The GROW Center, which stands for Green Resources & Outreach for Watersheds, is a program of the Baltimore City Department of Public Works (DPW) that functions as a resource hub and connector with the goal of building community capacity to implement greening, stormwater management, waste reduction, and beautification projects. Through neighborhood pop-ups and community-based workshops, the GROW Center increases access to needed sources of free materials, including mulch, trees, and seeds, as well as educational workshops on topics such as composting, planting trees, organizing neighborhood projects, community cleanups, and gardening.

The GROW Center program would not be able to function without our many partners. Thank you to the Chesapeake Bay Trust, who has provided funding for the GROW Center pop-ups and workshops, and to TreeBaltimore and Camp Small for providing the trees and mulch we give away. Other partners include MD Cooperative Extension/Master Gardeners, Office of Sustainability, Office of Emergency Management, BMORE Beautiful, Department of Housing and Community Development, and the many communities where we have held pop-ups and workshops.

Spring 2024 GROW Center

This past Spring was a fun and busy time for the GROW Center, with five pop-up events and five workshops held across the city. Workshop topics included home composting, rain barrel making, and vermicomposting. A huge THANK YOU to our pop-up and workshop hosts: 

• Baltimore Community ToolBank 
• Bon Secours Urban Farm
• Greater Grace World Outreach 
• Black Women Build
• The Urban Oasis
• HARBEL Community Organization 
• The Harvest
• Pimlico Public Safety Training Center 

We would also like to thank our many partners – DPW Office of Waste Diversion, DPW Community Liaisons, TreeBaltimore, Camp Small, Office of Sustainability, Department of Housing and Community Development, Baltimore City Health Department, BMore Beautiful, BMore Love, MD Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners, UMD Sea Grant Extension, Civic Works, Baltimore Socio-Environmental Collaborative, No Boundaries Coalition, and the Baltimore Community ToolBank for providing resources that made our events successful. 

Over 200 people attended the Spring 2024 pop-ups and workshops. In-addition, the following free resources were provided: 

• 200+ people attended the pop-ups and workshops 
• 73 trees were given away 
• 5 truckloads of mulch were given away 
• 38 compost bins were given away 

Below are some photos from this past Spring 2024

GROW Center New EV Cargo Van!

This Fall the GROW Center program unveiled its new van and logo! The van will allow DPW to better host pop-up events and workshops, giving the program more flexibility to serve communities throughout Baltimore. Plus, it is an EV van – part of the City’s efforts to have all of its fleet electric by 2030. Just another way that the GROW Center is helping Baltimore to be cleaner and greener!

Interested in what we have done so far? Check out the following two reports: 

• Department of Public Works report on the GROW Center 2018-2021
• Baltimore Office of Sustainability report on the 2016 pilot GROW Center  GROW Center Pilot Final Report.pdf

 If you have questions please contact Mark Cameron by email here or at 410-215-1961.

A few photos from the GROW Center pop-ups and workshops!