DC Urban Gardeners

Yes, people have gardens here in the city - And no one steals the tomatoes

By Guest Blogger Christa Carignan of Calendula and Concrete

It was the sidewalk less traveled that led me to the community garden. I usually took walks in my neighborhood by heading eastward, but one day I decided to break the routine and head west. I turned a new corner and found myself enthralled by an expanse of cobbled-together fences that enclosed dozens of gardens in all shapes and sizes. My eyes grew wide at the sight of towering sunflowers, lines of leafy lettuces, and bent-over plants dripping with ripe tomatoes.

People have gardens here in the city? And they grow food? And no one steals the tomatoes?

I signed my name to the waiting list and eventually got a plot at the Newark Street Community Garden. I really wanted a flower garden, and my husband, who firmly asserted he wanted no part in daily gardening chores, agreed to help me at least put up a fence. Then He-Who-Loves-to-Cook soon caught on to the idea of growing fresh herbs and vine-ripened tomatoes. We decided to divide the plot equally for edibles and ornamentals.

My gardening experience was virtually nothing up to that point, except for tending to a few houseplants. I grew up in a family of gardeners, though, and I think they cultivated my spirit to grow things all along. I was captivated at a young age by a swath of lacy pink Sweet Williams that grew outside my grandmother's front door. My dad grew a row of raspberry bushes and my brothers and I had the unpleasant task of helping him pluck away the Japanese beetles that invaded them before we could get our hands on any berries. I learned early on that there were beautiful and delicious things to be had from a garden, but they didn't come effortlessly. In the same vein, I recall the oddball chore of having to deliver the bucket of food scraps from the kitchen to the compost heap; I was sure no other kids in my entire school had a compost heap.

Ah, but now… compost. Give me compost!

Our first vegetable bed at the community garden was literally a pile of dirt we mounded into a semi-rectangular shape. In the first major rainstorm, we had beet seedlings tumbling over the side and washing away. We laugh at it now, but it was clear we needed a little help.

We have since met so many fellow community gardeners – young and old – who have inspired us and helped us along the way. I recall the day when our new friend, Juan, gave us a few stems of oregano. "Just push this into the ground", he said, "and it will grow into a new plant." We looked in disbelief – as the stems didn't appear to have roots – and we shoved them into the ground just as he instructed. Now, three years later, we have a beautiful and thriving oregano plant. We also have delicious sweet onions and a fledgling grapevine from our friend Albertino. We have a patch of the most extraordinary strawberries grown from transplants left "up for grabs" by the shed. And we've grown our own garlic, peas, squash, cabbage, and much more.

Growing some of our own food has been nothing short of an extraordinary learning experience. I look at food differently now. I am more in tune to what's in season. I think about where our food comes from and what it takes to get it to our table. I am more open to trying new things. Every harvest, however small, is immensely gratifying because we grew it ourselves. How incredible it is to witness the journey of a tomato – from a single seed started in a pot on our apartment living room floor in February, to the final juicy slice enjoyed between two slices of bread on a sweltering day in July. Or to go to the plot after a long day indoors and pop a few fresh peas in my mouth; I am awed to think that just moments ago, those peas were pulling sun from the sky and water from the depths of the earth. My garden nourishes me in more ways than just the physical.

On my blog, Calendula & Concrete, I share my gardening discoveries and newfound appreciation of fresh-grown food. Online, I've found a community of generous and thoughtful people around the globe who are eager to share their own experiences and enthusiasm for growing things. It's a community garden that's grown well beyond these cobbled-together fences.

Photos by Christa Carignan

DC's First Annual Community Garden Bicycle Hop

By Lara, Kat, and Liz, The Garden Cyclers

On Saturday, June 9th a group of 30 cyclists met up at the Melvin Hazen Community Garden to begin a tour of food garden sites throughout Northwest DC. It was quite a tour! The goal was to visit 9 sites but we only made it to these 8: Melvin Hazen Community Garden, East Columbia Heights Guerilla Garden, Twin Oaks Garden, Fort Stevens Community Garden, Peabody Garden, Blair Road Garden, US Airmen’s Home Garden, and finally the 7th Street Garden.  This local event was organized by the Women's Garden Cycles Bike Tour and intended to raise money for and drum up interest in the main event - a trip later this summer documenting the resurging local food movement from DC to Montreal and back. (!)

