Recap: Ward 6 Community Gardens Bike Tour

SW Bikes Collage 1

Top: Garden Manager Coy McKinney addresses participants. Bottom: Riders enjoy a break at a stop light.

SW Community Gardens was honored to be the launch point for the 2013 Ward 6 Community Gardens Bike Tour. Ward 6 is the only DC ward to touch all four quadrants and all four  were visited on this tour; SW to SE to NE to NW! Big thank you to all our participating gardens (in order visited): Virginia Avenue Community Garden; Rosedale/Kingman Park Garden, Walker Jones Urban Farm; Marion Street Intergenerational Garden. Also, a big thank you to Charles Allen and BicycleSPACE for partnering with us for this fun event.

Aside from participating gardens; highlights included biking the new Anacostia River Trail, riding alongside the infamous BicycleSPACE music bike, and drinks afterward at The Passenger.

Top: Charles Allen, Chief of Staff Ward 6 Councilman's office, kicks off the tour. Bottom: Bob K. of educates riders about Rosedale / Kingman Park Garden.

Top: Charles Allen, Chief of Staff Ward 6 Councilman’s office, kicks off the tour. Bottom: Bob K. of educates riders about Rosedale / Kingman Park Garden.

Ward 6 Community Gardens Bike Tour to begin from SW Community Gardens!

Ward6Bikes

While SW Community Gardens may be among the newest community gardens in Ward 6 of Washington, DC, it certainly isn’t the only garden. We want to meet and learn from our garden neighbors!

We hope to see you and your bicycle on September 29th, 12-3 pm, at the Ward 6 Community Garden Bike Tour which will begin from SW Community Gardens.

SW Community Gardens Location

SW Community Gardens Location

We’ll start at SW Community Gardens then pedal to the Virginia Avenue Community Garden in Navy Yard, before taking the Anacostia River Trail up to visit Rosedale gardens. Next, we’ll cut across C Street NE to stop by the Walker-Jones Urban Farm that partners with Walker-Jones K-8 school before jumping up to the City Blossom’s Marion Street Intergenerational Garden. We’ll wrap up at BicycleSPACE and a happy hour at Passenger to relax from the ride and share what we’ve learned.

For this Ward 6 ride, leaders from each garden visited will talk about their garden space and share their stories. This exciting Ward 6 ride is in partnership with the BicycleSPACE City Explorer’s program.

No RSVP is required (but if you complete the free registration it will help us get a head count) and we want to see you join us for the ride – whether for the whole ride or just your favorite section.

Pesto Market

Pesto Market

Coy, Eric, and Sam harvested about 2.4 pounds of basil late Sunday afternoon September 8th and set up a little market table in front of the garden for about an hour and a half. We gave away basil, provided free samples of pasta and pesto Coy made, and recipes for how to make the pesto. The pesto was well-received (or the visitors were just hungry) and some very interesting culinary discussions ensued.