Country Club Park's Vacant Lot Gets a Makeover

The Lutherville neighborhood known as Country Club Park is getting a few new welcome additions, compliments of Boy Scouts and a handful of helpful neighbors. 

Community volunteers woke up early Saturday and began planting trees and shrubs around the border of the grassy lot. They also began digging the foundation holes for benches and a welcome sign. The finished product will include a community vegetable garden. 

The county-owned lot at the corner of Seminary and Greenspring avenues has been vacant for more than 20 years, according to Eric Rockel, a Lutherville resident and the president of the Greater Timonium Community Council.

“We just want to come in and make something attractive for the community, and we hope the community will get a lot more use out of it,” Rockel said. 

Rockel has his eye on the new vegetable garden, which will be a boon to the neighborhood known for large trees and small, shady yards—beautiful, leafy and cool, but not conducive to growing vegetables.

“I can see me personally using it. I would probably plant carrots and onions and that sort of thing,” Rockel said. 

Rockel is not the man in charge of this particular project, however. That honor goes to a teenager.

Jonathan Peake, a senior Boy Scout with Troop 340, is overseeing the development for his Eagle Scout project. He lives with his family in the Country Club Park neighborhood.

Peake enlisted Cub Scouts, friends, community members and some alumni scouts to pull off the ambitious project.

“We’re making this whole thing into a park,” said Peake, chipper and energetic despite the rising temperatures and the workload ahead. “So we’re going to be putting in a community vegetable garden, a welcome sign over there, we’re going to be doing in-ground benches, putting in some trees along the edge over there, and some shrubs.”

Peake said the park, with its honor-system vegetable garden, is a bit of an experiment.

“We’re going to see how it goes. And if it works, we might think about putting in another one soon,” he said. 

Andy Engel, the Cub Scout leader for Troop 340, said, “The community had been planning on doing something like this for a while. So Jonathan decided to jump on this project and he said, ‘You know what? I can bring some organization and some leadership to it, and some man power.’”

It appears Peake brought all of the above.

Deborah Darr, a community resident who lives on Towson Avenue, brought her husband and both her young sons to help out with the digging and the planting. She’s most excited for the new sign.

“We’re very excited to be here and make our neighborhood more inviting and welcoming. A lot of other neighborhoods have signs, you know, 'Welcome to the Neighborhood,' and we don’t have one,” she said.

Maury Sugarman, a neighborhood resident from Spring Avenue, brought his small daughters Amelia and Rosalie to help with the work. He definitely plans to use the vegetable garden this summer.

“We saw that it was going to be happening this week, and thought it would be a nice opportunity to come out and help beautify the neighborhood. We’ve been here about nine years,” he said.

Drive by the lot today as you cruise up or down Seminary Avenue, and see the progress for yourself.