City Blossoms

New Gardens at DC Public Schools!

2010-10-27T12:15:00.001-07:00

This year, through a partnership with the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and Safeway, City Blossoms has been building school gardens all over the city! Recently we built a circular veggie garden at Tyler Elementary in Capitol Hill; and last weekend we built the Golden Ratio garden at Anne Beers Elementary School. Both builds were a huge success thanks to teachers, parents, neighbors, and of course KIDS who worked so hard to paint, dig, haul compost, and plant their gardens on beautiful Saturdays. Just in case you want to be part of this planting party, we have two more builds coming up!
Saturday, October 30 at Shaed Elementary School (301 Douglas Street NE) from 10-2
Saturday, November 6 at King Elementary School (3200 6th st SE) from 10-1

It really feels amazing to change a blank space into fantastic green spaces where kids and grown-ups can share experiences, learn about growing food and play with friends and neighbors - all in one Saturday morning! If you are interested in joining us please email Lola B at lola@cityblossoms.org

Gross and Cool - Soldier Flies

2010-08-21T07:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were walking around Marion Street Intergenerational Garden, checking on plants and compost, and I was quite revolted to see about 400 of these things furiously crawling up the insides of our compost cans. Luckily, Zachary from Clagett Farm was on hand to drop some knowledge on me - these are soldier fly larvae! And believe it or not, they are not as bad as they look. According to some research, soldier flies are big helpers in the compost bin, and they can withstand the heat a bit better than earthworms (who we still want to hang around). This site I found, Black Soldier Fly Blog, is dedicated to promoting soldier fly composting. As a part-time entomology buff, I was happy to get to know these hard working little buggers and I hope they will continue being our neighbors at Marion Street.

Basil Bonanza

2010-08-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Biggest Basil Potluck Ever! Come and pick some basil and prep a delicious dish for neighbors and friends of Marion Street Garden. Pick the basil Monday, August 23 4-7pm or Wednesday, August 25 4-6:30 and then eat with everyone from 6:30 to 8:30 on August 25th. We are looking forward to lots of new recipes using basil in ways never imagined, as well as a really good pesto or two. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Lola at lola@cityblossoms.org

More reflections on gardening with children by Kevin and David

2010-08-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

This summer our SYEP interns have gotten a LOT of practice working with young children and learning how best to communicate information about gardening and community to young minds. The lesson this week involved the interns reading stories to small groups of children and then checking for comprehension by having the children draw pictures of their understanding of the book. Here are some more reflections from our beginning teachers - enjoy!

Kevin Smith -
Today I realized that it is extremely hard to get the kids' full attention. This time around it was very difficult to explain my lesson because the kids' minds were everywhere. They were watching other kids play and were just looking around everywhere. What was also different about this time was the kids' understanding of the book I read. The kids were aware of the fruits in the book and were able to tell the difference between them.

David Holmes - It wasn't similar to last week - it was kind of better. The kids paid attention more, and I think every week that gets better. They draw very well and paid closer attention to what they were drawing this time. I think I made the story/learning activity a better and more fun experience for them by using their language/ way of talking about the things that they like.

Reflections by David, Hazle and Kevin

2010-07-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

Today our SYEP interns read a bunch of books to the Harvard Street Pre-K Incentive Program kids in the garden. Soon we will be introducing large garden libraries at all of our Early Childhood locations that introduce themes like farm-to-table, insects, math in the garden, recipes, and bringing in beauty with flowers. Some of the books David, Hazle and Kevin read today were the "Plants Parts Series" by Vijaya Bodach:
Roots, Leaves, and Flowers.

Below they have written responses to their experiences working one-on-one with the kids and figuring out how best to tell a story.

Kevin Smith -
Today was a learning experience for me. The children were very respectful and were willing to listen to me read. I enjoyed gaining a new connection with the children. The most difficult part of the lesson was having to explain myself more than one time. For the children to understand, I had to break down my words in children's terms. Overall my experience was great because I became closer with the kids by understanding them more.

Hazle Crawford -
What could I do better? Ask more questions to the kdis.
What did I like? I liked the fact that the kids were fantastic and enthusiastic with smelling and drawing plants.
What was successful? Everything was successful as a group we did excellent and accomplished our jobs.
What was difficult? The difficult part was at the end when a little boy was acting shy.
But overall I would give today's class a "B+".

Teas-ing your Tastebuds

2010-07-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Times has an article on making your own tea using herbs and wild plants from your garden, front porch, back yard, wherever you find them. After reading this article I thought, why not just stop by a City Blossoms garden for some of these ingredients? Some of the tasty tea herbs we grow (on purpose) are:
Chamomile
Peppermint
Spearmint
Pineapple Mint
Chocolate Mint
Fennel
Echinacea
Calendula
Feverfew
Catnip
Basil
Lavender
Rosemary
Borage
Oregano
Tarragon
Lemon Verbena
Lemon Balm
Thyme
And more! Just ask! Besides that, we can help you identify some of the wild "weeds" in this article, such as burdock, plantain, dandelion, and mullein. One of our best locations to see all of these growing vigorously is Marion Street Intergenerational Garden. Monday and Wednesday nights we are there 4-7; come stop by to volunteer, ask questions, hang out or pick some herbs!
Also check out herbal tea advice from You Grow Girl
Enjoy!

