by Anne Rollins Composting kitchen scraps is becoming a big business. Prince George’s and Howard counties are experimenting with programs for collecting and composting food waste, largely to keep the garbage out of landfills. But the resulting compost is also proving very marketable (see The Washington Post story “Turning Food Scraps Into ‘Gold’”). If you’ve […]
Harvest time at the Sedgwick Street community gardens
by Marjorie Rachlin Early fall means harvest time at the community gardens on Sedgwick Street. It’s been a good summer despite the heat and drought – tomatoes have done well, and people are picking squash, eggplant, beans, peppers and several exotic vegetables, as well as basil and other herbs. Okra plants, eight feet tall, are […]
Jane’s Gardening Journal: Music in bloom; the perfect shrub
by Jane Solomon At the end of my opening column I said I’d write first about composting. Indeed, I’ve been hard at work on a short series (the hardest part of which is keeping it short). You’ll see the first installment soon, but meanwhile here are a few seasonal notes I’d like to share. Music […]
Introducing… Jane’s Gardening Journal
by Jane Solomon As soon as the kids finish school, we pack up the car and head north to Vermont, returning with just enough time to do the laundry, buy supplies and scoot them out the door to begin a new year. Coming home after such a long absence is always hard and I’m never […]
It’s time to help care for DDOT’s newest additions to our urban forest
by Marlene Berlin DDOT’s street tree planting season has ended. Now, tree caring season begins. Munevver Ertem, an arborist with DDOT’s Urban Forestry Administration, tells me the agency planted more than 8,000 trees in the District from October through April. About 170 of these trees are in ANC 3F, and they include replacements for trees […]
Marjorie Rachlin’s Backyard Nature: Garden colors don’t entirely fade in September
by Marjorie Rachlin Most gardens wind down down in September weather but there’s still colorful bloom in Forest Hills yards. We’ve got everything from “weed” plants native to the Americas to banana “trees” that came here long ago from Asia. Natives in the back In my back garden, I grow a number of hardy native […]
Growing Community, And Veggies
by Marjorie Rachlin Recently I have made several visits to the Melvin Hazen Community Garden on Sedgwick Street, where 101 of our neighbors have plots. It’s lush and green — the tomato plants are blooming now, carrots and beet greens are a foot high, and gardeners have been picking lettuce for weeks. This garden was […]