Dog collars and treat pouches with the Beautiful & Delicious! theme
see more below

When we add edible plants into our gardens, we honor the symbiotic relationship
that encourages growth and creates habitat for pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Let’s move the edibles to the front of our yards to create gardens that are beautiful and delicious!

No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, & no culture comparable to that of the garden. – Thomas Jefferson

This is a new program that speaks to our times and dovetails with our Take Root initiative that informs and inspires people to plant trees – the best way to drawdown CO2 from our atmosphere. With Here We Grow we will introduce a modern-day Victory Garden project to encourage people to value the land and nature by installing, developing or updating their gardens to provide beauty, food, and pollinator habitat. This meets our overall organizational mission and will resonate with many people who are doing two things during this crisis: gardening and cooking.

Here We Grow is a natural progression from how we developed the garden at our former office on State Circle and Maryland Avenue, the Annapolis Green House. We began 2018 by removing all non-natives and replanting to make it a pollinator friendly habitat. Then in 1999 we met the author of Foodscape Revolution and planted edibles in with the native flowering plants. The concept of making this garden the cornerstone of an area-wide movement came to fruition in 2020 as the following became clear due to the pandemic:

• The industrial food distribution system is easily disrupted and will likely get worse with Climate Change.
• People need to connect to nature and understand where their food comes from in order to be willing to take action to protect the environment.
• There is growing interest in gardening and cooking during this time – a trend that is likely to continue.

Over the last few years our garden was a beautiful example of urban gardening – fueled by our “secret ingredient,” the compost we sell comprised of waste from many of our Responsible Events and Festivals. It only made sense to have our garden serve as the centerpiece and demonstration garden.

Our Here We Grow program continues to educate, provide resources, and inspire, both online and in-person, as we create a “club” to build momentum supported by social media. Once we obtain funding, we will form a “Charter Club” of individuals who will also sign on to serve as mentors and comprise the first 25 gardens that will receive a “Starter Kit.”

After the first 25, additional club members will have access to resources (partner organization/business discounts for example) and receive their sought-after Here We Grow garden marker for a donation.

This project will increase local food accessibility. With the pandemic, concentrated national food distribution systems have proven to be fragile and easily broken. The pandemic has made it clear that local food availability is more important than ever and this can be expected to continue to manifest itself as the climate changes. Further, gardening, particularly food gardening, connects people with Nature – something that modern fast-paced life has lost, much to the detriment of our environment. All of these benefits fit into our ongoing information program about mitigation of Climate Change impacts.

With funding, our guidance will be applicable to urban and suburban settings and will bring together many partners to provide expertise, compost, potting soil, seeds, plants, alternatives to pesticides and herbicides, and fun as well as a nutritious harvest. We will encourage gardeners to donate excess food to local food pantries, food banks and shelters for those in need and will require that they keep track of the scope of their harvest so we can establish a baseline. Virtual interaction will be a huge component. As conditions allow, tours of Here We Grow gardens and local farms will be arranged along with flower, veggie and seed exchanges (swaps).

We will partner with a number of organizations including homeowners’ associations, garden clubs, environmental nonprofits, the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, beekeepers, bird clubs, and others.

At the end of this year’s growing season, we hope to showcase the extent of the community-wide harvest. The news would be how much food was produced in individual small gardens and testimonials from those involved – particularly families. Through success and individual engagement we will be ready to “grow” the gardening trend into the 2021 growing season and beyond.

Do you belong to an organization that needs funding for a garden? Unity Gardens may be able to help. For information about Unity Gardens’ grant program click here.

No birds in your garden?

Are you providing the right habitat? Are you using pesticides that destroy the food they need — that is, insects and their larvae? Little guys like this Yellow Warbler play a vital role in Nature’s balancing act by keeping insect populations down and even helping with pollination. And besides, they are fun to watch and listen to. Read about a recent study by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Don’t miss our page all about trees, Take Root.

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Collars & Pouches

What better way to spread the word about Here We Grow Beautiful & Delicious gardens than with the help of our pets!

See our Beautiful & Delicious collection of one-of-a-kind dog collars, handmade from repurposed leather belts, featuring sustainably sourced leather flower accents crafted from furniture company scraps. The designs feature flowers and veggies – just like our garden! Available in five sizes on Etsy from the Great Maier Mercantile in Virginia.

You can purchase them online right now. Artisan Krissy Maier is generously supporting Annapolis Green with every sale! She’s also created a stylish and practical Beautiful & Delicious Dog Treat Trainer and Waste Bag Holder pouch you can attach to your belt. It has compartments for bags and treats!