Macaroni Caprese!

2010-07-21T19:23:00.000-07:00

We like to shake things up a little bit here at City Blossoms. Well, actually, we just like to figure out weird ways to get kids to eat all of the tasty delicious food in the garden without freaking out and staying in their picky-appetite shells. So instead of a traditional Insalata Caprese today, we decided to go for something a little more familiar, and made sort of a Macaroni Caprese. We used whole wheat macaroni (semi familiar) and added the traditional caprese ingredients: tomato (familiar), basil (umm sorta familiar...), and fresh mozzarella (what the heck?!). Tossed with some olive oil, salt and pepper, this is an easy and cool pasta salad to prep on a day when even our eyelids are sweating. And judging from these pics, it's pretty tasty, too!

Pictures of this week

2010-07-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Beet Painting! Who knew beets could be so much fun? We were thinking long and hard about what raw recipes we could make with beets - alongside pre-K no less - and were coming up short. Beets are just one of those tricky begetables that are fun to grow. So we figured, beet paint, why not? Kids shredded raw beets to make the paint (with a little added water), then used the paint to write out "beet" and make pretty designs. We love to play with food!

These young gentlemen decided to show some swiss chard who's boss. Swiss chard is usually best when cooked or massaged in a raw salad, however these two (and several other kids at Marion) were digging it in it's pure, raw state. Maybe they know something I don't.

This week we had a lovely outing at the USDA People's Garden with our young SYEP interns. More details to come about that trip...let me just warn you - it was HOT!!!

Thank you Jack Johnson and All At Once!

2010-07-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

We at City Blossoms want to give a shout out to Jack Johnson's All At Once campaign that supported us and many other local and national non-profits this summer. Last night, Rebecca and I went to host a table at Jack Johnson's concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion, and we met a ton of lovely people who helped us make some gorgeous signs for Marion Street Garden (pics soon to come). Thanks to the generosity of All At Once, we were able to match all of the donations from our recent fundraiser to support programming at all of our locations. Check out www.allatonce.org to find out more about the campaign, how to get involved with some of their projects and support non-profits like City Blossoms!

Cool as a Cucumber

2010-07-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today children from New Community For Children came to Marion Street Garden in the megaheat and explored the flavor potential of cucumbers with us. Cucumbers are a fantastic food to grow in the garden because they can be prepared in a wide variety of simple, no-cook recipes right there in the garden that are light and refreshing. We are lucky that no cucumber beetles have been spotted in our beds yet, but our eyes are open!
The kids tasted some of the fresh cucumbers from the garden and compared the flavor, texture, color, and smell with pickles from a jar. Some kids learned for the first time that pickles are made from cucumbers! Next, we all worked together to prepare some fresh garden pickles using cucumbers, chive and dill (picked from the garden), a lemon (not picked from the garden), a bit of water, and salt. These were a big hit! Many kids asked for seconds, thirds, and fourths. We hope that the cucumber vines keep producing so we can experiment with other flavor combinations next week. Some of the recipes we are excited to try out are:
Cucumber-Radish Salsa
Cucumber Tomato Quinoa Salad
and
Cucumber-Mint Raita

Chances are, if the kids are making the recipes, there will be no leftovers!
Do you have any good cuke recipes? Send them our way!

Advice from David Holmes

2010-07-15T19:19:00.000-07:00

Our SYEP staffperson David Holmes wrote this up today to give some advice to those out there who may be considering gardening with City Blossoms:

This a little something I like to call working in the garden.
Well during the summer I worked with City Blossoms. It was cool and all but, sometimes I just didn’t want to get all dirty. So, if you are someone like me and you don’t like to get messy but, you want to work in the garden with friends/family/employees. Just follow these steps!

step 1: find out who you will be doing it with

step 2: see how messy the work site is

step 3: depending on how messy it is that is how you choose your clothing
regardless it’s gonna get messy because you have to water and trust me it’s gonna get muddy

step 4: also dress according to the weather

step 5: well I guess you should be all set and ready to go, just make sure you do a lot of watering

from: your friendly neighborhood gardening boy “David Holmes”

We think David might have a real future with City Blossoms! He definitely is getting the hang of it despite early doubts. We look forward to having him share more of his opinions and advice with us over the rest of the summer.

Welcome to New City Blossoms Staff!

2010-07-15T04:56:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,
This summer we have been very lucky to have 4 Summer Youth Employment Program staff join City Blossoms and help us lead classes all over the city! David, Hazle, Sabrina and Kevin are all DC teens who are enthusiastic to work with kids and learn more about creating gardens, even when it means getting a little dirty and hot (especially with DC's blazing summer!). Over the next several weeks, our staff will be creating posts to tell about their experiences and ideas about gardening, making fresh food, exploring outdoors art and connecting with neighbors at all of the City Blossoms spaces. Here are some of the first observations below - enjoy!

