Mamie D. Lee Garden

Mamie D. Lee Garden
Spring Leeks

Sunday, December 4, 2011

A look back at the 2011 growing season

2011 has been a very good year for the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden!  With generous support from the National Park Foundation and by partnering with RockCreek Park, the Neighborhood Farm Initiative, and the Mamie D. Lee School, the Mamie D. Lee Community Garden Association has worked to overhaul infrastructure throughout the garden.  Together, we:


  • Installed a protective fence to prevent deer damage to vegetable crops, and to ensure safety of the gardeners, particularly youth and elderly members.
  • Provided teachers of special needs students (aged 6-21) with a venue for outdoor environmental education, allowing for their incorporation of the garden as a sensory learning experience for youth.
  • Conducted needs assessment of Mamie D. Lee Garden Association members regarding improvements to garden infrastructure.
  • Reached out to Mamie D. Lee Garden’s neighbors, connecting them more closely with the garden by increasing its visibility within the park.

A deer fence was installed to protect gardeners’ plants, and new tools were purchased for gardeners’ use in cultivating a variety of organic vegetables.   Part of this grant provided for the purchase of deer fencing materials, while volunteer labor from members of the Mamie D. Lee Garden Association and the Neighborhood Farm Initiative provided for its installation.  The completed fence is 800’ in length and surrounds three sides of the 1.5 acre garden (~70,000 square feet), with the 4th side tying into an existing fence owned by adjacent partner Mamie D. Lee School.

Six pedestrian access gates were installed around the perimeter of the garden. In addition, two 12’ wide gates were installed to allow for vehicular passage, following consultation with elderly/handicapped gardeners to assess their needs.

While the total amount of food harvested by all gardeners was not tracked, over 550 pounds of the vegetables grown in the garden were donated to local non-profit food banks during the grant period.  This number is a significant increase over the 215 pounds of the garden’s food that was donated last year, and is a direct result of the new fence preventing herds of deer from grazing in the garden.

This grant also provided for purchase of new tools for use by the 103 community gardeners and an additional 410 volunteers who helped in the garden over the course of the 2011 growing season.  After assessing the needs of community gardeners (who range from youth with special needs to young adults to elderly gardeners), the Garden Association used the tools portion of grant funds to purchase the following equipment:

-          (1) heavy duty wheelbarrow
-          (1) lawn mower
-          (2) 4-cycle weed whackers
-          (3) round-point shovels
-          (2) square point shovels
-          (1) garden spade
-          (3) stirrup hoes
-          (2) flat-point hoes
-          (4) heavy duty ergonomic digging forks
-          (2) bow rakes

These infrastructure improvements have resulted in park patrons and passersby taking more notice of the garden.  Gardeners regularly field questions about what we are doing, what vegetables are growing, and how people can get involved either as a volunteer or by securing a garden plot of their own.  Once the raised beds and signage are in place, these types of questions can be answered even when none of the gardeners are present on-site.  Having a project with clear objectives and funding to achieve it has also built a clearer sense of community within the Garden Association.  Members have come together to make decisions throughout the season and pitched in their volunteer labor on construction projects, and also contributed pro bono professional design services.  We are looking forward to completing the raised beds and signage as the final piece of the project.



I did a tour of the garden on November 30th, and took a few snapshots to document our progress this season.  Enjoy, and see you all in the spring!


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Welcome to the 2012-13 Garden Executive Committee!

Thanks to all gardeners who came out to the library for yesterday's meeting and election.  I'd also like to specifically thank outgoing members of the executive committee Bennie Harris and Sarah Shoenfeld for their dedication and service to the garden for the past two years - we've come a long way in a short time, and couldn't have done it without your help; thank you both for all of your work!



I'd like to announce the newly elected Executive Committee for the garden:

Manager: Bea Trickett
Assistant Manager: Bob Lowry
Secretary: Aaron Lavallee
Treasurer: Brian Rivas

Meanwhile, hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing winter season, and see you all in the spring!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Finishing up the deer fence & the gardening season

Our final workday of the season was one of the coldest, rainiest days yet, but a small group of committed gardeners soldiered through and worked hard to finish stringing the wire across the top of the new deer fence.  The group huddled together to stay out of the wind and rain under a tent generously delivered by Park Ranger Ricardo, and gardeners and volunteers together shared a chilly potluck to celebrate the close of the 2011 gardening season.  Thanks to everybody's hard work, we now have a lot better infrastructure in place to protect the garden from grazing deer, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in 2012!




Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Deer Fence Installation!

Thanks to a generous grant from the National Park Foundation, Mamie Lee gardeners were finally able to construct a sturdy deer fence around the entire garden!  This project took a huge volunteer effort of all-hands-on-deck, and we couldn't have done it without our fearless leaders, Brook, Bob, Bennie, the rest of the executive committee, and of course our partners at Rock Creek Park.  Thanks to everybody who came out to help on this massive project, the garden will be much more productive and bountiful for many years to come!

Join us for a happy hour fundraiser, Thursday June 23rd!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

6-9PM

Looking Glass Lounge
3634 Georgia Avenue Northwest


WIN A GIFT CERTIFICATE from your favorite local restaurant!

$10 Suggested Donation

Garden membership applications will be available. Mamie D. Lee Garden is at North Capitol and Gallatin Streets NE, close to Metro, bus, and the MBT bike trail. For more details, email mamiedleegarden@gmail.com


Monday, June 13, 2011

Welcome to the Mamie D Lee Community Garden blog!

Hello, world!

The Mamie D. Lee Community Garden has been around since the mid-1970s, and has as many stories as it has had gardeners.  Over the years, community gardeners have come and gone, but unfortunately to date there has been very little documentation done to illustrate how the land and peoples' commitment to it changes over time.  We are starting this website as a means to archive and showcase stories from the garden - through photos, oral histories, and blog updates.

2011 is an exciting year for our garden because we were named a recipient of an Impact Grant from the National Park Foundation!  We will be using this website to track our progress toward overhauling and installing garden infrastructure projects that are happening as a result of this grant.  Check back often to watch our growth!