Wangari Gardens

Hone the Hustle: Working with your Neighbors

Wangari Gardens — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:12:03 +0000

Do you need someone to come walk Fido while you cram for an upcoming deadline? Do you need an extra pair of hands to finish up painting your living room? Are you looking for ways to strengthen your community and empower youth at the same time?

We know, we know. All of these things sound too good to be true, but we at Wangari Gardens believe in the power of the community! Take a look at the young men of Park View. They come from your neighborhood, and they’re eager to work. Whether you need a dog walker or a home painter, or even a mover or a project helper, the park View Kids Zone has someone who can help.

Contact Mrs. Angela Strange, Executive Director of Park View Kids Zone, at 202-421-9356 or at Ang.Strange@gmail.com.

Thanks, Mrs. Angela, for being Park View’s Street Momma! And thank you, Wangari community, for supporting our neighborhood’s youths!

Wow!

Wangari Gardens — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:04:57 +0000

Thanks to DC writer Rhea Kennedy for her article on grist about Wangari Gardens!!

http://grist.org/food/making-something-with-nothing-the-story-of-d-c-s-wangari-gardens/

Things are wrapping up for the year, but we do have plenty of photos to share with you from our Fall Fun Festival, which was a blast! Lots of kids came out and there was all sorts of fun chaos.

This past weekend, we had a volunteer day to build an expansion on the shed, build some cold frames for winter crops, build a community compost, and finish preparing the garden for winter time. It was a beautiful and productive day.

Next weekend some Casey Trees volunteers will be planting lots of flowering trees all over the park!

Thanks to you, we had a successful Kickstarter campaign!!! The funds raised will go towards expanding in the spring and making the garden more accessible and usable for everyone.

Keep an eye on this page for fall pictures coming soon!!

Fall Fun Festival THIS SATURDAY!!!

Wangari Gardens — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:49:42 +0000

Come out to the garden for a day filled with great food, lots of games, exercise, workshops, a moon bounce, pumpkin painting, and MORE!!

Wildlife planting workshop tomorrow – - – Free plants!!!!!

Wangari Gardens — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 13:29:26 +0000

Hello Everyone,

We’re partnering with DDOE and the Audubon MD/DC to host a wildlife habitat workshop this Saturday from 1pm -4pm at Wangari Gardens. We would love for everyone to come- should be lots of extra plants to take home. If you can please pre register. The DDOE announcement is below for more details. Thanks!

The District Department of the Environment, Wangari Garden, and Audubon MD/DC, have teamed up to present a free workshop that will teach residents about creating space for wildlife habitat in their yards and community gardens.

Gardening for wildlife and using native plants can enhance a yard’s beauty and can also enhance nearby vegetable gardens by attracting pollinators and beneficial insects. Come learn how native planting can complement your food growing efforts at Wangari Gardens.

The workshop will consist of a slideshow presentation, hands-on activities and a brief tour of the facility and garden. Participants will then help plant a wildlife garden that will complement the Wangari Gardens’ future food growing space. Everyone will receive a habitat kit that includes a book, native plant guide, birdhouse kit and live plants to help them begin creating a wildlife habitat at home.

Date & Time: Saturday October 13, 1pm-4pm
Location: Wangari Gardens: Kenyon and Park Pl, Across the street from the Washington Hospital Center (we’re on google maps)
Workshop Title: Pollinator Gardens

To register send an email to backyardhabitat@dc.gov

Some great events coming up!!

Wangari Gardens — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 06:53:09 +0000

Hey everybody……..we survived the summer and hope that you did too!!!
We are so excited to have some awesome events coming up at Wangari Gardens this fall, we hope you can come on out and join us!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

The Green Living Expo at UDC should be lots of fun! Wangari Gardens will be hosting a short workshop, and there will be lots of great workshops, speakers, and activities all day long that teach about ways to live more sustainably. The best thing is that it’s free! http://greenlivingdc.org

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH

Michael, an awesome plot-holder at the garden will be leading a Knowledge Commons DC class at Wangari Gardens on the perception of taste! Here is the class decription:

“ Everyone has favorite foods. Most also harbor ill will towards some food items; some even discriminate against entire cuisines! In this class, we will first learn about some of the more boring aspects of how taste works. Then we’ll play a bunch of taste-test games to experiment with our own taste buds. Can you taste the difference between grass-fed beef and the grocery store stuff? A garden tomato from the gas-ripened one? Bottled water from DC tap? Coke vs Pepsi? We’ll end with a reflection discussion on the physical/mental divide in taste perception. Is your tongue really the master of your palate?”

