Community Projects
Atkins-Johnson Farm and Museum
Blue Springs Community Garden
Blue Springs Heritage Garden
Burr Oakes Nature Center
Cass County Medical Center
Cass County Physiological Services Garden
Gamber Center
Harvesters Demonstration Garden
Ivanhoe Demonstration Garden
John Wornall House Museum and Alexander Majors House
Kauffman Garden
Loose Park Rose Garden
Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary
Pendleton Heights Demonstration Garden
Platte County Community Gardens
Powell Gardens
Project Living Proof
Swope Park Community Center Demonstration Garden
Truman Home
Urban Green Dreams
Urban Rain Gardens
Watkins Woolen Mill Kitchen Garden
Atkins-Johnson Farm and Museum
NORTH-The Atkins-Johnson Farm and Museum is a 22-acre farmstead located on the eastern edge of Gladstone, MO. The site is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as a “1900 Missouri Farmstead” and has been saved by the City of Gladstone for ongoing community use and education. Atkins-Johnson Farm and Museum will open to the public on April 27, 2013.
The Master Gardeners of Kansas City have partnered with Atkins-Johnson Farm and the City of Gladstone to establish a heritage garden which will produce vegetables, herbs and flowers grown before 1900. The garden is new in 2013 and will present unique challenges but should be a very rewarding venture.
Blue Springs Community Garden
EAST-Coming in the spring of 2012 is a new Community Garden just a block from our Blue Springs office. Master Gardeners will have one of the 10x20 plots as a demo plot. Be among the first to plan the garden, set the workdays, and organize the educational opportunities that Master Gardeners will provide for the other plot holders.
Blue Springs Heritage Garden
EAST-Master Gardeners are building period appropriate 1910 gardens surrounding the Dillingham Lewis Museum. The 4 part semi formal sungarden has been completed and the shade garden is in progress.
Burr Oak Woods Nature Center
EAST-Several years ago Master Gardeners built a native plant garden at the entrance to the Visitors Center. The garden became overgrown with the cutback in staff and Master Gardeners were asked to return to the project and maintain the garden on an ongoing basis. Some plants are being removed, the path widened and new plants are being installed and maintained.
Cass County Medical Center
SOUTH-This new medical center in Harrisonville looks more like a resort than a hospital with beautiful views from the floor to ceiling windows. An important component is the healing garden. Another view looks out to the pond. Master Gardeners along with their volunteers will help plant these areas as well as several other spaces around the facility.
Cass County Physiological Services Garden
SOUTH-The Cass County Extension Service and the Master Gardeners are providing raised demonstration beds for the education of the Cass County Psych. Service and Drug Court participants. They will be planting and maintaining a salsa garden, veggie soup garden and a salad garden. After harvesting the produce they will learn how to properly care for and to use the fresh vegetables. We intend to plant native plants in front of the building and show our neighbors the benefit of natives.
Gamber Center
EAST-Master Gardeners are planning, planting and will maintain the gardens around the new Lees Summit Parks and Recreation facility, The Gamber Center. The variety of potential spaces will provide opportunities for sun and shade gardens. The circular bed at the entrance will be the focal point providing multi season interest.
Harvesters Demonstration Garden
CENTRAL - A unique garden at the Harvesters Food Bank that used everyday materials to build a low cost fruit and vegetable garden. Clients and visitors tour the garden to learn about inexpensive methods to grow their own food. All produce is then taken inside to Harvesters for use in the food bank. Master gardeners built the garden and now assist in every stage during each growing season.
Ivanhoe Demonstration Garden
CENTRAL-Also new this spring, Master Gardeners built a large demonstration fruit and vegetable garden in the Ivanhoe neighborhood at 3700 Woodland in an empty lot next to the Ivanhoe Center. The garden has a wide range of fruits and vegetable plots that demonstrate to residents how to grow healthy food with minimal expense. The Ivanhoe neighborhood donated the land, the fence and a water system. The neighborhood is encouraged to participate from the planting to the harvest. All produce will be donated to the neighborhood. Master Gardeners provide classes and participate in educational opportunities at neighborhood events.
John Wornall House and Alexander Majors House
CENTRAL-The Wornall House, an antebellum home serves as a museum and center for living history programs with 5,000 visitors per year. The 1800’s kitchen herb garden is the center for several garden related activities and events. Master gardeners are working with the staff to restore the grounds by removing unwanted plant material and replacing it with natives and period appropriate plants. The Wornall House now partners with the Majors House adding additional volunteer opportunities.
Kauffman Garden
CENTRAL-All new Kauffman volunteers must fill out a brief application. They can obtain one by phone (816-932-1260) or e-mail (dhoover@kauffman.org). Once the application is mailed back to us, or slid under the garden office door we call them to find their best time to volunteer.
Orientation for the volunteers varies on the person. We like to have help Monday through Saturday between 7:00am and 2:30pm. They pick how long they want to be here. Some folks only do an hour and others will do six. We prefer for the volunteers to either be on a set schedule or if they can’t do that just e-mail or call a few days ahead of time if they are interested in coming in to help. Then we can work the garden schedule around how much help we will have that week.