In the past few weeks working with City Blossoms has been a real pleasure. I have learned about all types of plants, and herbs that could be cooked. I also learned how to be a role model to kids that are younger than me and teach them how to be gardeners and excelllent cooks. The most interesting class was when we cooked pasta salad with carrots, onions, parmesan cheese, squash, lemon, and oil with the kids today at NCFC. My favorite part of working with City Blossoms is that I get to work with some smart kids that are in the pre-k and upper classes. My least favorite part about working with City Blossoms is that I have to work in the sun under the heat. If I could teach a class I would like to teach about science, and plants and how plants really came about to the world, and how the world uses them for food.
- Hazle Crawford

An Interview with David Holmes

What have you done in the past week with City Blossoms?
I have been working with all kids in the garden and make recipes with them. Also we I have been watering all plants.

What did you find interesting?
I find working with the kids most interesting.

What was your least favorite part about working with City Blossoms?
My least favorite is getting dirty but, you got to do what you have to do.

If you could teach a class, what would you like to teach about?
Well kids like City Blossoms a lot because of the water and growing plants, I mean I guess gardening and /or math.

Hi my name is Sabrina and as I’ve been working for City Blossoms for a couple of weeks we have experienced many things as we all have worked in various gardens. For example, we have worked with lots of kids that are different ages, which is great because its a whole new experience for me as a high school student. It's been so great teaching them things about gardening and as I do that, I am also learning myself by my co-workers teaching new things every day. Every time at work I learn new things which makes me feel great because I can go home and do the same - not just at home but with other students as myself. Today we helped teach class to some high school kids. I was sort of scared and ready at the same time but I felt great working with kids my age. It seems as though we understand each other better as we teach class amongst kids our age. What was it like me being a high school student and facilitating a class of high school student? It was an amazing experience because we all understood each other very well and got to know things about each other as we helped them wash the ingredients, mix them, and try it. I felt so excited, helpful, and awesome!! It's something I'm not gonna forget. I know I'll go further as my teacher teaches me and I teach others. So this means i still got a lot to learn and experience more things!!(laughing)
- Sabrina Molina

Wonderful Wiggly Worms!

2010-02-18T12:22:00.000-08:00

We're back in garden class after an extended snowy break!

Our youngest students (kindergarten and pre-K) have been learning all about the creepy-crawly inhabitants of our gardens: bees, ants, grasshoppers, ladybugs, and now worms.

Worms are fascinating creatures. They aerate the soil and transform waste into fabulous fertilizer. In our lessons, we observed worms and learned about the parts of their bodies through an active dance. Many of the kids were brave enough to hold the worms in their hands! Each student had the opportunity to sculpt worms out of Play-Doh and examine a worm habitat. We also discussed what materials worms can and can't safely digest. We're going to be placing worm bins in each of our three preschools so that the kids can witness firsthand the miracle of worms. Most of the kids loved the worm unit, so the bins should be a very exciting addition to their learning environment as well as an eco-friendly way of recycling classroom food waste.

Pre-K kids observe worms and learn about the parts of a worm's body (anterior, posterior, mouth).

Students practice fine motor skills by sculpting worms out of Play-Doh.

It's a worm party!

Observing our portable worm habitat (we can't wait until each school has its own real worm bin!).

Pre-K kids learn that apples, newspaper, and leaves make excellent worm food. (Please don't feed the worms ice cream or markers.)

Lovely Ladybugs . . .

2010-01-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Winter weather might keep us indoors, but we're still having lots of garden-related fun! This past week, our pre-K classes completed a unit on ladybugs. They learned that ladybugs play an important role in the garden by eating aphids, which eat the plants. We read a few ladybug-focused books (including Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug - everyone's favorite!) and practiced math skills by counting ladybugs and their spots. We also made some super ladybug hats which the kids didn't want to take off!

Pre-K kids paint their ladybug hats.

Adding detail with spots, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner antennae . . .

Two pre-K students show off their lovely ladybugs.

A pre-kindergardener is transformed into a ladybug, no pupa involved.

Watch out, aphids: we've got a roomful of ladybugs ready for lunch!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-11T06:25:00.000-08:00

City Blossoms is gearing up for what promises to be our busiest year yet! We're in the process of expanding our garden classes at local schools, breaking ground for a new community garden in Shaw, and planning for the upcoming RootingDC conference in February. We'll keep you posted on all our projects!