Melvin Hazen Community Garden was the perfect place to start the tour, since it is one of the few remaining Victory Gardens from the WWII era, when the federal government was encouraging families to grow their own food to help with the war effort. At that time, 11 families used this space to grow their own food, and now more than 100 individuals share this space to grow vegetables. The plot sizes have shrunk over time but still, a lot can be grown on a 10 x 20-foot plot of land. The garden has a waiting list of about 40 people and it takes 1 to 2 years for those waiting to get a chance to grow.  Karen Adams, the president of Melvin Hazen, says that more people are requesting to have a spot in the garden and that it is growing more popular with the younger generations.

The next stop was the newly planted Eastern Columbia Heights Guerilla Garden.  The garden has taken over the spot where an old rowhouse used to be but burned down years ago and where illicit activities were taking place. Community leader Alan talked to us about how the garden came together under the leadership of Marcus Popetz and how neighborhood youth helping to plant, pull weeds, and water the beds. The garden is a powerful display of community initiative and strength to come together and find a solution to a space that transformed into a space where knowledge, laughter, and veggies are shared.  One of the cyclists who joined us, Emily Napalo, commented “I didn’t know about guerilla gardening – or the fact that there was one around the corner from me. I also didn’t realize that people of all walks are really involved in these gardens that are hidden in plain sight in D.C. (at least to me).”

The tour continued to Twin Oaks Garden at 14th Street and Upshur where Leslie Griffith, the president of the community garden, greeted everyone. This garden is on Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) land and right across the street is another garden space where DPR holds youth summer programs. She was happy to show us the small garden where several local residents are growing food and flowers and she emphasized that two of the plots were strictly taken care of by local youth. Twin Oaks is a relatively new garden and has been adopted by the Newark Community Garden to help set up a structure. It showed us how D.C. government is involved with lending out land for community gardening initiatives. 

We continued up the hill towards Fort Stevens Community Garden where we were able to meet with Corina Prince, the president of the garden, who said she was thrilled to have “all those bikers visit the garden”.  She told us how she got into gardening - learning from an older woman who had a plot right next to hers who taught her when to grow and how to grow certain vegetables. Vegetables are growing nicely in her plot but what she really treasures are her strawberries!  John, another gardener, spoke excitedly about what he was growing in his plot and allowed the group to harvest some of his lettuce and other greens. This was a highlight; everyone loves free, fresh and local greens!  Fort Stevens is a garden located on National Park Service land and has a dedicated group of gardeners that keep it blooming!

Right around the corner is the Peabody Garden, on 8th St and Peabody Street, also located on federal property. This garden is run by Mr. Bill Vest who met us there and talked to us about his reasons for gardening, which consist of staying active! He was born and raised in the city and never really was into gardening until this garden popped up in his neighborhood around the 1960s. Since then if he’s not on a tennis court, he is out gardening and chatting with his gardening neighbors. This garden is beautifully maintained and has a striking backdrop of huge cell phone towers. 

We hopped on our bikes and cycled over Blair Road Garden to meet with long-time gardener Mr. Williams. This was our resting stop on the garden hop, where we shared locally grown apples from Quaker Valley Orchards, personal stories about our own community garden experiences, and then listened to Mr. Williams, a gardener at Blair Road Gardens, who’s been there for the past 50 years. We learned that 50 years gains you a lot of gardening experience and gives you the ability to tell great stories! The Blair Road Garden is a huge swath of land close to the Metro tracks and right next door to the Animal and Rescue League. Mr. Williams shared with how us how one Easter, bunny rabbits were dropped off at the Animal and Rescue League, but they wouldn’t accept them so they were left at the garden. And boy, did they thrive! Mr. Williams said they had trouble with those rabbits for at least 3 years! This garden site is a beautiful site with rolling hills, large garden plots, and it is one of the only gardens we visited that didn’t have a waiting list.
 
After a nice lunch underneath the willow oak trees we pedaled off to the US Airmen’s Retirement Home  on Rock Creek Church Road where there's a garden tended by the veterans, and as we entered through the gates we knew we were setting foot on historic lands. The campus is beautifully maintained and has one of the best views of the city from the hilltop, which we rolled down to get to the garden, which is at the bottom near the golf course. There we met two veterans who showed us their plots and talked to us about why they love to grow vegetables.  It was a spirited exchange and we left knowing that growing food certainly keeps you young at heart and sharing what you grow is the greatest gift you can give. They are having a Stone Soup event in July where they gather everything they’ve grown and put it into a large pot to slowly cook and share with others, and we were all invited to attend.

