The BCMG Demonstration Garden is a Public Garden created and maintained by BCMGs to educate county residents about safe, effective, and sustainable horticultural practices that build healthy gardens, landscapes, and communities. It is made up of the following individual gardens. 

History of the Baltimore County Master Gardener Demonstration Gardens

As agricultural practices evolved and spread, individual farmers historically exhibited their banner crops in their own fields to share knowledge with others. During wartime, "Victory Gardens" were widely endorsed as demonstration gardens teaching citizens to grow their own food to support the war effort. And today, farmers and smaller-scale gardeners learn from each other in their communities, through the various agricultural organizations, or through online tools designed to help them connect and exchange ideas. An important component of this growing network are visits to local demonstration gardens to observe current best practices, see plants growing in the local climate and soil, and speak with experienced gardeners. A good idea planted, grows.

Our current concept of demonstration gardens took root with the establishment of land-grant universities and their Cooperative Extension programs that sought to provide agricultural information to the public. The University of Maryland, a public land-grant research university founded in 1856, is one of many that support such an outreach mandate as part of their institution’s mission. Demonstration gardens help further that pursuit by offering lectures, hands-on learning opportunities, or other continuing-education activities to an audience beyond their campus. Over time, demonstration gardens have expanded to include various themes, showcasing vegetable gardens, flower gardens, native plant gardens, water gardens, sustainable practices, lawn alternatives, and gardens focused on specific plant types such as herbs or fruit trees. The Baltimore County Master Gardener (BCMG) demonstration gardens display many of these specialties.

Lying in the western section of the Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park acreage near the corner of Shawan and Cuba Roads, at 1114 Shawan Road in Cockeysville, Maryland 21030, the BCMG demonstration gardens support the Center’s Vision Statement goal to “provide educational activities for students and adults.” Concurrently supporting the University of Maryland Extension (UME) mission to educate “residents about safe, effective, and sustainable horticultural practices that build healthy gardens, landscapes, and communities”, the UME Master Gardener Program began in 1978 and is partly composed of many Master Gardener volunteers who maintain and develop the demonstration gardens, focusing “their love of plants, people, and the environment to help residents in their communities solve problems and make environmentally-sound decisions.” (UME Master Gardener Program ) The program is now active in twenty Maryland counties and Baltimore City. The BCMG demonstration gardens are open from sunup to sundown and parking and admission are free.

For more information about the Master Gardener Programs, please visit the University of Maryland Extension website http://go.umd.edu/mg