Our fourth graders at DC Bilingual Public Charter School have been learning about herbs. They have participated enthusiastically in growing, harvesting, drying, and learning about the various uses (culinary, medicinal, etc.) of these fabulous plants. To celebrate the New Year, some of our students paused to reflect on their herbal activities of 2009 and their garden hopes for 2010:

“I loved when we took the herbs and hung them up to dry. I liked doing jobs like taking the leaves off the stems. My favorite was when we made the Tummy Soother tea. My stomach was really hurting that day, and it made me feel better. Before garden class, I never knew that lemon balm and other herbs were really herbs – I thought they were just normal plants that you can’t eat.

I hope that we get to plant flowers and herbs in our garden." -Kessya

“My favorite activity for the herbs was anything with eating because I’m always hungry! I also liked cutting the herbs and cutting them off the stems. The mint tea was my favorite to drink. Before garden class, I didn’t know that mint came in so many flavors.

I hope we get to make mint ice cream!” -Alex

“I love the herbs, because after growing them, we get to eat them and do things with them! We made tea, and we also made cream cheese with chives, which is my favorite herb.

I hope that we can make pizza in the oven with the herbs we grew.” -Julissa

“I like that we learn how to take care of plants and trees – they’re important because they give us oxygen and we can’t have food without plants. My favorite was when we made tea, because the tea was so good! My favorite herb is cebollitas [chives] because it tastes so funny in your mouth.

I hope we get to make pizza with the herbs!” -Marilyn

Fourth graders at DC Bilingual remove dried oregano leaves from the stems.

Students carefully cut dried lemongrass leaves into small pieces for use in cooking.

Fourth graders used the herbs they harvested to brew two kinds of herbal tea.

Our tea connoisseurs sampled both Tummy Soother tea and Relax tea. (They concluded that Tummy Soother, with its spearmint and ginger flavors, was the general favorite.)

They also enjoyed preparing and eating Swiss chard wraps seasoned with their favorite herbs - yum!

Butterfly Watch 2009

2009-08-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

It is exciting and calming at the same time to see these beautiful winged visitors in our gardens each summer. The kids become hushed and focused as soon as they drop down onto a drooping blossom and start squealing happily once they take flight. A Monarch and Tiger Swallowtail have been sipping from our CentroNia butterfly bushes regularly this month, and I hope they've found safe places to lay their eggs too! Our gardens receive a few more quiet visitors, such as the ever-growing family of birds who mischieviously get caught in the grapevines while stealing fruit or a clump of slimy slugs cooling off in the dark corners of the compost piles. This year we've learned with our young gardeners to appreciate our visitors a little more, and hope that pesky ones (aphids, rats, cucumber beetles) will find another garden to bother.

Come and Get IT!

2009-08-11T04:09:00.001-07:00

We have a great event coming up - on September 7th we will have a big potluck celebration at Girard Garden. Bring a dish to share and try out some of the garden's harvest prepared specially by a guest chef! It is also Girard's first birthday, and we want to celebrate with the whole neighborhood.

Yay Rebecca!

2009-08-11T03:26:00.001-07:00

Rebecca and I went to NYC a couple of months ago to help out with Fritz Haeg's Hudson Guild Project, a children's edible garden. It was a long, dirty day (including a roundtrip from chelsea to the bronx) but by the end we had made lots of new friends and learned some cool new garden techniques. The even was sponsored by Ovation TV and Gardenburger, and you can see some video below with an excellent soundbite from Rebecca!

Savoring Summertime

2009-07-31T14:04:00.000-07:00

Summer is halfway over and one thing we have learned for sure is that kids everywhere love to garden, and even more, they love to EAT what they grow! This summer we have worked with kids from AA Lead, Bancroft Elementary, Vietnamese American Cultural Services Center, Columbia Heights Youth Club, Community of Hope, CentroNia, Garrison Middle School, CentroNia's pre-K incentive program and countless neighborhood "drop-ins" at Girard Children's Garden. Almost every child (over 350 participate weekly) has had a chance to prepare a recipe or take a bite of the fresh produce grown at each garden. A big hit this summer were spring rols, using basil,chives, carrots and cucumbers homegrown by the kids. All of the kids at the CentroNia programs and Girard Children's Garden have documented recipes with drawings and writings, and soon there will be a cookbook to share with everyone! Our open times at Girard Garden (every Monday 5-7, Wednesdays 4-6)have been the most fun - as the sun sets lower in the sky, kids trickle in from Girard Playground to water, plant seeds, paint, play games, dig for worms in the compost, chew on mint leaves and chop up cucumbers and squash for snacking.
Some things to look forward to:
1. Soon the corn at Girard Garden will be ready to harvest! Our awesome volunteer Dad Luis has been caring for the 8 ft tall stalks like his own children and they are going to be TASTY!
2. Soap sales! The 3rd and 4th graders at CentroNia are making herbal soaps using herbs from the CentroNia garden. There will be a sale in late August, and hopefully a stand at the Mt. Pleasant Farmer's market. Stay tuned!
3. September 7th - Eat-In and 1st year celebration at Girard Garden! Bring a dish and celebrate the garden as well as healthy foods for healthier kids on Labor Day. There will be lunch and the distribution of our Girard Garden cookbook (made by the kids).

