A sign in front of Peggie Lewis’s garden greets visitors. Photo by Valerie Akinyoyenu
WASHINGTON — Wake up and smell the garden, literally. Forty years ago, Ann Chase asked the city to start a community garden to commemorate National Food Day. Today, the Newark Street Community Garden is the largest and one of the oldest in the District, situated on four acres of land with about 200 plots tended by roughly 190 gardeners. The area also showcases picnic areas, a playground, tennis courts and a newly added dog park. Although the garden is successful, the association has encountered many obstacles.
The beautification plots in front of the garden are tended by volunteer gardeners, such as Peggie Lewis. “It’s for the neighbors,” Lewis said. When a fountain was installed in the playground in the vicinity, these plots were disturbed by the digging of a water source, and the byproducts of the construction contaminated the soil and made it difficult for these plants to grow, she said.
Concerns about contamination from animals, such as deer and birds, began to rise. Even though the gardeners have a system of protecting their gardens, the wildlife still prevails.
One gardener, Brad Foss, said, “The birds are smarter than me.”
Peggie Lewis at the main entrance to the urban gardens, the largest in the District. Photo by Valerie Akinyoyenu
Foss grows blueberries in his 15-by-15 plot, which are difficult to grow, he said, because they are complex and require a very high level of acidity in their soil. Most of the plots are surrounded by netting, but the birds manage to find tunnels through the nets. Deer have also managed to make their way into plots every so often. “The deer love everything we put in,” Lewis said.
The garden has also been frequented by what local gardeners call “The Flower Thief.” Lewis said this person cuts blooming flowers from the gardens and then sells them to floral shops by claiming he has a garden in Virginia.
Members have to take care of their gardens and volunteer 10 hours in order to keep their plot. “We have a very strict group of rules,” said Susan Akman, former president and 30-year member of the garden. “We want our rules to give framework and not to lose people but to instruct.”
The garden has met challenges, and it still draws support from many. Gardner Martha Baron said, “I like to be outdoors, it’s exercise… I love growing things and seeing them bloom.” Baron tends to her garden two to three times a week with the occasional help of her grandchildren. She grows tomatoes, English daisies, basil, phoxs and green peppers.
“Gardening is our therapy. It’s our escape,” said Akman. “I have a great love and passion for it.”
The ISIS recently conquered the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, shown above in 2007, prompting the U.S. government to deploy troops in the region for the first time since 2011. Photo by Afrosty [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsWASHINGTON — Three years after a full withdrawal of American armed forces from Iraq, the U.S. government is sending 275 troops back to the war-torn country. This decision is a response to an insurgence by an Islamic extremist group known as the ISIS.
President Obama notified Congress of his decision on the evening of June 16, just three days after stating that no U.S. troops would be sent to Iraq. However, after ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, which is less than 300 miles north of Baghdad, the capital, the Obama administration decided to send troops in an effort to protect U.S. assets in the region.
According to a June 16 Huffington Post article, the combat-ready troops are in Iraq for the purpose of providing security for U.S. Embassy personnel in Baghdad. Obama insists they will not engage in direct combat unless they are attacked.
Despite his administration’s assurance that the troops will not be fighting, Obama’s decision has drawn criticism from those who feel that the decade-long war in the region never really ended. Around the American University campus, this fervor can be found.
“I’m disappointed because he promised that we would take the troops out, and yet, we’re still there,” said American University student ambassador Ariel Shvartsman. After all, she went on, “if you’re going to promise something, you should keep it.”
Boming Xia, a secretary at the School of Public Affairs desk at American University, said the decision to send troops back to Iraq is “unwise” because the administration should focus its attention on domestic issues such as the nation’s struggling economy.
While many have criticized the fact that U.S. troops are returning to Iraq, others said that the military’s most recent deployment of troops to the region will not fix the problems in the Middle East.
“At the moment, the troops are mainly for advisory…and intelligence purposes,” student Matthew Agar said. “However, the intelligence may be used to conduct air strikes, and I’m not necessarily in favor of those air strikes because it doesn’t address the political vacuum within the Iraqi government.”
