As we prepare for the season ahead, below are some opportunities that could deepen our engagement with the SW community, sustainability efforts, and explore alternatives. If either of these sparks your interest, let me know!

1️⃣ Citizen Science in the Garden
Thanks to Emma, who works in community & citizen science, we have an opportunity to bring more interactive, science-based activities to the community through the garden! Some possibilities include:

• 🌿 Pollinator Monitoring – Observe and track the vital pollinators in our space.
• 📸 Bioblitzes – Document and identify local plant and animal species.
• 🍂 Phenology Studies – Track seasonal changes in plant life to understand climate patterns.

2️⃣ Repurposing Food Packaging for Zero-Waste Gardening
Community member, DeBorah, is working toward a zero-waste household and has been creatively repurposing food containers—like seaweed trays, water bottles, and broth containers—into seed-starting trays and garden tools. For years, the garden has benefitted from the gifts of the crafty, sustainability-minded, organizational-guru, Christina, (a.k.a. Everything Elsie) for similar projects. If you’re also interested in brainstorming more ways to reuse materials in the garden and possibly offer them to community members for their own home gardens, reach out!

📖 Grassroots Economics Book Club!
The garden is about more than just growing vegetables and connecting with nature; we’re also about collective liberation.

This year, there will be a focus on exploring how the garden can be a hub for Grassroots Economics — an alternative economic model centered on mutual aid, sustainability, and local resources (you can download the book for free or order it for minimal cost here). If you’re interested in joining a book club and getting a SW hub started, reach out!

Looking forward to seeing you in the garden and collaborating on these new initiatives. Feel free to reach out with ideas and questions.

Don’t forget:

• 12th Annual Spring Kick-off, April 19. If you’d like to volunteer to lead an activity on the 19th, click here.
• Pre-kick-off work day, April 5!

🎉 The 2024 garden year has begun! ⛏

Thanks to over 50 volunteers last Saturday, the garden is open for the year! Starting May 1st, we’ll have regular work days on Wednesdays 6-7pm, and Sundays 4-6pm until the end of October. The only thing that stops a work day is inclement weather.

Although we’re only at the beginning of the growing season, we have so much gratitude to show for so many people who have helped us start off right:

• The 19 people, as well as the Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund and the SWNA Youth Action Task Force, for donating to the garden and helping us exceed our $1000 goal;
• Miranda, Atlas Brew Works, and Andy’s Pizza for organizing a Happy Hour fundraiser and donating 12 free pizzas for the kick-off;
• Sarah for hooking us up with wood chips and helping take care of our orchard;
• Christina (a.k.a. Everything Elsie) for selling shirts and seeds and engaging in miscellaneous G.O.A.T. organizing and tabling activities;
• All of our volunteers, especially the folks who took lead on different tasks, to help make the kick-off a success!

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll mostly be watering and waiting to see our sprouts emerge. We’ll plant sweet potatoes later on in May, and our first harvest will likely be strawberries around Memorial Day and mulberries soon after. Stay tuned, or better yet, stop by to witness and participate in the garden’s ecosystem.✌🏾

👨🏾‍🌾 🌺 👩‍🌾 🥕

🌱 Garden Year #11 🌳

Garden year number 11 is upon us! “Welcome,” to those of you who will be gardening with us for the first time, and “welcome back,” to those who have helped us get to this point! 

Now that it’s March, spring is only a few weeks away, and we’ve already started planning our first gardening activities. We hope you’ll be able to join us:

• Wednesday, April 3rd: we will be working with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation to rebuild some of our garden beds. Thanks to a grant from Friends of SW, we were able to purchase 12 cedar timbers to restore some of the wood that’s been damaged over the last decade. This will be taking place in the afternoon, but a specific time has not been set. Once it is, we’ll let you know and hope you’ll be able to help!  
• Saturday, April 14: we will be doing a pre-kick-off work day to turn over our cover crops and prepare the garden beds for . . .
• The Spring Kickoff! Which will be on Saturday, April 27 from 10am-1pm. At the kickoff, we’ll plant our first crops for the year, weed out the plants that think they found a good spot to grow (but little did they know), and have a paint & planting project for all ages. Sign up here to help lead an activity that day!
  • While we’re on the topic of the kick-off . . . we also need your support to help raise funds for the event! Click here to donate toward the costs to provide this event for free to our community.

Finally, help us decide what to plant this year. Some vegetables are staples that are grown every year, like peanuts, collards, sweet potatoes, and carrots. But beyond that, we’ll need your suggestions. Let us know by sharing your top 3 choices via our Veggie Vote!✌🏾

👨🏾‍🌾 🌺 👩‍🌾 🥕

Yesterday, Christina, provided a tour for kids in the Million Mats DC, Show Up, Stand Out summer program. At the end, the kids drew photos of what they remembered from the experience. All photos/videos courtesy of: Million Mats DC.