So many things are happening, and we definitely could use some help! If you are interested in volunteering any time, please contact Lola at lola@cityblossoms.org.

In other news, check out Capital Area Food Bank's new program for gardeners (below). This sounds like a great way to get local fantastic front yard farmers to help out with any surplus from their efforts.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

If you have extra bounty from your garden this summer, consider an alternative to gifting all your neighbors with bags of zucchini. The Capital Area Food Bank wants you to donate that extra produce to your neighborhood social organization (food pantry, soup kitchen, summer kids care program), and we’ll show you how! When you sign up for our newly launched Grow A Row program, we will pair you with a social organization in your neighborhood. We also provide a nifty yard sign and receipts for tax deductions. Fresh produce is an essential component of a healthy diet, but is not frequently donated to soup kitchens or food pantries due to its perishable nature. Grow A Row is an excellent opportunity to bridge community, build relationships, and provide people of low income with access to fresh, local produce. To sign up or for more information contact Anika Roth or Jody Tick at growarow@cfoodbank.org or call us at (202) 526-5344.

School's always in with City Blossoms

2009-06-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our schedule is about to do a big flip flop now that school is ending and summer gardening workshops are gearing up. Summer may mean chill time for other teachers, but for us it's the best time to be working - and eating! This summer we have lots of tasty treats growing - peppers, herbs, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, carrots, canteloupes, beans, spinach, edamame, and strawberries to begin with. We hope that we can get some good recipes tried out in all of our workshops, and plan on making a big community cookbook by the time fall hits.
The tasty treats aren't just for the kids! On June 27th, there will be a workshop on herbs - preserving and using them for food - at Girard Garden for adults. If you have always wondered what to do with the rest of that basil - after making pesto, of course - or how to dry out your rosemary and lavender, you should come on by! It's free!
Happy Gardening,
City Blossoms

Breaking New Ground with E.L. Haynes

2009-05-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday we went outside with our E.L. Haynes 5th grade class and Mr. Franz to finally mark our territory at the new North Columbia Heights Greenspace. This space has been acquired by Washington Parks and People and is planned to be a community space with gardens, seating, and artwork. We have been working with the super-awesome 5th graders in their classrooms to plan out square-foot gardens, grow baby vegetable and herb seedlings, play with worms and distinguish the different bugs by playing BUGGO. Also, the kids created their own signs to invite, inform and inspire visitors to the garden. So far in the garden we have only marked the periphery of the space, but this week we plan to get those seedlings in the ground, aka Grow Bags! These pictures show the space (recently used as a parking lot/ dog pooping yard), kids placing the signs and stakes into the ground, and a lovely post-hard-work stinky armpit/muscle pic. More pics to be posted soon!

Oh yeah - the tasty part!

2009-05-04T05:40:00.000-07:00

Since I can only post 5 pics per post, here's the rest of the story of the radishes....after the kids packaged up some bouquets for their families, we decided to munch on the leftovers. By the way, that's italian dressing we are eating with the radishes.

Ravishing Radishes

2009-05-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

It's not rocket science to plant radishes, but no other plant gives kids the quickest "I grew it myself!" satisfaction of planting, maintaining and harvesting. Here are some pics of our successful harvest day last week - 200 radishes, and that wasn't even half of what was there!

It's a spring thing.

2009-05-04T05:05:00.000-07:00

Now that it's spring again, we have noticed more dirt under our fingernails, more obsessive-compulsive weather forecast checking, and more thoughts flooding our heads about the possibilities of juicy, fresh veggies and fruits. The consistent (and necessary! we will appreciate it in the summer!) rain has been like a big "slow down" sign for us and the kids, eager to be outside all of the time. However, we have managed to squeeze outside a few times in between raindrops! Five volunteer days went by with only one rain date and each garden was given a face lift for the season. Radishes were planted in most spots, and we managed to harvest enough for a farmer's market at Girard. We have become the proud owners of a red wiggler worm bin at DC Bilingual, which has given us hours of fascination and creepy-crawlies. Happily we took on a new class of kids at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, and we are crossing our fingers to break ground at their new location this week! We will add pictures of the groundbreaking - in the meantime enjoy some of the spring snapshots above!

