Growing your own food is one of the simplest ways to improve both nutrition and overall wellness. When you combine gardening with healthy eating, you’re not just growing plants— you’re growing access to fresh, nutrient-rich foods that can support your daily meals in a powerful way.

Fresh vegetables like spring salad greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, mint, onions, squash, jalapeños, and spinach are easy to grow in small garden spaces, raised beds, or even containers. These foods don’t require complicated setups—just sunlight, good soil, water, and a little consistency.

Once harvested, they can be used immediately in everyday meals. Imagine adding crisp cucumbers and tomatoes to a fresh side salad, mixing spinach into smoothies or sautéed dishes, or using fresh parsley and mint to brighten flavor without extra salt. Even onions, squash, and jalapeños can easily move from garden to skillet, making meals more flavorful and nutrient dense. Gardening also encourages better eating habits. When healthy food is visible, fresh, and accessible, it becomes easier to include it in daily routines—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s a practical way to support wellness, reduce processed foods, and reconnect with what we eat.

Food as Medicine

This Food as Medicine session explores the intersection of nutrition science, functional foods, and seasonal dietary strategies to support health, prevent chronic disease, and address emerging public health priorities. Designed for faculty, practitioners, and health-focused educators, this session integrates current research with practical applications for individual and community wellness.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

1. Understand Seasonal and Functional Foods: Examine the benefits of spring-specific foods, including their nutrient density, phytonutrient content, and role in supporting detoxification, immunity, and cellular health.
2. Explore Superfoods and Chronic Disease Prevention: Identify evidence-based superfoods and their mechanisms for addressing inflammation, oxidative stress, and chronic health conditions.
3. Integrate Dietary Guidelines and Nutrient Principles: Review the latest Dietary Guidelines, emphasizing the 7 core nutrients for health, nutrient density, and strategies to meet caloric needs while managing chronic disease.
4. Develop Practical Meal Planning Skills: Learn to plan balanced meals using pantry staples, seasonal produce, and nutrient-dense ingredients to enhance health and food security.
5. Address Food Safety and Insecurity: Examine strategies for maintaining food safety, reducing waste, and supporting populations experiencing limited access to nutritious foods.

Join the University of Maryland Extension Family and Consumer Science Educator for an online webinar to learn more about the MIND Diet. The MIND Diet is a hybrid of the DASH diet and Mediterranean diet that can make a difference in the risk of cognitive decline and dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, as you age.

Join us to learn about the foods that help improve brain activity, focus, mental alertness and mental wellness.

This is a series of tax webinars hosted by University of Maryland Extension on emerging tax topics, practical strategies, and the latest policy developments designed to help tax professionals stay ahead of the curve. The first session, "Say Goodbye to Paper: The Impact of EO 14247," help tax professionals learn about the key changes, their impact on tax professionals, and practical strategies for navigating the transition to a more digital tax administration. 

Health insurance can be confusing and many people find it difficult to choose and use a health insurance plan. For professionals, it is important to understand how health insurance literacy can affect health behaviors and how education can help improve health insurance literacy. 

University of Maryland Extension’s Health Insurance Literacy Team is offering this webinar to help professionals improve their knowledge of this topic and understand health insurance literacy resources they can use in their work.

After this webinar, participants will:

* be able to define health insurance literacy

* be able to list 3 ways health insurance literacy can affect health behavior according to research

* understand how the Smart Choice, Smart Use program is utilized to improve health insurance literacy in the population

• * understand the evidence supporting the effectiveness of the Smart Choice, Smart Use program

Learn about the fundamentals of Integrated Pest Management: A sustainable approach to managing pests that combines biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools in a way that minimizes economic, health, and environmental risks. From choosing ideal plants to common garden pests, the basics of IPM will be covered in this free, one-hour virtual class with Home Horticulture Educator Lexie Leeser. 

Join us for a fun and informative online event where we'll explore the world of healthy cooking with herbs and spices! Learn how to enhance the flavor of your dishes while keeping them safe to eat. Whether you're a seasoned chef or a beginner in the kitchen, there's something for everyone in this session. Healthy Cooking using culinary herbs and spices!

Learn what’s in your water—and what you can do about it. Join University of Maryland experts for a free, engaging webinar (via Zoom) on drinking water quality, including how to test your water and understand your results. Connect with researchers and UMD Extension Agents, and share your experiences. All are welcome! Register here.

Learn what’s in your water—and what you can do about it. Join University of Maryland experts for a free, engaging workshop on drinking water quality, including how to test your water and understand your results. Connect with environmental health scientists from the UMD School of Public Health and UMD Extension Agents, and share your experiences. All are welcome! Click here to register. 

This session will cover the 8 keystone habits of the Bay-Wise Living Landscape Metric, and tell you more about steps involved in getting your landscape certified as Bay-Wise.