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Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening

The Master Peace Youth and Community Farm

*Volunteer at the garden any Saturday from 10am to 3pm, from March 21st to November 14th.

*We are looking for interns for our 2009 growing season.

*Keep up to date with the Master Peace Community Garden at our news page.

The Master Peace Community Farm is a major undertaking, located at the Center for Educational Partnership (CEP), which now houses the Engaged University staff. CEP is a University-owned community partnership center adjacent to William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale Heights.

The Master Peace Community Farm is a 1/2 acre urban farm, youth garden, and community garden.  We encourage communities to participate in growing their food, and demostrate how small plots of land, often found in the urban frindges, can be used to grow healthy and affordable food for local communities and create jobs for our next generation of farmers.  We research and demonstrate growing techniques that can be scaled up for urban and small farmers and scaled down for home owners and community gardeners.  We also teach students in science classes and after school programs from William Wirt Middle School, and offer 22 community garden plots to neighbors to grow their own food for their family. 

The farm, constructed in April of 2007, grew out of an earlier summer gardening and cooking program begun at the Center for Educational Partnership in 2006 as part of a summer enrichment camp for about a dozen William Wirt students. It began as a modest vegetable garden in reused plastic baby pools, in which students planted and harvested carrots, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers. One of the pioneer gardening students from William Wirt Middle School conceived the name "Master Peace Garden."

A grant from the Montgomery and Prince George’s County Gang Prevention Initiative allowed the Engaged University to expand our gardening program at the Center for Educational Partnership into a fully functional community and youth urban farm. To model university/community collaboration, the Master Peace Garden elicited the assistance of a committed group of University students brought together by the Office of Community Service Learning’s very first local Alternative Spring Break (ABS) program. A dozen University of Maryland students and some community residents volunteered during their week-long spring break as a community service project. With their help and with the help of William Wirt Middle School Garden Club members, we were able to build the fence surrounding the garden, spread compost and build the garden beds, and finally lay out and construct the garden paths. It was a very productive week.

The 1/2 acre square foot garden is divided into four main sections: a communal area with picnic tables and perenial fruit where students can learn in an outdoor classroom and families can share a meal in the garden; a community garden with 22 small plots for local families to grow whatever they choose; a youth garden that is planted and maintained for and with the help of the William Wirt Middle School Garden Club, and a demonstration urban farm. We encourage the lines between these four spaces to be as blurred as possible, with families helping in the youth garden, youth gardeners giving harvesting advice to families, and both eating and resting together in the communal area.

The communal area is located in the rear of the garden, and we invite families and friends to picnic in the garden whenever they please. A magnolia tree was planted in this area in the summer of 2007, and will grow to provide shade to gardeners for many years to come.  We added table grapes, blueberries, and fig trees to this area in 2008, and hope to show how landscapes can be planted with edibles while provide asthetics and functions.

We focus on the technologies and techniques of increasing production in small pieces of land.  This includes aggressive planting schedules, season extending, soil management, and proper crop choices.  By maximizing the productivitiy of small pieces of land, we are showing the developing urban farms and creating comfortable jobs for farmers is a viable land use options for communities, city and county planners, and local governments.

Some of the best maintained areas of the Master Peace Community Farm are in the family plots located on the right side of the garden. Families of Riverdale and surrounding communities have been provided with the garden plot, seeds, transplants, water, and compost free of charge. All we ask is that the gardens are maintained throughout the season. With the same meticulous care as an avid home gardener, very engaged and committed gardeners tend their plots.

The students in the William Wirt Middle School Garden Club have plant and help maintain the youth garden, located on the left hand side of the garden. They learned about growing seasonal vegetables, from lettuce and spinach to tomatoes and peppers, as well as berry and tree fruits. They have also planted a central herb garden with culinary herbs as well as flowers and other plants that will attract beneficial pollinators.

While some of the produce goes home with the Garden Club youth, we sell the majority of our harvest at the Riverdale Park Farmers Market every Thursday from 3 to 7 PM. This important entrepreneurial program teaches the Garden Club students important marketing skills and introduces them to small-scale local farmers. All of the money earned at the market is reinvested into the garden and will pay for annual costs such as seeds and soil amendments.

Due to the large size of the Master Peace Community Farm, we rely on volunteer help of community members to maintain the garden beds and harvest for the market. To volunteer, join us on Saturdays during the growing season from 10 AM to 3 PM, when other families will be out in the garden. If that doesn’t fit your schedule, let us know and we'll be happy to figure a way that you can get involved.