Last week we began the building process of the Deanwood Learning Garden. It was a very exciting and a positive experience. We had a lot of hard work and digging to do and were very grateful for the volunteers that helped. Many of the community members were happy and curious about the garden. The owners of the store across the street even let us use their water and bathroom and facilities and we had someone shout out of their car to thank us for building the garden.

Tuesday, July 5th
Haixiao and I took the 8am Megabus down to D.C. and promptly checked into our dorms at Gallaudet University. We quickly picked up something to eat and met with Dave Gano to lay out the garden beds on the site. Dave was able to help us lay out the site by using his extensive building and construction experience.

Wednesday, July 6th
On Wednesday and met with Vaughn from Groundwork at the site at 8am and didn’t leave until 4pm. We checked to make sure the beds were laid out correctly, determined the area for the rain garden, dug up all the grass covering the sidewalks, and began digging the grass up from the rain garden area. Throughout the day received lots of help from Vaughn from Groundwork as well as Janelle (Groundwork intern) and an intern from the National Park Services.

Thursday, July 7th
Haixiao and I met Vaughn at the site at 8am to get the digging materials. We dug most of the morning then around 11:30am Faja relieved us from our duties in order to get lunch. We continued digging throughout the afternoon and were joined by Vaughn and a local volunteer.

Friday, July 8th
On Friday, Ken and Hiroshi joined us and we continued digging in the rain garden. We stopped around noon due to forecasted thunderstorms.

Saturday, July 9th
We went to the Deanwood farmer’s market. At first we got a little lost but Katie helped to get us heading in the right direction. At the market we looked for seeds to use at the Lederer Garden. Unfortunately there weren’t any seeds being sold but we enjoyed some of the delicious watermelon that was sold at the market. During the afternoon we readjusted the plant beds and started digging out the pathways.

Sunday, July 10th
We slept in a bit on Sunday and met with Dennis at the site around 1pm. We continued to dig throughout the afternoon and finished digging out most of the pathways around the beds. After we were finished at the site Dennis took us to Home Depot to pick tomato and pepper seedlings for the Lederer Garden.

Monday, July 11th
On our last day in D.C. we went to the Lederer garden to harvest our vegetables and plant the tomatoes and peppers. We gathered several squash and cucumbers and some peas. Afterwards we met with Dennis at the Groundwork office to discuss the schedule and plans for the garden for the following weeks. Around 2:30pm we were on the Megabus and back to New York after a tiring and rewarding week in D.C.