Co-Chairs: Jerry Kissel and Kent Phillips

The Grow It Eat It (GIEI) campaign is the University of Maryland Extension’s response to the increased demand for information and assistance with starting and maintaining successful food gardens. It is a joint venture between the Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) and the Master Gardeners (MGs) of Maryland.

The GIEI team of MGs will teach classes which emphasis sustainable gardening techniques using organic principles. Topics taught range from starting a vegetable garden, container vegetable gardening, holistic (organic) pest control, drip irrigation, starting seeds under lights and extending the vegetable gardening season by gardening in the early spring and late fall. This will be the third year for the GIEI campaign and volunteer opportunities abound for 2011. These opportunities include Provide presentations to clients on various food gardening topics.

• Provide presentations to clients on various food gardening topics. Some existing presentations can be found below.

•  Promote the GIEI campaign at various public events.

• Create new presentations dealing with different sustainable food gardening subjects.

• Help build and maintain a demonstration garden at the Howard County Conservancy at the Mt. Pleasant Farm in Woodstock, MD.

•   Provide guidance and mentoring for Howard County citizens as opportunities present themselves.

• Develop new relationships and find new venues to present the campaign to county residents

• Provide advice to local community gardeners through a new initiative “Ask a Master Vegetable Gardener” which is detailed below

Ask a Master Vegetable Gardener is modeled after the Ask a Master Gardener program conducted at county libraries. However, the program will be conducted at the four community gardens located around Howard County. MG volunteers specializing in growing fruits and vegetables will educate gardeners on these subjects.

Each of the four community gardens will be visited once a month, at which time the MGs will look at samples of ailing plants to make diagnosis, give recommendations, answer questions regarding cultivation of vegetables and provide other types of information on vegetable gardening.