DC Urban Gardeners

Peas

Anybody who says frozen peas are as good as fresh is kidding themselves. We like to think it's true, because getting fresh peas isn't easy. But really, there's nothing to compare with peas right off the vine. My wife prefers them just like this--raw, uncooked. I see them tossed just a few seconds in a saute pan with some butter and a little salt. Our friend Shelley is wild for fresh peas. She tosses them in her salad.

We've had our best crop of peas this year. Some plants are loaded with pods. I planted them in a long row in the rear of a 14-foot-long bed, then drove three wooden stakes into the ground and strung twine between the stakes for the peas to climb on. As the peas grew taller, I added another rung of twine. Sometimes they needed a little help finding the string and I'd give them a nudge in the right direction.

Still, it's not enough. The freshly harvested peas look pretty at the bottom of a mixing bowl. But we want more. Not all the plants grew so tall and healthy. I'm not sure why. I did not do anything to the soil when I planted the peas. Maybe they'd like a little compost. Next year we'll just have to plant more. Or perhaps a fall crop?

--Posted by Ed Bruske

Report from the Plant Swap

Thanks heaps to Kathy Jentz, editor-publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine, for taking charge and making DC Urban Gardeners' first-ever Plant Swap go off without a hitch.  Perfect weather, great turn-out, and hundreds of plants found good homes.

The venue was the H Street Market , DC's newest farmer's market, so our event brought some new faces to the market.  Lots of the plants exchanging hands were edibles, too, so local food was supported on two fronts.

The top picture shows Kathy in the yellow cap corraling the group for a photo with their loot.  As recent past president of the Takoma Horticulture Club and current president of the even larger Silver Spring Garden Club, Kathy does know how to herd gardeners.  Probably cats, too.

One of the coolest things about plant swaps is all the plant talk that goes on before, during and after.  First there's the pre-swap investigatory phase.  Then everyone introduces the plants they brought, and some even give growing tips.  And in the lower photo Mandie and an unidentified plant swapper are engrossed in whatever Lileecoi has to say about growing the edibles she brought.  See the learning going on?

And just like plants themselves, swaps produce varieties, with some gardeners offering dig-it-yourself deals involving untold quantities of plants back in their gardens.  People without extra plants brought brought books, magazines and good-looking pots.  Oh, yeah, we're recycling now!

But honestly, the most appreciated people at plant swaps are usually the ones with neither plants nor gardening items to give away, so they bring the refreshments.  Homemade muffins and brownies!

Posted by Susan Harris

Gardening movie and panel discussion at the Avalon

 

“A Man Named Pearl” Documentary Opening Night with Garden Panel Discussion

May 23, 8:30 pm (film then continues for expected two-week run)

The Avalon Theatre, 5612 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC

A Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist and gardener Pearl Fryar. It is a subtle and intriguing film that is certain to open hearts and minds. It offers an upbeat message that speaks to respect for both self and others, and shows what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of his humanity.

The 8:30 pm showing time on opening night, Friday, May 23, will be followed immediately by a panel discussion moderated by Kathy Jentz, Editor/Publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine. Invited panelists include local garden bloggers, gardening experts, and professional gardeners. Audience members will be encouraged to participate and ask questions.

Fee: $10. Preregistration is not required.

For more information, call 202.966.6000 or visit www.theavalon.org.

Announcement from Washington Gardener Magazine, posted by Susan Harris.

Plant Swap Details are Up!

You've heard the rumors and now witness the unveiling of the 1st ever DCUG Plant Swap!

 

What: A Plant Swap - bring and receive free plants to expand your garden

Date: Saturday, May 24

Time: starting at 9am bring your plants for sorting -- swap starts promptly at 10am -- do not be late - if you arrive after 10am, sorry, you will not be able to participate due to the structure of this event  - we will conclude well before 12noon

Place: H Street Farmers Market at H & 8th -- 624 H Street NE near Union Station on Saturdays 9am-12n

Who: anyone on the DCUrbanGardeners list is welcome as are any of your friends, relatives, or neighbors

Bring:

~ a name tag - home made or from work or school -- whatever works -- so that we know your name and we can all connect our emails, names and faces.

~ plants to swap - pot them up NOW -- the longer they can get settled in their pots, the better their chance of success and survival - (no plants to share? see note below)

~ labels - fully label all your swap plants with as much info as you have - optimally that will include: common and scientific name, amount of sun needed, amount of water needed, any other special care notes, and color of the blooms - if not currently in flower

How: be prepared to BRIEFLY introduce yourself and describe your plants (or other items - see note below)

What NOT to bring: common orange daylilies* and other invasive species - use this list (http://www.mdinvasivesp.org/list_terrestrial_plants.html) to screen your plant offerings

 

What if you do not have plants to swap? Come anyway! Bring garden tools, garden books, garden ornaments, etc. to swap or if you have nothing garden-related to share - bring refreshments - cold drinks and yummy snacks will pay your admittance fee :-)

 

*hybrid daylilies are fine and welcome

 

Do not worry if you cannot make this one - we plan to have these each spring and fall (or at least annually) and in a different ward of the city each time - so hope to catch you next time!

