Howard County

GreenFest 2023

Saturday, April 15, 2023
10:00am – 3:00pm

GreenFest is Howard County’s largest celebration of Earth Day. The event aims to connect residents with the resources that local businesses, non-profits and government provide to help anyone be a good steward to the environment.

Visit our Native Plant and Local Farm Vendors in Parking Lot B!

Lauren’s Garden Service & Native Plant Nursery

Enjoy some tasty treats from our food vendors!

Julie’s Deeelicious Punch and Funnel Cakes

Document shredding will be held in Parking Lot A from 10am – 2pm. Please note that trucks may fill before the designated end time.

Residents may bring up to three bags or boxes of paper to be shredded.

Howard County residents can help reduce stormwater runoff with the help of a rain barrel – they collect and store runoff from roof downspouts, and this water can be reused for lawns and gardens, reducing the use of potable water.

This year, 40 rain barrels will be given away at Greenfest. Prior registration and online training is required.

Registration opens on April 5th, 2023!

Do you have items in your house that need fixing or mending but you don’t know how to fix them yourself?

Bring your broken items to the Transition Repair Café! Volunteers will evaluate and fix as many of them as they can and offer their expertise on items that are too large or not possible to bring in. Please register your items prior to the event.

Workshops will be held in the Workshop Classroom (SET 109)

The Howard County Master Gardeners will be distributing a limited number of FREE backyard compost bins. They are also available to answer any questions about composting and gardening.

GreenFest is just one of many opportunities to pick up compost bins and learn how to make your own soil amendment. Visit our backyard composting page and download the 2023 calendar to attend a demonstration.

Meet some local birds, reptiles and turtles in our Wildlife Room!

A special thanks to Echoes of Nature and the Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society (MATTS) for bringing these wonderful critters to GreenFest!

HCC Food Pantry

Please consider donating to Howard Community College’s Fueling Dragons and Food Pantry.

This program aims to tackle food insecurity in the HCC community. See their list of accepted items for donation.

Information coming soon!

2022 GreenFest

Thank you to all who attended GreenFest this year, and special thanks to all of our vendors, workshop hosts, and sponsors who helped make our return a success.

Highlights from the event:

• Over 1,000 attendees
• 20,000 lbs of documents shredded
• 50 rain barrel giveaways
• 50 compost bin giveaways
• Over 50 vendors
• 11 sponsors
• 169 old light bulbs collected and 504 LED light bulbs distributed
• 30 broken items repaired (including a vacuum cleaner, heater, sewing machine, food processor, leaf blower, crockpot and lamps)

See the photos here.

Fun at Previous Howard County GreenFest Events

Master Gardener Program

• Master Gardeners
• Bay-Wise
• Ask a Master Gardener
• Composting
• Pollinators
• Grow It! Eat It!
• Watershed Stewards Academy
• Home and Garden Information Center

Howard County Master Gardeners are volunteers, trained by the university, providing horticultural education services to individuals, groups, and communities including government agencies, neighborhood associations, non-profit organizations, historic sites, schools and youth groups, senior citizens and garden clubs. Master Gardener programs and services are available free of charge to all Howard County residents and community groups. For more information on our services or becoming a Master Gardener check out our website.

Our mission is to educate residents about landscape practices that protect the Chesapeake Bay and our local waterways. By changing a few simple practices, together we can help keep our Maryland water healthy.

Are you Bay-Wise? Test your knowledge of these Bay-Wise principles by using the Bay-Wise Yardstick to see how you measure up.

• Controlling Storm water Runoff
• Encouraging Wildlife
• Protecting the Waterfront
• Mowing properly and Watering Efficiently
• Managing Yard Pests
• Mulching and Recycling
• Fertilizing
• Planting Wisely

Home consultations to assist homeowners with their landscaping problems will resume once the threat from the Corona virus is past. In the meantime, please refer to the resources on our webpage.

Ask a Master Gardener-Plant Clinic is a program where Master Gardener volunteers, in conjunction with the University of Maryland Extension, provide information to home gardeners at the county libraries and other events throughout the county.

Compost is a dark and crumbly material produced by the natural decomposition of leaves, kitchen food scraps, and other organic materials. Why compost at home?

• Reduces waste: Yard and food waste that can be composted make up around 25% or more of trash to landfills.
• Improves soil: Compost helps break up clay and attracts earthworms that aerate soil.
• Retains moisture: Slows run-off from rain by holding three times its weight in water. Incorporate compost in the soil so you water less.
• Reduces need for fertilizer: Compost provides nutrients for your plants, trees, lawns and shrubs.

How you can help pollinators:

• Provide food – Plant natives
• Provide water sources (and puddling areas for butterflies)
• Provide shelter
• Safeguard pollinator habitat
  • Control invasive plants
  • Reduce pesticide and herbicide use

The Grow It! Eat It! campaign is a joint venture between The Maryland Master Gardener program and the Home and Garden Information Center – to provide education and encourage Marylanders to learn how to start and maintain successful food gardens.

Spring is here and it’s the perfect time to start a home garden! With the current COVID-19 crisis we are all a bit stressed and could really use the therapeutic benefits and productivity of food gardening. Here are just few of the many benefits to growing your own food:

• Fresher & More Nutritious – Fruits and vegetables that ripen naturally in the garden and are consumed within days of harvest have more nutrients than store-bought vegetables.
• Save Money – A seed packet of basil costs as little as $.99 and contains hundreds of seeds. One small bunch of basil in the grocery store can cost 3x as much.
• Greater Variety – Food gardening provides the opportunity to try plants and varieties that aren’t available in markets.
• Less Environmental Impact – We minimize our food’s environmental impact when we grow it at home.
• No Pesticides – Growing food at home means you have total control of how the plant is grown and cared for. It’s a simple way to guarantee your food is organic when you don’t use pesticides.

The Howard County Watershed Stewards Academy is a cooperative effort of the University of Maryland Extension and Howard County to increase the number and diversity of trained volunteers who have the knowledge and skill required to enhance the health of our local streams, rivers, and lakes. Watershed Stewards work with neighbors to provide best storm water management practices.

We are not accepting requests for neighborhood and homeowner inspections while we limit personal contact to help minimize the impact of the Corona virus. We will resume when it is advisable; hopefully soon. Stay safe.

The Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) develops and delivers science-based, sustainable gardening and integrated pest management education for better human and environmental health. HGIC partners with the University of Maryland Extension Master Gardener Program to provide educational resources to the volunteers as well as digital resources through our website and the Maryland Grows blog.