Community Garden Plots Available To Groups At Freetown Farm

COLUMBIA, MD — Aspiring green thumbs needing ground to grow produce can apply to use seasonal community garden plots in Columbia this year.

The Community Ecology Institute, a Howard County-based nonprofit dedicated to cultivating communities where people and nature thrive together, seeks nonprofits, organizations and groups of growers interested in growing a variety of produce at its Freetown Farm in Columbia. There is a long wait list for community garden plots in Howard County and this initiative is designed to help expand access to land and resources by engaging community-serving groups who will tend to the garden plots with the people they serve.

“Our farm has always been a space for learning, healing and community connection,” said Chiara D’Amore, CEI executive director. “This new initiative allows us to deepen partnerships with organizations who are already doing important work in Howard County and provide them with land to grow food, build community and strengthen local networks.”

D'Amore told Patch that potential partners could include a school, scout troop, faith-based organization, another non-profit and a mission-aligned business.

"Part of our vision here given how long the wait list is for community garden plots in Howard County is to work at a group level rather than a family or individual level to help provide land access to a greater number of people," D'Amore said.

The growing space at the farm is set up for annual crops, so groups can grow an assortment of veggies, culinary herbs, flowers, companion plants and more. The plots will be divvied up as such:

• Small (400 sq. ft.) – ideal for learning-focused or low-capacity groups
• Medium (650 sq. ft.) – suitable for mixed education and small-scale production
• Large (1,000 sq. ft.) – for organizations producing food at scale or running frequent programming

"We hope the organizations that collaborate with us in this space will enjoy having an area to plant the foods that their particular group would most enjoy being able to grow and eat," D'Amore told Patch. "CEI has grown an abundance of produce from this space - tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, onions, garlic, all manner of greens such as kale, spinach, lettuce, root veggies such as radishes and turnips, a variety of squashes and pumpkins, etc."

More than 70 community gardens have been installed at primarily schools across the county in the pat several years, D'Amore said. These CEI Nourishing Gardens provide an educational community space as well as a spot for groups to grow food where they wouldn't otherwise have land to do so.

CEI's Nourishing Gardens program has installed more than 70 community gardens throughout Howard County over the past several years - primarily at schools. This initiative creates access to land to grow food for organizations that do not have land that their own land to grow on and/or who want to garden in a collaborative, educational community space.

Applications for the on-farm partnership pilot program are open through Feb. 27.

For more information and to apply, visit www.communityecologyinstitute.org/community-

garden.html.