Great vegetable garden in Mt. Pleasant. Check out all the tomatoes:
And a wild sculpture too:
gardening
Dear PoPville,
One of the weeds now thriving in DC lawns – and gutters, cracks in sidewalks and vacant lots – is a tasty and incredibly nutritious plant called purslane. I once ripped this plant out and discarded it before I realized that it was edible. If you’re curious about it, I suggest finding some in your neighborhood and not eating it! Who knows how many dogs have marked it? Instead, pick some and cultivate it in a pot or a sunny spot in your yard. You can find it in the store now and then, but I find that the wild stuff is much tastier.
Purslane has more Omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy plant. It also has vitamins A, B and C and and many other vitamins and minerals. I find it to be delicious raw or cooked.
Be sure to identify purslane carefully before you eat it. It tends to grow around other plants, some of which look a bit like it such as a toxic plant called spurge. One key to identifying spurge is to crack open one of the stems. If a milky substance comes out of it, it’s spurge. Apparently it also tastes horrible so you’ll know if you’ve made a mistake and you’re not likely to eat much of it.
Purslane grows in the most forelorn places. The leaves are green and somewhat thick and the stem is reddish, particularly on larger plants. There are many helpful resources on the web for identifying it. The good news is that it’s all over the place, so you shouldn’t have a hard time finding it.
Any other fans of purslane?
15th and Columbia Rd, NW
Planting Community from Still Life Projects on Vimeo.
Awesome. Read more about the film and Wangari Gardens here.
Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC
Growing Gardens Workshop: Preserving Summer’s Bounty Canning:
Common Good City Farm
V Street NW between 2nd and 4th Streets
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012
5:30pm – 7:30pm | $25How to preserve tomatoes, pickles, jams and jellies. There’s nothing better than opening up a jar of home-preserved tomatoes or jam on a dark winter night, and remembering the tastes of summer! This class will cover basic canning for the beginner, using simple, inexpensive equipment. You will get to participate in making some strawberry jam, and we’ll also discuss how to preserve tomatoes and pickles. Class size limited to 10 people. Teacher: Bradley Kennedy first learned to can 8 years ago from a friend’s mother. She was hooked instantly, and every year since she has put up enough tomatoes and jam to last through the winter.
June 20th, 2012 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM Register here.
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I love Standard BBQ but I still kinda miss (the old) Garden District from 14th and S St, NW. I think Old City Green moving is gonna be a big loss for the neighborhood. Old City Green is located across from the convention center at 9th and N St, NW. In an email they write:
This is our last season on the corner of 9th and N so we plan on going all out with events!
Including…June
Night at the Garden w/ Special Agent Galactica
Saturday June 16th.
Proceeds got to Metro Teen Aids.
July
2nd Edible Urban Garden Tour
August
Special Dog-Days Movie Night w/ Wagtime
Celebrating the Dog Days of SummerAnd more to come so stay tuned!!
Moving Sale
We don’t know where we’re going, but we know we’ll get there!
I believe this corner is slated to be redeveloped as part of a CASRiegler project:
“Smithsonian Gardens would like to invite you to attend Garden Fest 2012: Gardening for Healthy Living. Garden Fest is an annual event presented by Smithsonian Gardens to engage and entertain our visitors. It features a variety of family-friendly, garden-themed activities and gives us the opportunity to interact face-to-face with our visitors.
This year’s Garden Fest will be held on Friday May 11th from 11am-1:30pm and Saturday May 12th from 11am-3pm in the Enid A. Haupt Garden between the Smithsonian Castle and Independence Ave.“
Photo courtesy of fonagardener
From an email:
FRIDAY, APRIL 27 ( 1 to 4 p.m.) and SATURDAY, APRIL 28 (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
Friends of the National Arboretum (FONA) Annual Garden Fair and Plant Sale featuring new, rare and hard-to-find plants. This year’s sale also includes more than 600 books on horticulture, garden design and designers, landscape architecture and garden travel from the library of longtime FONA board member and garden designer Sally Boasberg, who died last month. (Note: A members-only sale will be held Friday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tax-deductible memberships are available through FONA in advance or at the gate.) The annual fair coincides with the Arboretum’s spectacular display of azaleas, the largest collection in the metropolitan area. The Garden Fair is on the grounds of the U.S. National Arboretum, 3501 New York Avenue NE. Contact 202-544-8733 or www.fona.org.
Very zen. Do you think this style works? It’s from Shaw.
Photo by PoPville flickr user ekelly80
Dear PoPville,
Do you know of any good garden centers in DC that are metro accessible (not requiring too much walking – assuming lots of plants will be carried)? I’m looking for indoor plants to spruce up my dreary no-natural-light cubicle in Dupont.