Blossoming Indoors

2009-01-19T08:57:00.000-08:00

It may be the middle of winter, with threats of snow and lower-than-ever temperatures, but we always keep a summertime frame of mind, as you can see in the picture above!
Each week we maintain our classes at DC Bilingual, CentroNia's Langley Park campus, CentroNia's pre-K incentive program at Harvard Street, Community of Hope, and Columbia Heights Youth Club. Since the gardens at all locations are pretty...well...depressing, we are always coming up with ways to brighten up the indoors and plan for spring. This winter we have studied all kinds of critters with pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st grade, and Community of Hope: Bees, Ladybugs, Butterflies, Grasshoppers and Worms. 1st grade at DC Bilingual is starting an indoor vermicomposting system, better known as a worm bin! With 2nd grade and Columbia Heights Youth Club, we are learning about the many animals and critters that inhabit the garden, and building birdhouses to attract some local winged friends to our gardens. In the 3rd grade classes we are getting down to the very start of it all - the seed and how seeds work. Tasty experiments include popping real popcorn off of the cob and dissecting edamame pods. 4th grade is in the middle of an epic unit on herbs, and will be using their own class-grown herbs to design the herb gardens at Girard for spring.
In other news, we will be inviting new groups into the garden this year: an elementary after-school group from Asian American LEAD's program at Bancroft, and some young women from CentroNia's Saturday Arts Workshops to design sculptures for Girard. Also upcoming: monthly Adult and Family workshops starting in April and weekly volunteer days starting in March. Yikes! We will be very busy bees! You know what keeps us bees going: when our friends and neighbors show up to get their hands dirty with us. If you are interested in participating in any City Blossoms activities this spring, please email us at lola@cityblossoms.org or rebecca@cityblossoms.org .
In the meantime, stay warm and start drooling over seed catalogs! Indoor seed planting season is right around the corner! Hooray!
Cheers,
City Blossoms

The bulb dance... latest version!

2008-10-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

The season is coming to an end - but we keep blooming!

2008-10-19T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
This past week, we took down a prolific cherry tomato vine, pulled out fragrant cinnamon basil, and said goodbye to some droopy dried sunflower heads, all in order to plant our next round of crops. It is sad to say goodbye to the bright summer flowers and vegetables but we are eagerly awaiting the growth of magenta radishes and a whole spectrum of "greens" - collards, broccoli, kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, bok choy, pac soy, and arugula. The Girard Garden is really popping, and we have already started a first harvest with kids from DC Bilingual Public Charter School, Columbia Heights Youth Club, and Community of Hope. If you drop by on Wednesday or Thursday afternons from 4-6 you are welcome to take a look! Also, thanks to our new volunteer gardeners, April and Adriana, the garden is open more for peeking in and maybe even a little picking.
SPEAKING OF PICKING.... if you are hungering for some tasty greens yourself, our end of the season HARVEST VOLUNTEER DAY will be Saturday, November 15th. We will spend the day cleaning up the garden a bit, decorating, painting, and picking tasty treats. If you are interested in participating, please email Lola at lola@cityblossoms.org
Big Harvest Hugs,
Lola and Rebecca

The article!

2008-08-01T20:44:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot to mention that City Blossoms was featured this week in the Washington Times! Reporter Amanda McClure wrote an article about our new project at Girard Garden. Check it out at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jul/29/girard-garden-targets-crime/

I like how the subtitle says "Residents Hope Calm will Bloom"....because of my last name.....heehee!
Hugs
Lola

Nothing says welcome like....

2008-08-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

Goofing off and Gorgeous

2008-08-01T20:34:00.001-07:00

These our some of the chicas from our girls' group that came with us to the Penn Quarter Farmer's Market this past Thursday. We learned all about what it takes to sell goods at the market, how to showcase the products, and how to sneak lots of free samples! Soon, the girls' own handmade herbal lotion bars, soaps, and salt scrubs will be for sale at CentroNia. The lavender, rosemary, mint, and chamomile come straight from our organic garden.

Goodbye Sweaty July, Hello Sticky August!

2008-08-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

3 more weeks of classes means 3 more weeks of digging, composting, eating, picking, drying, watering, and sweating. 3 more weeks means soon there will be a bunch of happy harvesters in the City Blossoms' gardens! As you can see in one of these pictures, our corn is just reaching the ready point. Last week we picked a few ears at Harvard with the 4 year-olds and learned how tortillas are made. At CentroNia on 14th and Columbia, the tomato plants, much to Lola's distaste, and producing like crazy! Cucumbers are crawling the fence, and the sunflowers are watching over our shoulders every time we step into the building. At CAPCS, the beans and herbs have gone above and beyond what was expected, and it's time for a cutting - anyone interested?
In these next 3 weeks we will be getting ready to plant fall crops: spinach, radishes, beets, cabbage, and all kinds of healthy greens will be going in one seed at a time. We know there are some hungry peeps out there just looking to bite into some fresh organic produce - let us know if you or anyone you know would be willing to trade some volunteer hours for some treats!

We Built This Garden on Rock and Roll!

