June 25: Work Day Report

Last Saturday we made significant progress in the garden. Another 30 folks came out to help--including Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who paid a visit en route to his Ward 6 Family Fun Day at the Yards Park. Alicia Aleman got some video of the councilmember hard at work:

Since the trees and grass seed were planted at our first work day, Saturday's focus was on the swales, which were doing their job too well and holding on to the rain water. First we mixed in some sand to make the soil more porous. Then we leveled everything out to try to prevent puddling at the ends.

Brian Dalton mixes sand into a swale.

Meanwhile other volunteers laid rocks around the edges of the mounds. It really helped tie things together aesthetically, but really the rocks are there to hold filter fabric in place under the gravel walkways. Two birds with one (or a few hundred) stones, if you will.

Then we split into teams and laid the filter fabric along the walkways, and covered it with gravel. The existing surface of the site is rock, broken concrete and brick, and miscellaneous material. It's not easy to walk on, or very pretty to look at, hence the gravel over top. But if we just put the gravel straight on, it would sift to the bottom and the larger ugly material would rise to the top--think of a box of cereal.

ANC commish David Garber orders Councilmember Wells around.

We got partway through installing the walkways before calling it a day. But there is still work to be done! Please join us this Thursday evening, from 5 to 8 pm, as we finish up these walkways and tidy up. We hope to toast our accomplishment with celebratory food. If you can help, with a pizza donation, a grill, or in another way, please let us know!

A Note About the Maintenance

Some of the trees are looking pretty sad, we know. It's been hot and dry, especially the first week after they were planted (the most critical time). Surfrider has hired Chapel Valley to water everything three times a week, and at last check we think 4 of the 5 damaged trees will bounce back. We're keeping an eye on the fifth one, and may remove it or replace it.

The grass on the berms is coming in nicely, and the swales will be planted with wildflower seed mix this week. Those should both need little maintenance apart from watering.

It is a little ironic to hire a watering company for a rain garden. Typical DC summer weather--with regular afternoon thunderstorms--will hopefully return soon and take care of things for us. If you're in the neighborhood and have any questions or concerns about how things are looking, please feel free to email us.

June 12: Volunteer Work Day

Yesterday we had about 40 volunteers descend on the site to do the first round of installation of the garden. It was a fantastic day, not as hot as the previous week and good spirits all around. Many of our volunteers came from the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood--they were curious about what we were up to and excited to be a part of this new project.

Early in the morning, we were honored to have Gloria Almeyda, David Stemper's wife, join us briefly. Unfortunately she could not stay to greet the volunteers, but she wanted to do some work anyway. She helped shape one of the outer berms, and said it was meaningful because David had done anthropological work on the cultural significance of mounds in Ecuador. It's all connected, isn't it?

Barbara Ball, Outreach Specialist for REI's College Park store, and Gloria Almeyda

We were also thankful to have REI on hand. Barbara Ball, the outreach specialist for the College Park store and the woman who nominated our chapter for the grant to fund this whole thing, provided shade tents, chairs, snacks, and fluids for our hard-working volunteers. She also tended to our youngest activist, Owen!

Barbara and Owen

The volunteers started the day by shaping the berms and adding a layer of topsoil. 

Surfrider's Mike Childs and ANC 6D07 Commissioner David Garber load wheelbarrows with topsoil.

The trees were delivered shortly thereafter (thanks, Frager's!). We have 16 trees, heritage birch and red maple.

Before planting the trees, volunteers spread a wildflower seed mix over the topsoil, and then followed with a layer of erosion control matting to keep everything in place.

Matting in place, we dug out holes for the trees, and dropped them in, maples on the outer ring and birch on the interior.

It's not the easiest surface to work on--there is a lot of construction debris, so some folks spent a while looking for concrete chunks to pull out, and sometimes we enlisted a pickaxe to dig.

But once the trees were in, the garden really started to take shape!