Get more info and sign up for the class here: http://c.knowledgecommonsdc.org/classes/perceptions-taste/

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

Lisa and Wade, a lovely couple who have been a part of Wangari Gardens from the beginning, will be sharing their love story with the world by getting married at the gardens! They would like to invite the community to the wedding, which is at 5pm. They are having guests donate to the garden, and will be helping to plant our fall veggies! Learn more about these amazing folks here: http://lisapluswade.com

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

Plot holder Kenneth has been instrumental in putting together the DC State Fair – - many plot holders will be traveling to the Barracks Row Festival to compete in contests such as best pie (persimmon??), funkiest looking vegetable, and cucumber pickle contest. Plot holder John already won the tastiest tomato….we are sure that our Wangari Gardens gardeners will represent well!! To sign up for one of the competitions, or learn more info about the fair, check out their site: http://dcstatefair.wordpress.com

Personally, we think Aziza has the longest vegetable hand’s down!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

This is going to be a BIG day, folks! We are partnering with Casey Trees, the Kenyan embassy, the Greenbelt Movement, Park View Kids Zone, and others to have a great day at the garden! We will be spending the morning planting memorial trees to honor Wangari Maathai, the amazing environmentalist, feminist, and social justice activist that the garden is named after. We will also be planting medicinal trees as the foundation for our medicinal plant garden. We need your help in the garden! After a delicious East African lunch, we will have a fun-filled afternoon with kids games, cooking demonstrations, and creative projects. In the evening feel free to bring a dish for a community potluck, and at night we will be showing “TAKING ROOT: The Vision of Wangari Maathai”, an exicting film about this amazing woman. You bring a blanket, we’ll provide the popcorn!

Keep your eyes peeled as more details about this day unfold!!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 13

The District Department of the Environment will be leading a workshop about gardening to create habitats for wildlife. We will be working to make Wangari Gardens more habitat friendly, and you will learn tips for yourself, wherever you garden! This workshop is free, and we will provide light refreshments.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21

Help us to celebrate Food Day (Oct. 24) with a fall food and harvest festival!! We will spend the afternoon playing games and doing cooking demonstrations. In the evening, the DC State Fair folks will join us for a fun potluck party! Hopefully live music, too. All are welcome! Free!

Hopefully this little pumpkin that could will be ready in time for the harvest fest!

The Student Conservation Association did a great job on the steps and path that they built! No more muddy steep hills for people headed across the street to the hospital!

Grace got a stevia plant from Bread for the City for her plot at Wangari Gardens. She makes simple syrup for her tea out of the stevia leaves.

The peppers and eggplants are exploding! Come and pick some from the education gardens!! They need to be eaten!

Sydney hangs out in the shade of a tomato plant while her mom works hard in her plot.

How cool is this?!? Jerick, a volunteer at the Bike House, built an awesome bike pump, that helps to increase our water pressure from the cistern to everyone’s garden beds. Way cool, way sustainable. Thanks, Jerick!

Surviving the heat!!!

Wangari Gardens — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:23:50 +0000

Phew! We’re getting through the summer with plants still alive and doing well!! We’ve been spending all our time playing with kids at the garden and keeping things watered, with not nearly enough time for writing on the website. Oops! : )

Here are a few photos of some of the summer fun we’ve been having:

find us on Facebook!!

Wangari Gardens — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:24:34 +0000

We are most active on our Facebook account….don’t forget to find us there at http://www.facebook.com/WangariGardens where you can get updates about events at the garden, see lots of photos, learn about people gardening there, and more!!

Organic Growing!

Wangari Gardens — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 23:20:17 +0000

We sent this organic growing and pest management guide out to all of the Wangari Gardens plot holders this spring…with all the green out there, the tips must be working!!

Here are some tips for how to use organic methods to keep your plants healthy and pests away!

Organic fertilizers:

Healthy soil has a good balance of these three nutrients: nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Calcium is also an important nutrient for growing good vegetables.