2008-07-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Girard Garden, our brand new GIGANTIC project that is being supported by Columbia Heights Shaw Collaborative, Horning Brothers, and Councilmember Jim Graham. Our new plot is right in the middle of Girard Playground, and we plan to develop it as a Childrens' Community Garden, with participants from the many schools and youth centers in the neighborhood. So far we are bringing kids in from CentroNia, YouthBuild, and Columbia Heights Youth Club. The plan is to have about 12 raised beds, an outdoor classroom, a composting area, rain barrels, and more! This past week we planted a flower bed in front with donated plants from Garden District, and moved in a massively awesome garden shed built by Russell Flench. When we say rock and roll, specifically we refer to the effort (and the gravel and dolly...hee hee) put into pushing this beast into the space! It took about an hour and a half, but it's in, and it's not going anywhere! This shed will be the home for our community toolbank, which all of the children will share.
Once the raised garden beds are built this next week, we will begin to fill them up with healthy soil amendments and rush to make the most of the rest of the growing season. We also have a lot of art and gardening projects planned to help beautify the space and the surrounding area near the playground. If you are interested in volunteering and becoming part of this gargantuan effort, please feel free to contact Lola or Rebecca at lola@cityblossoms.org or rebecca@cityblossoms.org.

Monster Hibiscus at CentroNia

2008-07-11T13:03:00.000-07:00

We have a few plants that astound me with their ability to make it through the weird DC winters, the extensive shade of most of our plots, as well as the wear and tear of being around tons of kids every day, and this hibiscus is number one!

Summertime, and the living is not so easy...but FUN!

2008-07-11T12:45:00.000-07:00

We started our summer workshops on June 30th, and it has already been an every-day-whirlwind of activity. We have classes with kids at CentroNia, Harvard St. Pre-K Incentive, Girard Playground, Garrison Middle School, and soon, the Langley Park campus of CentroNia. We are making bilingual alphabet signs, harvesting herbs to make soaps and lotions, building a brand new GIGANTIC garden plot, composting, cooking, sweating, and learning. We are making new friends - this week YouthBuild will be coming in to help us build raised beds and an outdoor classroom at Girard; Garden District continues to generously pile Rebecca's truck with donated plants; and new classes will be starting this week with Columbia Heights Youth Club. There are plans coming up this summer to participate in a farmer's market throw a few parties at the gardens, and once those dates are known you will be invited to see the floral fun up close. In the meantime, enjoy some of these pics!

Thank you Garden District!

2008-06-18T06:37:00.000-07:00

This week Garden District, a local garden supply store donated tons of plants City Blossoms to use in our many gardens with the kids. We started getting a bunch of the herbs and annuals in the ground yesterday with the CAPCS kids. After a long spring of planting, these CAPCS kids are now professionals at gently taking the small plants out of the pots, pinching the roots, and tucking them into their new homes in the Amos 1 campus garden. It looks like we are going to have quite a delicious pizza garden very soon! Let us know if you have any good sauce recipes!

More Volunteer Madness!

2008-05-07T04:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently 'tis is the season for going crazy with volunteer days. We participated in another two since the Baltimore event - April 26th at Community Academy Public Charter School and the May 3rd Kaboom!/Comcast Cares event at the new CentroNia campus in Langley Park. At CAPCS, we worked with a couple of other volunteers from the school through sprinkles and one downpour to dig up the sod and add compost and manure in three circular garden plots. Since then students have planted radishes, spinach, carrots, beans and sunflowers, and all of the seedling are making their way into tasty big plants.
The Langley Park project was enormous, with over 100 volunteers coordinated through Comcast Cares and CentroNia working together to transform a big parking lot into a playground, complete with custom designed garden space, outdoor classroom and mural designed by Rebecca. It really was amazing to witness the transformation over the 7-hour event. We are hoping to get the raised garden boxes built and planted before the summer gets too sticky. If you are interested in helping us out with this task, let us know!
Now we are finalizing our plans and ideas for the summer programs at CentroNia, Garrison Middle School, and our NEW site in Girard Park. More news about that project later.... until then, go out and get dirty!

Volunteer Day Baltimore

2008-04-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we had ANOTHER volunteer day at the Garrison Middle School Garden in Baltimore. Rebecca teaches classes to middle school girls there, and the garden needed a lot of work to get ready for the growing season. There was a BIG turnout of parents, students, teachers, friends, and Master Gardeners, and everybody was enthusiastic to get heir hands dirty and help out. This weekend, April 12th, there will be a volunteer day at Community Academy Public Charter School to break ground and set up the layout of the garden.
In other news, City Blossoms has been the recipient of two generous grants lately: The Washington Parks and People mini-grant and the Wuzzleburg Preschool Garden Awards. Hooray!! We're on a roll! Please let us know if you know of any relevant grants or funding opportunities we should apply for.

2008-04-01T15:48:00.001-07:00

2008-04-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Volunteer Days = Growing Community

2008-04-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

This year City Blossoms is expanding A LOT and we are adding volunteer days to our schedule to get people involved, discover their own little special part of the garden, and also help take a load of work off our hands! We had a great turnout this weekend (as you can see from the pictures) at CentroNia on 11th and Harvard, and this weekend (April 5) there will be another at Garrison Middle School in Baltimore. The following weekend there will be a volunteer day to break ground at the Community Academy Public Charter School location (1300 Allison St NW DC), and the weekend after that, well, Rebecca and Lola might just choose to sleep in :) Also, City Blossoms will be participating in the Mother's Day Arts and Crafts Sale at CentroNia on 14th and Columbia Rd. NW DC. If you have a hankering for some organic, handmade soaps and lotion bars, come on down!
Thanks again to all the parents and friends who came out this past weekend - you all get first dibs on the watermelons!

