CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

Washington Youth Garden and Friends of the National Arboretum have been incredibly lucky these past 10+ years to have Nadia Mercer on our staff. Nadia road her bike around the Arboretum and stumbled upon the little gem that is the Washington Youth Garden, and ever since, she's left an indelible mark. From garden intern to garden manager to program director to director of institutional relations, Nadia's jobs may have changed and grew with her skill set, but her heart never left that 1 acre garden and the thousands and thousands of children she worked with in her time here. Nadia brought joy to her work, and a desire to bring garden-based education to all, and you can see that in the work that we continue to do. While we will miss seeing Nadia in the garden (or over google meet) as she heads on to her next adventures, we are thankful to all the work she has done to help Washington Youth Garden thrive. And Nadia, don't forget, there will always be green beans to pick and beds to weed anytime you swing by!

Come volunteer with the Washington Youth Garden! We need some extra hands at our main garden at the National Arboretum to help weed, mulch, plant, harvest, and more. Volunteers work in shifts on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Fill out the interest form in the link in bio to receive more information about our next virtual garden orientation on August 4th. . . . @fonarboretum #washingtonyouthgarden #wyg #usnationalarboretum #nationalarboretumdc #nationalarboretum #garden #gardening #volunteer #dc #exploredc

We’ve officially wrapped up our Garden Science school garden partnership program for the year! This program connects students from four local partner schools with garden science education and fresh food. During the 2020-21 school year, we: 🥕 taught 187 Garden Science lessons, 42 of which were in outdoor garden classrooms 🪴 hosted 51 school garden club events 🥬 shared fresh food grown in Washington Youth Garden with students' families through 50 free produce distributions Teachers resonated with how our Garden Science program "made in-person learning feel a bit more like school in such a weird year." This year, our Program Manager Allie appreciated how excited both children and their families were to grow and cook their own food. This program will look a bit different this coming school year. As we adapt our programs to help build more strong, sustainable school garden programs and reach more students, the Garden Science curriculum will now support the greater School Garden Support program. . . . @fonarboretum #growinggreendreams #washingtonyouthgarden #wyg #usnationalarboretum #nationalarboretum #gardenscience #garden #education

Trellises everywhere! In the demonstration garden, we have many different types of trellises or support systems for some of our summer crops. Our cucumbers and large slicing variety tomatoes are using a hoop house technique where a single vine is trained up a string for support. This helps focus the plants’ energy to producing fruit rather than branching out (lots of pruning involved!). It also helps with airflow to prevent too much moisture that may contribute to fungus or pests. We also have a bean tunnel trellis made from metal cattle fencing. It creates a fun shady tunnel to walk under and soon we will have lots of long noodle beans hanging from it! Some other crops we are growing with trellises include cherry and plum tomatoes, summer squash, Malabar spinach, more beans, luffa, and maypop! #youthgarden #wyg #washingtonyouthgarden #nationalarboretum #dcurbangarden #trellis @fonarboretum