Our last stop was the 7th Street Garden in Shaw. By this point we had a few cyclists leave for other events but those who remained were greeted with ice-cold lemonade and watermelon. The 7th Street Garden used to be a youth garden under Shaw EcoVillage but since March 2007 has been transformed into a garden for the community. Through the vision of four individuals, it has become a space where more then 20 local residents participate in the Resident Gardener program that provides weekly shares of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in exchange for hours helped in the garden.  The garden is also a place for school groups and adults to learn how to grow food.  The 7th Street Garden wants to reach out to individuals about the importance of fresh vegetables in our diets for healthier minds, bodies, and spirits.  This was a perfect space to talk about the day and special moments that touched us.

Ann Huegelmeyer listed some of her favorite aspects of the tour - “visiting different neighborhoods, hearing the organizers of each of the gardens talk about their garden, the free organic apple, and riding in a pack (oh yeah!)” - and she was speaking for all of us.  And the tour only scratched the surface - there's such a rich diversity of gardens and gardening activities in the District.  Depending on interest, we plan to organize another urban garden bike tour in the fall after our major trip to Montreal.

To learn more about the Women’s Garden Cycles Bike Tour, please visit our webite.

Flipping Fritattas in the Garden

The Washington Youth Garden at the National Arboretum provides a peaceful setting where families can tend small garden plots and learn about growing vegetables.

They also learn how to turn those vegetables into healthy meals. Area chefs take part as well, giving cooking lessons and planting ideas for fun and nutritious dishes that parents and kids can make together.

This was The Slow Cook's debut at the Youth Garden, tossing herbs and spices around like he was Emeril and flipping his fritattas (that's Italian for omelet). For the full story, visit his blog here.

Sustainability - in Fishing

This story is technically off-topic but urban gardeners are so hip to food issues, we thought we'd pass it along.

A tipping point has clearly been crossed because all of a sudden the need for sustainable fishing practices is everywhere.  And not just at The Slow Cook,  which I read religiously, despite my lack of interest in cooking.  It's also here, here and - oh, everywhere.

So I was primed to try the new Georgetown hot spot Hook, the first restaurant in D.C. that adheres strictly to sustainable fishing practices.  Chef Barton Seaver, called a "visionary" in this Washington Post review, visits all his suppliers to make sure they're not using such widespread practices as overfishing, collection techniques that destroy habitat, or farming with the use of antibiotics.

So how do sustainable fish taste?  Like real food, the real meat of creatures of the sea, but with a touch of Barton's culinary magic.  I'm no food critic but yum!

Each customer receives a wallet-sized brochure outlining in detail the fish to avoid and the fish to eat with impunity, a brochure brought to us with the help of Patagonia and the Blue Ocean Institute.  (The brochure's supposed to be on line here, but that link isn't working at the moment.)  And Earth Echo International is also involved somehow and my dinner companion was their secretary-treasurer, the charming Jan Cousteau, whom I'd met at the DC opening of "The Green" on the Sundance Channel.

So that's what I was doing at a "glam new watering hole" that's "swimming with the young and pretty."  A little off my usual beat. 

Posted by Susan Harris.  Photo of Jan Cousteau and Chef Barton Seaver, taken with a camera whose flash wasn't working at that particular moment.

Capitol Hill Kitchen Gardener Needs Help

by Guest Blogger Bridget Murray Law

I'm undertaking a crazy experiment this summer: Growing all-organic vegetables in a tiny plot off a steamy Capitol Hill alley.

When we first moved into our tiny rowhouse three years ago, the plot (our back yard) was nothing but clay and trash. But we've hauled in lots of good dirt and finally have a shot at growing some decent veggies. The goal is to feed my family (including 20-month-old twins) on nothing but garden veggies this summer. We'll see how this goes. I've launched a blog to chronicle this wacky endeavor - called The City Gardener - so check it out.  I welcome your comments about such issues as:

• garden varmints to watch out for in our area
• how you handle rats in your garden
• just how big squash and zucchini plants get in our area (mine are massive - see my current post) 
• whether my squash might cross-pollinate with my cucumber
• and what the heck ate my broccoli, lettuce and spinach (details coming soon in my next post).

