The People’s District, a blog which consists of interviews with local residents, is featuring the Twin Oaks Community Garden, a city-owned communal garden at 14th and Taylor. Their site says it’s in Columbia Heights, but to me that’s more southern Petworth or 16th Street Heights.
In any case, it’s a pretty neat system: you sign up for a10′ by 15’plot, pay a $30 annual fee, and you can grow your own fruits and veggies. There’s a waiting list now; it’s great there’s so much demand.
Here’s a snippet from Katie, the garden’s president:
Whatever reason people chose to garden, I think that it is a great tool to stay healthy, bring some beauty to a place, and build community. A beautiful garden is good for your soul and makes people happy. I mean, who is not happy when they see beautiful flowers growing? Some mornings, I just come up here to water and weed before work and I will just end up sitting here and hanging out for a while. This place is so beautiful and peaceful. You can just sit and admire what is coming from the seeds you planted. Plus, you also get to see all of the little creatures that live in the garden. We have lots of different kind of bugs, and we even have a wood chuck, which is like a ground hog. I call him Rock Creek Ricardo. He is the Columbia Heights version of Punxsutawney Phil. He’s cool, but he does eat a lot of our stuff.
If you’re interested, check out the rest of what I’ve written about gardening too, including the new North Columbia Heights Green off 11th and Park.