 

This event is rain or shine!

The Incredible Women Garden Cyclists

Picture three young women getting on their bicycles and pedaling from the District of Columbia to Montreal and back to visit urban food gardens and other young people caught up in the movement to take back our agriculture.

They call themselves Women's Garden Cycles--Liz Tylander, Kat Schiffler, Lara Sheets--and we are only too lucky that they took a video camera and some sound equipment on their bicycle adventure because they have turned a farming travelogue into an extraordinary film about local food. Last night they drew upwards of 100 like-minded and youthful gardeners to the Letelier Theater in Georgetown for a rousing screening of their bicycle epic, complete with free Maryland beer, peanuts out of Mason jars and hand-crafted pizza.

Having spent several months in a bicycle seat at one point in another lifetime, I was immediately in love with the idea of this incredible adventure. I wanted to go, too. The genius of their idea was to drop in on community gardens and small farm operations along their route to take the pulse of this unfolding revolution in food production, the movement away from toxic industrial agriculture toward an embrace of sustainable, earth-friendly, community-minded farming.

Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Boston, Vermont, Montreal--wherever you look there are people of every hue and ethnic background with their hands in the soil, using every possible means to bring forth a bounty of healthful fruits and vegetables to share with neighbors. There are long rows of broccoli in the country, tomatoes climbing out of plastic buckets in the city. There are tumble-down sheds turned into milking barns and urban rooftops transformed into tangles of squashes and peppers and eggplants.

Bill McKibben, author, teacher and local food advocate, makes a prominent appearance in the film. McKibben notes that certain young people, after spending a small fortune on a college education, are seeking nothing more than a few acres on which to grow vegetables and raise a few goats. Parents may not approve, but this generation is ready to forego the enticements of our consumer culture in order to grasp a transformative moment.

These are the new American farmers, and against their enthusiasm--their eagerness to recapture a sense of self-reliance, stewardship and community-- the old agriculture--with its polluting methods, unhealthy products and de-humanizing corporate culture--truly looks like a sad relic from another time.

Perhaps the best news is that the movement has taken root in the nation's capitol as well. We are seeing more farmers bringing their produce to market. New farmers markets are sprouting all the time. And efforts like the 7th Street Garden--where young, dynamic urban farmers link up with a neighborhood to raise wholesome, chemical-free vegetables--are showing us what is possible, the way forward.

Last night's crowd--full of energy, determination and muscle--looked for all the world like the vanguard of a new era.

On Power Cords and Lawn Mowers

I know. If I want to be really kind to the environment I should be using a manual push mower. But I've never progressed that far in my carbon footprint scheme. I'm still using an electric mower. I consider it vastly gentler on the planet than the two-stroke gasoline monsters that power most mowers and leaf blowers. Shouldn't they just be outlawed? Besides being some of the most polluting machines ever invented, they create such a din we can barely hear the sound of the polar ice caps melting.

I nearly trashed my electric mower recently and for all the wrong reasons. We've had bad luck with electric mowers. Maybe we are too tough on them, although we really don't have much lawn to mow. What I want the mower for mostly is to collect grass clippings for compost. One mower just quit. Another--a Craftsman, I think--overheated and started to melt. Our latest is something we picked up for a bargain price at Costco. It's actually made in Hungary, and when you start it it makes a noise like a giant fan that's winding itself up to blast into outer space.

Towards the end of last season, this mower started acting up, too. It would just stop in the middle of the yard. I'd let it rest awhile, then start it up again. It would run for a few minutes, then stop again. The intervals that it worked got shorter and shorter. I figured it was my bad electric mower karma coming back to haunt me, so I stashed the mower in the garage and started using my electric line trimmer ("weed whacker") to cut the grass.

Mowing with the line trimmer left the yard looking like it had a bad hair day. But we have plans to landscape and eliminate the lawn entirely, so I wasn't about to buy a new mower (although I was looking at the latest battery models--pretty cool). Then the line trimmer started acting up, doing the same thing the mower had been doing. By now I figured they just weren't building electric lawn equipment to last. I ran to the Home Depot to buy a new one, and was soon in for a surprise.

Something told me to test the new machine when I removed it from the box. I plugged it in. No response. I jiggled all the connections on the power cord. Still no response. Suddenly it dawned on me that I'd been misdirecting blame for the problem all along. It wasn't the mower or the trimmer. It was the cord.

Our 100-foot outdoor cord had been stolen. Since then, I'd tied two 50-foot cords together as my main power source to the mower. But one of the cords was heavier than the other. When I removed the lighter cord and tried the mower with the heavy cord, it worked just fine. So did the line trimmer.

My wife thought I was the perfect fool for not testing the cord earlier. I was just happy to have my mower back. The 50-foot cord just barely reaches the farthest corner of our yard, and since we have a corner lot, I must look pretty comical running here and there, plugging the cord into different outlets and out of one window first, then another, then the front door as I mow my way around the house. (It's an old house--there are no electrical outlets outside, but thanks for wondering.)