😅 Celebrating despite the weather ⛈
The forecast leading into our 10 Year Celebration last Saturday did not indicate a downburst of rain and gusts of up to 80 miles per hour would be happening. We anticipated that it was going to be hot, so we set up a unicorn sprinkler, had the splash version of Twister ready, and knew that we could rely on the big oak trees for shade in the early evening. Nonetheless, Mother Nature does what she needs when she wants, and attendees witnessed how quickly blue skies and white clouds can change. Shout-out to all the people who joined us under the pavilion during the deluge and kept each other company. As friend-a-teer, Christy, summarized: “It was a blast … we were ONE! Laughs, singing, food, chalk art, bubbles, high winds, heavy rains, and everyone wet while eating 😂😂 A UNICORN all alone stood her ground 😂” 

The rain last Thursday and Friday that preceded the downburst on Saturday was also unsuspected, which damaged some of the portraits of farmhands that were wheatpasted to the sidewalk as part of an Inside Out Project. You can view what the installation looked like Friday afternoon here. Thank you to everyone, photographed or not, that has contributed to the garden being what it is today! We literally would not exist if it weren’t for you! 

Let’s try this again: save the date — Saturday, October 7th the JoGo Project will be back to perform (time still to be determined)
– The JoGo Project is worth rescheduling, so we’re planning on having them perform on Saturday, October 7th in Lansburgh Park. Trust me, you won’t want to miss this!This time, we’ll be asking folks to bring their own snacks and drinks (we’ll have water available). More information will be shared as it becomes available.
– We’ll have another reason to celebrate: thanks to a grant for over $3,000 from Friends of Southwest, we’ll be able to order 12 cedar timbers to replace some of the garden beds! Hopefully, by the concert, all the cedar timbers will be installed. We’ll need help with this, so if you’re interested, stay tuned for an opportunity to sign up and help out.

Join us as we celebrate ten years of growing food and friendship in Southwest DC! This special event will include music, food, and activities for all ages.

Agenda:
4pm – The festivities begin!
4:30pm – Musical activity with City Sing and Play for kiddos 0-5 and their caregivers
5pm – JoGo Project (GoGo-Jazz fusion band)

Special thanks to our first sponsor, SWBID, for helping make this event possible.

👏🏾 The 2023 Garden Season Has Begun! 🥳

Thank you to everyone who came out and helped open the garden for its 10th year (we even had a visit from Ward 6 Council member, Charles Allen)! Special thanks to Desiree, John, Barbara, Kelley, both of the Jessicas, Leysha and Sarah for volunteering for special assignments to make the day fun and successful.  

Now that the kick-off is behind us, our regular work day schedule will begin. Starting this Wednesday, May 3rd, every Wednesday between 6-7pm, and Sunday 4-6pm, we’ll be in the garden (unless there’s inclement weather). We’ll need your assistance for upkeep, spreading wood chips, and little projects that pop up along the way, so join us!

🙌🏾 Our Garden of Gratitude 🌱

After reading Robin Wall Kimmerer’s, Braiding Sweetgrass, somegarden farmhands have been moved to bring some of the teachings and perspectives from the book into the garden, in particular, promoting an ethos of abundance, gifting, and gratitude. 

For those that were not at the kick-off, SW Community Gardens President, Pamela McKinney, shared a quote from Kimmerer and some of her thoughts on the topic:

[Quoting Kimmerer] “When we speak of these (nature, abundance) not as things or products or commodities, but as gifts, the whole relationship changes.” Gratitude is so much more than a polite “thank you.” It is the thread that connects us in a deep relationship, simultaneously physical and spiritual, as our bodies are fed and spirits nourished by the sense of belonging, which is the most vital of foods. Gratitudes creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you have what you need.

What will we give this garden in return? Today is a day where we show our thanks through our actions — weeding, planting, painting, sharings tools, soil, water, and later a meal with each other. So we thank you for your gift of time and hope you will think of this space as your own and come back after today to see how your gifts have lead to an abundance for your community, including the pesky squirrels.✌🏾

On June 19th, 2022, we began our community supported agriculture program where we pay young farmhands to harvest fruits, vegetables, and herbs from the garden then deliver them to seniors living in public housing. 2 of the youth participating are two sisters that first started coming to the garden in 2015!

On June 25th, 2022, we held our first cooking demonstration of the year for seniors living in Greenleaf public housing. Nutritionist, Stephanie Eyocko, prepared a cucumber salad, a salad with arugula and butter lettuce, two different types of dressing, and a rosemary flavored seltzer water using produce that came from the garden. The theme was Salads Aren’t Boring, and Ms. Jewel, one of the attendees, definitely agreed!

☀️”Many hands make light work”💪🏾

A big thank you to everyone who attended the garden’s 9th annual spring kick-off last Saturday! More than 65 people contributed their time and energy to caring for our little green space in the city! Seeds were planted, weeds were pulled, signs were made, a mural was painted, compost was turned, a turtle was spotted, and a fruit orchard was cared for. All thanks to our collective efforts! 

Of course, we’re only getting started, so we’ll need contributions from our garden community throughout the next 6 months. Starting April 27th, you’ll be able to join in every Wednesday (6-7pm) and Sunday (4-6pm) until the end of October (please note: work days will be canceled when there’s inclement weather). 

Over the next several weeks, some of the activities we’ll be doing will include: watering, weeding, planting, designing, adding compost and spreading woodchips. In early/mid-May, we’ll plant sweet potato slips, and then in mid-June, we’ll start reaping what we’ve been sowing.

We hope you’ll join us!✌🏾