Emily Reckard, garden coordinator at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Northwest, says the city's Shared Roots program helps ensure that students return in the fall to a functioning space rather than one "in complete disarray." (Photo by Brennan Hafner)

City-run program links school gardens with community volunteers to help spaces stay vibrant through the summer

By Brennan Hafner On Apr 22, 2019 Last updated Apr 26, 2019

DC green thumbs can skip the long waitlists for community garden plots and connect instead with underused growing spaces through Shared Roots, a city-run summer program.

“There are people who want to garden. There are spaces that need some maintenance over the summer, so let’s connect these people with those spaces,” said Katarina Yang, program manager for Shared Roots.

The program helps connect DC residents looking for plots with established school gardens — which are underused and undertended during the summer— and other community sites needing extra hands. Homeowners can also make gardens in their own yards available.

For the upcoming summer, 22 gardening sites across the city are registered with Shared Roots, including 14 school gardens, three community plots, and five gardens in residential yards.

The program, now in its second year, is a partnership between the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the DC Department of Parks and Recreation.

The garden at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Northwest was tended by Shared Roots gardeners last year and is a site for the program again this year. (Photo by Brennan Hafner)

Member gardeners are required to attend training and allocate at least three hours every week to tending their assigned garden. Applications to be a garden member are available online and open until April 30.

With the school gardens, Yang said Shared Roots aims to strengthen connections between community members and their neighborhood schools. When students leave their school gardens for the summer, the program gives the community gardeners a chance to utilize and maintain the space, ensuring a flourishing garden by fall.

Emily Reckard, the garden coordinator at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School and a site coordinator with Shared Roots last year, said it can be “really challenging to have volunteers commit,” but “when you have people who are willing to be really involved and are excited about the possibility of using the garden as a way to connect, I think it can be really great.”

Participating school gardens can be found in all eight wards. In addition to Mundo Verde, they include Capital City Public Charter School, 100 Peabody St. NW; DC Bilingual Public Charter School, 33 Riggs Road NE; Hardy Middle School, 1819 35th St. NW; Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, 3200 6th St. SE; Stoddert Elementary School, 4001 Calvert St. NW; and Thurgood Marshall Academy, 2427 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE.

“In pairing community gardeners with gardens at schools in neighborhoods throughout the District, we are ensuring that gardeners can engage their passions and school gardens can thrive all year long,” said Delano Hunter, director of the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, in a statement.

At Mundo Verde, at 30 P St. NW in Truxton Circle, the garden is currently growing rows of Swiss chard, broccoli, strawberries, and other produce in brightly painted raised beds — which Shared Roots gardeners will soon take over.

Last year, Reckard said, it was comforting to know the garden would be “a fully functioning and beautiful space” for the start of the school year rather than “in complete disarray.”

The extra summer care also allowed students to jump right into learning in the garden rather than having to restart. “It just set us off to be in a good place for the start of the school year,” Reckard said.

Shared Roots works in conjunction with the OSSE School Gardens Program, which released an annual report in February that listed more than 130 school campuses throughout DC with active gardens during the 2017-2018 school year.

Emily Reckard, garden coordinator at Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School, tends to Swiss chard growing in the school’s garden. (Photo by Brennan Hafner)

Reckard said these gardens can impart lessons about nutrition, local farming and food systems — and also help kids cultivate a sense of pride.

“There is so much socio-emotional learning that happens in the garden,” she said. “I think there is a lot of opportunity for self-reflection and learning emotional behavior skills like teamwork and self-esteem.”

In addition to the school gardens participating in Shared Roots this summer, the community sites include Fort Dupont Park in Southeast, Developing Families Center Community Garden in Northeast and Marion St. Intergenerational Garden in Northwest. One of the residential gardens listed is located at the Brethren House at 6th and G streets NE, which hosts activities for a small nonprofit.

The full list of gardens is available on Shared Roots’ site guide.