Grow It Eat It Launch

Grow It Eat It Launch Turns Marylanders into Gardeners

By Allison Frick
Friday, March 27, 2009


	Organizers of the Grow It Eat It campaign prepared for the launch at the Master Peace Community Garden in Riverdale. (Photo by Allison Frick)

RIVERDALE, Md.- It is mid-afternoon at the Master Peace Community Garden. The sky is grey and the air is cool and humid with the scent of grass and fresh dirt.

Video from the Launch

Learn how to build your own salad box!

Robin Hessey, state Master Gardener advanced training coordinator, discusses her experience with the program.
Related Links: Grow It Eat It The Engaged University Links to More Video: Vinnie Bevivino, program coordinator at the Engaged University, shares his thougths about Master Peace. Cheng-i Wei, director of the Agricultural Experiment Station and Maryland Cooperative Extension, appreciates the benefits of growing your own food.

Winter is finally coming to an end, and the organizers of the Grow It Eat It campaign are excited about the launch of their multi-faceted program to teach Marylanders how to grow their own fruits and vegetables.

Something else is adding to the excitement; it’s supposed to rain today, and for these dedicated individuals grey skies and showers mean a healthy garden.

Inspired by the current economic situation and an increase in the number of Marylanders interested in learning how to grow their own food, members of the Maryland Cooperative Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center and the Maryland Master Gardener Program combined their resources to create Grow It Eat It.

The Home and Garden Information Center is based in Ellicott City, and was established in 1990 to help Maryland residents maintain their gardens. The organization even provides a toll-free telephone service that local gardeners can call for advice. The Master Gardener program began in 1978 and consists of a group of volunteers who lead classes throughout the state about how to start a garden.

	Master Peace Community Farm
	View Master Peace Community Garden in a larger map

Jon Traunfeld, director of the Home and Garden Information Center and State Master Gardener Coordinator, explained in the organization’s February newsletter that the idea for Grow It Eat It sprouted at a Master Gardener committee meeting in October of last year. Development continued, and by January the logo had been chosen.

Today Grow It Eat It facilitates communication between Maryland residents and offers a wealth of resources from which they can learn about starting their own gardens. The campaign’s website is full of simple gardening tips, hosts a blog and provides information about the classes offered through the Master Gardener Program.

Natalia Tull attended the Grow It Eat It launch with her son. This Anne Arundel county resident explained that after gardening a little herself last year, she was still interested in learning more about growing her own food. “We are all for healthy eating and saving food,” she said.

Ria Malloy, business manager at the Home and Garden Information Center, estimates that 70 guests attended the launch today. Master Peace Community Garden is located at the Engaged University, an organization out of the University of Maryland that leads community development programs in the surrounding area. Master gardeners, volunteers trained through the University of Maryland to teach local residents like Tull how to start their own gardens, led demonstrations throughout Master Peace.

Erica Smith, a third year master gardener from Montgomery County, taught onlookers how to protect plants while still allowing sun and water to reach them.


		Vinnie Bevivino checks crops in Master Peace's greenhouse. (Photo by Allison Frick)

Just a few feet away, Casey Kneipp, a Prince George’s County master gardener, demonstrated how to build a salad box, which is a basic wooden box with a mesh bottom filled with soil that allows gardeners to grow vegetables without even going into the yard.

Today’s event was led by Traunfeld who said he is extremely excited about the high demand for the Grow it Eat it Campaign. “We’ve got the resources to teach and help people as they’re getting started,” he said, and he hopes that the efforts of the campaign will “translate into more gardens.”

The launch ended at four o’clock, and like the plots in Master Peace, Grow It Eat It has great potential. The energy of the master gardeners on site and the sincere enthusiasm of Traunfeld, Malloy and other contributors showed that Grow It Eat It will continue to receive the nurture it needs for fulfillment of the campaign’s goal to get one million Marylanders growing their own fruits and vegetables.

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