Carver Peace Gardens

The Carver Peace Gardens are organic gardens located at Carver Park 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 for the community residents. The gardeners rented an inground plot for their use on an annual basis. In the fall of 2020, the Master Gardeners, Community Gardeners, and the Manager of Carver Park determined that it was time to transition to raised beds.  In 2021 the first raised beds were rented and plants begin to grow. The raised beds are rented annually on a first come first serve basis to community members for a nominal fee. In 2025, the number of gardens grew to 67 - 4 x 8 beds and 12 - 4 x 4 beds with over 30 community gardeners and managed by the Master Gardener Project Team. In 2025, the gardeners reported producing over 54 bushels of produce. 

In May 2025, the garden held a workday with all the gardeners and Master Gardeners who help maintain the Carver Garden. Several gardening activities were completed to maintain and prepare the garden for a busy, garden season. 

Team Leaders (Carver gardeners) were established to work with a specific number of beds.  The team leaders assisted with gardening questions, reminded gardeners in their blocks of updates that occurred throughout the growing season, and reminded them to report their produce yield.

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). In 2021, Nancy Shilling began working with the children in the afterschool program to teach them about gardening.  The program has grown over the years.  Several wonderful Master Gardeners are currently working under the coordination of Janet Smith as the Carver children’s education program continues to grow. 

The Master Gardeners work with 30-40 children who attend the after-school program at Carver for one hour a week in the spring and fall after school program (total of 22 weeks).  During the summer the Master Gardeners provide gardening education during the 7-week Carver Park Summer Camp.  There are 80-90 children attending during this time.  The children are divided into two groups, and the Master Gardeners teach two classes of ~40 children, in back-to-back sessions of ~40 children each during the summer. We were pleased to be able to provide an advanced group for the middle school Jr. Gees in the fall of 2025.

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. Through these programs, Master Gardeners are also hopefully instilling a joy for gardening and creating great memories for the children they mentor.

For all the classes, the children are divided into 6 small groups, with one Master Gardener overseeing the group.  The Master Gardeners rotate teaching the content of the class, then Master Gardeners assist with the hands-on activities.  Without the volunteers, the Jr. Gees program could not maintain the excellent educational programs that are offered.  So, you can see we will need over 130 volunteer hours to provide this service in the spring and fall and over 80 volunteer hours to provide the service for volunteer hours.

The Master Gardeners meet several times a year to assess how things are going with the garden and the Jr. Gees program.  Some of the duties we perform at our weekly garden times are Inventory of tools, assessment of beds and other items used, maintenance that needs to be completed, prepare for the Jr. Gees classes, and determines how pollinator beds are doing.  The Jr. Gees program for the next season is discussed, and an outline of classes is developed.  During the meeting, new ideas are discussed, and plans are made to implement the schedule for all of the above.  The Master Gardeners at Carver are wonderful to work with and we would not be growing and able to provide the service to Carver Park without them.  

This spring we will begin to work with ETSU students on a new project, Rooted Alliance. One of the students in the Public Health program wrote a grant and was awarded money for raised beds to grow food to be given to those in need.  Carver Peace Garden will receive at least 10 new 4x8 beds and work with ETSU students to develop a method of growing and donating food to our community.  This is also exciting for Carver Park, the community, Master Gardeners, and the gardeners at Carver Peace Gardens.  

In the fall of 2025, we had a wonderful meeting and discussion of why we are master gardeners, what we want to accomplish for the remainder of 2025, and what is priority to accomplish in 2026. We organized the comments into 3 major areas of focus in 2026 – communication, education, and children’s programs.

• Communication – To help gardeners; provide classes, provide a social media site, topics for education should focus on upcoming activities appropriate to the season for gardeners and community.  Section Leader will continue to monitor gardens and discuss any questions with gardeners.  Nancy has volunteered to provide gardening articles for distribution.
• Education – Urban Gardening, classes as above and more, continue STEM classes for children, provide classes to the community and public bringing in Master Gardeners to provide education on food security, square foot gardening, and vertical gardening. Continue to work with the Boy Scout troop to assist with the development programs at Carver.

• Children’s Program – Continue to work together to develop classes for spring, fall, and summer camp classes. Master Gardeners discuss topics appropriate to the time of year and volunteer to teach or assist with the classes.  At least 6 Master Gardeners are needed for each class.    

Master Gardeners are necessary to help with activities that are needed to keep the garden running smoothly.  The activities include maintenance of the pollinator beds, upkeep of tools, ensuring the beds and water systems are working for the gardeners, general maintenance of the gardens, providing compost and fertilizer for the gardener as well as providing guidance on gardening activities. 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. To find your gardening joy and share your expertise please call Brenda McKinnis (423-946-2769), or Penny Rutledge (423-612-4785). 

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).