Food Gardens in Downtown DC

For the most part, you don't expect to see serious food gardening in a downtown area. Such gardens as you might find are ornamental. Just getting people some natural settings is important enough. Besides, it would be difficult to prevent people from harvesting the crop, I suppose.

But DC is different. This spring, I started thinking about gardens near where I work in downtown DC. And, so far, I've identified no less than four food gardens within easy walk of my office.

Start with the most famous one. Here's a picture of the new garden at the White House from E street. Yes, it is visible (although a bit distant) from the street.

I'll bet Sasha and Malia do weeding when their father asks!

The National Museum of American History has a "victory garden" just outside the cafeteria.

The garden is quite large, but you can only see it through the glass. I guess they are worried about having too many people wander through it.

Here's a picture that gives a feel for the size of the garden. It's actually pretty large.


It makes sense that the Department of Agriculture would sponsor a garden. This one is very elaborate garden, with 3-foot high raised beds.


This is to allow handicapped people to garden, according to one of the guides hanging around the garden. Guides? The garden is located near the parking lot that houses the USDA farmers' market on Fridays, and they had a tent with all kinds of gardening information and seeds when I went last week. I pointed out that it was a little late for the seeds, and the staffer admitted that was so.

Here's another view, with the tent in the background.


Despite being the Department of Agriculture and everything, their cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes were no further along than mine.

Finally, the National Museum of the American Indian includes some demonstration food plantings as part of its landscaping. Here's an example of "waffle gardening." These are pepper plants. I assume the waffling helps to direct moisture to the plants, as this is a Southwest technique.

There's also a classic "three sisters" planting of corn, beans, and squash. Either it is still early or it isn't doing too well this year.


Those are tobacco plants near the wall of the museum, by the way.

That's pretty impressive for a downtown area. Of course, it is mainly because we're in Washington, DC, where symbols account for a lot. But it's still fun to see so much working gardening in such an unusual setting.