The lesson: extension cords come in different gauges. On the packaging it should indicate how much amperage your cord is designed to handle. Compare this with the amperage of the machine you are operating. For instance, my electric mower draws 12 amps. The smaller cord I was using was designed for 10. Apparently, I had overheated and damaged the cord. That's why it stopped working with the line trimmer as well. The trimmer draws 7.5 amps.

You may have gathered by now that I am not a lawn person. (You may also be thinking I'm pretty dumb when it comes to electricity.) I have great memories of lazing around our freshly mowed lawn when I was a kid, watching clouds and smelling the good smells of the earth. The grass was warm and buzzing with small insects. But I never caught the perfect lawn bug that seems to afflict so many Americans. I would rather grow vegetables. If, however, you are intent on having a lawn, I certainly hope you follow these earth-friendly steps:

* Ditch the two-stroke, gasoline-powered machines and convert to an electric or manual mower. Some jurisdictions even offer rebates for purchasing electric mowers, and the battery-operated ones look pretty neat. Also, hang up your gas-powered leaf blower and try using a rake and a broom. Old fashioned, I know. But I have a feeling that old fashioned may be coming increasingly back into style.

* Set your mower to cut as high as possible. The green blades conduct photosynthesis, feeding the plant. When you cut the grass short, you stress the plant. Longer grass is healthier, less vulnerable to diseases and more drought tolerant.

* Let the grass clippings fall in place. They will eventually decompose, becoming food for the soil, feeding the lawn.

* Kick the artificial fertilizer and pesticide habit. More fertilizer is used on American lawns than in all of agriculture. Some of those feed mixes are 40 percent nitrogen. It runs off into the watershed and becomes pollution. Fertilizers are killing the Chesapeake Bay and create a huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico outside the mouth of the Mississippi River. In addition, artificial fertilizers are made from natural gas, a rapidly depleting resource we need to heat our homes (at least until we convert to solar.)

* Pesticides are toxic to the environment, your pets and your children. There is no need for them. If you have problems with weeds, spread an organic product such as corn gluten before weeds emerge in the spring. Corn gluten creates a film on the soil that prevents weeds from sprouting. You might also learn to love your dandelions a little. Try eating them, or turning them into dandelion wine.

* Feed your lawn with compost. Spread a half-inch layer over the lawn in spring and toss some more grass seeds. Your soil will love it, and it will share its love with your grass. Don't listen to people who say you can't maintain a lawn organically. You can. It may be more expensive. It may require a little more work. But you will feel so much better having a healthy, great looking lawn that isn't working at cross purposes with nature.

* For more information about maintaining lawns organically, check out SafeLawns.org. They've even published a book on the subject. If you're the least bit curious about the dangers of those pesticides and herbicides you've been using, Beyond Pesticides has detailed information on all of it. (Click on "Info Services" in the banner, then click on "Pesticides Gateway.")

* Finally, cut back on watering your lawn. Water is a precious resource. If your lawn is made of cool weather grasses, it is genetically designed to go dormant in the summer heat. You are just fighting nature if you douse it with water and fertilizer to keep it green. Likewise, if you have a hot weather lawn, its natural tendency is to turn brown in the winter. Learn to live with what your lawn is hardwired to do.

Now, back to growing those vegetables...

--Posted by Ed Bruske

Finally, A Place To Sit

The garden at my daughter's charter school here in the District of Columbia is into its third season. A year ago a nearby condominium association donated five of these big, sturdy metal benches. I had the perfect spot for them: surrounding our herb garden, where my gardening partner, Elizabeth, built this brilliant, ceramic-lined pond. I envisioned this as a most excellent way for teachers and students to enjoy the garden, sitting quietly on the benches and soaking in the pleasures of our green urban oasis.

There was just one problem with the benches. The legs--heavy steel tubes--were designed to be sunk into the ground. Well, our ground is asphalt. So the legs needed to be custom-cut to size. One of the teachers, a sculptor, brought his grinding tool and fixed one of the benches. But then he was pulled away to do other things and the benches sat in pieces in a dark stairwell for months.

Well, I finally got tired of waiting. This week I hiked down to the local tool rental shop and got my own grinder. A couple of hours later, the benches were finally in place. The fifth bench found a spot on the playground where teachers can sit while the kids are playing on the monkey bars.

Finally, we have a place to relax and enjoy our garden.

And just in time, too. The chives are blooming. And the perennial pond plants are responding to the change in seasons with new growth.

We have several clematis plants climbing the chain link fence that surrounds our garden. Some of them are quite spectacular.

The happiest plants of all in our garden are the lamb's ears. I'm not sure why, but they go wild. Our soil mix is at least half compost. The must like it. They are so rampant I've had to start thinning them. They would happily take over our containers and crowd out everything else.

The pinks come back right on schedule, even after they've been so rudely moved around during the lamb's ear thinning.

All I can say about these is, they are awfully red and hard to miss.

The roses like their beds of compost as well. We have a profusion of flower buds this year and the blossoms are exquisite.

Gardening can be so worth the effort sometimes.