To add nitrogen:

-mix in peanut shells with your soil

-grow beans, peanuts, or sweet peas sporadically throughout your plot

To add potassium:

-cut up banana peels very small, and mix in with your soil (if things are already planted, just mix in with the top layer of soil

-if you have a firepit outside, take a small amount of the wood ashes and mix them in

-mix in a seaweed product with your soil

To add phosphorus:

-there is rarely a phosphorus deficiency in home or small garden soil, this is mainly a problem in big farms that use the same land heavily over and over without adding new soil

-adding general organic soil, manure, or compost will solve any phosphorus deficiencies

To add calcium:

-save egg shells, crush them really small, and mix in with soil

-use organic bonemeal fertilizers

Adding compost to your soil each season is the BEST way to get all of these nutrients into your soil.

Also, we have the worm boxes! Worm poop is a very nutrient dense type of fertilizer…feel free to grab some worm poop and add it in.

If you have rabbits at home, their poop is great compost – let it break down for a while at home, then spread it on the top of your soil.

There are also plenty of organic plant foods and fertilizers out there – use, but follow the directions…adding too much of it can shock or burn your plants.

Fish fertilizers, seaweed extract, and fish emulsion are very nutrient rich, but BEWARE—do not be surprised if a dog or some other critter is attracted to the smell and digs in your bed!! I made this mistake early on when we first planted the kiwi vine.

(Speaking of dogs, if you bring your dog to the garden, make sure it’s on a leash when inside the garden fence!!)

If you want to get more scientific, here’s a cool article about how to concoct your own organic fertilizer:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-06-01/A-Better-Way-to-Fertilize-Your-Garden.aspx

Organic pest control:

It’s about that time when the bugs come out to play!!

If you have bugs on your plants, don’t worry – about 90% of all garden bugs are either benign or actually good for your plants, either pollinating them, or eating the bad ones! Only a few garden bugs are detrimental. Even if you see some “bad” bugs, they may not be damaging your plants. A balance of good and bad is what you want, because the good bugs eat the bad bugs….but if there are no bad bugs left, the good bugs might start eating your plants!

However, if you are overridden by bad bugs or other pests, there are some good natural remedies.

Good:

-ladybugs

-wasps/bees

-butterflies

-dragonflies

-spiders

-flies

-praying mantis

-ground beetle

-lacewing (long green w delicate wings)

Bad:

-aphids (tiny green)

-cabbageworm (looks like an inchworm, attacks leafy greens like cabbage, kales, collards, broccoli, lettuce)

-cucumber beetle (yellow and black stripes, attacks cucumbers, squash, melons)

-cutworms (we have lots of these! White maggots found under the soil, they attack young seedlings)

-grasshoppers

-slug and snail

-squash bugs (brown, flat, hides under squash leaves)

-tomato hornworm (big green caterpiller w horns, attacks tomatoes, peppers, eggplant)

Natural remedies:

-Make a homemade spray by boiling water with garlic and lots of hot pepper flakes, sauce, or chopped up hot peppers. Add a couple of drops of organic dish soap. Use the spray on plants and the soil around the base of the plants. Just remember to wash off your veggies before eating, or they will be really spicy!

-hand picking is the most effective way to get rid of bad bugs. Make sure you kill them! Also, check the undersides of your plant leaves. If you see what looks like eggs, research to find out what kind of eggs they are….you can stop the problem before they hatch!

-make little collars for baby plants out of old plastic bottles or soda cans, to hide stems from crawling pests

-water early in the morning to avoid a damp garden at night

-release ladybugs to eat aphids and other small pests (some kids cAme and released ladybugs in your plots last month, but more won’t hurt!)

-plant marigolds. Sage, basil, thyme, mums, garlic, chives, and other strong smelling plants around your garden border. Strong scents often drive garden pests away.

- mix up what you plant, to confuse the bugs. If there aren’t many of the same type of plant, they will have a hard time finding things

The book “good bug bad bug” by Jessica walliser has great photos of all sorts of garden bugs at different stages in life….it is really useful to have in the garden with you.

Here’s lots more info: http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-1045/ANR-1045.pdf

Open House Picnic and Concert!!!

Wangari Gardens — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 16:19:38 +0000

Come join us this Sunday, June 3rd for a picnic and concert by the Sound Traveler Band! http://soundtravelerband.com/

Bring a dish to share….we’ll have some stuff on the grill and are ready to relax with you under the trees enjoying the music and enjoying the garden.

Fruit Orchard Planting Day

Wangari Gardens — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:58:28 +0000

It’s supposed to be beautiful on Saturday! Come on out for our fruit tree orchard planting! We will also be holding our second community meeting, and lunch is included. See you at the garden!