Baltimore, MD 21231
www.upperfellspoint.org/committees-projects/community-garden

When you look at the Upper Fell's Point Community Garden, it is difficult to believe that this large, beautiful garden - with its stonework paths, sunflower gate, tasteful walls and the wide, happy mural on the pebbled sidewalk at the entrance - used to be a rat-infested trash heap.
The Upper Fell's Point Improvement Association took this diamond in the rough and transformed it into the only open, permanent Green Space. Since being founded, the garden has won numerous gardening awards. It has also proven a much-needed habitat for birds and insects in the middle of the urban environment. To get involved and obtain your own plot in the garden, you have to live Upper Fell's Point and become a member of the Upper Fell's Point Improvement Association.

Filbert Street Community Garden
1317 Filbert St.
Baltimore, MD 21226
filbertstreetgarden.blogspot.com

When visionary Jason Reed saw the abandoned lot on Filbert Street, full of broken beer bottles and hypodermics, he didn't dismiss it like so many others would. Instead, Reed sought out the help of OSI-Baltimore to transform this squalor into a beautiful place of greenery and deliciousness right in the heart of the city. The community gathered together under Reed's direction to put in raised beds, irrigation towers, picnic benches, a brick oven and a natural path. The Filbert Street Community Garden occupies about an acre of land and the community and students who run it grow goodies including tomatoes, pumpkins, kale and asparagus. The garden also includes blueberry bushes and a strawberry field. In a neighborhood where groceries are difficult to get, this patch is a true service, and if the harvest is good, the gardeners will give away the excess to friends and family, and sell to people locally.

Related: Best Places To Go On A Picnic In Baltimore

Joel Furches is a freelance writer and researcher for The Examiner and Logos Software, and also manages his own catalog of writing on Hub Pages. Joel is on the board of directors for Ratio Christi. He has a bachelors in Psychology and a Masters in Education.
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