Woodville Park

Learning/Demonstration Garden 

​

The Woodville Park Garden is a learning garden that has a few purposes:

·        a learning/demonstration garden for the community to see a variety of gardening strategies in action

·        a source of locally grown produce for the local food bank, Bread for Life

·        a project for Gloucester Master Gardener interns to reach the 50 volunteer hours required to become a member of the organization

 

The garden is located at the front of Woodville Park, adjacent to the walking path, allowing easy visibility for the community to see the garden. An important part of the project is to learn and teach vegetable and flower production, proper planting, maintenance, fertilization, pest and disease control and crop rotation. We have also had opportunities to share our project with interested park visitors who frequent the park and have enjoyed seeing the gardens flourish. The interns use a variety of techniques to demonstrate gardening practices, including square foot gardening, companion planting, and succession planting.

 

In four of the garden’s five raised beds we have been growing, harvesting, and delivering produce for the local food bank, Bread for Life. We harvest, usually, twice each week and deliver the produce to the food bank. Our fifth bed is planted with flowers. We have partnered with the project at Walter Reed Convalescent Center to use the flowers grown at Woodville Park for a flower arranging program there.

 

The project includes a multitude of volunteer opportunities for interns, including planning the garden, watering, weeding and other maintenance, and harvesting and delivering produce. Many interns find that they can fulfill their volunteer hour obligation by fully participating in these activities.

 

Interested in how Woodville Park came about? Click here for a brief history of Woodville Park written by GEMG Jim Newton.

​