Photo by PoPville flickr user Faucetini

“Dear PoP,

The warm weather has me thinking an awful lot about planting a vegetable garden. I live in an apartment with a rooftop deck and am thinking of trying a container garden. I’m wondering if your readers have any advice on where to get supplies. What plants grow well on a roof in DC? Any suggestions for tomato plants that won’t grow wildly out of hand? When’s the best time to start something like this?

Any advice would be helpful. My dad grew tomato plants in the yard when I a kid, but I have no idea what I’m doing now.”

Any roofdeck gardeners out there?

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This is most definitely the most gigantic community garden I’ve come across on my walks. It’s located at 42nd Street and Edmund. It’s the Glover Park Community Garden.

I’m not sure the pictures quite do justice to just how large the area is (right off Glover Park).

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Photo by PoPville Flickr pool user jamietre.

“Dear PoP,

Saw this ad on craigslist.

Urban Sustainable, a new urban gardening retail store opening soon in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, is looking for some part-time help.

Qualified applicants will possess the knowledge of:

Outdoor/Indoor Gardening, Hydroponics, HID Lighting, Nutrients, Composting, Reverse Osmosis, Ventilation Systems, etc.”

Always nice to hear about new retail coming to Mt. Pleasant! Has anyone else heard about this store? I assume it’ll be on Mt. Pleasant Street, yeah? I’ll post more details as they become available. I’m intrigued by the hydroponics…

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building the bed, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Photos taken by Johnny Casana.

I bumped into some folks (Dan, John, Christen, Johnny and Natty) installing gardening boxes at the newly renovated Cesar Chavez Charter School. I love bumping into projects like this.

One of the participants, John, sent me the following by email:

“This weekend, we installed five large raised beds and filled them with compost; we will be building roughly ten more once we secure funding, and we’ll be painting them all so they look nice. The garden will be an educational garden for the school, which is one of the Cezar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy.

There will be a community open house that will take place at the school on October 30th, and we hope to have a sign up by then and educate DC council members, other VIPs, teachers and parents about the concept. We (that is, the folks you saw, five of us who are volunteering our time as the Columbia Heights Garden Club) plan to work with school administrators and faculty over the winter to engage the students in the planning and planting for these spaces next spring. Eventually, we hope to assist with incorporating the garden into the curriculum, teaching young people about growing food, native plants, storm water runoff, and more. And we hope to engage the community along the way.”

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DSCN1939, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Thanks to a reader for sending the Post’s Answerman column that answers the same question a reader sent in a few weeks ago.

The Answerman writes:

“Dr. Johnson died in 1941, a year after the Washington House apartments were built where his garden had been. His house is now the embassy of Angola. All that remains of his garden are four crumbling columns. Why were they left untouched? That wall might be attached to the rowhouse at 1618 Florida Ave., making it more trouble than it’s worth to remove.”

Read the full article and see a photo of the spot back in the day here.

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Thanks to all who sent emails about the Garden District opening up in their new location at 1740 14th St., NW. You won’t have far to walk as their previous location was across the street at 1801 14th Street, NW.

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IMG_1937, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

City Blossoms are the same folks that sponsor the Girard Children’s Community Garden. The one on Marion Street is from the 1500 block.

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IMG_1574, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

“Dear PoP,

Yesterday I noticed a big empty lot between 11th and Sherman and Park and Lamont.

Any idea what’s going on? Seems like a weird place for a building since there’s no direct street access…”

It’s going to be community garden.

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IMG_1536, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

The Girard Children’s Community Garden Web site says:

“Summer’s winding down and we couldn’t be happier about our first full year in the Girard Children’s Community Garden. Since last summer, the concrete blacktop has been transformed into a floral oasis cared for and used by over 100 neighborhood children, and has quickly become a hidden gem to explore for the rest of the community. Dozens of kids, adults and families have wandered in to check on the progress of the tomatoes, corn and other produce while nibbling on freshly picked mint, cucumbers, squash and more.”

The garden is actually located near 15th Street. It looks fantastic. Lots of photos after the jump. Read Full Post

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DSCN2032, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

A friend of mine let me take some of her tomatoes. Man they were delicious. I thought all the colors looked pretty cool together. The yellow bulbous ones were particularly delicious…

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Double Red Ripe Tomatoes, originally uploaded by Wayan Vota.

I wanted to give an update to PoP readers who might be wondering how my garden is coming along after the Great Lettuce Harvest. First off, as you can see, my tomatoes are already coming in, and I’ll be having a bumper crop this year. While they were too late to go with the lettuce, I also have crazy numbers of cucumbers already ripe for a tom/cuke salad.

Now I do have a question for PoP readers: what do I do with my banana & jalepeno peppers? I ask because my wife does not like thinks hot and spicy, though I do. So is there a dish that I can make with these that will satisfy us both?

I hope all the other urban gardeners are just as lucky.

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Per a reader’s suggestion – it’s time for a new PoP contest. I think this is gonna be a good one. There will be three categories. First is best vegetable garden, second is best flower/plant garden and third is best apt./condo/balcony garden. Please send your entries to princeofpetworth (at) gmail (dot) com. In the subject line specify which category you are entering and if possible please attach your photo to the email. Also please mention what neighborhood your garden is from.

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DSCN9970, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

As I said earlier in the week I planted a vegetable garden recently. I’m fairly certain that the rain has destroyed 3/4 of it. But as I was walking around I noticed this raised garden box. And I seem to recall folks recommending raised garden boxes but I couldn’t remember why. So what’s the benefit to a raised garden box?

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Massive Thunderstom Coming to DC, originally uploaded by Wayan Vota.

The summer thunderstorms have arrived with a vengeance! Check out yesterday afternoon’s massive clouds rolling across the hood, moments before it unleashed its torrents.

While I love this visceral display of Nature’s power, I’m not always enjoying the results. The rain is great, but too much, too fast, like yesterday mornings deluge, has flattened my garden. My toppled cucumbers and tomatoes are minor compared to the impact on others – I saw branches down, and I am sure we lost a tree.

Still, I hope we can all see the beautiful life through the rain. Personally, I love summer thunderstorms, a reminder of the energy still beyond man’s grasp and a natural air conditioner that cools the whole city in one burst.

Anyone else have any trouble due to the storm?

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photo(4), originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

This is the worst part of all this rain. I hate losing these great trees. Thanks to a reader for sending this photo from Upshur & Mathewson in Crestwood.

So the rain related question is – can too much rain be bad for a vegetable garden or am I gonna have a bumper crop as a result?

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