Howard County opens 126-plot community garden on Old Montgomery Road | The Locally Times
Published ยท The Locally Times
The 16.22-acre Ellicott City site is the county's fourth community garden and its first outside Columbia, bringing the plot total to 699.
Howard County Executive Calvin Ball, joined by Recreation & Parks Director Nick Mooneyhan, the Columbia Gardeners, the Community Action Council of Howard County, MD Inc. (CAC), and community members, has officially opened the department's new Community Garden at Old Montgomery Road in Ellicott City. The 16.22-acre site, located just north of the MD 100 overpass and the Maryland School for the Deaf, features 126 standard-size garden plots where residents from Ellicott City to Elkridge and beyond can grow fresh produce and flowers, along with a parking lot and storage area. Of the 126 plots, 25 will be Americans with Disabilities Act accessible, with raised garden beds so wheelchair users or anyone unable to comfortably bend to the ground can plant, tend, and harvest alongside their neighbors. Two plots will be dedicated to Recreation & Parks' Therapeutic Recreation Division to conduct relevant programs, and five will be dedicated to the CAC, the county's designated non-profit anti-poverty organization for more than 60 years. The garden is the county's fourth community garden site and the first located outside Columbia's borders, extending access to residents in the Elkridge and Ellicott City areas and increasing the county's total community garden plots to 699. Ball said the garden gives residents a place to come together, cultivate friendships, share knowledge, and grow their own nutritious, fresh, and affordable foods. Photos from the opening are posted on Howard County Government's Flickr website, and video is on the County Executive's Facebook website.