According to a Department of Defense press release, 170 of the troops arrived in Iraq over the weekend of June 14 and another 100 were moved into the region to provide airfield management, security and logistics support.
Despite the relatively low number of troops sent to Iraq — the U.S. deployed 148,000 troops in the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003 — some fear that Obama’s decision could eventually lead to further U.S. involvement in the region.
“The extension of combat opposition in the Middle East is something I’m always very speculative of,” said American University student ambassador Joe Flannery. “I understand where Obama is coming from, but I am personally upset by this decision.”
Martha Barron plants a variety of flowers and vegetables.
WASHINGTON — Here in the city, not many would expect to wander into a 4-acre community garden. Newark Street Community Garden, however, defies the stereotype that there is little green in cities by providing community members with the opportunity to garden a plot of land.
Newark Street Community garden, started in 1974, part of the District of Columbia’s Department of Parks and Recreation, has a waiting list of 80-plus people and more than 200 members. Current gardeners and aspiring ones share a passion for gardening and treasure its many benefits. Martha Barron, a lover of the outdoors and dedicated gardener, values this urban garden because she thinks “it is a healthy outdoor activity,”and“it is good for the oxygen and all the scientific elements.”
With green living becoming more popular in areas around the U.S., cities are beginning to open their eyes to having city community gardens. As Barron said, the plants are good for the oxygen because they filter the air removing fine particles. Plants also hold the soil more firmly, preventing runoff and increase the communities overall consumption of locally grown foods, which has both health and environmental gains. Lastly, according to several studies, merely seeing plant life can lower blood pressure, alleviate muscle tension and reduce anxiety.
But Newark Community garden is not alone in bringing a little bit of green back into concrete cities. In several other major U.S, cities urban gardens have become more prevalent as more people are catching on to the benefits city gardens provide to both the environment and community.
New York, Chicago and Washington have taken advantage of the soothing nature of gardens in order to make their cities more livable. To many garden goers coming to the Newark garden is like what Martha described as “being a therapy.” Personally, Barron “enjoys seeing things grow ” even the overgrown vines she said as she tried to tear it down in order to prevent getting a citation.
However, while the gardens may offer up a sanctuary from the hustle and bustle found in the city, maintaining the garden is no easy task. Susan Akman, a past president of the community garden said she looks at the garden rules as being a strict framework, a framework that has to be followed in order to keep the gardens positive influence. Akman describes their policy toward gardening as not doing anything that will “hurt the community and environment.” Gardeners are also expected to come in for 10 hours a week and help out with maintenance every so often.
To some this framework may appear to be daunting, but Akman said that they “don’t want to to lose people …they want people to be educated.” And almost always Akman says, they will give their gardeners the “benefit of the doubt.”
Newark garden welcomes the community.
In Washington alone there are more than 30 community gardens, but the members of the Newark community garden believe that there is something special about theirs. Besides differences in gardening style and its size and age, Akman says that it is a “wonderful community.” She says that it is one of the few places in the city where “no one asks you what you do.” Newark community garden has made huge efforts to make the gardens even more welcoming to the community. With a dog park, tennis court, playground, picnic area and grills, the gardens welcome the members of the community to spend time in their sanctuary from the city.
Akman and the other gardeners “have a great love and passion” for gardening and therefore try to share it with the community.
WASHINGTON—On the surface, Jill Causa’s plot at the Newark Street Community Garden doesn’t look like many others. Besides being smaller than most plots in the area, she grows chili pepper, kale and watermelon –– plants that are not commonly found at this garden. In addition, lining her plot are unconventional items, such as a few Solo cups, a tennis ball and even a pair of firefighter’s boots that once belonged to her son.
“When you have a young kid at home,” Causa says, “you can’t afford all these high-tech gardening tools, so you have to get by with whatever you can.”
Causa has gardened at the Newark Street Community Garden for the last two years, and has already realized the effort that it takes to maintain even a small plot of land like hers.
