DC's Community Gardens in the Washington Post

Posted originally on Gardenrant.com, the team blog that this blog piggybacks onto at no charge, by Susan Harris:

A small but earnest bunch of gardening activists in Washington, D.C. are mighty happy about this article in the Washington Post by Adrian Higgins.  He attended what we hope was the first of a yearly event, a free Gar

den Forum about urban gardening, especially in public spaces.  This experiment was a roaring success, with packed rooms and coverage by not just the Post but National Public Radio, too, staying till the last minute.  And the publicity will surely bring urban greening types out of their tiny backyards to join us.  An environmentally sleeping city is finally stirring.

My buds at the D.C. Urban Gardeners were in the thick of things and one of our VPs even got her pretty face in the Post.  It's one of those realistic gardener shots we rarely see, though.  They had her doing actual winter clean-up, and who looks their best doing that?  So here's a much better photo of Mandie, a 25-year-old union organizer by day and community gardener and organizer in her off hours.  We recently published her brand-new spreadsheet of D.C.'s community gardens, an accomplishment that's curiously exciting for us all.  (When you start with nothing, even the garnering of a valid email address can seem huge).  There's more about Mandie and some other uppity gardeners on our About page.

Congratulations to the America the Beautiful  Fund (especially Katie and Bea), Washington Parks and People, DC Schoolyard Greening, the 7th Street Garden, Jenny Reed of Natural Resources Design, fellow DC Urban Gardeners and former embodiment of Garden Resources of Washington, Judy Tiger.  Now who did I forget?

Editor's note:  A full report of "Rooting DC: A Forum for Urban Gardeners" is coming soon.   It's a little late due to the pesky problem of bloggers having to make a living.  It a reality in our all-volunteer world.