Cooking up some Compost at D.C. Bilingual

2007-12-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

The Bulb Dance!

2007-12-19T17:34:00.000-08:00

ROOTS ROOTS ROOTS ROOTS!

BUUUULB

LEAVES! LEAVES!

FLOWER :)

Harvard Street Beginning Bulbs

2007-12-19T17:24:00.000-08:00

New site at Community Academy Public Charter School!

2007-12-14T10:26:00.000-08:00

This is what gets us all revved up - a new patch of land, ready to be turned into a magical growing playground! This site is next to the Amos 1 campus of Community Academy Public Charter School (where Lola works) and hopefully will have some progress by Spring 2008. To make that kind of progress, however, we need help! Ideas, suggestions, and donations are always welcome! Here are some of the materials we are looking for:

Bags of compost, manure, humus, to amend the soil

Tools to do some major digging and turning

Seeds, plants, etc once Spring arrives (we are already starting some indoor babies)

Volunteers!

In other news, I forgot to mention in a previous post that City Blossoms participated in the CentroNia Holiday Art Sale this past weekend, and it was a GREAT success! Not only did we sell ALL of the soaps and lotions that the kids from our summer programs made, but we were also quite a hit with the children attending the event. Could it be that our table was the only one with free sweets and treats?? Hmmm. Nevertheless, we were very happy with the event and look forward to making more organic products with our youth participants next spring.

YAY!!!

2007-12-12T17:54:00.000-08:00

Good News!!!

#1 - One of Rebecca's pictures was given Honorable Mention through the KidsGardening.com Photo Contest! http://www.kidsgardening.com/special/photo/final07.asp This means that the photo will be used in the future on the KidsGardening.com website. Three cheers for Rebecca!

#2 - We have begun a new garden at Community Academy Public Charter School, a D.C. school that serves children grades K-5 in Columbia Heights. It's looking pretty yucky now, but hopefully with some hard work and kid energy it will be a blooming masterpiece in the spring. Resources, anyone? We are looking for sources of low-cost mulch, manure, compost.

We at City Blossoms wish you a fruitful, vegetable-ful, and herb-ful holiday season!

Love,

Lola and Rebecca

garden bike tour

2007-09-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello Fellow Fall Foliage Fans,
Open up your calendars. Look at October 20th - are you doing something? Maybe you should join up with the Women Garden Cycles project and check out one of our gardens, as well as several other school gardens in D.C.! That's right, City Blossoms' garden at CentroNia (1420 Columbia Rd NW) will be featured as a stop on the bike tour. The bike tour is part of DC School Garden Week, and we are so excited!

Hope to see you there!

City Blossoms

5 senses in the garden

2007-08-16T17:46:00.000-07:00

At our Harvard Street location, there is a 5 senses bed right in the middle. You may be thinking, HOW?

Touch - Lamb's Ear

Taste - Mint, Basil, Chives

Smell - Lemon Balm, Mint, Basil, Chives

See - Bright flowers: Dianthus, Cosmos

Hear - You can't see it in this photo, but there is a windchime above! Tricky!

The lonely tomato.

2007-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

I am a lonely tomato,

I live all alone on this plant.

I am a lonely tomato,

I'd like to make friends but I can't.

This song was written by Lola after an inspirational night at a rock concert. Sing it to whatever tune suits you!

The second biggest zucchini ever! With cheese!

2007-08-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

The best way to get kids to eat vegetables is by adding cheese. How else would these young folks even dare bite into the green monster that was larger than my arm??! Of course, the zucchini was organically grown in the City Blossoms garden, as were the tasty herbs (oregano, basil and thyme) that the kids sprinkled on top. YUM!

Tastes great... less filling!!

2007-08-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

"The Garden Spot" made lemony-mint iced tea, and even though we skimped on sugar it ended up being a very tasty treat! The mint came from the organic garden out front. The recipe is on it's way for those of you who need refreshment.

This is what happens when you make lemony-mint iced tea...and let the kids use the digital camera.

2007-08-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Summer 2007

2007-08-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

Finally I am setting this blog up to keep all of City Blossoms' friends and family updated on what goes on in our dirty lives. This summer we are working with two CentroNia gardens: one at 1420 Columbia Rd and the other at 11th and Harvard (Carlos Rosario School). There have been 12 different groups of kids coming into the gardens and working on dozens of projects, which we will show you here. If you ever want to come by and check out the greenery up close, just shoot me or Rebecca an email!
lola@cityblossoms.org
rebecca@cityblossoms.org

Hugs and Bugs!!
Lola

Harvard and 11th Children's garden shots

2007-08-01T11:12:00.000-07:00

Magenta Cosmos, Giant Sunflowers and a bunch of Broccoli