After our work was done, many volunteers adjourned to Justin's Cafe for drinks and snacks to celebrate.

We didn't get it all done, though. Join us again on Saturday, June 25 for our second work day. We'll be planting the swales that day, and putting the finishing touches on the walkways between the rings. Stay tuned for more details.

June 7: Laying the Ground Work

The garden terrain will be a series of berms and swales to direct and collect rain water. Chapel Valley has generously contributed equipment and manhours to construct these elevation changes, since it's far too much work for volunteers' manual labor. Here's a shot of the work in progress:

June 3: Work Begins!

Today Justin and I went down to the site to start marking it off and prepare for the excavators coming next week. The weather was much more conducive than a couple of days ago. We took delivery of two truckloads of topsoil and a truckload of gravel. The surface of the site right now is a mix of rock and construction debris--not very friendly to plants, or to rainwater permeation. So we're going to cover the planted areas with soil, and the walkways with gravel, for a more pleasant surface that will also reduce runoff.

The first thing we did was unload Justin's car, which was filled to the brim with silt fencing, stakes, and other materials, topped with rolls of hay. I'm sure he's glad to get most of his car back.

We needed to mark the center of the site with a stake, so we measured it off from the side of the Velocity building. Hammering the stake into the ground was not happening--it took some digging to break up some of the surface rock and get to softer dirt. Finally, the center was marked!

Once we had the stake in place, we used string to spray-paint circles, marking the boundaries of the rings of the garden. Justin got a good quad workout:

We made good progress. Next week the excavators come to build the berms for the trees, and lay some of the soil and gravel.

The History of the Project

The Players

In 2009, the Surfrider Foundation's DC Chapter conceived a project, a temporary rain garden to capture water before it ran into the Anacostia River and to educate people about watersheds, water pollution, and ways that homeowners and businesses can reduce stormwater runoff on their own properties. Eric Siegel of Cohen Companies was immediately supportive and made it possible for us to locate the garden on space next to the Velocity Condos in Southeast DC, just a couple of short blocks from Nationals Park and the Anacostia River.

REI---through a nomination by the College Park, Maryland, store--provided a very generous grant to fund the project, and Norcross Wildlife Foundation provided additional funds.

Surfrider members are a diverse crew, and among our chapter's talent pool was Justin Thorn, a landscape architect who had recently moved back to DC from California. Hearing about this project, he stepped up and offered his design services and tremendous project management expertise, along with the counsel and assistance of his firm, EcoSolutions.

The project has been spearheaded by chapter leaders Julie Lawson and JD Krohn.

The Location

The garden is located at L and Half Streets SE, in the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood of Washington, DC. The neighborhood is home to Nationals Park, and new buildings are popping up, bringing new residents, businesses, and life to the western bank of the Anacostia River.

The garden site is slated for construction in the coming years, but has been sitting empty next to the Velocity condo building. The surface, mostly construction debris and rock, doesn't allow for rain water to permeate. The empty space also does little for the neighborhood.

Our goal is to reduce the runoff at the site and create a neighborhood asset in green space and an educational forum. As the site is slated for future construction, the garden is temporary at this location; we hope to move it when the time comes.

The Design

The garden is not quite 5,000 square feet, in concentric circles of trees, planted swales, and gravel walkways. From above (for the lucky residents of Velocity who can see it), it's a ripple, a wonderful metaphor for our volunteers.

The Memory

The garden is named for dedicated Surfrider volunteer David Stemper, who passed away July 3, 2010, while playing basketball with friends at American University. David was involved in virtually every facet of the organization, attending cleanups and social events, teaching students, and volunteering at every request. In fact, he wrote the bulk of the proposal which won us the grant to build this garden. He genuinely loved Surfrider, and we benefited greatly from his passion, enthusiasm, and talents.

Dedicating this garden to him is just a small gesture to show our appreciation.

To learn more about David from the words of his friends, visit this memorial page in his honor.