One of my biggest battles is simply trying keep plants happy in the relentless D.C. summer heat, so I certainly welcome your advice on that one.  I'm also trying to involve my toddler twin boys in my gardening project, with pretty dubious results so far. For example, I tried to enlist their help in planting squash seed - didn't work out too well. But they had a great time flinging seeds and soil in all directions.  Next I'm planning to involve them in weeding and watering.  Any advice in that department?

Urban Ecology in the News

New York Times nature writer and blogger Richard Conniff today posted some awfully compelling evidence about the benefits of GREEN in cities (and it's too bad it's behind the Times Select firewall, or we'd link to it).  Some findings:

• Housing projects with trees have about 7 percent less crime than their treeless counterparts, and domestic violence also drops.
• In a study of kids with Attention Deficit Disorder, spending time in parks proved to be as good as, or better than, pharmaceuticals in helping them concentrate on their work, at least in the short term (so far).
• It's been shown that open-heart patients in rooms with nature scenes on the wall have lower blood pressure and smoother recoveries than patients with blank walls or abstract art.  And patients in rooms with lots of natural daylight experience less pain.

So there's plenty of evidence that humans are still creatures of nature, having evolved with trees, open spaces, sunlight, flowers, and foliage around us, though you'd never know it from the way our cities have developed in this country.  But the writer sees change afoot, citing a new Bank of America office building in Manhattan that leans toward and is very open to a park across the street; they even have plans to test the "popular, but unproven, hypothesis that 'green' design can make workers healthier, happier, more productive, and less inclined to absenteeism."  Can't wait for those research results!

The column goes on to mention Baltimore's Parks & People Foundation, Tree People in Los Angeles and  D.C.'s own Casey Trees, and provides this link to the Urban Ecology Institute in Boston.  So let's see what they're up to in Boston.  According to their site, they're all about taking the tree canopy seriously, converting brownfields into wetlands and parks, and lots more community- and school-based green projects.  Check out their Natural Cities Manual or their blog, called Urban Ecology, where the sidebar contains links to more urban ecology progams, like Boston Natural, Parks and People in Baltimore, and Philadelphia Green.

All very exciting, inspiring stuff.  But let's give a poke to the good folks in Boston to link to DC's great groups, like the aforementioned Casey Trees but also Washington Parks and People and all the other great groups on our website.

Take a gander at these links to find out what's happening in these other East Coast cities.  See anything we could do here?  Anything we should do here?  Lots of food for thought.

Posted by Susan Harris

[Top photos from Boston Natural's website; bottom, from Philadelphia Green's website.]

Are We Really a Break-away Group of Rule-Breakers?

Recently Ed Bruske sent an email to a DC-area environmental Yahoo group inviting folks to join DC Urban Gardeners and the invitation immediately prompted this response from a staffer at the University of Maryland:

Just for clarification you should know that DC Urban Gardeners is a group that broke away from DC Master Gardeners, run by Sandy Farber, and is not affiliated with them or their parent DC Cooperative Extension in any way. Amanda Laudwein

So Ed, stirred to defend us from the "broke away" charge, which clearly raises questions about our legitimacy, responded with his own clarification:

Amanda, that's not a clarification; it's a total distortion.

The D.C. Urban Gardeners is a group of 89, growing daily, most of whom have never been through D.C. Master Gardeners.  The original organizers of the group were, at one time or another, graduates of the Master Gardener program at the University of the District of Columbia. But if you are familiar with the program, you know that it is primarily a training program. Up to now, there has been no continuing Master Gardener program after graduation in the District of Columbia. Nor would this have any bearing on who we are or what we are about.

The UDC Master Gardener program is not our "parent." We did not break away, as there was nothing to break away from. We are simply an organization of individuals passionate about earth-friendly gardening and environmental activities who are determined to address the very specific urban needs of the District of Columbia. Any and all who wish to join us are welcome to do so, be they from Master Gardener programs or not.

There was no further discussion of the issue.  I'll just add to Ed's response that the advantages of being independent are numerous, starting with our ability to welcome non-Master Gardeners but including the freedom to engage in any projects we deem valuable and partner with any group we want to partner with in furtherance of our mission.

But there's more.  With sadness, we learn that new Master Gardeners are being warned to stay away from us because we break the rules.

Well gosh, we certainly don't intend to break rules but because we've never been informed which rules we're alledgedly breaking, we don't know how to respond - or even how to stop breaking them, if we indeed are. 

We hope this settles any potential worries about our renegade, rule-breaking natures.

Posted by Susan Harris