She continues, “Last year I moved into someone else’s plot who didn’t take good care of it, so it’s been a lot of work to reorganize everything.”
The Newark Street Community Garden is the largest community garden in the District. Founded in 1974, it affiliated with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation the next year. It contains 200 plots run by 190 individuals, who all grow various vegetables, fruits and flowers. Some of the gardeners have been gardening on the same plot since the park’s founding, while others are new to taking care of a piece of land.
Guy Mendelson can be found at the garden almost every day, moving from plot to plot and digging or watering. “I’m actually very new to gardening,” he says. “Didn’t do any as a kid, but I was always interested. I read a bunch of books on gardening and watched everyone else [at the garden] do it so I could learn quicker.”
As being environmentally friendly becomes more popular, so too do these community gardens. Since Newark Street Community Garden is the largest of its kind in Washington, there is significantly more demand to obtain a plot here than at any of the 31 other public gardens in the city. According to former Garden Association President Susan Akman, there are 100 people on the waiting list, and they can wait as long as two years before getting their plot.
Plot owners can only be removed if they move out of the District or if they do not donate adequate time or money to the well-being of their plot. Mendelson chose not to wait that long, taking matters into his own hands.
“I was on the waiting list for almost two years before I got tired of waiting and asked a few people if we could share plots,” he says. “Many of them were too busy to manage the whole 10-hours-a-week thing, so they accepted my proposal.”
The plot-sharing deal benefits both parties, Mendelson continues.
“I have found that sharing a plot helps me gain a lot more knowledge than I would have had I had my own [plot].”
Newark Street Community gardener Nancy Reid inspects a yarrow that she plans on transplanting to the other side of her plot this fall. Photo by Pablo Roa.
WASHINGTON — When Nancy Reid joined the Newark Street Community Garden in the fall of 2009, her designated plot of land had previously been used as an Asian vegetable garden. There were different kinds of onions growing from the ground and the layout of the garden itself made it impossible for Reid to plant the colorful flower garden she had envisioned.
She had only just arrived at the 4-acre community garden, less than a mile away from the National Cathedral in the city, but for Reid, a lot of work needed to be done from Day One.
“One thing about gardening is that it evolves and changes all the time,” Reid said. “When I first got to this space, nothing was going to be able to grow. At the very beginning, I had to do a lot of infrastructure.”
After five years of hard work and dedication, Reid’s garden has evolved into a perfectly organized arrangement of plants and flowers of all different colors, shapes and sizes — a far cry from what it was when she first acquired the plot of land in 2009. Some are green, some are blue, some are pink and some are purple, but all are meticulously arranged in specific parts of the 15 x 15 plot in order to make the colors and contrast stand out and make the garden look its best.
“One of my favorite things about this is gardening with colors,” Reid said. “I wanted to have my garden be purple, blue and pink while making sure green didn’t take over. But you not only want different colors, you also want different shapes.”
Reid’s garden now consists of many different plants, including yarrows, Boston sage, blanket flowers and autumn joy. Although Reid’s garden has become one of the many highlights of the 200-plot community garden, its colorful beauty took years of hard work to create and takes an equal amount of hard work to maintain.
Reid visits the garden two to three times a week, usually in the evenings after work to avoid the scorching daytime heat that can make gardening impossible. On occasion, Reid visits Rock Creek Park to dig for large rocks that she uses to surround the center piece of the garden.
Since some parts of her garden are elevated, Reid is often forced to transfer plants to other areas of her plot to ensure that each plant receives the proper amount of water.
“In the fall, I’m going to dig up one of the yarrows and put it on the other side because it’s too wet where it is now,” Reid said. “The garden evolves, and you find out what’s good, what isn’t good and, most importantly, what you like. I probably move things around more than other people because I’m an interior decorator — I’m always moving furniture around, too.”
Fortunately for Reid, her garden does not face some of the issues that other members of the community garden deal with on a daily basis.
