Time to Move

I had a chance to stop by the rain garden today, and I could not believe my eyes. Having last seen it in February, I was expecting it to remain in its tame state, with the trees managing and the grasses starting to fill in a bit.

Instead I was greeted by a virtually unrecognizable bonanza of plants, perennials thriving and the trees as green as could be.



Cohen Companies graciously donated the parcel at L & Half Streets SE for the past year for this garden project, knowing that activating the site with greenery was better for both the neighborhood and the environment than leaving it as an empty lot while they waited for the opportunity to build. Unfortunately for the garden, that opportunity has come, and it is time for us to pick up and move.

Fortunately we are able to work with our friends at the Anacostia Watershed Society to quickly find a new location. The City of Hyattsville is welcoming our 16 trees with open arms, and provided a site at Magruder Park, along the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River, as a new, permanent home.

And thus this weekend we will install the (permanent) David Stemper Memorial Grove. It will be located alongside a wetland restoration project that AWS is constructing, and provide a shady place for reflection and respite in a busy city park. Not to speak for his wife Gloria, but I think it is a wonderfully fitting tribute to David.

We need more than a dozen volunteers to pull this off in one day, and it will be warm and strenuous. But we need to move quickly as construction on the original site could start as soon as next week.

For more information about the work day, and to sign up, please visit AWS's website.

And thank you for your help and support for the past year. We hope you enjoyed the temporary display!

Volunteers at work, from above

Thanks to volunteer and garden neighbor Mike Mills for providing these great photos, taken from the roof at Velocity during our first volunteer work day!

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.