The Growing Season Winds Down

As the growing season winds down, I’d like to take a minute to reflect on all the great things that happened this year at the Sheridan Street Community Garden in Riverdale.

Our garden has 39 plots, which are rented by individuals, families, and community groups.  The plots were laid out in the spring, and a workshop on seed starting was held to teach gardeners about starting their own seeds to save money.

Over the summer, monthly workdays  were held to maintain common areas, and gardeners worked together to beautify the space and take care of communal raspberry plants, fig trees, and an herb garden.

In August, we held a workshop on “Diagnosing and Solving Plant and Pest Problems,” where we learned how to control pests and plant diseases organically.  We smashed stink bugs and removed diseased plants from the garden, under the guidance from Jon Traunfeld of the University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center.  This is a wonderful resource for home gardening questions – check it out here.   

In September, we held a workshop on “Building Healthy Soils and Using Cover Crops” and learned how cover crops such as winter rye, crimson clover, and buckwheat can be used as green manures to increase soil fertility; we then planted two demonstration plots here at the garden.  For more information on cover crops, click on this link.  

In addition to the garden, we are also working on sustainability-related projects in the area.  We have hired two interns from the University of Maryland who are working on a feasibility study for a rain barrel program in Prince George’s County. In addition, a graduate-level landscape architecture class at the University of Maryland is working at our site this semester and will present several concepts on how we could expand our garden.   We invite you to get involved in our garden and our projects – please email me at cbalch@umd.edu for more information!