According to Reid, under-watering is usually not an issue because the plants in her garden are drought-tolerant and are, therefore, more resistant to the unpredictable weather in the region. The community garden is also prone to visits from hungry deer that eat plants and vegetables growing on the land. Although a metal fence meant to keep out the deer surrounds each plot, Reid’s garden is further protected, she said, because the deer simply would not like what grows in the garden.
Reid is one of roughly 190 people of all ages who take advantage of the unique opportunity that the Newark Street Community Garden offers for hopeful-gardeners living in the urban Washington region.
Anybody who lives in the District can apply to join the garden, which was founded in 1974, but there is a waiting list that often lasts as long as two years. Susan Akman, former president and board member of the community garden, said gardening is becoming more popular because of growing environmental awareness in the region, among other reasons.
“We have so many applicants now, it’s not even funny,” Akman said. “They’re excited; they bring their families. It’s a lot of hard work but it’s a beautiful community.”
In order to maintain the beauty of the garden, Reid and the other gardeners must follow strict rules and procedures when maintaining their plot of land. Akman said gardeners are not allowed to use chemical sprays, plant vines on fences, use invasive plants outside of pots and must keep their plots chipped and weeded.
For some, the hard work required to maintain their garden is too much to handle. On average, there is a turnover of 25 to 30 plots each year — temporary vacancies that are quickly filled by those on the ever-growing waiting list.
“It’s very hard work,” Akman said. “It’s not easy. Some people just abandon it in the middle of the year.”
Reid, however, has turned what was once a small plot of soil containing remnants of onions and roots into an awe-inspiring display of color and nature that is rarely found in a large city like Washington. For Reid, gardening is not only something she greatly enjoys, but also something that offers her a unique opportunity that most city-dwellers rarely get to experience.
“I wanted to recreate a backyard for myself since I’m living in a condo,” Reid said. “Someday, if I ever have my own backyard, I can dig up this garden and use it there. We’ll see.”
A leaflet grows in a hanging pot. Photo by Xandie Kuenning
WASHINGTON — Behind the National Cathedral, in the center of the urban political jungle that is Washington D.C., lies a 4-acre haven for those looking to escape the hectic city through gardening. The Newark Street Community Garden is the largest community garden in the D.C. area and has been growing in plot size and popularity since Anne Chase founded it in 1974 to support National Food Day. Filled with 200 plots and with 190 members, the garden offers a variety of programs and opportunities for people of all ages.
“We have tried to create an environment where the neighborhood is welcomed into it,” former president Susan Akman said.
During the 30th anniversary of the garden, around 2004, Akman created a children’s program for little ones under the age of 4. It began just for people living in the nearby McLean apartments but has since expanded to include all residents in the District. The program now has an email list with more than 90 recipients. There is an average attendance of 25-35 children, each with a supervising adult. The program begins with a 5-10 minute story that leads into the planting and later harvest of that season’s vegetable. Akman always tries to plant new things each year, in order to display a variety for the children.
“When my children were little, I tried to plant something different every year to try to expose them to many types of plants,” she said.
Alison Rodriguez, 2, eats goldfish on the slide while her mother watches. Photo by Xandie Kuenning she said.
This year, the older children planned the program as Akman was too busy to organize it alone. Akman asked several of the regular juvenile gardeners if they would be able to help coordinate the activities for the younger children.
“”[The older children] could reminisce about their time here,” Akman said.
Along with the children’s garden, the community garden also has a playground. Children and adult caregivers from all over the area have found their way to the jungle gym which has a garden theme. One family from Florida found their way to this park during a walk.
“This place looked really cool and the flowers were really pretty,” said Eden MacClave, 12.
Both she and her mother found the area a welcoming environment in comparison to their home in Florida.
“People are super super nice. Where I’m from people are too busy and too important to talk. Everyone is smiling here. The human element is so friendly,” said Maria Teresa Kline.
Whether you come from Florida or are a native of the District, the Newark Street Community Garden draws even the youngest of patrons in with its bold foliage and friendly playground.
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