A Community Space for Urban Agriculture
A new demonstration and teaching garden is being developed at the Rowan Community Center.
The Rowan Master Gardeners, along with Rowan County Cooperative Extension, are developing the Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens for the community at the Rowan Community Center (formerly West End Plaza). The two acres of demonstration and educational gardens will provide new green space that replaces a former vast expanse of asphalt parking lot, providing new access to healthy food.
The Healthy Living Gardens is a multi-year Master Gardener project incorporating fruit trees, shrubs, vegetable gardens, and perennials in the 2-acre space behind the new Center. Plans include a rain garden that will filter pollutants out of runoff and improve the health of Grants Creek Watershed, the watershed that flows through the heart of Rowan County before emptying into High Rock Lake, and declared impaired by the NC Division of Environmental Quality.
The Community Teaching Greenhouse
An Educational Center for Urban Agriculture – for ALL.
The Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens include a plan to purchase and install an Atlas Greenhouse, measuring 24’ wide by 48’ long with 8’ sidewalls. The Community Greenhouse, at the Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens, will become an educational center for urban agriculture, designed for hands-on learning and experiential understanding of growing healthy food while protecting our environment.
All the utilities for the Teaching Greenhouse are in place at the Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens, Salisbury, NC: natural gas, electricity, and water. The Greenhouse will be installed on a concrete pad. The site is currently being prepared, with plans for installation and project completion in early 2026. The Rowan Master Gardeners, working with Rowan County Cooperative Extension, are developing the Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens for the wider community at the Rowan Community Center. The two acres of demonstration and educational gardens will provide a new green space in place of a former asphalt parking lot.
The location is close to several large apartment and housing complexes, with walking or short driving access to the Gardens for the residents and their families. In the Rowan-Salisbury School District, approximately 47.7% of students are eligible for the federal free and reduced-price meal program. The Teaching Greenhouse and Healthy Living Demonstration Gardens will create community learning opportunities to address food insecurity by teaching area residents how to grow healthy fruits and veggies. It will serve as a hands-on resource to learn about caring for our natural environment in a community setting.
Within the Teaching Greenhouse programs, the Master Gardener Volunteers plan to work in tandem with community residents to teach the joy of planting, tending, harvesting, and using the fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
Further Use of the Greenhouse
The Rowan Master Gardeners propagate and grow 90% of the plants sold at their Annual Plant Sale, the association’s primary fundraiser. Between 3,500 and 5,000 plants are also used to plant and landscape the demonstration gardens. A year-round project, the Teaching Greenhouse at the Rowan Community Center will enhance not only these abilities but also the opportunity for the gardens and Greenhouse to become community learning and healthy eating centers.
The Teaching Greenhouse will be utilized by the Master Gardener Volunteers and Cooperative Extension Departments as an educational tool, while growing and propagating plants for the Healthy Living Gardens, community and home gardens, and annual plant sale. Many community groups will be welcome to benefit from the Greenhouse, such as Rowan County 4-H, school groups, and clients of the Rowan County Health Department and Veteran Services, which have offices in the Rowan County Community Center. A Greenhouse work-readiness program, designed to teach care for greenhouse plants, is under consideration.
The Healthy Living Demonstration Garden is professionally designed to educate about the interrelationships between families of vegetables, fruits, and other edibles, such as herbs. To help visitors understand these relationships, the Master Gardener team plans to offer a self-guided tour booklet with pages of evidence-based information about plantings in the various sections of the garden.
Master Gardener Volunteers work throughout the week and many weekends planting, harvesting, weeding, mulching, deadheading, and watering the gardens. They are happy to provide on-the-spot tours and answer questions about the great variety of plantings that will be on site, or recommend plants to home gardeners. Additionally, volunteers fertilize the beds and maintain the irrigation systems, monitoring disease or insect issues and the general performance of the plant selections.
Getting into urban farming is not just fun; it has many other benefits. Understanding the effort that goes into producing our food gives people some perspective on the food production industry. The Healthy Living Demonstration Garden and Teaching Greenhouse will be opening a wealth of opportunities for entire families to learn about food, nature, and science. But possibly the best bonus of learning to grow and raise one’s own food is the pride that comes in knowing that you successfully produced the food your family is eating.
The Rowan Master Gardeners, in conjunction with the Rowan Cooperative Extension Services, look forward to continuing to provide inspiration for home gardening and healthy living.
Who Makes it All Possible
This project would not be possible without the continued support from the Rowan County Board of Commissioners, generous corporate and individual donors, the tireless work of the Rowan Master Gardener Volunteers, and the surrounding community.
The Extension Master Gardener Association of Rowan County is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
All donations made to the Extension Master Gardener Association of Rowan County are tax-deductible.
Extension Master Gardener Association of Rowan County 