Demonstration Gardens

The Master Gardener Demonstration Garden is located at the Agricultural History Farm Park (18410 Muncaster Rd., Derwood MD 20855). The garden is open to the public.  There are 12 themed gardens and work areas within the approximately quarter acre site. The Garden is open to the public dawn to dusk throughout the year for self-guided tours. No animals inside the Garden please!

As Master Gardeners, we love to share information about the types of vegetables, small fruits, annual and perennial flowers, and shrubs that can be grown successfully in Montgomery County. We work in the main Garden every Tuesday 8 am. to 12 pm, March 17 through November 8.  The Shade Garden work day is on Thursdays.  Everyone is welcome to tour the gardens during our work days and ask gardening questions of the Master Gardeners.

The 12 themed Gardens and work areas in the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden include:

• 4-H & Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children (CSAAC) Garden

• Butterfly Garden

• Children’s Garden

• Composting operation

• Conservation Garden

• Herb & Fragrance Garden

• Kitchen Garden

• Shade Garden

• Small Fruits Garden

• Special Projects & Containers

• Therapeutic Horticulture Garden

• Vegetable Garden

Photo credit: Derwood Demo Garden Reports

This public garden, located on the grounds of the historic Beall-Dawson House in Rockville, features herbs and other plants that were used as medicines during the last half of the 19th century. The garden is just steps away from the Montgomery County historical society’s Stonestreet Museum of 19th Century Medicine, housed in the original one-room office of Dr. Edward Stonestreet, Rockville’s only physician during this period.

Master gardeners maintain the garden for Montgomery History, and have redesigned the space to emphasize its educational and ornamental value since it was designated a MCMG demonstration garden. Signs and a booklet help visitors identify the plants, which include flowering annuals and perennials, a variety of herbs, and even a vigorous hops vine, which climbs the garden’s trellis.

MGs regularly host garden clubs and other groups for tours, often in conjunction with a visit to the museum and a presentation by Dr. Stonestreet himself (as portrayed by reenactor Clarence Hickey). But local residents can visit the garden anytime, and many who pass on the sidewalk nearby linger to enjoy the garden’s quiet charm and its ever-changing floral display.

Photo credit: The Historical Marker Database

Since 1994, Montgomery County Master Gardeners have maintained an award-winning Demonstration Garden at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg, MD. County residents may visit the Fairgrounds Demonstration Gardens from June to September each year.  During the annual Montgomery County Agricultural Fair in August, thousands of visitors tour the award-winning garden located near Old MacDonald's Barn. 

Master Gardener volunteers are on duty each day during the Fair to answer questions about the wide variety of plants in the garden and about the Master Gardener program. They also provide helpful gardening information, including common problems with landscape and vegetable gardens, great choices for sun and shade native plants, proper use of pesticides and herbicides, and proper use of fertilizer to protect the water table and the Chesapeake Bay. Scavenger hunts for young visitors help them have fun while they learn about pollinators, good bugs & bad bugs, and cool plants.

The garden is maintained using organic methods, and features a shade garden, white garden, native garden, fernery, aster garden, spiral garden and vertical garden. The variety of plants attracts butterflies, hummingbirds, bees and other beneficial insects and pollinators. The garden is the recipient of many Keep Montgomery County Beautiful awards and, in an ABC television interview, was called “An oasis within the Fair.”  

You can find additional information about the Fair, including dates and directions, on the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair website.

Photo credit: Montgomery County Agricultural Fair.

Since 1986, Montgomery County Master Gardeners have been volunteering at the National Library of Medicine Herb Garden at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD. This is a demonstration garden of medicinal herbs, so plants are labeled with their historic medicinal uses. The garden has been fortunate to be the home of a healing totem and benches made by Master Carver, Jewell Praying Wolf James. The garden is a peaceful, relaxing getaway on the National Institutes of Health campus where employees, NIH patients, and NLM visitors can enjoy their lunch or take a morning stroll.  The garden is open to all, so come and check it out!

As Master Gardeners, we educate visitors about herbs, their uses, medical history, and gardening practices.  As we teach, we also learn.  Some of our visitors have been known to contribute plants and even food prepared with herbs from their culture.  View a video produced by the National Library of Medicine which showcases our work in the NLM Herb Garden.  Please review the NLM Herb Garden website for directions, visitor details.

Photo credit: nlm.nih.gov

Visitors to the Nature Forward Woodend Learning Garden in Chevy Chase, MD include hundreds of school and summer camp children as well as adults who come for the environmental education programs or to visit the gardens and trails. Master Gardeners collaborate with Nature Forward to cultivate and maintain the Learning Garden that consists of 5-6 raised garden beds and an orchard area. Master Gardener volunteers also assist in the child-centered garden activities that are conducted during the camp sessions, and conduct several open houses for the public each growing season on sustainable gardening practices.

Photo credit: Nature Forward

Master gardeners volunteer at the USO Warrior and Family Center on the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center campus in Bethesda which hosts educational and recreational events for active duty military and their families. The garden surrounding the center, completed in 2014, is designed as a healing garden where service members can relax and rehabilitate. Master Gardeners started their work in the Walter Reed USO Healing Garden in 2018 rehabilitating the planted beds, directing corporate volunteers to help clean up and maintain the garden as well as working with the hospital's recreational therapists in their Psychiatric Continuity Services Horticulture program.  Our program is working to broaden our activities to include special events in the garden for service members and their families.

When Master Gardeners were contacted by the USO staff to consult, the healing garden hadn't been properly maintained since its initial planting in 2014. It was overrun with weeds, overgrown with grasses and functioned as a buffet for deer. With the help of corporate volunteer groups, which Master Gardeners directed and educated, we reclaimed the garden for service personnel and their families and its role as a healing garden.  We've used our training and primarily donated plant bounty to incorporate native plants and deer resistant varieties; which make upkeep manageable and better serves the environment. Getting the garden back has allowed for everything from Easter Egg hunts for service families, a safe place for those trying out new artificial limbs to try different surfaces, as well as tours during our Psychiatric Continuity Services Horticulture sessions. The benches and seats make for a calming place to rest, enjoy nature's bounty and listen to the newly reactivated waterfall sounds.

Photo credit: Michaela Barnes (via Montgomery County Master Gardener Facebook)