Help keep the John Bell House’s vegetable gardens healthy!
On each First State Heritage Park Garden Day, volunteers can:
- Discover the plants in a colonial period garden and their uses
- Learn the basics of colonial period gardening
- Weed, water, and assist with plant maintenance and harvesting as needed
- Give back to your community while enjoying Delaware’s first “urban park without boundaries”
Tools, including trowels, watering cans and gloves, will be provided by the park. Prior gardening experience is welcome, but not required.
First State Heritage Park has three gardens consisting of the colonial garden, the enslaved person’s garden, and the Indigenous garden. The colonial bed features herbs, lettuce, radishes and more which could all be found in a modest colonial family’s kitchen garden. The enslaved person’s garden displays the methods of gardening enslaved people used to grow crops, as well as the foods that helped them maintain connections to their African heritage, such as peppers and collard greens. The Eastern Woodlands and Indigenous garden exhibits the Three-Sisters method of planting with corn, beans, and squash.
Meeting place: John Bell House, 43 The Green, Dover, DE 19901; volunteers wishing to dress in 18th century clothing should notify a staff member upon arrival for travel to Rose Cottage, 102 S State Street, Dover, DE 19901
Parking: Volunteers may park in spaces along the streets around The Green or alongside Rose Cottage
First State Heritage Park Garden Days are typically planned for the third Saturday of each month, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., during the season to support park staff and other volunteers in the efforts to maintain these gardens.
