Carver Peace Gardens

The Carver Peace Gardens are organic gardens located at Carver Park, behind

322 West Watauga Street, in Johnson City. The gardens are a project of the Johnson City Parks & Recreation Department, the Carver Recreation Center, and the Northeast Tennessee Master Gardener Association.

The gardens were originally developed in 2006 with ground garden plots. In 2020 the decision was made to convert to raised beds. Carver Peace Garden now has the equivalent of 138 4 x 4 beds; twenty-eight of those are 4 x 16, seven are 4 x 8 beds and twelve are 4 x 4. All of the beds were productive with just 27 gardeners and the management by the Master Gardener Project Team. The raised beds are rented annually on a first come first serve basis to community members for a nominal fee.

One program which the Carver Peace Gardeners are very proud of and part of the mission of NETMGA is providing education to elementary and middle school children (Jr. Gees). The main goals of the education classes are to teach basic gardening skills and promote a better understanding of where food comes from. Under the mentorship of Master Gardeners, the students learn how to plant, maintain, and harvest raised bed vegetable gardens in the cold frame that was built last year and seven 4x4 beds that are devoted to their program. Weekly lessons include soil management, composting, food preparation, recycling, container gardening, growing flowers, the importance of pollinators, and environmental stewardship. 150 children attended the 2024 after school and summer camp programs at Carver Peace Garden. Through these programs, Master Gardeners are also hopefully instilling a joy for gardening and creating great memories for the children they mentor.

Carver Peace Garden Master Gardeners accomplished several gardening tasks in 2024:

• In collaboration with Shady Oaks, we participated in the Shady Oaks Johnson City Garden Club tours. Many visitors toured our garden.  Master Gardeners were available for questions and information about the garden, vegetables, and flowers.  Potted vegetables and flowers were available. 
• There is a large pollinator garden on the playground side of the garden. This garden is a very beautiful pollinator garden that was designed by a NETMGA gardener.  It was planted and maintained by the Jr. Gees, the after school children’s gardening program. The Jr. Gees continue to maintain the garden. 
• Shady Oaks gardeners were busy helping at Carver in 2024. A shade garden on the playground side of the garden was designed, planted, and maintained by the Shady Oaks gardeners.  It has beautiful shade perennials.
• On the creek side of the garden, a sun perennial bed was designed, built, and flourished throughout the summer.
• We continue to experiment with an irrigation system for a few beds, more work to come in 2025.

• The Master Gardeners maintain four perennial flower beds on the parking lot side of the garden and one flower garden on the track side of the garden.
• Fruit trees are located on the track side of the garden.  This area is maintained by the Master Gardeners.
• Individual gardeners have access to consult with Master Gardeners or other Carver Peace Gardeners.  The Master Gardeners provided online gardening information to all Carver Peace gardeners.
• Build It Up East Tennessee provides garden plants, seeds, and fertilizer to Carver Peace Gardeners.  The gardeners then report their produce yield annually.   Produce yield between March and November totaled 218 pecks or 1,864 pounds.

It was a busy year between gardening projects, breakfast and luncheons were held to plan and implement ongoing activities and the Jr. Gees program. Some
Master Gardeners participate in everything we do at Carver Peace Garden, while others chose to only participate in certain activities. We welcome new gardeners to join us and find their niche. Talk with Nancy Shilling (423-833-1420), Brenda McKinnis (423-946-2769), or Penny Rutledge (423-612-4785).