We also have some volunteers that are short on time, but like to come in once or twice a year for an “all hands on deck” day at the Kauffman Garden. We call them our special events volunteers.
All that we ask our volunteers to bring are work gloves. We have all of the tools necessary for any tasks that we need to do here.
Loose Park Rose Garden
CENTRAL-Orientation for volunteering in the Rose Garden is held twice in early spring. Thursday morning is the rose garden workday anytime from 8:00AM to noon. Mulching, pruning and deadheading are the general rose maintenance activities.
Master Gardeners are needed to plant annuals once past the last frost.
Contact Judy to get on the list or watch for a notice in the Friday Update. Some pruning and deadheading of the annuals is needed throughout the season. Volunteers need to work out these arrangements directly with Judy on an as needed basis.
Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary
NORTH- Master gardeners are developing and maintaining a Bird Island with Missouri Native plants that attract birds. The goal is to provide information on Native plants while promoting biodiversity of plants and animals.
Pendleton Heights Demonstration Garden
HISTORIC NORTHEAST KANSAS CITY-New in the spring of 2013, Community Volunteers and Master Gardeners built a large demonstration fruit and vegetable garden in the Pendleton Heights neighborhood at the southwest corner of the intersection of Brooklyn and Minnie Avenues in an empty lot. The garden has a wide range of fruits and vegetable plots that demonstrate to residents how to grow healthy food with minimal expense. Kansas City donated the land and the neighborhood association had a plumber install the water system. The neighborhood is required to participate from the planting to the harvest. All produce will be donated to the neighborhood. Master Gardeners provide classes and participate in educational opportunities at neighborhood events and at the Don Bosco Center. Two neighborhood elementary schools (Scuola Vita Nuova Charter (SVN) and Kansas City’s Garfield) are located nearby and participate in the Eating from the Garden Program.
Platte County Community Gardens
NORTH-Newly constructed this spring is a community garden with 30 public plots built on The National Golf Course along HWY45. This community garden is a partnership between Master Gardeners, The YMCA and The National Golf Course. The plots are open to the general public with the YMCA administering the program. The National donated the land, the fence and the water system. Master Gardeners have 4 demonstration plots and all produce is donated to charity. Additionally Master Gardeners offer classes and workshops for the plot holders.
Powell Gardens
SOUTH-Most Garden Volunteers work 8:00 – 12:00 shifts weekly or every-other-week. Most of these shifts are on week-days, but a limited number are on week-ends. When they contact me I can let them know which team needs volunteers on what days. Due to transition and expansion, we always have needs somewhere.
Volunteers wanting a more flexible schedule should try our Tasting Stations, Heartland Harvest Garden Tram or “Six Days of Summer”. For the “Six Days of Summer”, volunteers choose 6 days during the growing season and commit to those days.
Garden volunteers need to attend a short orientation – in the late winter I set dates, between times I can meet with people individually, often on the day they start.
Project Living Proof
CENTRAL-The goal of Project Living Proof (PLP) is to restore a modest home at 917 Emanuel Cleaver Blvd in Kansas City, Missouri, to exhibit how to make a century-old home more energy efficient. The site's landscaping is a pilot project of the Sustainable Sites Initiative, a voluntary set of guidelines and benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction, and maintenance practices. We are exploring this site as a new project for the spring of 2012. Master Gardeners would help maintain the gardens already in existence plus assist in the planning of the undeveloped areas following the sustainable guidelines.
Swope Park Community Demonstration Garden
CENTRAL- A 6000 sq ft Demonstration Garden in front of the new Southeast Community Center in Swope Park. This state of the art center is a Leeds certified building A winding path meanders through hundreds of flowers and shrubs. We have used Plants of Merit and All American Selections to showcase plants that thrive in the Kansas City area. Master gardeners planted 1,500 plants using annuals and perennials. Each year the annuals will be replaced and the garden maintained two days per week throughout the growing season.
Truman Home
EAST- Operated by the National Park Service, the Truman Home is a National Historic Site. Master gardeners prune shrubs and trees using hand tools in keeping with the landscape plan set out by President Truman. Budget cuts have reduced the maintenance staff resulting in overgrown shrubs needing attention.
Urban Green Dreams
CENTRAL-A couple of Master Gardeners, neighborhood volunteers and KCP&L volunteers built an urban garden in the Palestine area. Encouraged by that success they are building additional community garden plots in empty lots.
Urban Rain Gardens
CENTRAL-Master Gardeners help maintain the rain garden in Theis Park (across from the Nelson Art Gallery) built by The Kansas City Art Institute. This beautiful meandering rain garden winds down the slope to Brush creek.
Watkins Woolen Mill Kitchen Garden
NORTH-Located inside the state park, the established 1870 kitchen garden includes herbs, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Master gardeners plan, plant and maintain the garden alongside state park staff. Master Gardeners also participate in two fun and educational events for the public, Spring on the Farm and Fall on the Farm. See pictures of Spring on the Farm 2012.
