R&B 1 Urban County Farm is managed by Dallas County Master Gardener volunteers and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. The farm is located on the grounds of the Dallas County Road and Bridge 1 office, a former maintenance facility. It is a research, education, and demonstration garden that also emphasizes community service.

These gardens provide examples of raised bed vegetable gardening, native trees and plants, herb groupings, a monarch waystation, a rose garden, and beautiful flower displays. Members of the community and other organizations often tour these gardens, which are PlantTAGG-enabled.

Ongoing research includes a five-year backyard grape study, which began in 2018. A small vineyard consisting of 80 plants and containing 9 different varieties of grapes yielded 1163 pounds of grapes in 2021. Grapevines are only watered under extreme drought conditions; no fertilizers or pesticides are used. The total weight of grapes harvested, harvest dates, and sugar content of each variety are being monitored.

A donation farm was established in 2019 when Master Gardeners joined forces with other local nonprofit agencies in an effort to fight hunger in our community. Since then, thousands of pounds of fresh produce have been grown in raised beds that sit atop an old asphalt parking lot. The produce is supplied to kitchens that serve meals to Dallas County’s homeless.

Research on tomato performance was initiated in 2020. Three tomato varieties included in the study yielded 1520 pounds of fruit. Yield per plant and harvest dates were monitored during the study, which followed predetermined fertilizer schedules.
Master Gardeners at R&B 1 maintain, harvest, and weigh the crops being produced from the donation farm and demonstration beds, as well as the vineyard. They also process some of the fruits into jellies for fundraisers and tend two beehives and an on-site worm farm in an effort to support some of nature’s best workers.